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“Penny for your thoughts,” Thomas said as he walked into the bedroom.
Yvonne was perched on the edge of the bed staring at the wall in front of her. She had a sorrowful look on her face when she turned to her husband. “I was just wondering how I could have missed it... I mean, I know my daughters... Tia is the one who always seems to need help getting out of her own way. But Toya has always been the strong one. I even leaned on her shoulders many nights after their dad died.”
Thomas sat down next to his wife. They weren’t new to this husband and wife thing. They both had been married to wonderful people with marriages that lasted over twenty-five years. But now that their first loves had passed away, Thomas and Yvonne were discovering that second chance love was just as good as the first go around.
He took Yvonne’s hand in his. “You can’t do this to yourself, baby. Toya has been hiding this from us. I’m just thankful that Jarrod was so observant.”
Yvonne shook her head. “This takes me right back to Tia and Toya’s high school days. I was so busy flying all over the world trying to become this renowned, sought after preacher, so I could prove to David that I truly belonged behind the pulpit that I missed so many special moments.
“I’m convinced that Tia gave up on college because she figured I wouldn’t notice any of her accomplishments anyway.”
“No,” Thomas interrupted her pity party. “Tia decided on art school because she is an artist. That’s the gift God gave her. And you are a preacher, so you were doing what God called you to do as well.”
A tear of regret drifted down Yvonne’s beautiful face. “I tried really hard not to miss too many special moments, but I should have been there more. And I should have recognized that Toya is struggling because of what that evil man did to her.”
“I’m not going to let you do this to yourself. We’ve been praying, and God is going to bring her through this. Now do you trust the God you’ve been serving all these years and even gave up special moments with your kids to do His will, or not?” Thomas was firm with her, because he didn’t want her to fall apart, not when they had such a hefty task at hand.
“I believe, Thomas. I really do. But I just can’t stand knowing that my child is dealing with fear so bad that she wants to shut herself off from the world.” Yvonne rubbed the front of her forehead as if she were trying to massage something that made sense into her head. “Has this man also destroyed her trust in God’s ability to protect her?”
“I’ll tell you how we can find out... let’s go ask her?”
Yvonne smiled at her husband. “I knew you would say that, and I love you for it. But I heard God clearly say ‘wait.’ Believe me, I want to rush over there and tell her to pack her bags and come home with us. But if what I want to do will get in God’s way, then I can’t do it.”
“Then we’ll wait,” Thomas agreed and then got on his knees and prayed.
“Love you for this too,” Yvonne whispered as she got on her knees and joined her husband in prayer.
~~~
Marvel Williams hung up the phone with a sinister smirk on his face. Toya had quit her job and moved out of the condo she owned when they were dating. She thought she could make herself invisible so that he couldn’t find her. But her days of hiding were numbered, just as his days of hiding would soon come to an end. Yvonne Milner-Reed would one day know how it truly feels to lose someone you love.
He had come so close to giving Yvonne just what she had coming to her. He leaned back in his chair and allowed himself to relive the day he almost got even with her...
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Marvel sat outside of Toya’s office and smiled as he watched his lovely girlfriend—soon-to-be ex-girlfriend—rush out of her office building. He removed his pistol from the glove compartment, stuffed it in his waistband, and stepped out of the car.
Toya slowed her pace when she noticed him standing by the trunk of his car. She frowned but then recovered and gave him a warm smile.
“What are you doing here? And why didn’t you tell me you were waiting for me?” She turned her head to the left, then right, as if she were looking for someone.
His smile matched hers. “I wanted to surprise you, baby. We haven’t spent much time together, and I was missing my boo.”
She gave him a hug and kissed him on the cheek. “So, do you want to leave your car here and ride with me to the restaurant?”
“No, I want you to get in my car,” he said, still smiling.
“I don’t want to leave my car at the office. Why don’t you just follow me?” She looked around the parking lot again.
Marvel wrapped his hand around Toya’s arm, gently at first, but as he opened his jacket and showed her his gun, he tightened his grip. “Get in my car now, Toya.”
“W-what’s the problem, Marvel?”
“Get in the car.” He shoved her toward the passenger door.
“All right, all right. You don’t have to push.”
“And you didn’t have to betray me,” he said as he opened the door, shoved her inside, and slammed it shut.
He locked the car from the outside, then ran around to the driver’s door and unlocked it so that he could get in. Turning the key in the ignition, he said, “I hate to spoil your dinner, but I have other plans for you.”
“What’s wrong with you, Marvel? Will you at least tell me what’s going on?” Her eyes were wild with fear.
“Why didn’t you tell me that you read that e-mail from Clarence Brown? If we’re in a relationship, then we shouldn’t keep secrets, Toya.”
“What are you talking about?” she screamed. “Have you lost your mind or something? You’ll go to jail for kidnapping me!”
“Who am I kidnapping? You just called and invited me to dinner. Remember?”
“I didn’t ask to be shoved into your car at gunpoint.”
