Preacher's Wifey

by Dishan Washington

  “How dare you do that without at least telling me?” I demanded.

  “Let me guess, you were out somewhere shopping and got embarrassed because your card was declined.”

  “No, you are absolutely incorrect. I was eating lunch with my parents, for your information.”

  “Your parents? As in both of them?” he said, shocked.

  “Yes. There is a lot going on you know nothing about. You are so consumed by yourself, you have no time to think about anyone else. But let us not get off the reason I came here.”

  He walked over to his desk and sat down. “Oh, yes, the reason you are here. Have a seat, Allyson.” His tone immediately went businesslike. I sat down, ready to hear this explanation, and all I knew was it had better be a good one. “Do you think you can forfeit your responsibilities to me as my wife and still spend my money? The agreement was for you to fulfill the duties of the contract and you get paid. But when you decided you were going to go against the grain, I had no other choice but to cut you off.

  “When you start acting like you have some sense, I will have the money sent back to your accounts. The only thing is I do not trust you anymore. So you are going to have to prove to me that I can trust you again before your access is fully restored. So if you convince me today that you are ready to resume the agreement, I will put a little money in your account. All the bills are paid, and food is in the refrigerator at home, so I figured a couple of hundred dollars per week so you can get little personal items you may need, along with gas for your car, should suffice.

  Did he say a couple of hundred dollars? My spa appointment cost that much.

  He continued. “You will be the one to determine how long this lasts. Show me better, and I will show you the money.”

  My right leg shook violently. Did this man have the nerve to sit in my presence and talk about trust? I scratched my head in confusion.

  “So it is fine for you to do whatever you want to do and get away with it, but I do something you consider not right, and I have to suffer for it? Do you know I could go out there right now and reveal this entire ploy?”

  He laughed. “What are you going to say?”

  “That this entire marriage is a sham. That you married me only so you could become the pastor of this church.”

  “I would not advise you to do that, because you are going to make yourself appear stupid. What woman marries a man on a premise like that other than one who is just as money hungry as he is? See, the people around here love me so much, even if you stood up and said something like that, they would not believe it. But, hey, if you want to try it, go right ahead.”

  “Have you forgotten that I have a copy of the contract? All I have to do is get up and present my evidence.”

  “You used to have a copy of the contract. That one you had locked in your safe in your closet . . . I have it.”

  I had to bat my eyes really fast to prevent the tears from falling. He had thought of everything.

  “Well, how do you think your little parishioners will feel about your affair with Shatrice and your son, BJ?”

  His nostrils flared, and the vein in his neck appeared. I had struck a nerve.

  “They have nothing to do with this issue between us. The best thing for you to do is leave them out of this.”

  “Or what?”

  “I am serious, Allyson. Do not bring them into this. My son is deceased, for God’s sake. Let his soul rest in peace. As for Shatrice, she will never open her mouth to tell anything. If she had wanted to do that, she could have done it by now.”

  “You do not know what she will do. You can never put anything past anybody. The same way I never thought you would do this to me, you have done it. I was a good wife, wifey, whatever the hell I was to you. You said so yourself. You have continuously laid my heart in the road to be run over like road kill. You took my emotions and played with them, as if I were some type of electronic video game. And you call yourself a man of God? I know men who are not pastors who have a better relationship with God than you do. Greed has driven you to this. If you don’t be careful, Byran, you are going to wake up one morning and you will not have a thing. Yeah, you may keep this church, your businesses, and your money, but you will lose the more important things . . . the things you cannot buy.” He sat looking at me, as if I were speaking a different language.

  “That was a real good speech,” he said, clapping. “You sound as if you have finally cracked open the Bible you carry in here every week for show.”

  “Your entire life is for show. You knew when you met and married me, I barely knew anything about God and what it means to live right. And it took someone else to help me realize it. What you do not understand is you can take the money, but you cannot take what is in my heart. Keep your money, Byran. Keep it all. I may not be able to live the type of life I have adapted to, but there is something on the inside of me that tells me I can make it. I will be all right. You, on the other hand, unless you change, you will not come to a good end, because your heart is not right.”

  “Please spare me any more of this sermonic plague. Stick to what you are good at it, which is giving men what they want in exchange for what you want, because preaching is not your thing, love.”

  Was he slick calling me a whore? Was that how he saw me?

  My pride would not allow him to see me break down, but I wanted to go curl up in the corner and emotionally dump it all. He was right. For years I had behaved like a whore. I went into relationships with men based on the amount of money they had and what they could do for me. When they gave the money, I gave my body. Somehow the notion that I had acted whorish had escaped me, because I felt that since I was in a relationship, it was different. But this situation had taught me you could even be married and have whorish ways.

