“Are you going to be okay?”

“Eventually.”

“Is there anything I can do? I know I can’t come to you in person, but if there’s anything you need, all you have to do is say the word, and I’ll have someone take care of it.”

“No. I’ll be fine.”

“Okay, but if anything changes, you e-mail me.”

“I will. And actually, I’m going to hang up now, okay?”

“I understand. But you take care of yourself, all right? Remember that you deserve so much better than someone like JT and that I’ll always love you.”

“You take care, too, and I’ll talk to you later,” she said, and hung up.

Alicia set the phone down and tried digesting all that Levi had told her.

How could JT do this? And Carmen…how could she smile in my face and pretend like she was such a loyal friend? How could she sit listening to me a few days ago, pouring my heart out about JT and all these allegations I’ve heard, when all along, she knew she was sleeping with him and carrying his baby?

Alicia replayed all of Levi’s words, and tears finally flooded her face. She cried loudly, her body shook, and she felt like she was dying. She sobbed, wiped volumes of tears, and then sobbed again. She did this on and off for nearly thirty minutes but then got angry. She was outraged and wanted JT dead. She wanted the same for Carmen. What a rotten, manipulative, self-serving whore she was.

Alicia tossed a plethora of violent thoughts through her mind but then calmed herself down so she could think a lot more clearly. The pain she felt was atrocious at best, but she took a few deep breaths-and signed on to verizon.com. When the home page displayed, she entered all of JT’s personal information that was requested, registering him as an online user, and then she pulled up his account.

She clicked on a few different pages but then found the one that listed details for the current statement’s incoming and outgoing calls and saw both Carmen’s home and cell numbers. Next, she pulled up the archived information for previous months and saw that there was a time when JT spoke to Carmen multiple times per day, especially during the months when Alicia was dating JT-months when she’d thought JT was so completely in love with her, he would never be with any other woman again.

Alicia scanned more listings, printed out pages of details, and immediately slipped into revenge mode. Her father had preached loads of sermons on forgiveness and had quoted Romans 12:19 more times than she could remember. “Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.”

She knew that scripture well and had always worked hard to uphold it. She had lived by it pretty religiously and had never seen a need to pay people back when they’d wronged her.

Until now.

Chapter 36

Either you deliver our money by tomorrow afternoon, promptly at three P.M., or it’s whistle-blowing time,” Minister Weaver threatened.

“I said you’d have it, and you will,” JT declared.

“That’s what you claimed last week, too, but we never got it.”

“But you’ll have it tomorrow for sure. You have my word.”

“I hope you’re right, because if I find out you’re trying to stall on us again, the situation won’t be pretty. It’s going to turn into something very ugly and unbearably humiliating. A lot of people are going to be hurt, particularly those five thousand members of yours who so blindly believe in you, and you’ll be kissing that lavish life of yours completely good-bye.” Then he paused and said, “You have a nice day.”

He never even gave JT a chance to respond, but it was fine, because in twenty-four hours, this would all be over with. It would all be a done deal, and JT wouldn’t have to worry about Weaver, Barb, or any other person from the past he no longer wanted anything to do with. Carmen was still a major issue that needed handling, but over the last eight days, she’d remained pretty calm-partly because he’d gone along with whatever she said and mostly because he’d given her sex whenever she’d asked for it. He’d slept with her at least five times, starting with the day after her mother’s funeral, but the good news was that it hadn’t posed much of a problem for his marriage. It hadn’t caused any strain because Alicia was now working day and night on her next novel and was always too tired by the time she got in bed. Nonetheless, this baby dilemma had to be dealt with once and for all. But first, he had to get the rest of that money from Diana.

“Another hundred thousand dollars is a lot more than I anticipated,” Diana said, clearly not happy about JT’s latest request.

“Baby, I know,” he said, sliding closer to her on the sofa and showing her the media proposal-the one he’d had the agency working on for a whole week now and the one he’d had e-mailed over to him first thing this morning when he’d gotten to the church. It had been the reason he’d left the house so early this morning, so he could download it, print it out, and then go over every figure and small detail. He’d needed some extra time to review it, so he could explain things as articulately and convincingly as possible to Diana.

“Does the campaign really require all this? I mean, are all these spots really necessary? Because based on what I’m seeing here,” she said, flipping to the next page, “they’ve got you airing spots during every single commercial break, all day long. So, what it sounds like to me is that this agency you’re working with is blatantly overselling the amount of spots you actually need.”

JT had to think fast. Why? Because this meeting with Diana was turning out to be a little harder than he’d expected. He’d known she would need proof of what she was paying for, but he hadn’t counted on her asking so many legitimate questions. He hadn’t even considered the possibility that she might read and debate every single page he’d brought to her.

“I know it’s a lot of money,” he said. “But, baby, you have to trust me. You have to believe that I know what I’m doing. I mean, sure, we could definitely do a lot less publicity on each station or eliminate some of the stations altogether, but I really want to do the kind of media blitz that everyone will have an opportunity to hear. I want them to hear these spots on the radio, see them on TV, and take notice. I want the words ‘New Life Christian Center’ and ‘JT Valentine’ to become household names. I want people to wonder what they’re missing by not attending our services, so they’ll be dying to come visit.”

“I understand that, but again, a hundred thousand dollars more is a lot. I already gave you one-fifty two weeks ago, so a quarter of a million dollars is a little over the top.”

JT took the proposal from her and slid into victim mode. “Fine. Look, I only came to you because you said you would help out and that you were behind me all the way. But let’s just forget it. Let’s just forget everything,” he said, standing up. “As a matter of fact, let’s cancel this whole campaign and pretend like it never happened…and actually, if you want to know the truth, I’m really not surprised by this at all.”

“What do you mean?”

“Remember how I told you about my mom dying when I was a child and then my aunt dying when I was a teenager? Well, all my life, people have been forcing me to fend for myself, so I really didn’t expect you to be any different.”

Diana got up and wrapped her arms around his neck. “Now, honey, you know that’s not true. You’re the most special man I’ve ever met, and I think I made it pretty clear a while ago that I would do just about anything for you.”

JT kept his hands at either side of his body, refusing to embrace her.

“Baby, please don’t act this way,” she said.

JT unlocked her arms and backed away from her. “I don’t think I can do this anymore.”