The Favorite Son

by Tiffany L. Warren

  As if on cue, Dawn came from the back of the apartment. She waved at Amber and Akil and took a seat at the table.

  “Now that we’re all here, we can get started,” Blaine said. “We’re singing in Oklahoma City this Sunday. I think we should just do a praise and worship medley. Of course they want to hear ‘Born to Worship.’”

  “I did a new arrangement of it that really highlights Kenya’s range,” Amber said.

  “Thank you for doing that. I was content to sing in the background for a while until I got up to speed.”

  Amber waved her hand dismissively. “Honey, please! That voice was not made for the background. You gave me all types of Holy Ghost fever when you sang for us in Atlanta. That instrument needs to be on the front line. We got you.”

  “Thank y’all for embracing me,” Kenya said. “I was telling Blaine earlier that I’ve admired you all from afar for many years. Every time I would see y’all singing at a youth conference or something, I wanted to be a part. This is a dream come true for me.”

  Amber hugged Kenya. “Well, aren’t you the sweetest?” Amber said.

  Dawn said nothing. She nibbled another graham cracker without the slightest acknowledgment of Kenya’s gushy sentiments. Dawn obviously had not a care to give about a beautiful newcomer.

  “We are happy to have you,” Blaine said. “You’ve definitely added to our depth. Not taking anything away from Dawn, who has held down the soprano for years, but you are a godsend.”

  Blaine pulled out his keyboard and played the opening to “Born to Worship.”

  “Go ahead and teach us your new arrangement,” Blaine said to Amber.

  Amber took the floor and started teaching the parts without missing a beat. The group would absolutely survive this change and come out stronger, of this Blaine was sure. But he wasn’t sure what would come of his and Dawn’s situation, or if So G.I.F.T.E.D could survive that part too. The amount of fallout was up to Dawn. Blaine caught himself praying that she made the right decision.

  He had no idea if God was listening.

  CHAPTER 37

  Blaine sat in Pastor Wilson’s study at Graceway Dallas, and briefed his father on the flow of service for the coming Sunday, including the addition of Kenya to the group. Blaine took out his phone and showed his father a picture of Kenya, a selfie she’d taken with Blaine at his apartment after practice.

  “This is Deacon Summers’s daughter. The one that used to be hefty. She’s sure looking good now,” Pastor Wilson said.

  “She is. And she sings like an angel too.”

  “She should be a welcome addition to the group. Especially since you all may have to get rid of Dawn.”

  Blaine frowned. “What do you mean? No one’s replacing Dawn.”

  “Do you think she’s going to be able to tour the country singing with a baby on her hip?”

  “Lots of women do it, Dad. They hire nannies. Plus, I’m not even sure she’s planning on keeping the baby. She hasn’t told me her decision.”

  “You proposed to her? You got her a ring?”

  Blaine nodded. “I did everything you told me to do. She wouldn’t budge. She was confused about what she wanted to do. For a minute she was thinking of trying to seduce Camden and make him think the baby was his. Then she scrapped that idea totally. Dawn doesn’t know what she wants to do.”

  “So you tell her what she wants to do. Don’t leave it up to her. She’s not thinking clearly. Pregnancy hormones got her all twisted up. Your mother said Camden called her and told her about Dawn breaking things off with him.”

  “Was he okay?” Blaine asked.

  Pastor Wilson shrugged. “Your mother seemed happy to hear that. Dawn is nothing but a little slut to her now, so she doesn’t want her anywhere near Camden.”

  “She doesn’t care if Dawn is with me, though?”

  “Well, Dawn is carrying her first grandchild. That counts for something. But your mother will probably never forgive her for hurting Camden. Especially once he finds out that you’re the father.”

  “I know. I’m more concerned about him forgiving me.”

  “He will. Your brother expects you to be a whore, but not his woman. I tell you this: He’ll forgive you before he forgives Dawn.”

  “I was thinking that I want him as the Minister of Music in Oklahoma City.”

  Pastor Wilson shook his head. “I already said no to that idea. Why are we still talking about it?”

