The Right and the Real Read Free Page B

got back from the beach on Monday, he’d have realized he’d made a huge mistake. We’d be fine. We had to be.
    I snuck back inside and got my purse and coat from the meeting room. Dad and Mira weren’t taking a real honeymoon right now because they planned to go on a three-week church retreat in the summer. Tonight and tomorrow night, they were staying at a bed and breakfast and I was sleeping over at Krista’s house. She had my SUV,and I’d ridden to the church with Dad and Mira. I texted her to come get me.
    Shivering outside the R&R, I tried to tell myself I was just cold, but it felt more like that deep-inside-you shakiness from fear rather than from the weather. Part of me still hoped Dad would come after me, but I was also a little afraid that if he did, he might bring disciples with him to drag me back inside, so I stood in the shadows. The doors stayed firmly closed, though, and a little piece of my heart cracked. I held my breath to keep from giving in to racking sobs, but I couldn’t stop tears from running silently down my face.
    The overcast night should’ve made my surroundings dark and foreboding to match my mood, but instead, the church parking lot glowed like the Main Street Electrical Parade at Disneyland. Dozens of security lights flooded the church grounds, bouncing off windshields and mud puddles.
    The concrete building stood on what had once been a strawberry field between Portland and the city of Gresham. Off to the right of the parking lot, two guards protected the entrance to the trailer park and the driveway leading to the Teacher’s mansion. A six-foot fence with three rows of barbed wire encircled the residential compound.
    Josh’s dad was one of the disciples, and his family lived in a double-wide trailer about three-quarters of the way down the little gravel road. Once, when his parents had gone away on a mission trip, he’d convinced the guards I’d come over for Bible study. Instead, we’d watched movies and eaten frozen pizza with Derrick.
    I thought about walking out to the street to meet Krista, but I stayed put in case Josh managed to make some excuse to his parents and came to check on me. And then, like I’d conjured him up, I felt his hand on my arm. I whirled around to face him. “Oh, I’m so glad—”
    “Jamie. You shouldn’t have done that in there,” he said. “You should’ve just signed. It doesn’t have to mean anything.”
    “But I thought if I refused, Dad would choose me.”
    “They’ll never let him choose you,” Josh said. “The Teacher has plans for your dad’s inheritance.”
    I didn’t know for sure how much my grandpa had left Dad when he died last year, but I found it hard to believe it was more than five or six hundred thousand dollars total. And Grandpa had set it up in a trust that would only pay Dad a small allowance each month for the rest of his life, because sometimes he wasn’t the most responsible guy in the world, and Grandpa knew it.
    “It’s not a lot of money, Josh.”
    From the first day Dad had gone to the church, he’d flaunted his wealth, putting a hundred-dollar bill in the collection plate. I knew he’d done it so they’d notice him—and, boy, did they ever.
    “My parents told me the Teacher got your dad to sign a monthly pledge to the church,” Josh said.
    “Are you serious?” I asked. “Why didn’t you tell me before?”
    He shifted his weight and wouldn’t meet my eye. “I didn’t want you to worry.”
    “We’re talking about my life here, Josh. You should’ve told me.”
    “I know.…”
    Krista’s headlights swung across the entrance to the church, lighting up Josh’s face, making him look ghostly. His hand shot out, and he yanked me to him, kissing me so hard he bruised my lips against his teeth. Then he shoved me away.
    “Jamie,” he said, “forgive me.”
    “For what?” I asked. But he’d already slipped back inside the church.

chapter 3
    I ALMOST RAN AFTER JOSH, BUT KRISTA BEEPED the