“Don’t move a muscle.” Sapphire was shorter than Jade, but she kept her eyes level with hers.
“What are you doing?” Jade didn’t move forward but studied her daughter from head to toe to see if she’d been hurt.
“Just obeying God’s word.” A smile spread across Sapphire’s face. “Why don’t you come in. Nice place your friend has here, isn’t it?”
Jade looked down at Aisha. “What’d you do to her?”
“She’ll be fine. I just needed her to get that trooper to go home, and now she’s served her purpose. Come on. I hate standing in doorways. Feels so rude.”
Sapphire backed up slowly until she was in Aisha’s living room. “Take a seat.”
Jade shook her head. “I’ll stand, thanks.”
Sapphire paused for a moment before shrugging. “Suit yourself.”
More than anything, Jade wanted to talk to her daughter. To tell Dez that everything would be okay. She tried to read her daughter’s expression. What was going on?
Sapphire sat down in Aisha’s white plush reclining chair, positioning Dez on her lap, careful to keep the knife just a centimeter from her throat. Jade balled her hands into fists. Her senses drowned out everything but Sapphire, her cruel and striking face, the melodic cadence of her speech.
“My husband often preached that discipleship is costly. If we want to experience the full riches of God’s destiny in our lives, we must be prepared to make sacrifices. He still tests his children today, just like he did when he told Abraham to take his son up on Mount Moriah and sacrifice him as a burnt offering.”
Jade kept her eyes on Sapphire but took in her surroundings, hunting for anything that might serve as a weapon. A metal bar, a vase, anything she could throw. But what could she do without risking her daughter’s life?
She searched Dez’s face, but her daughter’s expression was unreadable.
Jade’s soul recoiled when Sapphire resumed her speech.
“Last night, God told me that he was going to heal my shoulder where you shot me. He also told me that he was going to test my faith. I didn’t know what he meant until I heard that your daughter was in the hospital, and I knew what I had to do. Isaac was the child of promise, but God still commanded Abraham to carry him up to that mountain, to tie him on that altar and sacrifice him there.
“I didn’t want to do it.” If Sapphire had been any other human being talking about anything other than Dez’s attempted murder, Jade would have thought those were actual tears born from true emotion. “I told God I love this little girl as if she were my own. She’s my child of promise.” She held Dez closer. Jade didn’t know which worried her more, the knife so close to her daughter’s throat, or Dez’s expressionless face. Jade wasn’t even certain if her daughter knew she was there in the room with her.
Was this some kind of psychological protective mechanism? Was God allowing Dez’s brain to shut down momentarily so she wouldn’t experience the fear and the horror of what she was going through? Or had Sapphire already done something to her?
Jade’s stomach churned to see the way Sapphire wrapped her free arm around her daughter’s body. “Thankfully, like Abraham, God saw that I was faithful. He saw that I’d rather see this child of promise dead than disobey his word. I set out to do what he told me last night it was my duty to fulfill, and now he’s blessed me with this sweet child to call my own.”
“She’ll never be yours,” Jade hissed.
Sapphire waved her hand as if she were swatting away a fly. “God’s already shown me our future together. Mother and daughter leading others to their glorious destinies in Christ.” She leaned in and kissed Dez on the cheek.
It was too much to endure. “Dez,” Jade snapped. “Dezzirae Rose Jackson.”
Sapphire shook her head. “I’ve prayed over her. Prayed that God would protect her from the lies you’d try to use to woo her back to you. Her destiny and her future are already sealed. The only thing you have to worry about now is making this transition as easy for her as possible.”
“You’re insane.”
Sapphire smirked. “Christ’s followers have been called worse things throughout history. As for me, I count it a joy and an honor to suffer slander for the sake of my Savior and King.”
Jade would do anything to make Sapphire shut up. She’d already shot her once. She’d do it again if she had the right weapon, only this time she’d be sure to check the body afterwards to make sure she did as thorough a job as possible.
“I know you’re angry and confused,” Sapphire went on, “but this doesn’t have to hurt at all. In fact, I’d like to pray for you, to ask God to make your passing as peaceful as a baby falling to sleep at its mother’s breast.”
Jade knew there was only one way out of her situation. She started to laugh.
“What’s so funny?” Sapphire demanded.
“You are.” Jade tried to hold it in, but soon her sides ached from the chuckles that shook her whole body. “You’re nothing but an old, pathetic, dried up nobody who thinks you’re important because your husband called himself a pastor. You’re both nobodies. In fact, you’re worse than nobodies. You think you’re righteous and holy and doing God’s work, but I wouldn’t trade spots with you on the day of judgment in a million years.”
Sapphire pointed the knife blade toward Jade. “What does the Bible say about speaking badly against the leaders of your people?”
“You’re not my leader. You’re nothing to me. Your husband was a dirty, manipulative old man who died lonely and pathetic. The only future he deserved to see was the inside of a jail cell, and that’s where you’re going to rot away like the miserable piece of trash you are.”
The plan was working. Pushing Dez aside, Sapphire rose from the seat, lurching toward her.
Jade was ready. She lifted her knee, ramming it into Sapphire’s gut. The knife clattered to the floor. Sapphire reached down, but Jade got to it first. While Sapphire pummeled her from above, Jade grabbed the handle with one hand and Sapphire’s long hair with the other. Wincing in disgust, Jade stabbed once. Twice. A third time until she was certain Sapphire had given up her attack.
Then she ran to her daughter.