“Hey, this is just the way we get down. You know how we do it, how we joke around and kid with each other. And as soon as I get you to my house, I’m going to kid around with you a little more...after I tie you up.” He smiled at her as if he were offering to draw her a bubble bath.
“Why are you doing this, Marvel? I thought we really had something.”
“I’m just getting you before you get me. Do you think I really believed that you wanted to have dinner with me?” He looked at her. “What were you going to do, put something in my drink to knock me out so that I wouldn’t be able to make it to the City Council meeting?”
Toya didn’t respond.
“You and your mother thought you were going to rat me out at this meeting tonight, but I’m about to change the good pastor’s mind.”
“And how are you going to do that?” Toya defiantly asked, as if she weren’t riding with a man with a gun in his pants.
“Call her.”
“No.”
Marvel pulled the gun out of his waistband and pointed it at Toya. “Call your mother.”
“What did she ever do to you? Why are you trying to destroy her ministry?”
“It’s personal. Now call,” he barked.
Toya pulled her cell phone out of her purse, pressed a button, and held the phone with a shaking hand to her ear. Several seconds later, she said, “Mama, I’m so sorry. I should have listened to you.”
“Hand me that phone,” Marvel said. He snatched it away from Toya, who had started crying in a high-pitched, panicked sort of way. “Hey, Pastor Yvonne,” he said coolly. “This is Marvel.”
“What do you want?” Yvonne shrieked. “What are you doing with my daughter?”
“She’s my girlfriend, remember?”
When Yvonne didn’t reply to that, Marvel continued. “Anyway, I just wanted you to know that Toya is going to be otherwise occupied until after the City Council meeting. I’m the only one who knows where she’ll be, so I suggest that you think long and hard before sharing anything about my business dealings at this meeting tonight.”
“He’s got a gun,” Toya screamed.
“Don’t you hurt my daughter!” Yvonne yelled.
He held his hand to the back of Toya’s head and gently moved it down her neck. “Oh, I could never hurt Toya. But you can...just as you always hurt innocent people. It’s up to you, Pastor Yvonne.” He hoped that she could hear the depth of his contempt. “Is Toya going to get hurt? You decide.”
“You do realize that you are going to be arrested, right?” Toya assured him when he hung up the phone. “There is no way out of this but prison.”
Driving down the street like a dope man running from the law, Marvel said, “If I’m in prison, but you’re dead, which one of us is better off?”
“Why are you doing this, Marvel? What did I ever do to you?” Toya was screaming at him. Anger flashed in her eyes.
But Marvel had just as much anger and attitude. “You betrayed me, that’s what you did. Just like my mother betrayed my father. And I’m going to give you just what he gave her.”
“I don’t have anything to do with what happened between your mother and father.”
“Oh, yes, you do. Your mother is the reason my mother is dead, and my father is still in prison.”
“That’s ridiculous, Marvel. My mother doesn’t even know your parents!” Toya screamed.
Marvel drove wildly through the streets of Detroit. He’d made so many swerves and U-turns that he’d almost forgotten where he was trying to go. “Your mother wrote that stupid book, Girl, Free Yourself!” he screamed back at her as he made another U-turn. “And my mother read it!”
Toya rolled her eyes. “So what? I don’t see the relevance.”
“You wouldn’t,” Marvel sneered. “But my weak-minded mother suddenly found the strength to leave my father after reading that idiotic book by Pastor Yvonne.” He spoke Yvonne’s name as if it were poison that he needed to spit out of his mouth before it killed him.
“My mother didn’t have anything to do with what your mother did.”
“She didn’t put the gun in my father’s hand, either, but he still killed my mother. And I still blame yours.”
“That’s totally irrational,” Toya said.
“It might be irrational to you, but it’s all that I’ve thought about since the day my father was sentenced to prison.” He pulled up in front of an abandoned house on Rosa Parks Boulevard and gave Toya a lopsided grin. “Honey, we’re home.”
“Home? What are you talking about?” Toya frantically looked around.
“Come on, baby, this is where the magic happens.” He opened the driver’s door, grabbed hold of her arm, and pulled her out of the car with him.
“You don’t want to do this, Marvel.” She tried to pull away, but he was too strong. “You are a brilliant man. Why do you want to ruin your life like this?”
“Shut up!” He hit her with the butt of the gun, then drug her into the house and tied her up.
Victory had been in sight. Marvel knew that once he had killed Toya and Yvonne was in misery, he would finally be rid of this all-consuming hatred and anger that guided his every move. But something crazy that Marvel still didn’t understand caused all of his plans to come crashing down on him.
He hadn’t been able to destroy Yvonne, and now he was a wanted man. All of his legal assets had been frozen. He was thankful that the authorities didn’t know about the money he kept in the Cayman Islands. It was just enough to keep him afloat until he could get back to Detroit and finish what he started... and nothing would stop him this time. And if there were a God in heaven who was looking after the Milners, He too would lose this next fight.