Preacher's Wifey (23 page)

“Yep, that describes him perfectly. I had to, Shatrice. I felt like if I did not leave when I did, something really bad was going to happen.”

“Has he tried to reach you?”

“Of course. For the first week he blew my cell up. That is why I changed my number. The only people in Atlanta with my number now are my parents and my best friend. I also changed it so he could not track my location through GPS. Either way, even if he had found me, he would have not been able to get to me. I am heavily guarded,” I said, laughing.

“When I wrote you on Facebook, I had no idea if you would write back. I told God if you did, it would be the sign I needed to confirm that I was supposed to offer my help.”

“Well, like I said, I am glad you called.”

“So here is what I was thinking. I am going to go to the church and have a talk with him. At least there I know he will blow up only so much. I will put it to him simply and see how it goes. I will have my proof on deck, so if I need to flash it to prove how serious I am, then so be it.”

“I want to be there when you go,” I said.

“I don't think that will be a good idea. Byran was really upset. I don't know what he would do if he saw you.”

“I do not care. There are some things I want to say to him. I want to go.”

She looked as if she was mulling over the thought. “Okay, if you insist. I am not a small person, but I am no match for him if he charges either of us,” she said jokingly.

“We will not have to worry about that. I will have some people on standby if I need them.”

“Oh, okay. You got a little gangsta in you, I see.”

I chuckled. “No. I am just surrounded by people now who really love me and would go to no ends to protect me.”

“Isn't that sad?”

“Isn't what sad?”

“That you have to have people on standby to protect you from the man who vowed to protect you for life,” she said.

“Oh. Yeah, it is. But I am over that now. I am finally at peace with myself, with my life, and the people in my life.”

“That is wonderful to hear. I am working on having that same peace myself. I have to first get him out of my system. I really did and do love him, Allyson.”

“And you may never stop, Shatrice. But sometimes loving someone may mean letting them go. And who knows? You two may end up together again one day—because I do believe he loves you—but first, he has to learn to love himself if he will ever be able to love you correctly and how you deserve to be loved.”

“You are so right.”

“So when are we going to Cornerstone to confront Pastor Ward?” I asked, smiling.

“How soon do you want to be free?”

I smiled again. “I am already free.”

Seth and I rode hand in hand as Louie drove.

“Are you nervous?” he asked.

“Why would I be nervous?”

“A part of your life is ending today.”

“It does not matter, because a new part of my life has already begun,” I said as I lovingly looked into his eyes.

He kissed me on the forehead as we turned into the parking lot of the church. I saw Shatrice's Mercedes already parked there. Byran's Ferrari was parked in its usual spot. In about an hour people would be coming for Bible Study. We had to get in and get out as quickly as possible. I did not want to answer a thousand questions.

It felt weird coming to the church after having been gone for so long. When I thought about it, I never really fit in here as a first lady. I had done the best I could as a pastor's wife, but it was not something that I was meant to do. But for the sake of being with Byran, I was willing to do whatever it took.

The car came to a stop, and Seth and I got out.

“I will be right out here waiting if you need me,” he assured me. “Are you sure you do not want me to go inside with you?”

“I am certain. I need to handle this by myself,” I said.

“Okay, here are the divorce papers. I expect you to come out of there a single woman,” he joked.

“Yes, sir,” I said, smiling and placing the papers in my black leather attaché.

“If you are not out in thirty minutes, I am coming in there, Allyson. I cannot afford to lose you.”

“Babe, he is not going to act a fool in the church. When we get through with him, he may never act a fool anywhere else again.”

“Let's pray so.”

“Okay, I am going in. See you in a bit.”

I walked into the church and down the hall. I noticed that the picture of Byran and me that had once hung on a wall of the administrative wing had been taken down and had been replaced with a generic picture. As I approached our office suite, a small amount of nervousness tried to overtake me. I had not seen Byran in a couple of months, and I wondered how I was going to feel when I did.

I could hear Shatrice's voice from outside the door to the suite. I punched in the combination to the suite's lock, and to my surprise it was still the same, and I entered.

“Byran, the best thing for you to do is to give the woman the divorce,” I heard Shatrice say.

“That is not going to happen, Shatrice. I am just getting the respect I need around here. People think she has not been here because she is depressed about losing the baby.”

“They think she has been depressed all of this time? Surely you do not believe that. People are smart, and there is no way they believe that. They may know and are just keeping quiet about it, giving you some time to work it out.”

I walked into the office. When Byran saw me, his eyes got as big as Popeye's, Kristal's boyfriend.

“Surprised to see me, huh?” I said.

“What are you doing here, Allyson?” he answered, standing.

“I came to bring you these divorce papers to sign,” I said, taking the papers out.

He laughed so hard, he sat down in his chair. “Whew, you are hilarious, Allyson. Girl, you should have been a comedian. I told you I was not giving you a divorce until after four years. Nothing you can do will make me sign those papers.”

“But there is something I can do,” Shatrice said.

“Baby, you in on this with her?” he asked, looking puzzled. Then a thought hit him. “Oh, you want me to divorce her because you are ready to marry me. Babe, why didn't you just say so?” He broke into a wide grin. “The only problem is I still cannot marry you right away, because it will look like we were messing around all along. You do understand, don't you?”

I shook my head at his arrogance. This man needed some help.

“Byran, I am not here because I want to marry you,” Shatrice informed him. “I am here to get you to sign these divorce papers and let this woman go on with her life. She does not want to be married to you, she has moved on, and you need to do the same.”

“What interest is this of yours, Shatrice? What I do with my wife is my business and hers,” he said, changing his tone. Once again, Byran was all about himself and would challenge whomever when necessary.

