Forgiven (16 page)

Well, she hadn’t gotten right with God. But
she had gotten rid of Tony. Maybe one out of two would be good
enough for her mother. She hoped so, anyway. She took Marissa out
of her car seat, grabbed their suitcases and then knocked on her
mother’s front door.

“I’m coming,” Betty yelled from somewhere
within the house.

Hearing her mother’s voice brought more tears
to her eyes. And as the door opened, the tears were flowing down
her face. Her mother only opened the door a crack. Margie feared
that she might close it in her face and she couldn’t deal with that
right now. She opened her mouth and blubbered. “I-I don’t have
anywhere else to go. We need your help.”

The door opened wider and Betty held out her
arms to embrace her daughter and granddaughter.

Nineteen

JT sat in his office at the community center
going over his agenda for the following week when someone knocked
on his door. He put the papers aside and said, “Come in.”

The door opened and Ellen Peoples walked in
wearing a leopard print dress that clung to her curves and wouldn’t
let go. JT sat up in his chair and braced himself. He hoped he had
misjudged her the other Sunday, but he couldn’t help but be
suspicious about this visit. “Mrs. Peoples, right?”

“Why don’t you call me, Ellen,” she said as
she walked closer to his desk and stood in front of him.

“I probably should stick with Mrs. Peoples
for now.”

“Suit yourself,” she said as she sat down and
crossed her long legs. The slit in the dress widened so that JT had
a full view of her legs and much more if he chose to look.

“What can I do for you?” he asked, being
mindful to look her in the eyes and nowhere else.

“I stopped by because I think I left my Bible
after service the other day.”

“The janitor normally leaves a log of items
that were left in the auditorium on my desk.” He shuffled some
papers around until he found what he was looking for and then
scanned it. “No, Bibles this week. We normally get a lot of those
on the list, but not this week,” he said as he looked back up at
her.

“Oh, well maybe I left it in my husband’s car
or something.” She scooted forward in her seat, leaned closer to JT
and said, “I really stopped in to see you anyway. I enjoyed your
sermon and I’ve heard a lot about you.”

Same game, just a different day as far as JT
was concerned. He’d been through this before and he wasn’t about to
let this go any further. He straightened in his seat as he told
her, “I’m not sure what you heard, but if you thought I was
interested in you, you’re wrong.”

She licked her lips and lifted her chest.
“Well, now that you mention it, I did feel something electric when
we shook hands. I know you felt it also. I saw the look on your
face.”

JT stood up. “If you saw a strained
expression on my face, it was because I thought you held my hand
too long, and I think I know you from somewhere. I just can’t place
where we’ve met before.”

Ellen shook her head. “No way, baby. If we’d
met before, as fine as you are, I would have remembered it.”

JT walked over to his office door and opened
it. “”I’m Pastor Thomas to you. Only my wife calls me baby.” He
wished his wife would call him baby. She was too busy throwing
things at his head, but even so, he wanted nothing to do with the
woman in front of him. He didn’t care how fine she was, he was
satisfied with what he had at home. Even while they were suffering
through bad times. “I need you to leave my office,” JT told
her.

Ellen swiveled around in her seat. “What? Why
on earth would I leave? I just got here.”

“I have work to do and I’m not interested in
what you’re offering. I’m a married man and I will not disrespect
my wife by entertaining you one second longer.”

“I’m a married woman. What’s the big
deal?”

“You wouldn’t even understand if I told you,”
JT said as he swept his hand in the direction of the door. “Now get
out.”

Ellen huffily got out of her seat and
strutted toward the door. She stopped when she was standing next to
him and said, “I’ll give you time. You’re worth the wait.”

“You’ll be waiting in vain, Mrs. Peoples. So
I suggest that you and your husband find another church to attend
if I’m your motive for attending mine.” He closed the door as she
slithered out of it.

