Page 46 of Evan

“We did our due diligence when we identified where we would be handing over that substantial amount of money to. Your church’s account is in trouble.

The figures are not adding up, which in my estimation, means that someone has been dipping into the till. On top of that, your pastor and his wife are separated. The daughter is dabbling in drugs and has been hauled into jail for several offences.”

This time the pause was so long, he wondered if she had hung up, but he could hear her breathing.

“You had no right.” She whispered hoarsely and then hung up.

Chapter 12

Evan was furious with himself. He contemplated calling her back but decided against it. What could he say? That he had messed up yet again? What had the information done? Only hurt her again and possibly shattered her illusions.

The man was not just her pastor, he was her substitute dad and from what he had seen – from what he had heard from her, the family had treated her like one of their own.

Except that he had noticed the way the wife looked at her.

Like there was suspicion there. Did the woman suspect there was more than a father/daughter relationship going on between them. He had dug a little deeper and was aware that the pastor was also having an affair with a widow, and they met up almost every evening at her place.

It made him cynical and resigned to the fact that men would always be merely men. He had seen it with his own dad and uncle. The two men had attended services at the massive Catholic church every Sunday and never missed a function.

They had contributed heavily to the coffer, which ensured that whatever they did was glossed over. The priests turned a blind eye to the gossip that was going on and they were given the best seats, ones that were reserved for them.

Their money bought them a lofty position at the chapel and after being aware of what was happening, Evan had felt only contempt for so-called religious people.

He had stopped attending services as soon as he was able to control his own decision and nothing, they said, had changed that. No number of threats had gotten through to him. On that, he had remained adamant.

Meeting Cassandra had changed his way of thinking, but finding about the man who stood at the pulpit and talked about love and forgiveness was as human as the rest of male population had transported him back to the past.

It was not fair on her, and he was positive that she was different. He knew instinctively that she was as pure as the driven snow.

What troubled him was how far her devotion to the man went. Was she blinded by his faults? Was it a fact that she thought he could not do anything wrong? If that was the case, then he had hurt her again. But what did it say about her ability to be objective?

Pushing away from the desk, he strode over to the window to stare out at the encroaching darkness. The rumbling of his stomach reminded him that he had barely eaten anything. But his appetite was shot.

Hurting her was doing crazy things to his stomach and he could not bear the thought of her suffering. He would give her some time to get over his thoughtless comments before calling her again.

*****

One cup of coffee was her limit. Anything more made her jittery and hyperactive. But last night she had been unable to go to sleep. His words had reverberated inside her brain so much, she thought she was going crazy. Praying had not made things any better.

She was up at the crack of dawn and spent almost an hour exercising by turning up the speed and going at a rate that had her heart pumping out of synch. As soon as she was finished, she stepped off the machine, her feet almost buckling, the jelly like feeling causing her to sink down on the floor.

After cooling off for a few minutes, she had attempted to have her devotion before taking a quick shower. The devotion had been quicker than her shower, which left her feeling as if she had cheated herself and her Savior.

Now she was on her third cup of coffee and felt on the verge of tears.

She had a full schedule today. It was the day of the soup kitchen, and the list had grown from fifty to almost a hundred. It was also the day of fasting as well as Bible study and she had volunteered to stay back and help with the refreshments for the children.

She was close to tears. He was right. The pastor, the man who was like a dad to her, the man who had given her so much, was in trouble.

He was having an affair; his wife was gone and had been gone for two weeks and it did not appear that she was coming back. Darcy was away doing all manner of evil and there was a discrepancy in their accounts. But she did not like hearing all of that from a stranger.

He wasn’t a stranger, was he? The voice taunted her.

“No.” She whispered, blinking the tears away. And she was a hypocrite who had shied away from the truth. He wanted them to have a conversation, to see where they were going from here and she had shut him down. Coming to a decision, she reached for the phone and placed a call.

Evan was in the middle of a meeting with his CFO when he saw her number coming up.

Cutting the man off in midsentence, he took the call.

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