*****
Their engagement was announced in the papers and the press went crazy. They wanted to know where they had gotten the solitaire diamond ring he had given her and what was the date of the wedding. They also had dress designers calling to ask her to wear something of theirs and they were bombarded by the press and fans alike wanting to know about their love story.
The headlines screamed: “Billionaire playboy Tyrese Malcolm finally settling down with singing sensation: Kayla Simmons.” She had told her parents and her father had muttered that he had hoped she would have found someone in the ministry. “As long as you are in love with each other honey then I am happy.” Her mother had told her with a hug.
“I know I am not what your parents expect of you Kayla,” he told her earnestly. “But I promise to love you and cherish you all the days of my life. I am not saying that I am going to change who I am entirely but I am going to try.”
“And that’s all I would hope for now,” she told him sliding her arms around his neck. They were at the studio and she was doing some rehearsals for some shows she would be doing in the New Year. “I was thinking about a February wedding what do you think?”
“Like on Valentine’s Day?” he asked her in amusement. She was so tiny, he thought, that he constantly wanted to protect her.
“Maybe,” she said with a smile. “Does it sound corny?”
“Of course not.” He told her with a grin. “It sounds absolutely wonderful.”
“I love you Tyrese.” She told him suddenly.
“What?” he looked down at her, his body going still.
“I said I love you,” she whispered.
“You never said that before,” he said hoarsely. “You chose the worst place to tell me.”
“I want to shout it to the world,” she told him, resting her head on his chest.
“I love you too baby and I cannot wait for you to be my wife.”
Chapter 9
The scandal broke right after the New Year!
Kayla had done another sold out concert in the huge Plaza Center uptown and had managed to get so many standing ovations for her songs that they were reporting that she had become one of the most popular R & B singers in the country. She was supposed to be going on tour but she had not decided yet and she had told Tyrese that she was not going without him. Plans were well underway for their upcoming nuptials and the papers were bombarding them with questions.
It was a single reporter who had decided to follow the Reverend as he left his home in the night and headed in the opposite direction. He had made note of the address on the mailbox and the name of the person and watched and took pictures as the attractive looking woman came out and they embraced lovingly.
He had smiled as he realized that he was about to become famous and he snapped a few more pictures and sat there patiently nursing a flask of coffee and waiting for the good reverend to come out of the building. He had come back out exactly three hours later and looked around to see if anyone was watching him. The reporter smiled grimly as he wrote the story in his head.
*****
Tyrese was one of the first to see it in the papers. It was a celebrity rag magazine and usually he did not pay it any attention but Kayla’s name caught his attention as he looked at the paper. He opened it up quickly and swore beneath his breath as the headlines came at him. “Sensational Singer Kayla Simmons father, the well known Reverend John Simmons caught in an affair with a church sister!’ It showed a picture of him embracing the woman who was dressed in a filmy nightgown and the embrace did not look anything like it was a friendly one. The column went on to say that the woman was a divorcee by the name of Erica Rose and was also friends with the reverend’s wife.
He put aside his coffee cup and reached for his phone to call her knowing full well that she was probably inundated with calls already. “Tyrese can you come over please?” her voice was tense and he closed his eyes briefly as he realized that she had already been told.
“I will be right there.” He assured her.
They were parked out at the front of her apartment like sharks waiting for the scent of blood and as soon as they saw his vehicle they crowded around him wanting his comment.
“I have nothing to say so please let me through.” He said grimly wading through the crowd there.
Jules the guard held the door open for him. “I will make sure they do not come into the building Mr. Malcolm,” he said respectfully.
“Thank you Jules.” He nodded and headed upstairs.
She was on the phone when he got there and she beckoned for him to come over. He sat on the sofa beside her and she reached for his hand. “Mom, how can you say that? He has been having an affair and he was always the one saying that we should never do anything to bring scandal to the ministry he had built over the years.” She paused and listened. “That woman has been your friend while she was sleeping with your husband Mom.” She closed her eyes as she listened. “I am coming over there as soon as those vultures move from the building. I love you too Mom.”
“You read it?” she asked Tyrese quietly.
He nodded and pulled her into his arms. “When I was drinking my coffee.”
“He is such a hypocrite!” she cried softly. “He was always going on and on about people being true and honest to the word of God and now to realize that he had been carrying on with this woman for years.”
“What does your mother say?”
She is saying that people make mistakes and she has no intention of leaving her husband for his indiscretion.” She shuddered a little bit and snuggled closer to him. “I am so happy you are here.”
*****
“I am ruined!” he muttered as he sat on one of the sofas in their bedroom, his hands clasped between his legs. He had not seen the papers until one of his member had called him and read him every detail. He had not dared called Erica to find out how she was coping and told his wife about it before she saw it in the papers.
