Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 74123 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 371(@200wpm)___ 296(@250wpm)___ 247(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74123 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 371(@200wpm)___ 296(@250wpm)___ 247(@300wpm)
Paisley stood up. “If you touch her, I’m going to call the police!”
For the first time in her life, Amina was happy to have someone using their white woman privilege on her behalf.
The pastor stepped back and snarled at Amina before shooting an angry glare toward his son. “You will not be marrying this woman.” He pointed at Amina. “I will not allow a liar and a swindler into this family. And look at her dressed like a cheap tramp. This isn’t how we raised you, Mark Joseph Caldwell.”
Amina rolled her eyes. “Oh, please. I never wanted to marry your sorry ass son in the first place. Do you think I’d want to be with a man who’s almost thirty still living off his mommy and daddy? He comes over to my house so I can do his laundry, and he barely knows how to wipe his ass. The amount of shit in his underwear is disgusting.”
“I’m not going to be his slave for the rest of my life. And look at this pathetic ring. Let me take it off before it turns my finger green.” She slipped off the ring and tossed it in Mark’s direction, not caring if he caught it or not.
She was so done with him and his entire family.
Amina glared at the pastor. “Oh, and regardless of whether you claim Jasmine’s baby or not, I’m sure the courts will order a paternity test, so you’d better be prepared to start paying child support.”
“I never touched that woman!” Pastor Caldwell yelled. “She’s a liar!”
“No! You’re the liar and I have proof!”
Jasmine pulled out a stack of papers from her purse. “Here Amina. Something told me to make copies of all the checks he wrote to me. Pass them out so everyone can see.”
Amina took the papers and grinned. “With pleasure.” She looked down at the copies of the checks Jasmine made. “Wow, Pastor, you’ve got to be some kind of stupid to write checks directly from the church’s baby account with their header on them.
He instantly blustered and tried to snatch them out of Amina’s hands but she held them out of his reach. “Anyone can fake copies,” he said.
Amina made a point to hand the copies to the elders so they could see where the church funds were going. “A simple audit would be able get to the bottom of it,” Amina countered.
One of the deacons scanned the copies and shook his head. “What is the meaning of this Otis?”
“I’m being set up!” The Pastor cried out.
“I have more proof.” Jasmine pulled her phone out and tapped on the screen. She held up the phone and a recording played.
“Otis, you know I’ve never been with anyone but you. You told me you’d take care of our baby. You even told me you were thinking about leaving your wife so that we could be a family.”
“Jasmine, you know it’s not that simple. I can’t simply leave Katherine. She’s well-loved in the community and if I broke up with her, she and her followers could cause a lot of trouble for me and you. Trust me, I’m doing this for your protection. I’ll take care of you and the baby but you can’t come to the church anymore and you’d better keep your mouth shut or I’ll deny everything.”
It was clear who those voices belonged too.
Otis’s skin went ashen like he’d seen a ghost. His eyes were wide.
“I started recording our conversations when you started acting shady,” Jasmine announced proudly.
Mrs. Caldwell slammed her palm on the table. “This is some of that AI mess you hear about in the news. She probably faked this too. Are y’all going to listen to this bitch?”
Amina realized in that moment that no matter how much proof was presented they’d still be in denial. And some of their church members would believe them. But at least the seed of doubt had been planted, and they could do with this information what they willed.
Jasmine must have come to the same reckoning because tears streamed freely down her face as she hung her head.
Amina’s heart went out to this girl, and she felt bad for putting Jasmine in this situation. She wrapped her arms around Jasmine’s shoulders. “Come on, hon. Let’s get out of here.”
Amina escorted her out of the room. A few of the wait staff stood outside the door pretending as if they hadn’t just eavesdropped on the entire confrontation.
Paisley came trailing behind them. “Don’t leave me with these crazy people.” She called out.
When they were outside, Amina pulled out her cellphone and texted Ethan immediately.
911
She had a feeling they wouldn’t be able to leave the premises completely unscathed.
“Will you be okay Jasmine?”
The young girl nodded. “Yes. That was…a lot. I guess the scene was more intense than I thought it would be. How could he just continue to deny it in the face of all that proof? And to make matters worse, I could tell that people were still supporting him.”