As he sat back down behind his desk, JT felt
like a piece of meat hanging in a slaughter house; waiting for meat
eaters to come bid on him. But then he remembered Cassandra’s
question. Who is the victim? He also remembered how she told him
he’d given the wrong answer when he speculated over whether he or
Diane had been the victim in their affair. Now he understood what
she had meant. He’d just told Ellen that he wouldn’t disrespect his
wife by entertaining her. And that’s when he had gotten a glimpse
of the real victims of affairs. It wasn’t the two grown folks who
willingly walked into it with both eyes open. Diane wasn’t a victim
and neither was he. Joe and his children had become the victims of
Diane’s affairs just as Cassandra and his children had. The
knowledge of that broke JT’s heart. It was him; he had
singlehandedly torn his family apart. When his son got older and
had to explain to school friends how they had a sister, but their
mother wasn’t her mother; they would be wounded. They might not let
others see their wounds, but they would show up sooner or later.
And it would be his fault.

From this day forward, JT determined that he
would do everything within his power to right the wrongs of his
past. He would build a strong bond with his wife and children and
pray that his misdeeds didn’t stop them from becoming everything
they were meant to be. In short, he was determined to make his
family proud. And he would start by telling the truth.

He turned off the lights in his office and
headed over to Faith Outreach Church. He had to give a deposition
for the lawsuit today. Tom Albright, the attorney for Faith
Outreach, wouldn’t like what JT had to say. But JT wasn’t thinking
about him. Making his family proud might hurt in the short term,
but if they got through this, they would all be better for his
willingness to stand on the truth.

Tom Albright looked at JT with astonishment
in his eyes for a moment. He turned off the recorder and then said,
“Now look, Pastor Thomas, this is a delicate issue. You can’t just
say that you took advantage of Margie Milner and not expect her to
walk away with even more money than she’s already asked for.”

“It’s the truth. What else can I say?”

The session was being taped, but Tom looked
through his notes before telling JT, “We can handle this situation
with you and Diane Benson. I like the information you’ve given us
on her. She is going to be seen as a liar the moment she opens her
mouth, but we simply cannot have you admit to luring Margie Milner
into an affair. Think about Faith Outreach, pastor. This money will
be coming out of the church’s pockets, not yours.”

“Why does the money have to come from Faith
Outreach? I was suspended from my duties when Bishop found out what
I was doing.” JT waved a hand in the air as if dismissing the whole
thing. “Look, why don’t I just get my own attorney? That way, you
as Faith Outreach’s attorney can admit to knowing that what I did
was wrong, but tell the judge that the church had nothing to do
with the things I did.”

“That’s the way I wanted to handle this
situation,” Tom admitted.

“Then that’s what I’ll do,” JT said as he
rose out of his seat.

“Wait a minute. Please sit back down, Pastor
Thomas.”

JT’s left brow arched, but he sat back
down.

“Bishop Turner has requested that we do
everything within our power to help you through this. Now, although
I may think that the best thing for Faith Outreach would be to wash
their hands of you, they have chosen to stand by you.”

“I don’t need them to do this for me.
Especially if you want me to lie about the way things happened. I’m
through with all that lying and scheming.” He was God’s man and JT
was determined to act like it. He didn’t know where he would get a
million dollars to pay Diane and Margie, but he wouldn’t take a
dime from the money he owed Lamont. And if the church ended up
paying his debt; JT would work three or four jobs to pay them back
every cent. But he would not lie to get himself out of this
jam.

“I guess we’re done for the day then. I need
to speak with Bishop Turner to see how he wants to proceed, and
then I’ll let you know what we’re going to do.”

“Fair enough, man.” JT stood up and shook
hands with Tom. “Thanks for taking care of this for the
church.”

“You know I love this place. I’m going to get
us out of this,” Tom said with a smile.

JT walked out of the office and found Unders
in the sanctuary. He was seated in the front row, staring up at the
pulpit. JT sat down next to him and tried to figure out what he was
looking at. When he saw nothing out of the ordinary he asked,
“What’s up there?”

Pastor Unders looked at JT for a moment and
then turned his head back to the pulpit. “I was just thinking about
the things expected of a preacher. And how weighty the burden is
sometimes.”

