by Jen Gentry
It took three weeks before they could make funeral plans for Amelia. Her body remained in the hands of the forensic medical examiners and then they had to arrange to transfer her body to Manhattan for burial upon release.
Marta was in no shape to go back to the New York penthouse and instead, returned with her parents to Hook Pond. Her grief combined with her pregnancy had left her too weak to attend Amelia’s funeral. The attorneys handled the entire affair, but had no way of knowing how to contact Marta to let her know of Amelia’s final wishes.
Liam had orders to stall the attorneys who were trying to contact Marta. It was imperative that she receive the journal and letters that Amelia left her at precisely the right time. He assigned one angel to confound and delay the attorneys assigned to find Marta.
Emily returned to Perry House. She visited her friend at her parents’ house. Marta improved a little each day as she began to look forward to bringing Bradley’s baby into the world.
The Lord led Emily to pray daily for her friend. She knew something big was coming, and she used all of her knowledge about prayer and spiritual warfare to prepare.
Marta told Emily that she needed to go back to New York and wrap things up for Bradley and Amelia. She just didn’t think she was ready yet. Emily agreed with her friend and encouraged her to rest and let everything just wait until she felt prepared.
“You know you’re not alone, Marta. I’m here for you and when you’re ready to go back to New York, I’ll go with you, OK?”
“You, Emily Bell, are the best friend a girl ever had, you know that don’t you?”
“Yeah, I know,” Emily said, grinning. “So, what are you going to name the baby? Got any ideas yet?”
“Well, if it’s a boy the name will be Bradley, of course, and if it’s a girl, Amelia.”
Emily was happy to know that her friend was healing, and looking forward to the future. It was now early October and the days before the presidential election counted down. Senator Steel was clearly in the lead. The predictions said that he would win by a landslide vote. Pictures of him at his son’s funeral were posted and reposted all around the world. It seemed he would get the sympathy vote he needed to win. All those in Senator Steel’s camp geared up for the acceptance speech.
Liam remained at Perry House, but had no reason to return to human form. He kept his angelic post as assigned. One October afternoon, Liam watched silently as Emily left to check on her friend, and was surprised to see Michael descending from the heavens with new orders
“Liam, it is time. We must find the young man and return him to his father, and his wife must join him. Make sure Marta has the journal and letters before she goes back to DC. Emily will soon follow her. The time to take down this demonic stronghold draws near. We must have all our forces ready to move in a moment’s notice. The Lord tells me to send all our best warriors to Washington, D.C. where the final battle will take place. Is Emily ready to face her worst nightmare?”
“Emily is strong. She will be ready. I watch her every day putting on the armor and using prayer to strengthen herself and us. I do not believe she will be afraid to face the evil ones when the time comes. She will do whatever is necessary to protect the ones she loves.”
Liam had full faith in Emily. He’d watched her grow from a child into the special woman she was now.
Michael raised his wings in adoration of the Lord, fluttering the tips. “Great is the Lamb and worthy to be praised.”
“Amen,” agreed Liam, wings raised as well.
***
In a military hospital near Washington, D.C., a young man languished in a deep, medically induced coma, the only known survivor of the raid on the infantry outpost in Afghanistan. He suffered multiple injuries including broken bones and burns, a John Doe found amongst the dead and decimated bodies at the compound.
He was without any identifying marks or dog tags. He’d been fingerprinted, but through a series of mishaps, it had taken a long time, weeks, to get results back on the prints. It seemed the originals had been lost, then the prints redone and somehow lost again. One doctor made the comment, “It seems as if God doesn’t want us to know who this man is.”
Finally, the prints came back and his doctors knew he was Bradley Steel. Everyone believed this man to be dead. They’d recovered his dog tags amidst a pile of badly burned human remains near where he had been found. The only words the man uttered to any of the doctors and nurses were ‘Jesus’ and ‘Marta’.
When it became clear who he was, his primary doctor made a call to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs’ of Staff at the Pentagon. He, in turn, notified Bradley’s father.
The senator told the chairman to keep this revelation quiet, and to hold off on letting Bradley’s wife know. He explained that Marta was not doing well, and he wanted to see Bradley himself to be sure about all of this before upsetting her more. He also did not want the press intruding on this very private matter. The chairman agreed to let the senator handle it as he saw fit.
Senator Steel was in a full panic. It could not be. Bradley was alive? He had to get to him before he said anything. What if he’s already talked? What if he’s talking right now? It was just two weeks to election day.
“No, this cannot be happening.” He hung his head between his hands as his limo raced to the military hospital just outside of DC
When he arrived, the hospital staff greeted the senator with great enthusiasm. In his great haste to reach his son, he rushed past most of them.
“Take me to my son. Take me to him now,” he demanded. The staff understood him to be very eager to reunite with the son he thought dead. He recognized Bradley right away. So there really was no mistake. His son was still alive. He had to pull it together. There were too many people around him, some of them his own assistants who’d arrived right behind him.
