Nineteen
Yvonne had never seen Toya as angry as she was right now. Shortly after eleven at night, her older daughter had barged into the house and awakened her and Tia to tell them about Marvel’s scheme and Deacon Brown’s involvement in it. “I don’t know why I didn’t believe you in the first place, Mama,” she said, slumping onto the living room couch next to Yvonne. “You have such keen intuition, and I am just the biggest fool who ever lived.”
Tia leaned around Yvonne and raised her hand. “Sorry, sis. You might be the second biggest fool, but I’ve already claimed the title of biggest fool. And I have Robbie, Marvel, and YouTube to thank for that.”
“Oh, Tia, I’m so sorry about that,” Toya said, reaching across Yvonne’s lap and patting her leg. “I wish I had never even thought to invite Marvel to your wedding. He’s such a creep. But I am going to make him pay for everything he has done to us. I promise you that.”
Toya had a fire in her eyes that Yvonne had never seen before. “Calm down, sweetie,” she interjected. “It’s not your fault the guy you fell for had ulterior motives. I didn’t raise any fools, so I don’t want to hear either of you talking about being a fool again. Okay?”
“Well, what would you call it, Mama?” Tia asked. “I not only fell in love with an alcoholic—I got pregnant by him, too.”
“That might not have been the wisest thing to do, true, but we’re all entitled to make mistakes, honey. That doesn’t make you a fool.”
Tia moved closer to Yvonne and leaned her head on her shoulder. “Well, then I feel like a fool, Mama, because the truth of the matter is, I still love Robbie, and even after all that he’s done to me, I’m praying that becoming a Christian will help him to grow up so that we can be a family.”
“And what about me?” Toya asked as she leaned her head against Yvonne’s other shoulder. “Even though I know that Marvel is a low-down snake, I still think he’s kind of cute.”
Yvonne laughed. “Look, you two. Right now, I’m the last one who should be giving out relationship advice. I’m dealing with something that I’d never expected to be dealing with.”
Toya sat up and looked Yvonne in the eyes. “Mama, don’t be mad at me for saying this, but I think you need to give Uncle Thomas a chance. He looked so sad when I saw him earlier today.”
“Where did you see Thomas?” Yvonne asked. She tried to sound nonchalant, but inside, her stomach was fluttering at the mere mention of his name.
“I went to Flint with Marvel today, and we ran into Uncle Thomas and Jarrod at Outback Steakhouse,” Toya said, then gasped. “Oh my gosh! Marvel totally played me!”
“What do you mean?” Yvonne asked.
“Remember how I told you that Deacon Brown’s e-mail indicated that Marvel had given him some money today? Well, I was with Marvel all day, and the only time he could have given Deacon Brown that money was while we were in Flint.” Toya started pounding her fist against her head. “I’m so stupid, stupid, stupid.”
“Toya!” Yvonne admonished her. “Your father and I spent too much money on your education for you to be stupid, thank you very much.”
Toya stood up and started pacing the floor. “Marvel must have gotten some sort of sick pleasure out of having me with him while he paid off the man who stole money from our church.”
“What are you talking about?” Tia asked.
“I know where Deacon Brown is,” Toya announced with hands raised as if she were getting ready to do a praise dance.
“Did the e-mail say something about his location?” Yvonne asked.
“No, but Marvel took me right to him. See, I thought he was trying to impress me by taking me to his factory in Flint. But he must have been dropping off the money for Deacon Brown. It probably gave him quite a thrill to know that I was in the car waiting for him.”
Tia sat up and stretched. “Should we really be calling him Deacon Brown?” she asked her mother. “I’m sure you’ve excommunicated him by now. Can’t we just call him ‘Clarence’ or ‘Mr. Brown’?”
“I’d like to speak with the man before we just throw him out of the church,” Yvonne replied. “Deacon Brown has been a respected member of Christ-Life for over twenty years. I don’t know why he would do a thing like this, but I’d like to hear him out.”