  “Because, I disagree with you, Dad. Camden did nothing wrong by going to Atlanta. In fact, his going to Atlanta has made the group stronger and in turn will make my ministry stronger. I want my brother here.”

  Pastor Wilson laughed. “Then you better hope Dawn decides to abort your child, because your brother won’t be in any pulpit with you if he finds that out.”

  “Of course. I was talking about if I didn’t have to marry Dawn.”

  “She’s going to start showing soon. We want to get you two married before everyone starts counting backward from her delivery date, if that’s the path we have to take.”

  “Well, then you talk to Dawn. I can’t make her budge.”

  “Get her on the phone right now.”

  Blaine dialed Dawn’s phone number and after three rings she picked up. Blaine put her on speakerphone.

  “Dawn, you’re on speaker. My dad wanted to talk to you.”

  “Hello,” Dawn said.

  “Dawn, I need you to get down to the church as soon as possible. We need to have a discussion.”

  “A discussion about what?” Dawn asked.

  “Your future, my son’s future, and my grandchild’s future.”

  Dawn did not reply right away. Then after a long silence she said, “Why do you need to be a part of the discussion?”

  Pastor Wilson’s nostrils flared with anger. Blaine closed his eyes and shook his head. She’d unleashed the monster.

  “You think you’re calling the shots, don’t you, you little whore? Get down to this church right now. I will not allow you or anyone else to destroy what I’ve taken years to build. You’re going to do what the hell I say, or you might just find yourself on the outside looking in. I can marry Blaine off to Regina today, and then you’ll just look like a pastor’s mistress. Is that what you want? Or do you want to be the first lady of this church?”

  “If I wasn’t worried about my soul’s salvation, I would’ve already terminated this pregnancy,” Dawn said. “I don’t want any part of what you’re doing.”

  Pastor Wilson laughed directly into the speaker. “Do you think you can judge me? You led one of my sons by the nose for a decade and then slept with his brother. You are the lowest of low. You are not fit to judge me. Either get down to this church on your own, or I will send someone to fetch you.”

  Blaine could hear Dawn sniffle over the phone. His father had been exceptionally harsh, but maybe that was what needed to happen. Dawn for some reason was acting like she held all the cards. She carried the baby in her womb and her decision would impact everyone, but she refused to make that decision, leaving everyone in limbo.

  “I’ll be there in twenty minutes.”

  Blaine disconnected the phone, and Pastor Wilson sat back in his seat.

  “We will have a decision today,” Pastor Wilson said.

  Blaine believed it.

  CHAPTER 38

  Blaine was in panic mode. Dawn had surprised both him and Pastor Wilson by not showing up at the church for his mandatory meeting. When he sent Stephen to Dawn and Amber’s apartment to bring her to the church, she was gone.

  The next day, it was Saturday and they were supposed to be on their way to Oklahoma City. Blaine paced his apartment living room, sick with worry. He had no idea what Dawn was planning to do. She could ruin him. She could ruin everything.

  Blaine called Amber’s phone.

  “What, Blaine?”

  “Have you heard from her yet?”

  “I got a text saying that you and your father tried to threaten he
r and that she was going away for a minute.”

  Blaine sighed. “I didn’t threaten her. You know I wouldn’t do that. It was my father. He threatened her.”

  “I mean, both of y’all really need to stop for real. How you gonna act like she’s the villain in all this? You’re the bigger villain in my opinion.”

  “How you figure?”

  “Because you know you seduced her, Blaine. You and your dad are acting like two demons right now.”

  “I keep telling you it’s not me! I am supporting whatever decision Dawn makes, but we just don’t have time for her to hold out if she’s gonna keep the baby. If she chooses that we need to get married now, or the group, the church, everything is destroyed.”

  “Well, I guess y’all just gonna have to keep wondering, because I don’t think she’s coming out to play anytime soon.”

  Blaine disconnected his phone and threw it across the room. He wished he’d never laid a hand on Dawn. Or on Regina, or on any of the women who were now insisting on making his life a living hell.

