A House Divided (4 page)

T
hank God little MJ’s breathing tube had been removed as planned. Not yesterday, the way Dr. Koster had anticipated, but about an hour ago. Charlotte was glad she’d decided to call Racquel to see how things were going this morning, because if she hadn’t, there was no telling when she and Curtis would have found out. There was a chance Matthew would have told them, but since he had class this morning, he likely would have waited until this afternoon.

“You know,” Curtis said, drinking the cup of coffee Agnes had just set on the table in front of him, “little MJ is very blessed, and so are we. The entire congregation was praying for him, and you know how I feel about the power of prayer.”

“It really is wonderful to have so many people that care about us,” Charlotte agreed.

“We need prayer because the devil is always busy. But the good news is that we serve not just a sometimes or every-now-and-then God, we serve an every-hour, 365-day God who does all that He says He’ll do.”

“Wow, you’re on fire this morning, aren’t you?” Charlotte said.

Curtina laughed. “Daddy, you’re saying the kind of stuff you say at church on Sundays.”

Curtis laughed, too. “I guess I am, huh? Daddy’s just happy, sweetie. Happy my little grandson is fine and thankful for all our other blessings. God is so good to us, even when we’re not all that great ourselves.”

Curtina ate the rest of her cereal and drank her orange juice. “Mommy, can I go back upstairs to watch Sprout until it’s time to leave?”

“I suppose. We’re heading out in about thirty minutes, though, so you make sure you have everything packed in your book bag.”

“I will.”

Curtina skipped out of the kitchen, and Charlotte couldn’t help thanking God for her little girl, the same as Curtis had just thanked the Lord for little MJ. Years were passing, and Curtina was almost five years old now, yet it was still hard to believe there had been a time when Charlotte couldn’t stand her. She was embarrassed to even think back to those days when she’d treated an innocent child so horribly, but it had only been because Curtis had conceived Curtina with another woman outside of their marriage. He’d had an affair and broken it off, then his mistress had died, and Charlotte’s stepdaughter had moved in with them. It had been the worst time of Charlotte’s life, or so she had thought, but soon she’d come to love Curtina as if she were her own, and Curtina loved, loved, loved her back. She never even brought up her biological mother, mainly because she barely remembered her, but it was fine, because to Charlotte, Curtina was in fact her daughter. It was funny how things changed and how time truly did heal all wounds, just the way folks always said.

“So are you going to the hospital this morning?” Curtis asked.

“Maybe around noon, and hopefully I won’t have to run into Racquel’s witch of a mother.”

Curtis looked at her and then toward the television. Agnes wiped off the counter near the stove but never said a word.

Charlotte knew they didn’t want to hear her ranting on and on about Vanessa, but she was still beside herself because of the way things had turned out yesterday. Charlotte had gone to the hospital first thing, yet Vanessa had said and done everything she could to stop her from seeing little MJ. She’d been downright rude, and since Charlotte hadn’t been able to contact Neil, she couldn’t do anything about it. She did finally hear from Neil early evening, once he’d finished a ten-hour brain surgery, but by then, she’d been too frustrated to talk about it or drive back over to the hospital. Charlotte wondered when this tug-of-war was going to end, and although she was trying her best to keep things cordial with Vanessa—at least when Racquel and Neil were around—she was growing very tired of this woman. Charlotte had held her tongue more than a few times, but she was also human and knew if Vanessa didn’t watch herself, this wouldn’t end well.

“Curtis, something has to be done about Vanessa. She’s doing everything she can to keep me away, and it’ll be even worse once Racquel brings little MJ home.”

“Baby, why don’t you give her some time? Give her a few more days to get past what happened over the weekend.”

“Even a year from now, that woman will still be treating me the same way, so time has nothing to do with it.”

“Maybe you could try a little harder to get along with her,” he said. “I know you don’t like her, but do it for the baby and Racquel.”

Charlotte was stunned. It almost sounded as though Curtis was siding with Vanessa, but she quickly tossed that craziness out of her mind. She ignored it because there was no way her own husband was sitting there defending the enemy. He simply wouldn’t do that to her.

