Page 26 of The Sin of True Love

“You gonna get that?” I ask defiantly.

Dad gives in and rushes to his desk and snatches up his desk phone, which he only uses for business.

“Yes? They published what?” he roars. He quickly sits down at his computer and pulls something up. When he sees what it is, he goes ballistic. “Those sons of bitches! Does Robert even know what I’ll do to him? Yeah, I’ll call you back.”

Dad hangs up and quickly makes another call back on his cell. “Frank!” The name of his lawyer. “Yeah, I saw. Skimming church funds? Where the hell did this come from?”

My stomach sinks, and I feel a sweat begin to break out all over my body.

He did it. Casey somehow did it without me.

I rush from the room, leaving my father shouting behind me, and climb into my car. I pull out and immediately floor it, heading for Casey’s.

How could he do this to me?

My phone rings, and I look down to see Jerry’s name and instantly ignore it. No way I’m talking to him right now. I quickly pull up Google and type my father’s name in. And that’s when I see it, an article from the Holebeck Daily Times.

Evidence Points to Reverend Patrick Tuttle Skimming Church Funds for Personal Gain.

“Fuck!” I shout.

I tap my fingers on the wheel all the way to Casey’s apartment, leap out, and race up to his unit as fast as I can, feeling like my heart is about to explode. I rap on the door like a mad woman, and he pulls it open almost instantly.

“Hi,” he says, a hesitant smile on his face.

“Hi? That’s all you have to say?” I brush past him into his unit. He closes the door behind me. “What were you thinking, Casey? I mean, what the fuck!?”

I hold my phone up for him to see this morning’s article, a photo of my father right next to the highly destructive headline. “I thought I made it clear I didn’t want this!”

“You said you didn’t want to be involved,” he replies. “I found another source. Someone from the church.”

The only thing I can do is laugh and pull my hair. The insanity of the situation hasn’t even fully hit me, and I’m barely able to process what’s going on.

“I. Didn’t. WANT THIS, CASEY!” I scream, the air scraping my lungs on its way out.

“We have to get you away from him, Michelle,” he replies. “Getting you pregnant, it might not be enough. We have to be together–”

“Oh, stop pretending like this is all about us, Casey! You hate him. He fired you, you’ve got it out for him, and you want to get back at him. Admit it!”

Casey’s eyes shift, and an expression takes over that I’ve never seen from him before.

“Michelle, this is a story that needs to be out there,” he replies. He’s speaking slowly, but there’s no concealing the anger in his voice. “He’s been stealing from people for years, maybe even decades. Not rich donors either. The little people.”

“Oh, like you?” I scoff.

“Yes, like me!” he bellows. “Not everybody in this world got to grow up with a silver spoon in their mouth like you, Michelle!”

My stomach twists. My body goes tight. I clench my nails into the palms of my hands and purse my lips back at him.

“Oh, is that right? Now I’m just some rich bitch?”

“Did I say that?” he snaps back.

“You might as well have!”

“What I’m saying is that the money you grew up on came from the pockets of innocent hard-working people, donating that money to what they thought was a good cause–”

“And then I just lived it up on that cash with my Louboutin pumps and silver spoon in my mouth while the rest of you innocent hard-working people suffered?”

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