“I suspect so,” Marion Simmons said mildly as she twisted her thick heavy hair on top of her head. She had no intention of holing up in the house; she had not done anything wrong. Her husband was the one who had found it difficult to keep his thing in his pants. She had told her daughter that she was going to stick by him not because she loved him but because it would definitely ruin him and the ministry if she left him and the ministry meant a lot to her. “I suggest you get dressed, I have called a press conference and our daughter has agreed to be present. We are going to show the country that we are united and one little scandal will not be the end of The Holiness Sanctuary.”
He looked up at her incredulously. “You called a press conference?”
“I did.” She carefully applied her makeup and made sure that not a strand of hair was out of place. “You need to wear the dark blue suit with the light blue shirt and the gray tie. It will tell them how sorry you are and how you had been fooled by the devil to do this wrong thing in the sight of the Lord and your people. David had lust for Bathsheba and it became the thing that almost destroyed him but this woman will not destroy you.”
“Why are you standing by me?” he asked her quietly.
“Because you are my husband of course, what do you think?”
*****
Kayla stood there and smiled and said all the right things but inside she was furious! How dared he lecture her over the years and during those times he was messing around with a member of the church. How could her mother stand to be near him after what he had done? She wondered.
“Kayla what do you make of what your father has done?” a reporter threw the question at her. Tyrese had told her to give as minimum an answer as possible and try not to let them trip her up in the questions they were asking.
“I think we are all human and we are all entitled to make mistakes. The Bible tells us that we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God and my father is just a human being.” She said with a smile.
“So you think he should be a
llowed to go back on the pulpit after he has disgraced the office to which he had been called?” the man persisted.
“It is not up to me or even up to my father but I suppose it will be up to the members and the mercy of God.” She responded suddenly feeling as if she wanted to tell all of them including her father to get out of her sight.
They threw some more questions at her parents before they were finally finished.
Reverend Simmons stopped her as she was about to take her leave and asked her if she could come into his office with him. There were several members mingling around and avoiding their eyes as soon as they looked at them. Her mother had taken charge and had called a meeting with the members of the congregation and the officers of the church for later this afternoon.
“I want to thank you for your support out there,” he told her quietly, as soon as they were inside and he had closed the door behind them.
“I did not do it for you, I did it for Mom,” she told him stiffly, her body rigid with disapproval. She had dressed for the part in a chic olive green pants suit and her hair brushed back and pinned behind her head.
“I know and I want to thank you just the same.” He said humbly.
“How could you be doing that and standing on the pulpit every Sunday and sometimes during the week?” she asked her eyes blazing with hurt and disappointment. “What were you thinking and why wasn’t Mom enough for you?”
“I made a mistake,” he told her stiffly, not wanting to have to explain himself to her. He needed Erica and he had secretly tried to call her but she had not responded and he wondered where she was and how she was doing.
“You did not make a mistake father, you were with that woman for years and if you had not been caught you would have still been with her.” She told him forcibly. “Mom is very generous because if it was me I would have kicked you out immediately.”
“You are a child of God, you are supposed to be forgiving.” He reminded her coolly.
“You dare to preach to me now?” she asked him looking at him scornfully. “I used to look up to you and thought that even though you never showed me love or showed me that you were proud of me at least you were a man of God but I can no longer say that can I?”
“You have no right to judge me,” he said harshly. “You think that fiancé of yours is any better than I am?”
“He is ten times better because at least he does not hide who he is.” She told him coldly and with that she walked towards the door, resisting the urge to slam it on her way out.
*****
Erica curled up on her sofa and watched the press conference. She had not been to work since the scandal and even though they had called her she had told them that she was taking a week. The good thing about it was that she had been given a very comfortable settlement when her husband had divorced her.
How could she have been so stupid as to get involved with a pastor and a married one at that? What had possessed her to do it and why hadn’t she stopped when she had felt something telling her to stop? She felt so ashamed and as she looked at them bonding together she knew it was she who was going to be the sacrificial lamb.
She had noticed that he had tried to call her several times but she had not taken the calls. What could he possibly want to say to her? That they should resume the affair? That he loved her and he was going to leave his wife? She had turned off her phone right after and had not answered the many reporters who wanted to hear her side of the story. What was her side anyway? That she had fallen under the spell of a very charming and charismatic man who had captured her with his soothing words and his hard body?
She looked over to where she had packed a suitcase in readiness to leave. She was thinking Florida where she had some cousins who would welcome her and not be judgmental. There was no way she could face them at church anymore not to mention the first lady Marion Simmons who had taken her in and considered her a friend. She blinked back the tears and got up to go into the kitchen to make herself a cup of tea. It was time to start over again.
*****
“Will you at least sit and let us talk about this?” Tyrese asked her for the second time as she paced the length of the living room. She had come back with him and had not said a word during the entire drive home.