Curtis must have picked up on what she was thinking and said, “Baby, I’m not taking anyone’s side. I’m just saying that sometimes you have to be the bigger person. Sometimes it’s the only way to deal with certain situations.”

“Do you feel the same way, Agnes?” she said, but kept her eyes on Curtis. “That I should have to kiss Vanessa’s behind? That I should have to tap-dance around that woman in order to see my own grandchild?”

“You want the truth? Because you know that’s what I’m going to give you.”

“I do.”

“Mr. Curtis is right. And maybe you should sit down and try to talk to her. One-on-one and face-to-face. Maybe you should ask her if the two of you can start over. Let bygones be bygones.”

“I tried that on Sunday and the first thing she said was how that would never happen.”

“Well, why do you think she despises you so much, Miss Charlotte?”

“If you ask me, I think she’s jealous.”

Now Curtis spoke up. “Of what?”

“Us and what we have. She’s afraid we’ll be able to give little MJ a lot more than she and Neil can, and that he’ll prefer to spend all his time over here when he’s older. She hates everything about me,” Charlotte said, but she didn’t add what she’d figured out a couple of days ago: that the main reason Vanessa couldn’t stand her was because of her husband and the way he was attracted to Charlotte. Then, although Charlotte hadn’t thought about it all that much for a while now, Vanessa probably hadn’t gotten over the fact that Charlotte had purchased the baby’s bassinet, crib, and dresser set and then had it delivered to the Andersons without warning. She’d wanted her grandchild to have the best and the style of furniture
she
wanted him to have. So, as soon as Matthew had mentioned how Vanessa was planning to take Racquel to pick out everything in a couple of weeks, Charlotte had rushed over to one of the best baby stores in downtown Chicago. She’d gone that very same day, and because everything she’d chosen had been in stock, she’d paid a ton to have it overnighted so it would arrive the next day. Of course, even if Vanessa had wanted to return it, she hadn’t, because at the time Racquel had been very excited about it and so had Matthew. They’d both thanked Charlotte multiple times, and that had been the end of it. At least it had been for Matthew and Racquel, because Charlotte knew it had burned Vanessa to a crisp. She’d never confronted Charlotte, but it was after that when Charlotte had noticed a subtle yet noticeable change in her attitude. Charlotte didn’t know what she was supposed to do about Vanessa’s jealousy, though, because it wasn’t Charlotte’s fault that she was in a better position to buy her grandchild whatever he needed or that she had better taste than Vanessa. Charlotte couldn’t help that Vanessa was simply beneath her in a number of ways, and that there was no comparison between them.

Curtis stood up. “Baby, I really doubt that Vanessa is jealous of anything. I mean, why would she be?”

“You don’t get it. You believe everyone thinks logically, but that’s not always the case. Especially when it comes to women and their envy.”

“I guess. But hey, I have to get to my meeting. We have a lot to discuss today.”

“I wish I could be there, but maybe I’ll make it to the next one.”

Curtis kissed her on the lips. “See ya later.”

“See ya.”

“Have a good day, Agnes, and thanks for breakfast.”

“You’re welcome, Mr. Curtis, and you, too.”

When Curtis left, Charlotte went upstairs. She still had a few more minutes before she’d have to drop Curtina off at school, so she sat on her bed, picked up her cell phone, and dialed Matthew. She knew he had class, but she wanted to leave a message for him to call her back as soon as he could. Surprisingly, he answered on the first ring.

“Hey, Mom.”

“Hey. Why aren’t you in class?”

“I didn’t go.”

Charlotte frowned. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. I’m packing and then heading to the airport.”

Charlotte couldn’t believe this. She’d been so sure that since the baby was doing much better, Matthew would just wait until this weekend to fly home. “Honey, it’s already Tuesday, so why don’t you just wait another three days? Why don’t you finish out the week?”

“No, Mom. And I never should have listened to you on Saturday, either, when you told me not to come.”

“I was just trying to get you to do the right thing.”

“This
is
the right thing. But on a different note, I need to talk to you about something else.”

“What?”