He walked over to the bed, and gently laid his hand on his son’s chest. “Bradley?” he asked, voice ragged with emotion. “Son, can you hear me? It’s your father.” His staff looked on in pity.
Bradley only moaned and called out “Marta.” Bandages circled his arms and torso, a full cast
encased both legs and IV’s hooked up to both arms. His face was badly bruised but still recognizable.
One doctor introduced himself as Bradley’s primary physician. “Senator, it is a great honor to meet you,” he said as they shook hands. “Allow me to explain; when your son first arrived he was very badly injured. He was in so much pain that we kept him sedated. Each time we tried to pull him back from the sedation, he became very combative and further injured himself. Right now he is still heavily sedated.”
“So, he has not been awake to talk about anything the whole time he has been here?” The doctor answered the senator’s question
“The only words he’s spoken in his time here have been, Jesus and Marta. Who is Marta, if I may ask?”
“Umm, his wife.” The senator had forgotten all about her. This situation got worse and worse. He had to get full control over this entire mess and he had to do it now.
Azelius, close at his side, remained calm as he whispered in the senator’s ear. “Take the boy home, and the girl will come to be with him. With them both at the townhouse they will be much easier to control and keep a watch on.” Azelius ignored the two angels standing guard at Bradley’s side. He knew if he could get Bradley to the townhouse, he could take care of them there.
Senator Steel got his staff in motion. Against the advice of the doctors, he arranged to move Bradley to the townhouse. He shot the doctors down by pulling rank and threatening to call the Pentagon. His staff hired a private physician and nurses to take care of Bradley.
It only took a few hours to get everything arranged and all the equipment set up in a room at the townhouse. It was not easy to keep the news quiet, but as they loaded him into a private ambulance for transfer, the senator finally made the call to his daughter-in-law. After he broke the news to Marta’s father, he told him to arrange for Marta t
o come to D.C. as soon as possible because Bradley was asking for her. Then he went to a prearranged press conference to share the good news with the world that his son was alive.
Marta, in a state of shock and elated beyond words, wasn’t about to wait for anyone to accompany her to D.C. As she got ready to leave, a young attorney, who had been searching for her for weeks, arrived to speak with her about Amelia’s last will and testament. Her parents explained that Bradley was alive.
With that happy news, the attorney felt they would need to verify certain things again in light of these new circumstances. Marta agreed and the young man took out an envelope. He explained Amelia had asked him to give it to her directly. Marta took the envelope and stuck it in one of her bags. She left the young man standing on her front porch and promised to call him as soon as she could. With that, she jumped into the waiting taxi and sped off to the airport.
Bradley’s alive, oh thank you, Jesus, thank you. And he was asking for her. That was all that mattered now. She was five months pregnant and her petite frame showed a little baby bump. For some reason, she was not ready for the world to know about her pregnancy just yet. She dressed to cover her belly in such a way that no one would realize her condition.
She had no idea of the trap that waited for her, and she completely forgot about the envelope in her bag.
Chapter Twenty
Then they will come to their senses and escape from the devil’s trap. For they have been held captive by him to do whatever he wants
2 Timothy 2:26
New Living Translation
Amelia’s sudden death pleased Senator Steel no end. He had nothing to do with it as far as he was concerned, but it was a great stroke of luck nonetheless.
Azelius had taken that chore upon himself. He and his hordes followed Amelia and her angel around, waiting for just the right moment to strike. He was proud that he did it without the direct aid of the Ba al’ as they had been the ones who took care of the boy.
No doubt about it, they’d botched that deal. The boy still lived, but it worked to his advantage in the end, because the senator’s son now rested in a place over which Azelius had complete control. Well, almost complete control.
Two huge angels stayed with the boy round the clock, guarding him and praying constantly. They were bothersome enough, but the prayers of the man, who even in his state cried out to Jesus, kept the demons at bay.
Bradley called upon the name of Jesus almost constantly, supplicating, believing. The power of That Name made the demons weak and they could not get close to him.
When Marta arrived, Azelius was irritated to find that he now had her guardian angel in the house as well. At least there was no sign of the archangel Michael, unlike the last time the boy stayed under the senator’s roof.
Senator Steel welcomed his daughter-in-law warmly and did his best to make her feel welcome. Marta forced herself to keep from cringing as he gave her a hug. She had received the Gift of Discernment from the Holy Spirit, which enabled her to tell good from evil and truth from lies. She didn’t trust the senator at all.
She made a mental note to herself to be very careful of what she said and how she acted around him. Two things she felt strongly about: she would keep her pregnancy secret for now, and she needed to get Bradley away from here as quickly as possible.
Her first look at Bradley shocked her beyond words. Covered in casts, with his legs in a traction device, he had lost a good bit of weight. To see him bruised and battered as he was, Marta’s heart broke and tears slid down her cheeks. Thank you, Jesus.
What a miracle you have done for me. She felt such overwhelming joy and relief to see him alive and breathing, she felt faint. She laid her hands on her belly and shivered. “Oh, baby, daddy’s alive!
