Love, Honor, and Betray by Roby, Lawson (ebook reader ink txt) 📕

“You’re welcome, and I’ll be praying.”

“Thank you for doing that.”

“Talk to you later, and I love you, girl.”

“I love you back.”

Charlotte hung up and debated calling Curtis right now, so she could tell him she needed to talk to him about something. Butmaybe she would just wait until he got home. She wasn’t sure how she should handle this, however, and before she could thinkmore about it, she saw the word Private on her phone screen again. “Why do you keep calling me?” she yelled. “Why won’t you just leave me alone?”

When the ringing stopped, thankfully, Tom didn’t call back. But it looked like he’d left a message at some point. The Alertsymbol was displaying too soon for him to have left one right now, so he must have done so when he’d called one of the othertimes.

She signed into the system, keyed in her password, and waited for the message to play.

“Hey, I’m not sure why you’re ignoring me, but I wanna see you tonight. I know I told you we’d get together again on Saturday,but I’ve changed my mind. So you’d better answer your phone the next time I call you.”

“Please press seven to delete or nine to save,” the lady from the automated menu stated.

This was going too far, Charlotte thought, and now she knew she would eventually have to tell Curtis about Tom, too. But nottoday. No, today she had to focus on Michael, so she could come up with the best story she could. She would tell Curtis thetruth—somewhat—but what she had to work on now was coming up with the right kind of words to say. She had to make him sympathizewith her and even feel guilty about the part he’d played in causing this to happen. After all, he’d slept with Tabitha foryears and had brought home an illegitimate baby just like she had, so maybe this wouldn’t be as bad as she’d been thinking.Curtis wouldn’t be happy, but he was a very resilient man, the kind who loved his wife, and that meant there really was hopefor them. She’d plead her case and then promise to be the best wife on the planet from this day forth. She would do whateverhe asked or wanted until he forgot about this. Either forgot or no longer held it against her.

Chapter 41

Curtis glanced over at the clock on the wall and decided he’d work maybe another couple of hours and then head home. He’d gottena lot of work done today and was thinking he might even take the morning off tomorrow and not arrive until the afternoon.Although, if he did that, he’d slowly start slipping behind again, and he didn’t want that. But then again, if he did takeoff, he’d be able to spend some time with Charlotte, which he was so excited about these days. He would never say it out loud,but he almost felt like some schoolboy who had fallen in love for the first time and literally couldn’t think straight. Itwas strange, but Charlotte definitely had that effect on him. Now more than she had in the past, and he was thankful for it.Thankful for her, their marriage, and the beautiful family they shared.

After reviewing the church calendar for the next three weeks, Curtis went down the list of sick and shut-in members. He normally tried to visit some of his longtime members, but lately he hadn’t been able to do that. Partly becausehis schedule had been very full and partly because of the problems he and Charlotte had been experiencing. His associate ministershad continued making their rounds, so it wasn’t like no one was stopping by to check on them, but he still liked going himselfsometimes. He would get back to it as early as next month.

Curtis leaned back in his chair and rested his eyes. He’d been looking at multiple documents and gazing into the computerfor hours, and he needed a quick break. He relaxed until his phone rang.

He picked it up and slightly frowned when he saw Raven’s name. “Hello?”

“Pastor Black, can I talk to you?” she said, sounding pretty cordial, so maybe she’d gotten over being fired.

“What about?”

“My job, and if you could maybe find it in your heart to hire me back.”

“No, that’s not going to be possible.”

“But why? I did an excellent job for you and the church. I worked my behind off.”

“I don’t deny that. But given the circumstances and the way things turned out, I think it’s best you move on to greener pastures.”

“But you know how unpredictable the economy is right now, so where am I going to find another CFO job so quickly?”

“I’m sorry, but there’s nothing I can do for you, Raven.”

“I have bills, Pastor Black, and no savings.”

Curtis was a little surprised about that. Mitchell’s cost of living wasn’t very high, and the church had been paying her alittle more than eighty thousand a year. She earned a great salary, so Curtis wondered what she’d been doing with her money.

“I don’t know what to tell you,” he said.

“I know I was wrong, but Pastor Black, you didn’t have to terminate me. You didn’t have to take my job away from me the wayyou did.”

“Raven, look. I’m very sorry things didn’t work out for you here, but as I said, there’s nothing I can do.”

“But Pastor, if I don’t get another job very soon, my life might be in danger.”

“Why?”

“Because I owe this loan shark thirty thousand dollars.”

“For what?”

Raven sniffled. “Gambling.”

“Wait a minute,” Curtis said, quickly leaning forward onto his desk. “Have you stolen money from the church?”

“No, no, no. But I’ll be honest, I was very tempted and it wasn’t going to be long before I figured out a way to do it. Ididn’t have a choice because just a week ago, these guys came to my house, threatening me. They said if I don’t have the moneyby the end of this month, they’re going to hurt me.”

Curtis was amazed that she would even admit something