“Saturday, and what happened at the shower.”

Now Charlotte wished she hadn’t called him. “I’m not sure I understand.”

“Mom, just stop it. Racquel already told me everything. About the way you got into it with her mom at the shower and the things you’ve said at the hospital. She said when you and her mom got into it, she got so worked up, she went into labor.”

“It wasn’t that serious. Vanessa and I had a couple of disagreements, but—”

“But nothing, Mom. When you and Dad were at the hospital, I asked you what happened. I asked why Racquel had suddenly gone into labor, and you claimed you didn’t know. You lied without even flinching. You do that stuff all the time.”

“I’m sorry.”

“You’re always sorry. You do stuff and then you think apologizing for it is enough. But it’s not, Mom. You caused a scene at that shower, and that’s why Racquel went into labor. We could have lost little MJ, and I’m doing everything I can not to blame you for it.”

Charlotte’s heart beat frantically.

“Are you hearing me, Mom? I could have lost my son.”

Charlotte was so shocked, she hadn’t even noticed the tears flowing down her face and onto her pants. Matthew was actually blaming her for everything and hadn’t said much of anything about that witch, Vanessa. He acted as though she’d been arguing with herself. She needed to make him understand that Vanessa was just as responsible as she was.

“Honey, you do know that it wasn’t just about me, right? Vanessa didn’t even send me an invitation. Then, she admitted that she never wanted me at the shower in the first place. She treated me like some animal the whole time I was there.”

“Mom, you really don’t see yourself, do you? You have no idea how controlling and self-centered you are and how you offend people. But you know what? I have to go.”

“What time are you getting in?” she said.

“I’ll let Dad know when I get to the airport.”

“Okay…travel safe.”

Charlotte waited for a response, but when she pulled her cell phone away from her ear and looked at it, the call had already disconnected. Matthew had ended the call without so much as saying good-bye. He was beyond angry with her, and she had to fix things when he got home; make him see that she wasn’t the heartless, self-centered mother he believed her to be. If necessary, she would smile in Vanessa’s face and treat her like royalty the whole time Matthew was in town, but she wouldn’t forget any of this. Now she owed that witch more than ever before—she and her tattling daughter. They were both doing all they could, trying to turn her wonderful son against her, and they deserved whatever they got. At this point, they were literally asking for it.

E
veryone gathered around the shiny wood conference room table: Curtis; his executive assistant, Lana; his two assistant pastors, Minister Simmons and Minister Morgan; his two lead elders, Elder Jamison and Elder Dixon; his director of radio and TV broadcasting, Riley Davison; his new CFO, Kendra Smith; and Anise Miller, an elder and director of expansion projects, who was also Charlotte’s first cousin. There were four other elders and two administrative assistants there as well. It was time for their weekly staff meeting, but today they’d be meeting longer than usual, as they had a lot to discuss. Their congregation of nearly four thousand members had grown so rapidly that a few months ago they’d had no choice but to add on a second service for Sunday mornings. Curtis hadn’t necessarily wanted to move forward with this, because it now meant he had to deliver the message at both nine-thirty and eleven, but he also hadn’t wanted to turn anyone away. In the beginning, it had been a pretty tough task, but now he was used to it, and he looked forward to giving his sermon twice every week. There were times when he asked either Minister Simmons or Minister Morgan to step in, but mostly that was only when he was out of town speaking.

“So,” Curtis began. “I first want to thank all of you for your prayers and for asking others to pray along with you. My grandson is doing exceptionally well.”

“Praise God,” Lana said.

Elder Dixon nodded. “Amen.”

“God is good,” Elder Jamison, Minister Simmons, and Minister Morgan said almost in unison.

Everyone else smiled and talked about how happy they were to hear the news.

“Things certainly could have turned out a lot differently,” Curtis said. “But the God we serve had a different plan, and I’m thankful for it.”

There were more Amens and smiles all around.

“So I guess the first order of business is to discuss our early service on Sundays,” he said, looking at his assistant. “Lana?”

