Page 25 of The Sin of True Love

Robert eyes me carefully. He knows there’s more I’m not telling him, but he’s not going to press me.

“Now I’m bringing this to you first instead of the police, because I want to get something going quickly. Can you get something going quickly, Robert? Then we can go to the cops with it?”

“Trudy understands this stuff better than I do,” he replies. “I’ll go back to the office. She and I will go over it this afternoon, I’ll type up the story, and it will go live tomorrow morning. That quick enough for you?”

12

MICHELLE

Every muscle in my body is tensed up to the point where I’m sure I’m going to get a terrible knot or a painful cramp and won’t be able to walk anymore. Maybe that would be a good thing. Then I wouldn’t be able to finish the journey from my room to my father’s study to deliver the news I’m about to give him.

Dad, I’m pregnant.

Is that what I should say?

Dad, I had sex. I don’t know if I can just say it like that. Maybe Dad, I’m no longer a virgin is somehow better?

These are things I never thought I’d have to say to my father. I mean, what girl would ever want to?

But this is the day I tell him. Just like Casey and I discussed. He’s going to be angry. He’s going to more than likely fly off the hinge, but our plan will work. I’ll no longer be the perfect little unsullied virgin he can marry off to his buddy Richard’s son. I’ll be just another slut in his eyes. Especially when I tell him who fucked me.

The morning rays of sun coming through his window seem somehow even more blinding as I step into his study. Like always, he’s seated at his desk. He’s on the phone with someone, and I wait patiently for him to finish before speaking.

“Dad,” I say. “I have something to tell you.”

“Can it wait, Michelle?” He stands, getting his things together as he brushes past me. “I’ve got a meeting with Richard in five minutes about finding a new lead contractor on your house with Jerry. Turns out the one we had picked just came down with something–”

That’s all I needed. Hearing him discussing my future life he has all planned out with no regard for me whatsoever just causes me to snap.

“I had sex with Casey.”

The words slip from my lips without hesitation. Without anxiety. Without regret.

In fact, I am filled with a sense of power as I watch my father, a man whose world revolves around him, stop in his tracks and turn to face me. His eyes study me intently. I can see him trying to determine if I’m lying, just trying to hurt him, or if what I’m saying is the truth.

I just stare back at him, betraying nothing.

“You what?” His jaw is clenched so hard he nearly breaks his teeth on his words. “What did you just say?”

“Casey. The guy you fired? I had sex with him. And I didn’t use protection either.”

My father’s eyes narrow like a predator, and his face grows red as a radish as he takes his first step toward me. I should be terrified, but somehow, I’m not. I hold my ground and don’t move as he advances on me.

“What are you saying, Michelle?” he asks. “And be clear with me. Are you honestly telling me that you gave away your innocence? That you did not wait until you were married to the man to whom you are betrothed? And that you sullied yourself with that lowly filth who–”

“Yes!” I shout, unable to listen to this any longer. I step right up to him and stare up into his face fuming down at me. He looks like a giant ready to crush me. “That’s exactly what I’m saying, Dad! I fucked him, and he fucked me, and I loved every second of it! And if God is great, like you’re always telling those people who believe that you’re not a liar and a thief like I know you are, then I’m pregnant with his child right now!”

The world might as well stop right there. My father stares down at me, and I stare back at him. I thoroughly believe that if I was born a son and not a daughter, he’d have hit me by now.

He opens his mouth to say something, but at that precise moment, our confrontation is interrupted.

“Reverend?” Lynn, his personal assistant, says from the door. “I’m sorry, but something’s happened you need to see.”

“Not now,” he growls.

Dad’s desk phone and his cell both start to ring at the same time.

“It’s quite important,” Lynn replies before stepping out of the room. Dad continues to stare at me while his phones continue to ring.

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