“Alicia,” her mother said, obviously disappointed in her answer.
“I’m sorry, Mom, but I don’t want to talk to Daddy for a while.”
“Do you think distancing yourself from him is a good idea?”
“Actually, I do, and if you want to know the truth, if Daddy can’t accept JT, then I don’t see how he can accept me as his daughter.”
“Alicia, I know you don’t really believe that, do you?”
“Well, if he doesn’t start treating JT like a son-in-law, then I won’t be going around him as much. JT is my husband, I love him, and if Daddy can’t deal with that, then so be it.”
“I really wish you and your father would work out your differences.”
“I’m sure we will at some point but not today.”
“Well, hey, I need to get going. But make sure you mail the manuscript to me, okay?”
“I will, and thanks again, Mom.”
Alicia dialed her best friend, Melanie. Her phone rang four times and then went to voice mail, so Alicia left her a message, asking her to call her back when she got a chance. After that, she signed in to NLCC’s computer system. Since she wouldn’t be able to spend much time at the office the church had given her, at least not until she got her book shipped off, she checked her assigned e-mail account daily from home. She’d only been a member for one month but already she was getting lots of notes from members, welcoming her to the church family. Some talked about how they would eventually make it a point to stand in line to meet her one Sunday after service, and others said they were e-mailing her because they wanted her to know how happy they were to have the Reverend Black’s daughter as their new first lady. Alicia rolled her eyes with irritation. Yes, there had been a time when she loved being recognized or given special treatment because of her father’s notoriety, but not at the moment. Not when she was so perturbed with him. Actually, she didn’t like it much at all anymore because what she wanted was for people to love her for her and not because of how famous one of her parents was.
Alicia skimmed through more e-mails and smiled at all the nice things people had to say, and then she saw one that had “From a Good Friend” as the subject line. So, she opened it:
Hi Alicia,
I have a message for you from a very good friend of yours so please call me at the number below.
She wondered who the note could be from but picked up her home phone and dialed *67, so she could block her number, and then dialed the number on the computer screen. It rang a couple of times, and then a guy picked up.
“Hello?” he said.
“Hi, you sent me an e-mail and asked me to call you?”
“Are you Alicia?”
“It depends.”
“I’m assuming you are because I didn’t send my number to anyone else.”
“Okay, yes, I’m Alicia.”
“How are you? I’m Darrell, a longtime friend of Levi’s, and he wanted me to give you a message.”
Alicia’s stomach quivered, and strangely, her heart did the same. Finally she asked, “Where did you get my e-mail address?”
“Levi heard about you getting married to the pastor of New Life Christian Center and asked me if I could maybe find you online. So, when I went to the church’s website, I saw your photo and an address listed for you.”
“I guess I’m not sure why he wanted you to contact me.”
“Levi is in a federal prison in Indiana, but he really wants to see you. His attorney is in the process of appealing his conviction, and because those detectives went into his home without a proper warrant and basically found nothing, he has a pretty good chance of getting out.”
“Even after all the millions of dollars that were found in offshore accounts? And the testimonies that were given by narcotics officers and a ton of other people Levi had been paying off for years?”
“Yeah, but the good news is that Levi has also cooperated with the authorities in a number of ways, including his providing proof of the person who really owned the drug manufacturing location. And the list basically goes on and on.”
Alicia was stunned by what she was hearing. “I guess I don’t know what to say.”
“I know it sounds far-fetched but none of those testimonies or anything else matters if the police entered Levi’s home improperly and his attorney can get him a new trial and prove he wasn’t the ringleader. If so, Levi could be cleared on a technicality.”
“Still, why does he want to see me?”
“He just does. He talks about you all the time, and I would be happy to take you to visit him.”
“I can’t. I just got married again, and there’s no way I can ever have any contact with him. But please give him my best, and tell him that I wish him well.”
“Will you at least take some time to think about it?”
“I’m sorry.”
“Well, all I could do was try. Levi will definitely be disappointed, but I’ll relay your message to him.”
“I really appreciate it, and again, I’m really sorry.”