“Things are going great,” Lana told him, passing a stack of reports to Anise, who was sitting next to her, so everyone could take a copy. “Everything is running smoothly, and so far no one is complaining about the nine-thirty service ending right away at ten-forty. It’s shorter than the eleven o’clock, but what we’re learning is that folks who have other things to do are very happy about that.”

“This is true,” Elder Dixon said. “As a matter of fact, some have even started comin’ to the early service all the time, mainly because they’re like me: they wanna get in and outta here as fast as possible. I mean, you know how long-winded you can be sometimes, Pastor.”

It was just like Elder Dixon to get everyone going, and of course, everyone laughed. He was like a father to all who he came in contact with, and no matter how many years passed, he still never gained any tact. Whatever came up, came out, and he never apologized for it. Thing was, though, people loved him for it.

“You should be ashamed of yourself,” Lana said.

“Awww, puddin’,” Elder Dixon said. “You know I’m just teasin’ Pastor.”

Lana rolled her eyes toward the ceiling and then down at the report, but everyone knew it wasn’t because of Elder Dixon’s words to Curtis. It was because Lana still pretended she and Elder Dixon weren’t an item. They’d been dating for almost as long as Curtis had known them, but Lana wouldn’t own up to it to anyone. Not even Curtis. He wasn’t sure why she was so ashamed, except maybe because she was in her late sixties and Elder Dixon was in his seventies. Maybe she thought dating was inappropriate at their ages, but Elder Dixon had told Curtis a long time ago that he’d asked Lana to marry him more than once; however, she’d told him she wasn’t ready.

Curtis flipped the document to the second and third pages. “I’m glad this is all working out, but if these attendance and official membership numbers are correct, we’re at a crossroad. It’s great news because we’re still growing at a very rapid rate, but it’s also bad because it means we’ll be out of room again in no time.”

Elder Jamison nodded. “I was thinking the same thing, and that’s why I asked Anise to contact the architects again and to get together with Kendra. Need to start mapping out a new expansion project.”

“I agree,” Curtis said, and then looked at Anise. “So can we get everyone in here fairly soon for early discussions?”

“Hopefully, week after next,” Anise said. “Both the architects who spearheaded the last expansion and our finance guy from the bank.”

“Great,” Curtis said.

“I’m also going to run some initial numbers to get a better idea of what we have in the building fund,” Kendra said. “That way, I can run them by you before our next staff meeting.”

“Sounds good,” Curtis told her. “We have more than enough land to expand, but I guess what we’ll need to determine is how large we want the sanctuary to be this time. Figure out what else we want to add and also decide whether it’s worth expanding or maybe just building from the ground up. That would mean buying a new lot, but we may have to consider it.”

Minister Simmons leaned back in his chair. “I agree, Pastor. The congregation really is growing, and if we only have so much room to expand, we’ll find ourselves having to build again in only a few years.”

“Exactly,” Curtis said. “That’s why we really need to think this through.” Then he addressed Riley. “So how are things on the broadcasting front? I know we’ve been getting lots of positive feedback from viewers, and folks have also been mailing in tithes and offerings.”

“It’s going wonderfully, and I’m excited about our talks with TBN. The cost is still a little pricey, but with the way the ministry is growing, we’ll be airing on TBN in no time. As it is, we’re airing locally once on Saturday and twice on Sunday, and the viewership has increased every month. People are very happy with it, and both the TV and Internet broadcasts are bringing folks here for the live service.”

“All good news,” Curtis said, looking down at the agenda. Then he looked over at Minister Simmons. “And you wanted to discuss a teen Bible study, right?”

“Yes,” he said, leaning forward. “We have a lot of young people here, so I think it would be great if we created a separate Bible study group just for them. Maybe even on a different night.”

Minister Morgan looked at Minister Simmons but didn’t say anything, mainly because Minister Morgan was a laid-back and very quiet man. But Curtis knew he was likely thinking the same as the others in the room: Minister Simmons had come up with yet another idea that would allow him to lead something. He was very ambitious, and Curtis believed he meant well, but sometimes he came across as pushy to the other staff members.

“We definitely have a lot more teens,” Curtis said. “So let’s all take some time to think about it and then revisit this at our next meeting.”