  Blaine went and retrieved his phone and scrolled through his text messages, looking for any notification from Dawn. There were none. But there was a text from Kenya.

  What time are you picking me up?

  Blaine had forgotten that he’d promised her a ride to Oklahoma City along with the rest of So G.I.F.T.E.D. She didn’t deserve to be a part of the drama, but she had joined right in the middle of chaos.

  He texted back. We’ll be there at 4.

  It was noon, and he had only a few hours to find Dawn and make her come with him to the church service. If not there would be hell to pay, and Blaine didn’t want to be on the receiving end of Pastor Wilson’s fury.

  CHAPTER 39

  “What do you mean she’s not with you?” Pastor Wilson roared in his hotel suite. The guests on either side probably thought there was a war breaking out.

  “Calm down, B. C.,” First Lady Rita said. “You’re making a scene. You don’t like making scenes.”

  Pastor Wilson cut his eyes at his wife and then turned his attention to Blaine. “Are you telling me that you have no idea where this ho is? When I find her, I’m gonna choke the hell out of her myself.”

  “Has anyone called her family? Her mother? Her grandmother?” Delores asked.

  Blaine wished that Delores would shut up. The very fact that she was in his parents’ hotel suite for this meeting seemed to infuriate his mother, and with good reason. Her opinion was not needed, nor was it requested.

  “Her family has been reaching out to us,” Pastor Wilson said. “They think Camden has done something to her. They didn’t even know that she’d broken up with him.”

  “What did you tell them?” Blaine asked.

  “I told them that we would get in touch with them as soon as we heard from her, and I asked them to do the same. Then I prayed with her mama on the phone. She was a blubbering fool too, crying and carrying on. I wanted to tell her how much of a grown woman her daughter was.”

  “I’m glad you didn’t,” First Lady Rita said. “That wouldn’t have helped anything.”

  “No, but it would’ve made me feel better. Do you need her to sing in the morning?”

  Blaine shook his head. “No. Kenya can sing her part on all the songs.”

  “Perfect. Then stop reaching out to Dawn. Stop calling and texting her. I think she just likes the attention she’s getting. She’s got everyone in limbo. It’s like negotiating with a terrorist.”

  “Who is possibly going to be the mother of your grandchild and your future daughter-in-law,” First Lady said. “Don’t decide that you hate her too much.”

  “You all keep acting like she’s a victim. That girl ain’t a victim. She thought Camden might be gay and got scared she might never be a part of this family. Then what did she do? She laid up with this dummy and got herself some insurance. Dawn just might be smarter than everyone in this room.”

  Blaine shook his head. His father always gave everyone the worst of intentions. He knew that Dawn didn’t have any of those thoughts in her head when they slept together. She was broken and afraid, and vulnerable. Amber was right. He was the villain, and not Dawn.

  “I agree with Dad. We should just give her some space. She’ll come around when she’s ready and then we can figure out what comes next.”

  “What if she’s big and pregnant when she comes out of hiding?” Delores asked.

  “She knows what’s at stake. She’ll know what she’ll have to answer to if she does that. What we’ll have to answer to. So if she stays in hiding until then, we’ll have to deal with those consequences too.”

  Pastor Wilson smirked at Blaine. “Well, listen at you. Calm in the face of adversity. You just might be learning something after all. You didn’t handle that Regina situation well, but you’re doing better with this one.”

  “What happened with Regina anyway?” First Lady Rita asked. “She also resigned as my assistant.”

  “She’s going to do what she always wanted to do,” Pastor Wilson said. “I gave her some seed money and a staff and she’s starting her own church in Fort Worth. Not an extension of Graceway, but under our covering.”

  Blaine burst into laughter. “Regina as a pastor? She’s the most evil and vindictive person I know.”

  “And that doesn’t disqualify her,” Pastor Wilson said. “We are called in spite of our shortcomings. Noah was a drunk, Moses was a stutterer, and David was like you—a womanizer to his core. That didn’t stop God from calling him. He qualifies the ones he chooses.”

