“I’m sorry . . .”
“Don’t be. You heard Raquel. She wanted to help Sara. I should have figured. I mean, I guess banishment is a very viable option when you accept a seat on the Assembly. It’s not like seats become vacant because the previous Assemblyman resigns. The thing was, I was proud to be part of the chosen, and after the life Raquel had suffered when she was younger, I was proud that through me she could be part of the chosen too.”
The airwaves fell silent as I thought about his honesty. No doubt the stress and turmoil, as well as holding his dying wife’s hand, had fueled his words.
“Who else?” I asked.
“What?”
“I know about some of the followers, but I wasn’t privy to any of the chosen who were banished. Who else on the Assembly or Commission has been banished?”
“Well,” he said, “I’ve never known of anyone on the Commission. The first Assemblyman I know of, after I was on the Assembly, was Brother Joel and his wife, Sister Chloe. You can imagine how difficult that was.”
I shook my head. “Was I there? When did that happen? I don’t recognize their names.”
“Oh, you’re right. It was right before you came, and you probably don’t recognize their names because no one is supposed to talk about it. Probably your coming was one of the reasons it was able to happen.”
“I don’t understand. Who were they?”
“Brother Joel was a pilot. It’s a job with a lot of scrutiny, as you know. The thing was, no one ever suspected Joel of anything. After all, he’d been raised in The Light, not actually in The Light itself. Before The Light even existed, he followed Father Gabriel as he preached around the country. Timothy and Lilith were some of his first devoted followers. They took Joel everywhere with them. He’d known Father Gabriel most of his life.”
“Wait a minute,” I said. “Joel was Timothy and Lilith’s son? He was the pilot who was banished just before my arrival?”
No wonder they hate me.
“Yes, and Chloe was the daughter of Brother Raphael and Sister Rebecca.”
“Holy shit! What happened?”
“The Commission was given evidence that Joel was in contact with people outside The Light. I never heard the particulars. It went over the Assembly straight to the Commission—”
“Which contained two of their fathers,” I added in amazement.
“Yes.”
“And Timothy and Raphael went along with it?”
“They believe that Father Gabriel’s word is divine.”
This news definitely shed new light. Timothy and Lilith disliked me because I’d replaced their banished son. If I hadn’t been available, Joel might have been forgiven or found innocent.
“We’re making our approach in Anchorage,” I said. “I need to talk to the tower. Soon we’ll learn more.”
“Thank Father Gabriel,” Benjamin said under his breath.
I looked back. His eyes were closed and he was clutching Raquel’s hand. I doubted he even realized what he’d just said.
CHAPTER 34
Sara/Stella
From my vantage point on the floor in the back of the SUV, I couldn’t tell where we were going. When the SUV finally stopped, I tried to see where we were. It was the rumble of the garage door that let me know we were inside a new building.
When the back door opened, I looked up at the blue eyes of my dreams. He offered me his hand; however, in those piercing eyes, I didn’t see the Dylan I’d known. It seemed as though his learning my deception had changed something. What I witnessed was a growing harshness I didn’t recognize.
Was this the hard-ass Dr. Tracy Howell had warned me about?
“Dylan,” I began, meeting his gaze. “What happened? Where are we?”
As he helped me from the SUV, his head tilted and his lips formed an unnatural grin. “I thought you weren’t supposed to question. Maybe I should correct you. That’s what happens according to the doctrine you’ve been spouting all night, isn’t it?”
“That’s not you,” I pleaded. “Tell me the truth, and I’ll tell you the truth.”
Grasping my upper arm, he forcefully ushered me up some steps and through a door into a very nice house. Judging from the amount of time we’d been in the SUV, we were still in Bloomfield Hills. With each light switch that he pushed, the beautiful interior came to life.
Once we were in the designer kitchen, he led me to the table and motioned for me to sit in one of the chairs. For a brief moment, I considered refusing, but the Sara side of me obeyed. The lashes on my backside were no longer as big a concern as the man who had now taken me somewhere that I wondered whether Jacob would be able to find.
In a matter of minutes, Dylan’s demeanor had morphed into something neither part of me recognized, but he seemed to be the kind of person the Sara part had more experience dealing with, someone who expected obedience.
Pacing near my chair, Dylan appeared to collect his thoughts and rein in his words.