A private duty nurse attended Bradley at all times to keep his feeding and IV lines going, and a doctor made frequent visits during the day to the third floor bedroom that served as a makeshift hospital room.
Senator Steel seemed to be making sure
Bradley was well cared for, but Marta wanted to see if he would respond to her with less sedation. She spoke with the doctor about it, asking many questions regarding his care and recovery.
The doctor explained that Bradley had several serious fractures still in the process of healing. His most significant injury was a crushed, surgically repaired pelvis. This required that he be immobilized in order for the healing process to be complete, thus the sedation was necessary, at least until the x-rays showed his pelvis healed.
Marta pressed on. “Shouldn’t he be in a real hospital? I mean, do you honestly feel this is the best place for him to recover, doctor? I want him in the hands of specialists where he gets the best possible care. Money is not a problem. I will pay any amount required, but I want him in the best possible place.”
The doctor reassured her that having Bradley receive private care at home would put him at far less risk for infection, which could be a real setback for him. He also told her he’d made arrangements for portable x-rays to be done at regular intervals to monitor his progress, as well as having regular physical therapy visits to start working on a program devised specifically for his particular needs.
The real work would to have to wait until his pelvis healed, and that was going to take at least a few more weeks. He advised her to keep Bradley there for now and let him heal.
Marta accepted it for the time being. The exposure factor made sense to her. She’d just stay here with Bradley. The doctor seemed knowledgeable and caring, earning him a smidge of her trust, but she was still on guard. She knew what lay ahead.
The one good thing about staying with Bradley at the townhouse was that the senator rarely
visited. He was in full election mode at that point, campaigning hard in those last few days.
He took a short time off the campaign trail to have Bradley moved into the townhouse, although he still held daily press conferences on the steps of his home. He’d left his running mate, vice presidential nominee, congressman Marty Sheffield, to cover the campaign without him for a few days.
Bradley’s story was big news and brought even more attention and sympathy from the
American public. The media called Lt. Steel an American hero, and portrayed the senator as a doting and caring father in his many press conferences. His campaign team exploited the American hero and loving father angle to their advantage.
Senator Steel answered many questions about how Bradley fared, and assured the American public that the doctors expected a full if lengthy recovery. Marta had a room next to Bradley’s, but she barely took the time to unpack her bags, staying at his side as much as possible. One evening while in prayer, with his hand pressed to her cheek, he squeezed.
“Marta?” His voice was a low, painful moan. Her heart leapt and for a moment, she could not speak. She murmured, “Yes, my love, I’m here.”
Oh, Jesus, oh Lord! Fighting back tears and trying not to get overly excited, she continued to hold his hand to her cheek and wait.
“Marta … letter.”
“What letter, darling?”
“In my … footlocker.”
He didn’t make any sense, but Marta wanted to keep him talking. “I’m here, sweetie. Don’t worry. I’ll never leave your side again, I promise. Just relax and heal.”
Bradley began to grow agitated at his inability to make his needs known. “Find the letter in my footlocker and it give to Amelia.”
Marta wasn’t about to tell Bradley of his aunt’s death until he was much better, but his words jarred something in her memory. Amelia’s letter … the envelope stored in her bag! She’d forgotten all about it.
Bradley drifted back to sleep as though the exertion tired him. Marta stayed there, holding his hand until his breathing became deep and regular. She ran to her room and dug through her bags until she found the one containing the large manila envelope.
She dumped the contents on the bed, scooped everything up and ran back to her ch
air beside Bradley.
The private duty nurse sat in her usual spot outside the door, reading. Bradley wasn’t due for feedings or IV changes for several hours. Marta sat back and inspected the contents of the envelope. There were several old letters from Bradley’s mother, Camille Stanford Steel, addressed to her sister, Amelia.
Next, a large diary that turned out to belong to Amelia.
An envelope addressed to Marta fell from the book. In it, Amelia wrote instructions with the final line stating that Marta must not trust the senator under any conditions. She insisted that Marta make public the information contained in her journal and Camille’s letters as soon as possible.
Amelia added a word of caution that Marta protect herself and her baby at all times and then concluded the letter with her remorse that she’d let her sister down. Even though they’d long since forgiven each other, Amelia lived with regret for the pain she caused her sister for her entire life.
The first line in the journal, dated more than thirty years earlier, started with:
Oh how I hate my sister, Camille. She’s stolen
Brad Steel from me…..
Marta read on and on as Amelia’s journal spanned decades of their lives. From the journal and
Camille’s letters, she learned about the real Brad Steel. He was a cheater, a liar, a wife and child beater and quite possibly a murderer.
Although originally engaged to Amelia, Brad chose instead to marry her younger sister, Camille, because she was soft, weak and easier to control. All he cared about was her father’s money and receiving his backing for political office.
To her everlasting shame, Amelia heard this treachery from Brad’s own lips as she tried to win him back from her sister. After they were married. Amelia and Brad continued an illicit affair for years before Camille found out about it. When she did, she turned to prescription drugs to help her cope with the awful betrayal.