“Sounds good,” Minister Simmons said, but Curtis could tell he was hoping to discuss his proposal now.

Over the next hour, they reviewed and discussed the rest of their agenda. First up were a couple of letters from two members who had concerns about the parking situation. They weren’t too happy because they didn’t like having to wait so long to get in and out of the lot. Curtis didn’t blame them and looked forward to the expansion or new building that was coming. Then they’d discussed the upcoming church picnic, his and Charlotte’s Annual Pastor and Wife Appreciation Day, and a cost-of-living increase for all staff members. Curtis never wanted his people to be unhappy or feel like they could do better working elsewhere, so he made sure this subject was addressed every six months. This was also in addition to annual performance review raises for the administrative staff.

As the meeting adjourned and everyone filed out of the room, one of Lana’s assistants walked in with an envelope for Curtis. She was fairly new, and as she approached Curtis, he could tell she was a bit nervous.

“How’s it going, Shelia?”

“Fine, Pastor. I’m sorry to bother you but because this is an overnight package, and the words
urgent, please open immediately
are written across the top of it, I wanted to get it to you right away. Lana said we should always do that.”

“Of course. And it’s no bother at all.”

Shelia passed the envelope to him and turned to leave.

“So is everything working out with your new position?” Curtis asked her.

“It is, and I’m really happy to be working here. I appreciate the opportunity.”

“Glad to hear it. Is everyone treating you well?”

“Yes, very much so.”

“Good. And thanks for bringing me this.”

“You’re welcome.”

Curtis hadn’t been expecting any packages or envelopes from anyone, so he had no idea who this was from. But as he ripped it open, his phone rang. It was Matthew.

“Hey son, how are you?”

“I’m good, Dad.”

“Are you at the airport?”

“Yep.”

“No delays?”

“Nope. Everything’s on schedule.”

“So did your mom call you?”

“Yeah, and I sort of lost it, Dad. I didn’t mean to, but Mom is so wrong for the way she’s been acting.”

“I wish she’d stop being so overbearing with Racquel and Vanessa, but you know your mother.”

“Knowing who Mom is, is what I’m afraid of. She doesn’t listen to anyone, and I’m just worried things’ll get worse.”

Curtis pulled a letter from the mysterious envelope. “Well, let’s just pray things get better.”

“I don’t know, because just like I told you, she even tried to talk me out of coming home again.”

“You didn’t tell her I was the one who made your reservation, did you?”

“Nope. I just told her I’d call you when I got to the airport.”

“She’d be through if she knew you called me while she was downstairs on the treadmill this morning. But I totally understand how you feel and why you want to see your son. School is certainly important, but you’re also a father now.”

“Thanks for having my back, Dad.”

“Anytime.”

“Okay, then, I’ll see you soon. Love you.”

“Love you, too, son.”

Curtis set the phone down on the table and nearly broke out in a sweat. He’d been listening to everything Matthew had said, but he’d also been reading the anonymous letter at the same time. This just couldn’t be. Not after so many years had passed, and he had moved completely on with his life. But nonetheless, someone was out to get him—again. They were threatening to share some pretty damaging truths, those he’d worked hard to forget and those his new congregation and not even Charlotte knew anything about. The killing part was, Curtis had no idea who was behind all this, so all he could do was trust, pray, and depend on God to fix it. He was so tired of dealing with one scandal after another, tired of hurting his children and tired of paying such hefty prices for all his past sins. There was something else that made him uneasy about this particular letter, too. Whomever had mailed it wasn’t doing it for money. They were doing it merely as a way to bring him down from the “pedestal he’d been perched high in the sky on for way too long.” Worse, the letter went on to say, “And just so you know, I don’t want or need anything from you. I’m simply going to destroy your perfect, little privileged life…b
e
cause
I can…and more important, because you deserve it.”

Curtis reread the last line again and finally dropped the letter onto the conference room table. He’d done a lot of dirt in his life, but if anyone ever found out about…

If anyone ever learned that he’d…

Life would never be the same, and he’d be ruined.