“Oh, we’ve already heard him out,” Toya said, shaking her head. “I told you what his e-mail said. And now, I’m going to make sure that he gets arrested.” She picked up her purse and searched around inside for a few moments before pulling out a small card. She turned it over, pulled out her cell phone, and dialed.
“Who are you calling?” Yvonne asked her.
“Jarrod. He gave me his number when I saw him today, and I’m about to put him to work.”
Yvonne and Tia listened as Toya greeted Jarrod, apologized for waking him up at so late an hour, and then got right down to business. She told him about Marvel Williams and Deacon Brown—Mr. Brown, rather—and informed him that he was hiding out in a certain motel. She asked him to call the police and then take them there.
When their conversation ended, she hung up and turned back to Yvonne and Toya. “Now we wait,” she announced.
“How do you know that Deacon Brown is in that motel?” Yvonne asked. “Don’t tell me you went there with Marvel today!”
“Mama, get real,” Toya said, rolling her eyes. “Okay. Marvel stopped at this little hole-in-the-wall donut shop when we were on our way to grab lunch. I thought it was strange—why eat donuts when you’re about to have a big steak-and-potatoes type of meal? So, I asked him why we were stopping. He told me that he really needed some coffee and that he would only be a minute. But when he came back out, he didn’t have any coffee.
“When I asked him about it, he just blew it off and said that the donut shop didn’t have any coffee ready. I didn’t think much of it at the time, but when I mentioned to you that I’d seen Uncle Thomas and Jarrod in Flint, it reminded me of the strange stop Marvel and I made, and then I remembered that there was a motel right next to that donut shop. And I’d be willing to stake one week’s pay on the fact that Clarence Brown is in that motel.”
“We don’t gamble in this house,” Yvonne said sternly.
“You know what I mean. Let’s just wait for Jarrod to call back, and then we’ll see if I’m right or not.”
Less than twenty minutes later, Jarrod called back, asking for a photo of Clarence Brown. Yvonne turned on her computer and e-mailed a photo of the deacon to Jarrod, who said he could access it on his phone. Then they waited a little while longer.
Half an hour later, the house phone rang. Seeing that it was Thomas, Yvonne picked up. “Hey, Vonnie! Jarrod told me what’s going on. The police have Clarence Brown in custody, and I’ll be in Flint tomorrow to meet Jarrod. So, don’t worry about a thing. I will talk to the man before I leave town.”
“Thank you for taking care of this, Thomas,” Yvonne said gratefully. “Oh, and I’m going to need that private investigator of yours for something else. Can you have him give me a call tomorrow at the church?”
“It’s one o’clock in the morning, Vonnie, so it’s already tomorrow. But I’ll have him give you a call. And tell Toya I said she did good.”
“I’ll do that.”
Yvonne hung up and told Toya, “Thomas is proud of you. He says you ‘did good.’”
Smiling, Toya said, “And I’m not through. I’ve got some things planned that will make Mr. Marvel Williams’s head spin.”
Yvonne held up a hand. “I don’t want you involved in this one second longer, Toya Ann Milner. Do you hear me?”
“But Mama, there’s one more thing that e-mail mentioned that needs to be taken cared of!”
“I know exactly where you’re going with this, and that is why I told Thomas I need to speak with that private investigator. I will handle Mr. Marvel Williams, and you will stay far, far away from him. Do you understand me?”
“The City Council meeting is in two weeks, Mama. We need to get
some hard evidence against Marvel. We don’t have any time to waste if you don’t want to lose the church.”
“You know what I’ve figured out through all of this madness, Toya?”
Toya sighed. “What?”
“I’ve found out that I can trust God. I prayed about the fact that you were deceived by that man, and God opened your eyes to the truth. So, I believe that if I handle the things I need to handle, God will also take care of the Marvels of this world. Trust your mama, sweetie. I’ve got a plan. Even better, God’s got a plan.”
***
The next day, Yvonne set her plan in motion. She wasn’t about to do anything without prayer. So, she called all of her elders together and told them that she wanted to start a prayer chain that would continue for the next two weeks. “I need you to get your committee members together and have them sign up to pray an hour at a time,” she explained to the elders.