“I don’t want to sit,” she flung at him. She stopped suddenly and looked at him. “Why do men cheat?” she asked him softly.
He felt his senses picking up and knew she was trying to trap him. “Not all men cheat Kayla, I hope you know that.”
“Are you sure about that or is it something in their DNA. I mean even in the Bible men who were supposed to be servants of God and totally committed to him, they cheated on their wives and thought nothing of it.” She said sarcasm rife in her sultry voice. “So why should we expect men not to cheat now. Take you for instance: you changed women every week or sometimes in the middle of the week, why wasn’t one enough for you?”
“Because I have never been in love before,” he told her quietly knowing she was looking for someone to lash out at and he was the nearest target.
“So that is why you are not going to cheat on me?” the question was posed in an extremely polite tone as if she was talking to a stranger.
“Don’t do that Kayla,” he warned.
“Do what exactly Tyrese?” she faced him, her hands on her hips. “Face the truth when it comes to men? Better now than when we are married and I discover that you are going about with someone from your past, isn’t it?”
“Stop it!” his voice was quiet but explosive causing her to look at him in surprise. “I get it that your ideals have been smashed and what you believe has been a lie but we are humans and we make mistakes. I am not your father Kayla and I happen to be in love with you. I never told all those other women anything like what I have told you. It was just a physical relationship and that was it. With you it is different. We are attached in so many other ways and I am never going to cheat on you, not because I am a saint but for the simple reason that I want no one else but you and I am asking you to believe that.”
She stood there looking at him for a moment and then she dropped down on one of the sofas. “I am scared,” she whispered, twisting her hands together. “My mother is over there doing damage control for a man who had no respect for her and I do not understand it. I could not even bear to look at him.”
He came over and crouched down in front of her, taking her hands. “Listen to me Kayla,” he murmured softly. “I never told you that I was a saint, I am not but I want you to know that I will never give you cause to doubt me, ever.”
She closed her eyes and opened them again to look down at him. “I am still scared but I don’t want to be without you.”
“You don’t have to be.”
*****
Erica saw the number and the name and her hand froze over the phone. It was first lady Marion Simmons and she wondered why on earth the woman would be calling her of all people. She almost did not answer the phone. “Hello?” her voice was tentative and hesitant as she answered.
“Sister Erica for a minute there I thought you were not going to answer,” the woman sounded as calm as if she was discussing the women’s conference with her. “How are you my dear?”
Erica did not know what to say. How was she? Was the woman going crazy?
“I am as good as expected.” She responded.
“I am happy to hear that.” She said. “I would like us to meet and have a conversation but I am afraid neither my place nor yours is very convenient right now. How about I pick you up somewhere and we go for a drive in the countryside.”
“I am not sure-“ Erica began, feeling very confused but she interrupted.
“Don’t worry my dear, I am much too squeamish at the sight of blood to be planning on taking your life and besides, is anyone worth throwing your freedom away for?”
Erica was not sure how to respond to that so she simply said yes.
“Okay meet me by the school compound in fifteen minutes
; I am sure we will not be noticed.”
*****
First lady Marion was in charge for the first time since she had married John Simmons. She had gone ahead with everything he had told her because he was her husband and the Bible said that a woman should submit herself to her husband and she had done that. She had stood by his side even when he was cold and unfeeling towards her and their daughter and had stood up on the pulpit and smiled as if everything was great at home. She had taken on roles at church because he had ordered her to do so and had done it without complaining and she had endured the lack of finesse and romance in the bedroom because she was a dutiful wife.
But the tide had turned and she had Sister Erica Rose to thank for all of that and she was going to let her know that she was not in the least bit upset with her. She had stopped feeling guilty about not loving him when she realized that he did not love her either and when her daughter had asked her how she could still stay with him she had told her that he was her husband and she would never leave because it benefited her more to stay.
She stopped the car at the woman’s feet and indicated that she got inside. She saw the brief hesitation and almost smiled at that and then she opened the door and came inside the car.
“Buckle up,” First lady Marion told her.
They drove for quite some time both of them admiring the terrain and the whiteness of the snow clinging to the rocks and trees as the rural area came into view. She slowed the car down and drove into a little know café and they got out. “We won’t be bothered here.” Marion told her. She ordered two cups of latte and two slices of pumpkin pie and waited until they were served before she began.
“You can relax my dear, I have no intention of creating a scene in this lovely quiet place.” She looked around and noticed that there were very few people sitting around and enjoying the lovely aroma of coffee beans and the rich smell of pastries, maybe because it was below zero outside and they would much prefer to be wrapped up in a warm blanket at home or sitting in front of the fire. “When I first read about you and my husband I was enraged and humiliated.” She murmured. “I thought of you as a friend and it was the age old story of betrayal and I wanted to leave him right then and there.”
Love So Heavenly (A Clean Christian African American Romance) Page 9