Jacob’s eyes closed as both Father Gabriel and Dylan asked, “What?”
I collapsed in Jacob’s arms.
CHAPTER 23
Jacob
What the fuck is happening?
I scooped Sara’s limp body into my arms, her cheek against my chest. With everything in me I wanted to run out of this house, into the street, and beyond, yet I knew with Father Gabriel and Richards demanding answers, we’d never make it. Sara and I would be dead before we escaped this room.
“What the fuck? She’s pregnant?” Richards asked, his volume louder than necessary.
“Dylan! Brother Jacob, Brother Elijah will take her,” Father Gabriel offered, nodding toward Sara.
I readjusted Sara in my arms. “She’s fine. I have her.”
“For God’s sake,” Father Gabriel said, “at least put her on the sofa.”
I turned to the wall behind me and saw a sofa I hadn’t noticed when we arrived. Nodding, I gently laid her on the soft leather and smoothed her hair away from her face. For only a millisecond her eyes opened and I knew the truth—she was awake. I feigned a smile at her, wanting her to know how proud I was of her, and what a great job I thought she’d done. Damn, I’d wanted to pick her up and swing her in my arms when she’d called Richards Brother, but now . . . now . . . it didn’t fucking matter. Now it was all falling apart around us.
“Brother Jacob.” Father Gabriel demanded my attention.
I turned and straightened my stance, my leg against the sofa, not willing to leave Sara.
“Did you authorize your wife to stop taking her medicine? As an Assemblyman, you should know this is too early. She’s only been on it for less than a year.”
I exhaled. “No, I didn’t. She’s been counseling a female follower who works at the day care. After visiting the day care a couple of times, she began talking about children.”
Richards shook his head in disbelief.
I went on, “I told her we’d decided to wait.” I shifted my stance and exhaled. “I didn’t know she’d stopped taking her birth control until Thursday night, after prayer meeting.”
Father Gabriel’s dark eyes opened in understanding as his brow disappeared behind his un-slicked-back hair. “I see.”
Richards glared in my direction, sending more daggers with each second. If his uncle weren’t right next to him, I suspected he’d try to give his right hook another workout. “You fucking beat her because she’s pregnant?”
“No,” I replied matter-of-factly. “I didn’t beat her. I corrected her, and not because she’s pregnant, but because in The Light, it’s not her place to make such decisions. It’s mine. She was willful. Her thoughts are my thoughts. She was disobedient not to share her plans for a child and make an unauthorized decision . . .” The entire time I spoke, regurgitating Father Gabriel’s rules, Father Gabriel pressed his lips together and nodded, while the vein in Richards’s neck pulsated and his nostrils flared.
Richards stood and walked around his chair to the window. The large pane looked out over the backyards, pool, and tennis courts, and beyond, to the outbuildings and landing strip.
“Dylan,” Father Gabriel said, “do you have anything to say?”
He quickly turned. “Oh, yes, I have a shit-ton of things to say.”
“Father,” I began, trying to stop Richards’s speech. With the pounding of my heart, the heart attack I’d mentioned to Sara earlier this morning seemed as if it was about to happen. “I’m not questioning your decision. I agree that I momentarily put my wife and her behavior above my duties. I assure you, I bought supplies in Fairbanks. Brother Noah can verify the purchases. Brother Micah can verify the supplies from the manifest, as the plane was unloaded. However, if I may, I beseech you to reconsider Sara’s fate. You gave me a wife and instructed me to bring her into The Light. As you can see, I did that. Even without her medication, Sara is a woman of The Light—part of the chosen. If you find fault in my behavior, correct me. Sara hasn’t been well. The morning sickness has been severe. Please let me take her back to the Northern Light, to our home, to Dr. Newton.”
Richards’s hands came together, the clap echoing as another one filled the air, their recurrence coming faster and faster. “Bravo, Brother, for an abuser you almost sound sincere.”
“Shut the hell up!” My nerves were fried. “You want her back. Why? You don’t care about her. If you did, she’d still be with you. If you did, she wouldn’t be with me!”
“You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about!”
Father Gabriel’s hand went in the air. “Enough. I’ve had enough of this pissing contest. Sara is staying here.”
I clenched my teeth at the pain as he ripped my heart from my chest. After closing my eyes, I opened them in time to see Father Gabriel nod. I turned as Brother Uriel lifted a syringe from the bookcase.
“No! Wait! What the hell is that?” I asked as I moved between him and Sara.
“Step back, Brother,” Brother Elijah warned.