The Pastor's Other Woman (5 page)

Chapter Ten

Drew

This could not be life right now. This was not the way that this was supposed to be happening. This time tomorrow I should be on a plane to an island somewhere with Constance. I knew that last warning that God sent me I should have taken heed to, but I couldn’t walk away until I got what was owed to me. I deserved whatever it was that Jewel was getting from her grandfather just for dealing with her all of these years. She definitely owed me.

“What are you doing here?” I asked Jasmine, completely ignoring everyone else’s questions.

“Don’t play dumb now. I told you that I was tired of waiting on you to leave her,” she said tilting her head in the direction of Jewel.

Bryce still had a hold on her, and I knew he was getting tired because she wouldn’t keep still. That was a lot to hold on to.

“Come on, you know I told you I don’t know how many times that I wasn’t going to settle down with you. Even after you had my son, you knew that wouldn’t change my feelings for you. You were just a means to an end for me,” I finally told her the truth.

I was tired of playing these games with these women. It was time that I put it all out there what was going on.

“Ok. Everybody want to know the truth then here it is,” I said, prepared to take them back down memory lane.

********

I was chopping it up at a frat party when in walked Jasmine and Jewel. Jasmine and I had already been fooling around for some time when she mentioned to me one night how much she disliked her roommate. She went into detail about how good Jewel had it, but how she was always complaining. Jewel’s self-esteem was so low, and it made no sense to her. She would do anything to live the life that Jewel was.

As soon as she started telling me about how Jewel would get an inheritance once she got married, the wheels in my head started turning. She was so focused on venting that she didn’t even know that I was fishing for info from her. Pillow talk could be a gift and a curse in a relationship.

“What kind of inheritance?” I asked as I began to caress her thighs while we sat on the couch in my dorm.

I knew it wouldn’t take much to get the information from her. She couldn’t hold water in a cup.

“Her grandfather left her father, her and her brother some money when he died, but there were stipulations in place, and if they don’t meet them they can’t get the money,” she said.

“Stipulations?”

“Yeah. She had to graduate at the top of her class and get married in order to receive it.”

“How much is it?” I pried.

“Now that I don’t know. She keeps hush mouth about that, but it has to be a lot. She said he had money because of all of the businesses he owned and the church that he started from the ground up.”

“But I thought y’all were cool,” I said, just to see where her mind was about Jewel.

If my gut was right her answer would confirm it to me.

“Boy bye! I only hang around her ‘cause when her parents do for her they do for me. And if I play my cards right when she gets her money she won’t have a problem sharing. Besides, I’m the only friend she has.”

That night Jasmine and I came up with an air tight plan to get that money by any means necessary, and the night of the party was just the beginning.

“So, you plotted against me?” Jewel asked, bringing me back from my thoughts.

“Girl, don’t act like you didn’t know something was up. Look at you. You’re fat, and you dressed like an old woman. Why would he want something like you on his arm unless you had something that he wanted?” Jasmine scoffed.

“She has a point there. Under normal circumstances, you wouldn’t have gotten the time of day from me, but all I saw was dollar signs,” I said, pouring salt on Jewel’s open wounds.

“Where do you fit in?” Jewel turned to Constance and asked her.

I had almost forgotten she was there because she had been so quiet.

“I don’t know. Where do I fit in, Drew?” She asked me.

Without a word, I walked over to her pulling her in close to me and giving her the deepest most passionate kiss I had ever given her. Next thing I knew, Jasmine had let go of my son’s hand and was landing blow after blow on Constance. It took her a minute to get her bearings together from being caught off guard, but once she did, it was over for Jasmine.

It took me at least two minutes to pry Constance’s hands from Jasmine’s hair and to stop the blows that were landing each and every time. My son, DJ, was yelling at the top of his lungs from all of the commotion and trying to grab my leg.

“Bryce, man, help me!” I yelled, needing him to help me get this situation under control, but I was still struggling. “BRYCE!” I called out again.

When I still didn’t get a response I turned around to see Bryce and Jewel were no longer in the room, but my two daughters were there with tears in their eyes. It caused me to pause for a brief moment as I looked into their innocent faces, but I didn’t feel any remorse at all.

“I hate you so much!” Avery screamed as she grabbed Kammy’s hand and ran out of the room.

I turned back around to face the other two women in my life who I could tell were finally getting tired of fighting.

“Y’all done?” I asked with a smirk on my face as they both parted and stood on each side of the room.

“Choose,” was all Jasmine said.

Without another word, I walked over to her as a smile began to spread across her face. I could tell she thought she had come out on top, but that smile would soon fade with my next few words.

“You’re dead to me,” I said with each syllable laced with ice.

“What about DJ? All of these years together and you are just going to leave us?” She cried.

I didn’t bother to even respond as I grabbed Constance’s hand and headed to the front of the church. As soon as I rounded the corner leading to the outside, I was surprised to see so many people still there. I guess I shouldn’t have been because people loved it when a scandal jumped off no matter where it happened, but the church poured the best tea I guess. I knew by the look on their faces that they expected me to be running behind Jewel and our daughters or giving some kind of explanation of what was going on, but I owed no one a thing. So, I kept my head up as I cockily walked out with Constance in tow.

“Pastor! Pastor Webber!” I heard Mother Johnson call out to me right before I got to my 2015 Mercedes S550.

