Go as a River: A Novel

This chapter tells the story of Inga Tate, relating the contents of the letter that she left on the rock for Victoria. Inga explains that on the day Lukas was left in her car, she and her husband Paul stopped for a picnic on the drive back to their home in Durango from the Denver hospital where she had just given birth to their son, Maxwell. She heard the cries of Victoria’s son in the car and instinctively followed it, picking up the starving child and nursing it. Her husband was furious but allowed her to keep the child because he wanted two sons, and Inga could no longer have children due to complications with Max’s birth. Inga decided to name Victoria's son Lukas, after her father. Paul forged a birth certificate for Lukas, and they decided to cover up the adoption by saying that Inga had given birth to twins.

Inga was a reluctant mother and an unhappy wife. Resigned to her domestic duties and her marriage to a domineering and tempestuous man, she sacrificed her dreams of becoming a writer to be a mother instead and dedicated herself to mothering the two boys. Her son Max inherited his father’s temper, while Lukas was a gentle and calming influence on Max.