  “I want a divorce, and I am going to file for a divorce.”

  “No, you will not. You are not going to embarrass me or put me in jeopardy of losing my church. I will not allow you to do that.”

  “It is not up to you. You can have it all. You owe me nothing. I will submit to you in writing a statement that says I give up any rights I have to anything. I just want my life back. I want to be free.”

  “When you signed that contract, you signed your life away. However, I am not a hard man to work with. Fine . . . if you want the divorce, but I will not let you out of this contract for another four years. On our fifth anniversary I will give you your life back.”

  “Four more years dealing with you? I do not think so.”

  “You have no choice, Allyson. Listen, be grateful that I am willing to work with you. I gave you plenty of opportunities before you made this deal to back out, but you did not. Now, woman up and have some integrity. I will have my attorney revise the agreement to reflect an expiration date.”

  This was turning into a bigger nightmare.

  “Why four years?”

  “In four years my probationary contract here will have expired, and I will have gotten this church to where I want it. I will have made sure they cannot vote me out, no matter what happens. So until then you are stuck with me. But, honey, you will be just fine. You give me what I want. I give you what you want.”

  “What I want is to be rid of you. And, Byran, getting rid of you is what I will do.”

  He leaned forward on his desk. “Let me be very clear, darling. This marriage will not expire for another four years.” He got up from his seat and walked to the front of his desk and leaned back against it. “Otherwise, it will be until death do us part.”

  The look he had in his eyes scared me. Was he this coldhearted and cold-blooded?

  I stood up in the face of his intimidating scare tactic. “If God be for me, He is more than the whole world against me.”

  I picked up my purse and left him standing there with his ego to keep him company. I realized this was not my battle to fight. When I got myself in this situation, I had no knowledge of who God was. But now I had gotten a small inclination of His power, an
d I was going to let Him take care of this.

  I was beginning to know it mattered not how you started, and that the real testimony was in how strong you finished.

  And I planned to finish strong.

  Chapter Twenty

  “Hey, Louie. How have you been?”

  “I’ve been good, Ms. Allyson. How about you?”

  “I am well. Ready to get out of Atlanta,” I said as I stepped into the limo.

  “Jeff is already at Charlie Brown, waiting on us,” he said.

  “Perfect.”

  My phone rang.

  “Hey, sweetheart.”

  “Hey, love. Has Louie gotten there yet?” Seth asked.

  “Yes, he’s here. I just got into the car.”

  “Great. Nana and I are waiting on you.”

  “Oh, you went and got Nana?”

  “Yep. I told her you were coming for a visit, and she demanded I pick her up. She really became fond of you when you were here.”

  “Wow. I am humbled by that,” I said, beaming. “I am excited to see the both of you as well. I have missed you.”

  “Trust me, we missed you too. And don’t you worry about a thing. We are going to work this out. We will figure out a way to get you out of this mess.”

  “Thank you, Seth. I owe you big for this.”

  “You owe me nothing. I hope to prove to you one day that I am not like the other men who have been in your life. I want nothing from you. Period.”

  “I appreciate that.”

  We arrived at the airport, and I saw Jeff standing next to the chopper.

  “We just got to the airport. I guess I will see you in a few,” I told Seth.

  “Looking forward to it. Claudia has prepared lunch for us. Hope you like chicken Alfredo.”

  “Oh my goodness, I absolutely love chicken Alfredo.”

  “Me too. It is one of my favorite dishes. All right, I will let you go so you can board.”

  “Okay. See you soon.”

  We disconnected, and I got out of the limo and went to the helicopter. Louie carried my Louis Vuitton luggage to Jeff, who placed it on the chopper. I felt sorry for them because I knew my bags were very heavy. While I did not plan to stay with Seth permanently, I had spent the past few days packing all my belongings, and a lot was crammed into those bags.

  I was grateful that Byran was still not staying at the house. He was no doubt spending most of his days and nights at the hospital with Shatrice, who was still battling the infection, which had now spread throughout her body. I saw it as a blessing and got rid of any evidence that proved I had ever lived in the house. I took down our wedding pictures; I even packed up the dishes that belonged to my great-grandmother. All of what I came into the marriage with was either in the bags I had with me or at my mother’s, in storage. Kristal had come over to help me get it all done expediently.

  I could not explain why I felt compelled to make a move so quickly, but I had the strangest feeling that if I did not get out of there, things would get worse. When I got ready to leave the house, I left the house keys, the keys to both of my cars, the bank and credit cards, the checkbook, and anything else that connected me to Byran on the counter.

  None of it mattered anymore. I no longer cared to gain the world and lose my soul. My plan was to get my divorce, go to school for nursing, and earn an honest living, like most Americans. Thankfully, I had no children to factor in, and that made it easier to pick up and walk away from my life as I knew it—forever.