I had just bought this car the other day with the rest of the money I had in my separate account that Jewel didn’t know anything about. It didn’t matter to me that I had spent those few dollars. Little did my wife know, I had found the necessary documents that I needed in order to change the account info for the inheritance deposit that would deposit tonight at midnight. I was about to be a millionaire, and it was way overdue. Tomorrow, Constance, our two children and myself would be high in the air on the way to our new life in Aruba.

“Yes Mother?” I said, not trying to hide the fact that I was annoyed and ready to go.

“Why are you doing this, son? This isn’t right, and God is not pleased,” she said with tears in her eyes.

“And what am I doing, Mother Johnson?” I asked, folding my arms across my chest.

“All of this! Cheating on your wife with all of these lowlife women and fathering all of these children behind her back. What true man of God would carry on like this?”

Clearly she was upset, but it didn’t move me, but I bet what I said next moved her.

“I don’t know what kind of man would do his wife like this. Why don’t you ask Deacon Johnson and Sister Thelma?”

Checkmate,
I thought as I watched the color drain from Mother Johnson’s light skinned face. I turned away from her and unlocked the door to get in the car, but before I could close the door, she had one last thing to say to me.

“God says, ‘Vengeance is Mine, and retribution. In due time their foot will slip. For the day of their calamity is near and the impending things are hastening upon them.’ Your day is coming, and when it does you and everyone you are connected to will pay,” she said, walking off.

“Her husband really messing around?” Constance asked me.

“Nah, but it was funny to see her reaction. She gonna give that old man hell when she gets home,” I told her as we fell out laughing and speeding out of the parking lot.

Chapter Eleven
 

Bryce

I swear I needed God to step in and intervene on Jewel’s behalf. I hated seeing her in this condition and all over a man that meant her no good. I knew I probably should have just kept my mouth shut, and none of this would have even happened, but when I sat back and thought about it I remembered that this wasn’t my fault. I wasn’t the one that was married with children and living a secret life, Drew was, and he was causing nothing but pain to the ones he should have been protecting and loving. Jewel was an amazing woman, and she didn’t deserve to be treated like this. So, I felt it was finally time that she knew everything, and I told her. I just had no idea that all of this other stuff was going on too.

Drew never made it a secret that there were many women in his life. I mean, we both did. We were young and not committed to anyone, but once he finally got with Jewel and I met her, I immediately told him to stop playing games. There was something about her that I never saw in any of the women either of us dealt with. Jewel was the epitome of that blessed woman that was talked about in Proverbs 31. Her worth was undeniably worth more than those rubies, and though many women do noble things, she surpassed them all. Too bad Drew missed the most important things about her, but I didn’t. I just didn’t know how to step to her because from the beginning her eyes were on him. So I fell back but not too far. Every chance I got, I was telling Drew to either let her go or treat her right, but he just didn’t listen. I wish I had gone harder for her back then, and maybe I could have protected the hearts of her and those girls. It was too late now though, so I had to figure out what to do to mend the pieces back together for them all.

I pulled up in my parents’ driveway because I seriously needed to talk to my dad. Unlike so many men these days, my father had always been very active in my life. Growing up, I watched as he sacrificed so much for our family to make sure that we were well taken care of. Not only was he a very good provider, but he also made sure we had strong relationships with God. From as far back as I could remember, we were in church learning about the Son of God and how He died for all of our sins. It took me so long to understand why someone would lay down their life for me just so that I could have eternal life. I would always say I’m not dying for anyone but my parents, but once I met Jewel, that all changed.

Yes, I grew up knowing that what I was doing with these women wasn’t right, but temptation is a beast. Once I got started, it was like a high chasing them. I kept looking for the next woman to come along and top that last high, but they all fell short and then I met Jewel. I knew then that the reason I couldn’t find the feeling I was seeking was because everything I needed and wanted was planted in her. The revelation of when a man finds a wife he finds a good thing was clear as day for me. But I was too late getting to her. Drew beat me to the punch, and by then he had her wrapped around his finger.

Knowing Drew the way I did, I knew he wasn’t really into her, and once he told me the reason he was with her, I lost it. He thought that I was upset because I wasn’t able to get to her for her inheritance, but the truth was I was upset because I knew her heart would end up broken. I wanted so bad to keep her heart intact because she didn’t deserve to be hurt like that.

Drew had told me everything about how insecure she was and how that was his way in. I tried so many times to make him see what he was doing to her, but he didn’t care. The dollar signs were clouding his vision and causing him not to care about anyone but Andrew.

After sitting a few minutes in the driveway getting my thoughts together, I finally turned off the car and headed up the steps to their front door. I prayed my dad wasn’t asleep because it was a little after nine at night, but I couldn’t sleep knowing that Jewel and those girls were at home in pain. I opened the door with my key and headed into the foyer. The light to my father’s office was on, and I could see it illuminating under the closed door.

“Come on in, son,” I heard him say to me.

I opened the door and saw my father sitting behind his large oak desk with his glasses on and a notepad in front of him. From the looks of things, he was preparing a message that he would have to soon deliver a word to God’s people in the absence of their beloved leader.

“How did you know it was me?” I asked, taking a seat in front of him and propping my foot up on my knee.

“Well, it would sound real good if I said that the Lord told me you were coming, but since I’m not gonna lie on Him like that, I saw you coming from the kitchen window,” he said in his deep baritone voice while he chuckled lightly.

Although my father was going on a cool seventy years old, he didn’t look a day over forty. He stood a firm six foot two with salt and pepper hair and dark brown skin. He seemed to always have a twinkle in his eyes, and he kept his body fit. I understood why my mother was always all over him, even in their old age. Pops was that dude, and everyone always told me I was his twin.