“An hour is a long time for some people to pray,” one of the elders objected. “If we ask too much of the people, they might not do anything at all.”
Yvonne was so tired of the hand-holding needed for members who just didn’t understand what ministry was all about. Do people really not understand that when you sign up to be a servant of the Lord, you just might get an uncomfortable assignment? she wondered.
She thanked God for grace. If it wasn’t for God’s mercy, Yvonne honestly didn’t know how some Christians would make it into heaven—herself included. “Point taken,” Yvonne said. “Let’s first sign up all of our committee members, and then I’ll put a call out for prayer among the congregation at large. We can ask them to pray for an hour but then slot them for only the first or the last half hour. That way, they won’t feel obligated to pray for the entire hour. I’m still hoping that we’ll get some prayer warriors who will go the distance, though.”
Now that they had their marching orders, the elders began to file out of her office. Yvonne stopped Elder Conrad as he passed.
“How can I help you, Pastor?” he asked, taking a seat in front of her desk.
“If you have a moment, I’d like to know how the evangelistic team is handling their assignment.”
“Everything is going well,” Elder Conrad assured her. “We have divided up the list that Dawn gave us by geographical area, and team members have been making home visits for the past several weeks.”
“And how are our former members doing? Are they mostly attending other churches, or do they stay home on Sunday mornings?”
“There’s a mix. To the ones who indicated they had joined another church, we just thanked them for their time and informed them that the door of Christ-Life is always open, but as long as they are happy where they are, we aren’t asking them to come back.
“With the former members who seemed to be struggling a bit and aren’t attending a church at the moment, we’ve asked them to give us another try. Some of them just requested prayer, and we’ve been happy to pray with them. But a great number of the people we’ve seen so far have said that they will visit Christ-Life in the coming weeks.”
“That’s awesome. Thank you so much for your diligence on this, Elder.”
By the time Elder Conrad left her office, Yvonne felt as if she was making progress. She had grieved so much that she hadn’t noticed how her actions were affecting the congregation. Because of that, many people had lost a sense of connection and had wandered away. If it took her the rest of her life, Yvonne was determined to do right by the people whose spiritual care God had entrusted to her.
She opened her Bible and began to study God’s Word. She had a sermon to preach on Sunday, and she aimed to make it her best one yet. She planned to preach about keeping the faith and moving past hurts and pains. She never liked to preach pie-in-the-sky messages about lessons she hadn’t lived or proven in her own life. Yvonne was a firm believer that people go through tests and trials not based on where they are, but based on where they say they are. Many Christians claimed to have mountain-moving faith, but the truth was, many of them didn’t believe that God would help them pay their bills if they didn’t tithe on time.
Yvonne never wanted to claim to be somewhere that she wasn’t. So, she was going to minister to her congregation out of her own hurts and pain. Then she was going to tell them how she’d learned to trust God with her heart and life, even after losing her husband. She was going to tell them how she’d learned to live again.
There was a knock on her door.
Yvonne put her pen down and looked up. “Come in.”
The door swung open and Dawn walked in, carrying a vase with a bouquet of about three dozen roses. “I have something for you,” she said with a knowing smile.
“For me?” Yvonne said, staring blankly. “Who would send me roses?”
“I don’t know, but there is a card. You might just find your answer there.” Dawn set the vase on the desk, handed Yvonne a small envelope, and backed out of the office, still wearing a big grin.
When the door was closed again, Yvonne opened the envelope and pulled out the card. It said, “I’m not running anymore, Vonnie. I’ll see you soon and we’ll work everything out.” He hadn’t signed the card, but he hadn’t needed to.
Now what was she supposed to do about this?
Twenty
Yvonne hadn’t been bugged by a reporter since Thomas had left town with Jarrod a little over a week ago. With all the snoops leaving her alone for a change, she’d managed to have a productive week. She had even driven to Flint and talked to Clarence Brown herself. But the visit had been rather uneventful. She hadn’t been able to get anything more out of the man than what Thomas had already told her.