  So I was on my way to Carson Land to figure it all out. Once I was settled in my seat on board the chopper, I retrieved my iPad from my bag and pulled up the PocketSword app. I had never been one to read the Bible, but lately all I wanted to do was read it. The words seemed to come to life right before my eyes, and it seemed that every time I started reading, I would always start with a passage that spoke directly to me. The book of Psalms was my favorite. I had heard Byran tell the Bible Study class once that if you were newly saved, Psalms was a good book to start with, so I was yet to move away from it.

  When the app came up, it was still on the same passage. Psalms 61:1–2, I had read this morning. Hear my cry, O God; attend unto my prayer. From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the rock that is higher than I.

  I felt peace in my heart as I read it again. Next on my list to read was Psalms 37. My dad had suggested it when I called to let him know I was leaving. He said I would find comfort in the words, and comfort was what I needed.

  Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity. For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb. Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. Delight thyself in the Lord; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in Him; and He shall bring it to pass. And he shall bring forth they righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday. Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass. Cease from anger, and forsake wrath: fret not thyself in any wise to do evil. For evildoers shall be cut off: but those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth.

  Dad was right. I felt comforted. Again, it was like God himself was speaking to me. Why did I not read the Bible before? I turned to another chapter I had spent the past couple of days meditating on.

  The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell. Though a host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear: though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident. One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple. For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock.

  And now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me: therefore will I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy; I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the Lord. Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice: have mercy also upon me, and answer me. When thou saidest, Seek ye my face: my heart said unto thee, thy face, Lord, will I seek. Hide not thy face far from me; put not thy servant away in anger: thou hast been my help; leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation. When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up.

  Teach me thy way, O Lord, and lead me in a plain path, because of mine enemies. Deliver me not over unto the will of mine enemies: for false witnesses are risen up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty. I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord.

  I closed my eyes and leaned my head back to allow those words to penetrate my spirit. I could feel the peace of God traveling through my body. I did not know how it was all going to work out, but I knew it was going to. I had nothing to my name but my clothes, shoes, jewelry, and a few other things, but I did not care. I had joy and an expectancy no one could take away.

  I opened my eyes to see that we were approaching Carson Land. I had never really paid attention when we took off a few weeks ago, but as we descended, seeing Carson Land from this vantage point was spectacular. The sun was bright, and the rays caused the lake to sparkle like a flawless diamond. The entire property was awe-inspiring.

  We landed on the pad, and I could see Seth waiting. He was dressed in a white dress shirt and jeans. He looked as perfect as any man could look. I could hardly wait to get out and run into his arms.

  Jeff opened the door to the chopper and said, “Once again, it has been a pleasure to serve you, Ms. All
yson.”

  “Thank you, Jeff. You are the best pilot I know.”

  He grinned like a Cheshire cat. Funny how a compliment can go such a long way.

  Because of the engine, I barely heard Seth when he welcomed me. We stood for several minutes hugging each other. Finally, we let each other go, hopped on the golf cart, and rode up to the house. We walked in, and both Ms. Todd and Melanie were waiting.

  “Allyson,” Ms. Todd said, grabbing me for a hug. “I am so happy to see you, my darling.”

  “My, my, my, Mama Todd. I don’t recall ever getting such a greeting from you,” Melanie said, interrupting the moment.

  “Melanie, can you go and see if Claudia is ready to serve lunch?” Seth interjected.

  She scurried off—more like stomped off. I would never get why this girl was so childish.

  “It is so good to be here. When I stepped off the chopper, I felt as if I was back where I belonged,” I confessed.

  “God has a way of working things out, baby,” Ms. Todd said. “There is a way you can’t go under, and when He ordains for something to happen, it has no choice but to be so.”

  “You are so right. I want to thank you, Nana, Seth, you too. . . . It is because of you all and that night we were all standing in this very room that I came to the conclusion that I needed to get to know God. Since that time I have been reading my Bible and praying like never before. When I reflect back on it, if none of this had ever happened, I would not have recognized I needed the Lord in my life. So, again, thank you for leading me to Christ in a real way.”

  Ms. Todd grabbed me again around my neck. “Chile, you just made me happy down in my sanctified soul.”

  Both Seth and I laughed.

  “Sorry to break up you-all’s ‘Kumbaya’ moment, but lunch is served,” Melanie announced.

  “You know what? It is a pretty day today, and it’s not too warm. Why don’t we eat outside, by the lake?” Seth suggested.

  “Sounds like a great idea to me.” I turned to Ms. Todd. “What about you? Do you feel up to being outside?”

  “I feel as good—if not better—than you, honey. I got a little pep in my step, girlfriend.”