“You take care.”
Alicia set the phone down and tried to calm her nerves. She wasn’t sure why she was reliving and remembering all the feelings she’d once had for Levi, but she was and she didn’t like it. Why did he have to try to contact her now? It was bad enough that she hadn’t been able to resist his advances when she was married to Phillip and now here he was causing the same problem again through some friend of his. She hadn’t even heard his actual voice, but just knowing he wanted to see her made her uneasy. Not because she thought he would do harm to her but because she knew, without even hearing him say it, that he still cared about her. She knew he was still in love with her.
But she wasn’t in love with him. Not anymore. She loved her husband, JT. She loved him and no one else, and she was going to pretend she’d never gotten some anonymous e-mail or made a phone call to anyone named Darrell.
She would go on with the rest of her day, business as usual.
Chapter 7
JT drove his black BMW M6 convertible into the driveway and heard his BlackBerry ringing. He smirked when he saw it was Carmen.
“So, I guess you’ve finally come to your senses,” he said, waiting for the garage door to open.
“Actually, I was giving you one last chance to come to yours,” Carmen shot back.
“And what is that supposed to mean?”
“Exactly what I said. I’m giving you one last chance to acknowledge all that I’ve sacrificed and how long I’ve waited to be Mrs. JT Valentine. How long I’ve waited to be the one and only woman in your life and the first lady of your congregation. I’ve earned all of those privileges and then some, fair and square, and I want what I have coming to me.”
JT laughed out loud and wasn’t sure how she expected him to respond to such nonsense.
“Oh, so now you think I’m funny?” she said. “You think this is some sort of game I’m playing with you?”
“Look, Carmen, what we had was good, but since you’ve decided that you no longer want our relationship to continue, let’s just move on. Let’s end this thing peacefully so we can both get on with our lives.”
“I hate the day I ever laid eyes on you,” she said, sniffling, “and this isn’t the end, JT. This isn’t the end and that’s a promise you can count on.”
JT opened his mouth to speak, but before he could, she hung up on him.
He took a deep breath and maneuvered his car inside the garage. Women was all he could think, and he wished Carmen had stayed on the phone long enough for him to tell her to never dial his phone number again. She knew she wasn’t supposed to call his cell phone anyway, unless there was some sort of dire emergency. But he’d been willing to let it pass, just this once, if she was calling to apologize and tell him she’d made a terrible mistake when it came to cutting things off with him. For as long as he’d been seeing both Carmen and Diana, the rule had always been that they would arrange their next meeting days and times while they were with him, so that actual phone conversations were never necessary. Then, if for some reason he did need to talk to them, he would do the calling-which wasn’t a problem because Carmen was single and could take calls from anyone, and Diana always kept her phone on silent when her husband was around. Their system had always worked fine, but apparently Carmen had forgotten the guidelines and needed to be reminded of them.
JT shook his head out of sheer annoyance, parked his car, and went inside the house. Alicia was removing a pan of dinner rolls from the oven, and JT went over and pulled her into his arms.
“So, how’d your afternoon go?” he said, kissing her.
“Good. How about yours? Did you enjoy your lunch?”
“I did. And after that I ran by the church to do a little work.”
“Well, everything should be done in maybe twenty minutes or so.”
“You know, I’m actually glad you decided you’d rather cook than go out this evening because I really do enjoy being right here at home with you.”
“Me too. You know I love going out, but sometimes there’s nothing better than having a nice quiet dinner with no interruptions.”
He kissed her again and then said, “I think I’m going to head upstairs to change and get washed up.”
“Okay. See ya when you come back down,” she said, and he left the kitchen.
Alicia really was the perfect wife for him, and it was for that very reason that he sometimes regretted the way he was sleeping around on her and the way he lied to cover it up. He frequently told himself that he’d mainly married her because of what he’d thought being in the Black family could mean for his long-term career in ministry, but he couldn’t deny his feelings for her and how they seemed to grow stronger with each passing day. As a matter of fact, he was glad his affair with Carmen
