“I don’t know that either, but I do know that I’m not going to just ignore all of this or act as though it couldn’t be possible.”

“I don’t blame you. I mean, I really like JT and all, but unfortunately, men are going to be men. They are who they are, and you never know what they might be up to.”

Alicia thought about the man Carmen was messing around with, whomever he was, and how he was proof of that very thing. She also thought about how wrong Carmen was for being involved with him.

“You’re right,” Alicia finally said.

“Sadly, I am, and that’s why I can’t sit back and sugarcoat my opinion. I don’t want to be negative or say anything bad about JT, but I also don’t want to see you getting cheated on or staying with a man who might be dangerous.”

Alicia heard what she was saying and was glad she had someone to talk to about this. “I appreciate your honesty, girl, and thank you so much for listening. Especially since you have your own worries right now.”

“I do, but you can talk to me about anything, anytime.”

“I know, but still.”

“But still nothing. You and I are friends for life, and you can count on me no matter what. You can depend on me the same as if I were your blood sister.”

Alicia smiled at Carmen and knew she meant every single word.

Chapter 35

The funeral had taken place yesterday, and Alicia, JT, and both sets of her parents had attended. They’d met over at Carmen’s apartment, along with some of her family members and fellow parishioners, and had driven to the church in the processional. Strangely enough, Carmen hadn’t shed many tears and had stood at the podium and spoken at great length about her mom. The entire service had been beautiful and hadn’t lasted more than an hour and fifteen minutes, but Alicia was glad this phase of the mourning process was behind Carmen. She knew Carmen would never get over losing her mother, but Alicia prayed that God would give her all the strength and understanding she needed to go on with her life and live it to the absolute fullest.

Of course, though, this would take time, and it was the reason Alicia had asked Carmen to come stay with her and JT again, at least for a couple of days. But Carmen had insisted she wanted and needed to be alone. Alicia had practically pleaded with her to reconsider, but Carmen had said she just wanted to spend some time quietly reflecting on all the wonderful memories she and her mother had shared.

Alicia sat down at her desk, opened her word processing software, and opened the outline she’d begun working on for her next novel. She’d debated whether she would write a sequel to her first but had ultimately decided she wanted to write about all new characters. She wanted to write about two women who’d been best friends as small children, lost touch with each other, and then became close once again as adults. Of course, she would incorporate lots of Melanie’s personality into one of the characters, since Melanie was her best friend of best friends, but she would also base a lot of the story line on her and Carmen’s relationship. She wanted to tell this story because she really did feel blessed to be so closely connected with Carmen after not seeing or talking to her for so many years.

After mapping out a couple of additional chapters, Alicia stopped and checked to see if her agent had sent her any last-minute messages. The auction for her book was scheduled for Friday, and all six meeting times with the editors and their respective publishing groups had now been confirmed. When Alicia had read Joan’s note from yesterday, outlining all the details, she’d barely been able to contain herself and she couldn’t wait to leave this evening for New York. She’d known how exciting this whole process was probably going to be, but she hadn’t thought she’d feel so nervous and overjoyed.

Alicia scanned her inbox, deleted a few junk messages, and saw a new e-mail from Levi. She opened it right away.

Hey you. I hope all is well but I really need to speak to you this afternoon when my friend is back on duty. Please call around 2 P.M. Love you. Levi

Alicia wondered if Levi just wanted to talk to her or if he needed her to phone him for a reason. Either way, she knew it still wasn’t right for her to be contacting him. On the other hand, however, it wasn’t like things were wonderful between her and JT, not the way they’d been over the last few months. Their honeymoon stage was basically over, and even yesterday, she’d noticed how uneasy and impatient he’d seemed at the funeral and also while they were at Carmen’s, acting as if there was some other place he needed to be. Then, this morning, he’d left earlier than normal, claiming he had all this church business to attend to. Alicia didn’t know if he was up to no good or not, but with everything that was going on, maybe there actually wasn’t anything wrong with communicating with Levi. So she e-mailed him back to say she would call the cell number he’d listed at the time he requested.

Over the next few hours, Alicia jogged on the treadmill, took a shower, got dressed, worked more on her outline, and called her mom and then her stepmother for a chat. She did everything she could to pass the time, but now she was finally dialing Levi. Today, he answered the phone himself.

“Hi, sweetheart,” he said.

“Hey. How are you?”

“Well, not as good as I’d like to be, because yesterday, I received a little bit of bad news from my attorney. He told me that there’s been a slight setback toward getting me released.”

“Oh no. I’m really sorry to hear that because I know you were so looking forward to getting out.”

“Yeah, I was. But it’ll happen in due time. It’ll take longer than I thought, but my attorney thinks we’ll be all set with what we need to present to the judge in about six months. At the latest, I should be free in maybe nine months to a year.”

“Good. I’m glad.”

“But that’s not the only reason I wanted you to call,” he said without hesitation.

“Oh, okay. So, what else is going on?”

“I’ve got a couple of very close Chicago buddies on the outside, and I’m sad to say they told me a ton of information about your husband.”

Alicia held her breath, fearing whatever Levi was about to disclose.

“And, sweetheart, please know that I thought long and hard in terms of whether I should tell you, but once I was able to confirm that everything I’d heard was true, I decided that even though I can’t get out of here right away to be with you myself, I still want you to be happy. I also want you to be fully aware about the man you’re married to.”

Alicia closed her eyes, wondering just how bad this news was going to be.

“Are you there?”

“Yes.”

“I really hate doing this, but, sweetheart, JT used to pimp top-shelf call girls-you know, the kind who only sleep with wealthy businessmen or filthy-rich criminals. From what I hear, that’s how he got the money to start his first church, but then he continued doing it for about three years after that…but that’s not the worst part.”

Alicia wasn’t sure how much more she could take and tried bracing herself for the rest of the story.

“Word on the street is that JT is still sleeping with one of them now. Someone by the name of Carmen Wilson, and I hear her mother just died last week.”

Alicia covered her mouth with her hand, felt lightheaded and almost like she was dreaming. She knew she really was on the phone with Levi, but she felt as though she was living someone else’s life. Certainly not her own, that she was sure of.

She sat, not saying anything, but then it dawned on her. Carmen was pregnant.

“Oh my God,” she said. “Oh my God.”

“Baby, I’m really sorry. I’m sorry I had to do this, but you really needed to know.”

“No. I’m glad you told me.”