Unders words caused JT to turn back to the
pulpit area. He had preached in this room for five years, but he
had never been more aware of the cost of the position as he was
right now, sitting in the pews staring at the wooden pulpit with
Unders beside him. “Weighty indeed,” JT agreed.

They sat there in silence for a moment and
then JT said, “I told the truth during my deposition. I let Tom
know that I wouldn’t lie, no matter what Bishop wanted me to do.
And I’m sorry, Unders, but what I did just may cost the church a
lot of money. But I promise you, I’ll pay it back.”

Unders smiled for the first time since JT sat
down with him. “I don’t care about the money, JT. I’m just glad
that you told the truth. I told Bishop I wasn’t going to lie about
this situation either. He’s not happy, but that’s that.”

“I don’t want you to lie for me, Unders. I’m
a grown man. I can handle myself.”

“I’ve been worried about you ever since this
thing began. I’ve been praying for you and Cassandra.”

Before JT could respond, Max Moore walked
into the sanctuary and loudly interrupted them. JT stood and
clasped hands with him. “Man, what are you doing here?”

“Unders asked me to meet with the attorney
today to tell them what a wonderful man you are,” Max said with a
smirk. “I should tell him how you used to steal my church
members.”

“You better not.”

“I’m just joking, man. I got nothing but love
for you.”

“Thanks, I need my brothers in Christ with me
right now. At least that means I’ve got somebody on my side.”

Max looked at him quizzically. “Problems with
Cassandra?”

JT nodded.

“I thought things had gotten better for you
and Cassandra.”

“Yeah, me too. But the other night she told
me I needed to pray that she didn’t go buy a gun,” JT said.

“See, I knew there was a reason I was
praying,” Unders said.

Max wasn’t thinking about praying. He leaned
his head back and roared. He laughed so hard tears rolled down his
cheeks.

JT rolled his eyes. “Thanks for the
support.”

“I’m sorry, man.” Max straightened himself up
as best he could. “But I got an image in my head of sweet Cassandra
chasing you down the street like it was hunting season or
something. Too funny.”

As far as JT knew, Max had always been
faithful to his wife, so he’d never experienced the awful pain of
looking into the eyes of the woman he loved and seeing
disappointment and mistrust. He hoped that Max would always be able
to laugh about things like this, and that he would never know pain
so deep that funny just wasn’t funny anymore.

Diane picked up the phone and dialed JT’s
house. She waited until Cassandra answered the phone and then the
heavy breathing started.

“Who is this?” she heard Cassandra ask.

Diane didn’t answer, she just kept breathing
until Cassandra slammed the phone in her ear. Diane hit the end
button on her house phone, then leaned back against her comfy
pillow in her king size bed and laughed her head off. Since she’d
been back home, Diane had made it her business to call Cassandra
twice a week. She wasn’t checking in on Lily or asking for
visitation. No, Diane just called and breathed into the phone. She
figured that would good and irritate the Queen of Thomas Manor.
Since they had a block on their house phone and all their calls
appeared as private in the caller ID, she could harass Cassandra as
much as she wanted.

Cassandra thought she was so perfect. Well,
Diane couldn’t wait until they went to court for their custody
hearing and Ms. Perfect had to sit there and listen to her own
mother tell the judge how unfit she really was. She rolled her eyes
as she sat up on the side of the bed. Enough about Cassandra; Diana
needed to get up and do some work around the house before she left
for her appointment.

She scrolled down the contact list in her
cell phone and pressed the button that connected her with the love
of her life. When Brian Johnson answered the phone she said, “Are
you still mad at me?”

“What do you think?” he said and then hung up
the phone.

She dialed him right back, and this time when
he answered, she hurriedly said, “Baby, please don’t hang up. I
really need to talk to you.”

“So talk,” Brian said.

His anger crossed the line loud and clear to
her, but she had to make him listen. “I’ve been trying to talk to
you all week, but you keep hanging up. I know that you moved back
here last week, but you didn’t even call me.”

“What was I suppose to do, Diane? Ask your
husband to pass you the phone so I could tell you what’s new in my
life?”