  Blaine listened to his father’s words. He’d heard them before—always when he was trying to justify some shortcoming he had or some struggle he was facing (almost always a woman).

  Blaine wondered if God would qualify him for this ministry. He could read the Bible and interpret it like any other Bible scholar. He’d done it his entire life. But would God qualify him to lead His people in spite of his flaws?

  Even though Blaine knew all of his father’s shortcomings, he also knew that Pastor Wilson had helped lots of people. There were people who attributed all of their success in life to his father. Pastor Wilson was guilty of much, but as long as his church was unaware, they continued to worship God and get their breakthroughs.

  “Well, we can’t worry about Dawn right now. As long as we have tomorrow’s service covered, I’m content to handle her later,” Pastor Wilson said.

  Pastor Wilson’s tone was menacing, which didn’t bode well for Dawn. Blaine hoped that she gathered her wits sooner rather than later, because he didn’t want to know what might happen if she made his father wait too much longer. Pastor Wilson didn’t play when it came to his church.

  CHAPTER 40

  Camden watched the streaming service from Graceway Oklahoma City. Nothing had changed about his father and his uncanny power to mesmerize the people of God. In just four weeks, he had gone from one hundred members to six thousand, people abandoning their storefront and childhood churches all over the city to join up with Graceway for the “supernatural transference of wealth.”

  Camden had watched every service and witnessed the testimonies of the new members who claimed to have had breakthroughs in their finances, health, marriages, and child rearing after sowing a sacrificial offering. Camden prayed for them all, including Pastor Wilson.

  He watched Blaine lead So G.I.F.T.E.D in singing his song. The new arrangement was almost perfect, and Kenya’s voice sounded beautiful blending with Amber’s. But Dawn was missing. Camden wondered where she was. He hoped she hadn’t let her jealousy about Kenya’s vocals cause her to doubt herself. Dawn was a strong vocalist, and she was one of the founding members. It wouldn’t be the same without her. The sound would be different.

  Blaine led the church in the prayer for this week’s offering—another sacrificial one. But in this prayer, Blaine promised emotional healing to the broken. He called down to the altar everyone who was suffering with depression or a downtrodden spirit. He said t
hat God had spoken to him during the song, and that God had said it was time for the chains to be broken.

  Blaine then sang a remix of Camden’s upbeat praise song. He turned “I Am Free” into a battle cry, and the wounded broken souls came from all over the auditorium seeking a touch from Blaine and a touch from God.

  Camden was surprised at how easily Blaine had morphed into a carbon copy of their father. He might even be better than Pastor Wilson in his ability to be the Pied Piper to the lost. He’d be a megachurch millionaire pastor soon. Pastor Wilson’s vision for him would come to pass.

  Camden paused the Internet video when his cell phone rang. He hesitated before answering. It was Dawn. He didn’t want to talk to her, but he was curious about why she wasn’t at church.

  “Hello.”

  “Hi, Camden. It’s me, Dawn.”

  “I was just watching the recording of your church service this morning. Why weren’t you there?”

  “I’m at my cousin’s house in Texarkana.”

  “What in the world are you doing out there?”

  “I needed to get away from everything. The group, the church, and your father.”

  Camden was confused. “My father. Why do you need to get away from my father?”

  Maybe someone had told Pastor Wilson about Dawn breaking up with him, but why would he feel the need to say anything to Dawn about that? He’d banned Camden from the ministry, so he couldn’t have cared about who he was dating.

  Dawn let out a heavy and burdened sigh. “Camden, there is more to what I told you when I was in Atlanta.”

  “Oh.”

  “And you’re gonna hate me for this, but I have to tell you. I can’t continue to live this with you not knowing the truth.”

  “Okay, now you’re scaring me. What did you do?”

  “The guy … the guy that I was talking about was Blaine. And we slept together.”

  Camden took the phone away from his face and looked at it. Then he shook his head and looked at the ceiling. He had to be dreaming. There was no way that what Dawn had just said could be happening in real life.