What really bugged Yvonne about Clarence’s silence is that she had been prepared to forgive him if he had just asked. But Clarence wasn’t interested in forgiveness. He held to the claim that he had done nothing wrong and had been arrested on fabricated charges. He’d even gone so far as to tell Yvonne that she should be ashamed of herself for running to the police and filing charges against him before she’d had a chance to hear his side of things.
“I wanted to hear your side, Clarence, but you skipped town and made it impossible for me to do anything else but believe that you were the one who stole the money,” Yvonne had explained.
Clarence hadn’t appeared fazed by what Yvonne had to say. He’d preferred to play the victim. “I had been at Christ-Life for more than twenty years, and I would have thought that since I served you and your husband faithfully and did whatever was asked of me, I would have been given the benefit of the doubt.”
Yvonne had wanted to remind Clarence that he had just attempted to have her thrown out of her own church but thought better of going tit for tat with the man. It had been obvious that Clarence wasn’t interested in redemption right now, so she’d seen no reason to linger. Yvonne had left the prison and gone straight back to Detroit. There was so much to do, and she didn’t have a minute to waste.
Sunday’s service had been an awesome and humbling experience. Hundreds of former members had come back to church and bombarded the altar when she’d made the call for those who needed to receive salvation and rededicate their lives to the Lord to come forward. But the thing that had topped off her day was when she walked back to her office after the service to find her desk adorned with another vase filled with roses.
Thomas had called her every night since he’d left to talk about church business, the upcoming City Council meeting, his travels with Jarrod, and the things that were going on with the girls. They hadn’t gotten personal beyond the surface level, though, and had not even mentioned the issue that had been between them since the night Yvonne had blown up at Thomas.
After they talked on Friday night, Yvonne put on her bathrobe and a pair of house slippers and walked downstairs to get a snack, all the while wondering why Thomas hadn’t brought up the issue of their relationship. He’d been sending roses, along with boxes of chocolates with adorable messages, on an almost daily basis. So, why no
t talk about it?
She selected a Granny Smith apple from the bowl on the counter and washed it, then opened the refrigerator and took out a block of Colby cheese. When she’d sliced both the fruit and the cheese on the cutting board, she arranged them on a plate, grabbed a napkin, turned off the kitchen light, and headed back upstairs. It was nice, in a way, to have the house to herself again. Tia was at a singles’ outing organized by the church, tending the singles meeting at the church. So, with snack in hand, Yvonne closed her bedroom door and hoped to find a movie on the Hallmark Channel that she could watch until she fell asleep.
Her Fridays weren’t always this humdrum, especially not when David was alive. Often, they would go out to dinner and catch a movie. On the nights they stayed home, Yvonne and David still enjoyed their time together. But now that Yvonne thought about it, she had spent a lot of Friday nights on the road, traveling to one conference after the next. She’d thought that life would be so great once her name was as well-known as Joyce Meyer’s. In reality, though, she’d missed many special moments with her husband and her children, and she regretted having chided Thomas for how much time he spent away from home. Although she might not have spent as much time away as he had, she still could have been home more.
Once David had finally accepted her call from God to preach, Yvonne had convinced herself that she needed to make up for lost time by scheduling as many speaking engagements as she could. In hindsight, she should have spent a little more time loving her family and a little less time chasing after the wind. For even though she had become well-known, she still wasn’t a household name, and now she didn’t even care.
Yvonne would gladly spend the rest of her days ministering to her own congregation and never accept another speaking engagement if only she had a husband to come home to. But how could she ever have that with David gone forever?
With the remote in hand, Yvonne surfed through the TV channels, feeding herself slices of apple and pieces of cheese with the other hand. The Hallmark Channel was showing another Janette Oke movie, but Yvonne had already seen each of them about a hundred times, so she turned off the TV and grabbed her Bible from the sidle table. Somewhat haphazardly, she flipped the pages to the Song of Solomon and read, “Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth; for your love is better than wine.”
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