“Oh, so it is you and your wife now? What about when it was you, your wife, and me? You are a piece of work. And I realize you will throw anyone under the bus when you see things are not going your way,” Shatrice observed. “So, here it is, Byran. You will sign those papers Allyson has in her hands or else.”

“Or else what?” he shot back.

“Or else I am going to your church and exposing all your dirty little secrets. And even if that means people will look at me sideways for the rest of my life, as I always say . . . so be it. If it means that not another woman has to fall prey to your sneaky, manipulative ways, I will suffer the loss of my reputation.”

He seemed unfazed. “Shatrice, you have no reputation, because no one knows you. Who are you? If you try to walk up and say anything in my church, before you take the third step, you will be stopped. Who do you think will believe you? I will just tell people you are infatuated with me, I rejected you, and you cannot move on with your life.”

“You are so sad,” I interjected. “You claimed to love this woman. Are you telling me your love has an on-and-off switch? You can just turn on her that easy because she is doing something you don't like? I can understand you doing me that way, because you admitted you never really loved me. But Shatrice? This is the same woman who you said you were in love with. Do you even know what love really is? You are looking in the faces of two women who loved you and would have done anything to make you happy. Most people don't get that in a lifetime, let alone from two people. And you are too silly and self-absorbed to see you have been blessed.”

“Yeah,” Shatrice chimed in. “This woman was about to have an abortion in hopes of getting you to see how much she loved you. She was willing to kill her child for you. How sick is that? Byran, can you not see the damage you have done?”

“Both of you . . . get out of my office before I have you removed!”

“We will gladly leave after you sign those papers,” Shatrice countered.

He hit his desk with his hand, causing both Shatrice and me to jump. “I already told you I am not going to sign any papers!” he shouted.

“Okay, well, we tried to talk to you like adults, but you are insisting on being a tough guy,” Shatrice said, getting up. She pulled a yellow envelope from her purse and placed it on his desk. “In this envelope are copies of everything I have the originals to. Text messages, e-mails, videos, voice mails, surveillance footage from the hospital and doctors' offices in Chattanooga, and a host of other things. Additional copies are with a friend who is standing at the post office right now, ready to drop them in the mail to every local radio and TV station. All I have to do is call.”

He opened up the envelope and fumbled through Shatrice's pile of evidence. I stole a look at it and was surprised she had so much. She had gathered everything but a string of his hair, but then again, I would not put that past her, either.

I laid the papers I had on the desk to go along with what he already had. To his left were the nails—the evidence—that would crucify him. And to his right was the salvation—the divorce papers—that would spare him. The decision was up to him.

“Even if I agreed to sign these papers, you think I would sign them without first seeking counsel from my attorney?” he asked, still looking through Shatrice's pile.

“The papers are very simple. We do not have any kids together, and the only thing I am asking for is to be released from the deal we made, and granted a divorce. I want nothing from you,” I replied.

“You think I believe that?”

“Just read the papers, Byran.” I glanced at my watch. In another fifteen minutes people would begin filing into the church. I needed him to hurry and sign the papers before that happened or before Seth came storming in.

Shatrice saw me getting impatient and took her cell phone out. “Hey, girl. Are you at the post office? I don't think Byran is going to sign these papers.”

His eyes got big again. I almost burst into laughter. For the first time I noticed how small he had gotten and how worn he looked. He had bags underneath his eyes and looked as if he had not slept in weeks.

“Shatrice, hang up the phone,” he ordered.

“Hold on a minute. Byran is saying something.” She put the phone down by her side. “Were you saying something?”

He flipped the pages of the divorce papers. There were only three, but he kept flipping back and forth. “I said hang up the phone.”

“You do not control anymore. I will hang up the phone if we have a deal. Otherwise, I will give her the word to drop those packages in the mail, and this time tomorrow night our story—our love story—will be on the local news. What will it be? Are you going to sign those papers or not? I have someplace to be, and I need to know now.”

“Yes,” he said, barely above a whisper.

“I'm sorry. What did you say?” Shatrice replied.

“Yes.”

“Yes what?”

“Shatrice, don't push it. I am saying, ‘Yes, I will sign the papers.'”

“Girl, we have a yes, but stand by. I will call you back if something changes.” She ended the call.

He grabbed a pen from his desk and signed the papers. I grabbed them as Shatrice laid another document in front of him.

“What is this?” he asked.

“This is a gag order I got on myself,” Shatrice explained. “This document will protect you going forward and assure you I will not pop up later and try to use this evidence against you in any kind of way. I am going to sign it, and Allyson will notarize it. That is the only copy. I do not need one.”

Byran looked confused. “You would get a gag order on yourself?”

“We thought of everything. We know how you operate, and we are trying to show you this is not about exposing you but about doing what is right,” she explained.

She signed the paper and I notarized it, just as we had planned.

“Byran, I honestly pray you find happiness and peace within, and I forgive you for everything you ever did to hurt me,” I said. “You can tell the church I was so overcome with grief, I wanted out of my marriage. I do not care what you tell them. You will be fine, because these people adore you, need you, and besides that, you are incredibly gifted and talented. I hope one day you will get the opportunity to stand before men, both young and old, and testify of the type of man you used to be, because I will pray to God every day for a change to take place in your life.”

I stepped to him and kissed him on the cheek. “Thank you for setting me free. You will discover that you don't have to trick and scheme to get the blessings of God. All you have to do is trust Him.”

Shatrice kissed him on the other cheek. “Good-bye, Byran. I will always love you.”

We both walked out of the office and down the hall.

Two wounded women.

Two victorious women.

For we had proved it was possible for wounded warriors to win.