He’d been putting this off, not wanting to upset his grandparents, but after his mom left, he told Nana and Granddad that they needed to have a serious talk.

“It’s not as if y’all won’t see a lot of me,” Seth tried to explain. “I’ll be over here all the time. It’s just I think it’s time for me to move back in with Mom now. I should be with her.”

“I won’t hear of it,” Granddad said. “You’re just a boy and certainly not old enough to make this type of decision for yourself. Wait another month or two. Please. Your mother isn’t the best influence on you and-”

“I’ll soon be sixteen. I’m old enough to know what’s right for me.”

“Seth, sweetheart, are you sure?” his nana asked.

“Yes, ma’am, I’m sure.”

“I do not want you living with your mother and being exposed to her fornicating with that man.” Granddad’s face turned red as he balled his hands into tight fists. “She is setting a bad example for you.”

Seth knew it would be futile to argue with his grandfather, a man who could see only one side of any issue-his own side. “I think Mom and Jack will probably get married.”

His granddad huffed.

“You could wait awhile, at least until school starts, and give us time to adjust to the idea that you’re leaving us,” Nana suggested.

“He’s not leaving now and that’s final!” Granddad stormed out of the room.

Nana patted his arm. “Give him a little time, please.”

“I will. He didn’t give me a chance to say that I’ll think about waiting until school starts to move in with Mom.”

“That’s good, that’s good. Thank you, dear.”

He could see the sadness in Nana’s eyes and hated that he had put it there. “I love you, and that won’t change just because I’m living with Mom. I hope you can persuade Granddad not to take Mom to court over this. He’s got to know that, at sixteen, the judge will allow me to choose who I want to live with.”

After he and Nana talked for a while, he felt better about the entire situation. Nana had a way of counteracting Granddad’s negativism with her positive attitude.

“I think I should spend some time with Mom today,” Seth said. “I want to explain things, to tell her that we’ve talked and-”

The doorbell rang, but before Nana could respond, someone pounded on the door. “Mona? Mona, let me in. It’s Elaine.”

“That was certainly fast,” Nana said.

“What’s she doing here?” Seth asked.

Nana rolled her eyes and sighed. “I have a feeling that your grandfather called in reinforcements.” She walked to the door, opened it and barely had time to move out of the way before his other grandmother stormed into the living room.

Grandmother pinned him with her sharp, narrowed gaze. “What is this I hear about your wanting to move in with your mother?”

“J.B. certainly didn’t waste any time,” Nana said.

“J.B. is worried, as well he should be,” Grandmother replied, never taking her eyes off Seth.

“I’ll leave you two alone to talk,” Nana told them. “I imagine I’ll find J.B. piddling in the garage.”

As soon as Nana left, Grandmother glowered at him. “You will not move in with your mother. Do you hear me? She isn’t a suitable role model for any young person. She is living in sin with that Perdue man!”

“I like Jack,” Seth said. “I think my mom loves him, and he loves her. I hope they get married. Mom deserves to be happy.”

“She’ll never be happy with Jackson Perdue. He was a good-for-nothing boy, and he hasn’t changed. He was all wrong for my Cathy seventeen years ago, and he’s still all wrong for her.”

“Don’t you think that’s Mom’s decision to make, not yours?”

Grandmother gasped. “You’re being impertinent. It’s her influence, isn’t it? She’s become someone I hardly know.” Grandmother ranted, seeming to lose control of her anger. “The only time in her life when she defied me, she wound up in trouble, and if she doesn’t watch out, she’ll wind up pregnant and unmarried again. How she can give that man a second chance is beyond me. He doesn’t deserve a second chance.”

Seth suddenly felt sick. His stomach knotted painfully. “What do you mean she’ll wind up pregnant and unmarried again?”

Grandmother stared at him, her cheeks flushed, her eyes wide as she realized she had inadvertently blurted out some horrible family secret.

“Was my mother pregnant with another baby before she had me?” he asked, and all the while his mind was calculating the years.

“Seth, please, I-I didn’t know what I was saying. I didn’t mean to-”

“Was I that baby? Was Mom pregnant with me when she married my dad…when she married Mark Cantrell?”

“Mark Cantrell was your father,” Grandmother declared. “In every way that mattered. He loved you. He was a good father.”

Seth swallowed hard.

“Seth?” Grandmother reached out for him.

He sidestepped her and ran toward the front door.

“Seth!” she screamed. “Please come back. Let me explain.”

He rushed out onto the porch, down the steps and into the yard. He could hear his grandmother calling his name over and over again. Ignoring her, the rush of blood pumping through his body filled his ears with its roar as he ran up the street.

Mark Cantrell wasn’t his father. Not his real father. His mother had been pregnant with him when she’d gotten married.

He didn’t want to believe it. Had his mother lied to him his entire life? Had the man he had called Dad, the man he had loved and respected and tried to emulate, not been his biological father?

Winded from his fierce run, Seth paused on the corner of Mulberry and Fourth to catch his breath.

Grandmother had no reason to lie to him. In fact, she had been horrified when she’d realized she had blurted out the truth.

And what was that truth?

If Mark Cantrell wasn’t his father, then who was?

You know, an inner voice said. You know there’s only one man it could be.

Yes, he knew. There was no doubt in his mind that Jackson Perdue was the man who’d gotten his teenage mother pregnant.

Chapter Thirty-two

She sat alone in the gazebo. Alone with her thoughts. Alone with God.

Had she made a terrible mistake last night? Surely God would not have allowed the wrong man to die. No, she had to believe that the man she had mistakenly thought to be Dewan Phillips had been God’s chosen sacrifice. She might make a mistake, but the Lord Almighty did not. Reverend Phillips was not innocent. It had simply not been his time. But his time would come.

God will show me the day of his punishment.

For now she would wait and pray and be thankful that no one suspected her of being the angel of death.

Perry Fuqua’s wife had seen a woman running away from the Phillipses’ home last night. Too bad for Missy. If the Lord hadn’t instructed her to leave Missy’s locket where the police could find it, she never would have done such a thing. But her work was far too important to God to risk being stopped before she completed her holy mission.

I’m sorry, Missy. I know you have endured so much misery, but I’m sure you will be all right. The Lord has told me that no real harm will come to you. By casting doubt on you, the police will have someone to focus on-leaving me free to continue doing God’s work.

She needed time to reflect on last night’s events. It was the first time that she had misunderstood God’s instructions. She had been so sure that He had wanted her to punish Dewan Phillips. But instead His wrath had destroyed Perry Fuqua.

Forgive me, Lord, for not listening more carefully.

You must know that as the Apostle Paul believed, so I believe.

“I have fought the good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day.” II Timothy 14:7-8.