Free The Bishop's Daughter by Tiffany L. Warren Page A

blood of Jesus is against you. I’m gone pray for that girl you trying to coreupt.
    Tyrone 1:00 a.m.
    Keep the real talk coming. I be seeing girls from the club in the choir stand every Sunday!
    Jia 2:14 a.m.
    Oh for heaven’s sake, Sister Mary. You are hurting my eyes with all that bad spelling. And if you hate this blog so much why do you keep coming back?

Chapter Fourteen
    Emoni
    F or Darrin’s first assignment on the Freedom of Life newsletter, I’ve invited him to cover a fund-raiser dinner for the community recreation center. Daddy is speaking, and it should be an easy way for Darrin to showcase his writing skills.
    It also gives me another chance to show him what he’s missing out on by not getting with me. I overheard Dorcas telling one of her friends that she and Darrin had gone out for tea one afternoon. Supposedly, it was their first date.
    If I have anything to do with it, it’ll be their last.
    Even Daddy brought up the new couple. He said at the dinner table, “I hear Dorcas is dating that young man who got baptized at Bible study.”
    “Is she? Wow, that was fast,” Sascha replied with a laugh.
    “Well, he seems like a decent young man” was Daddy’s judgment.
    Sascha added, “Emoni, I thought you wanted him, or somebody else, what with this new look you got goin’.”
    “What? I haven’t paid him any attention. I can’t even tell you what he looks like.”
    Everyone sat at the table giving me a blank stare. They can go on with that. I’m not that obvious.
    I’ve picked out a black and silver gown to wear to the fund-raiser; it accentuates all of my curves and cinches in at my waist.
    “Whoa,” says Tyler as he peeks into my room. “That dress is nice. What’s gotten into you lately?”
    “Nothing. Just trying to step my game up a little bit. What about you? Aren’t you going to the fund-raiser?”
    “Nah. I gave my ticket away to one of the deacons.”
    “But you go every year.”
    He nods slowly. “I know. But Pastor David asked me to go with him to speak to troubled youths at a detention center.”
    “Pastor David?” I flinch at the informal title for a supposed man of God.
    “That’s what he likes to be called. He says it makes him more approachable.”
    It hurts me to hear my brother speak about this Pastor David with the same respect and reverence that he used to have for our father.
    “You really like Pastor David, huh?”
    A smile spreads across my brother’s face. “Sis, you have no idea. His vision is my vision. We are on the same page.”
    “You and Daddy aren’t?”
    “We aren’t even in the same book.”
    Tyler kisses me on the cheek and leaves my bedroom. I can hear him bouncing down the stairs, taking three at a time like he used to do when we were little.
    My next visitor is Sascha. She’s wearing a skintight pink suit and has her hair in an updo. Against everyone’s wishes, she’s going to tonight’s festivities with Kevin.
    “Are you going to wear a scarf to cover up that sucker bite on your neck?” I ask.
    Sascha pushes me out of the mirror. “I thought that faded.” She inspects her neck closely. “There’s nothing here, Emoni. You get on my nerves.”
    “Scared you, didn’t I? You need to be more careful.”
    Sascha rolls her eyes at me and goes downstairs. I follow her, and the entire family, minus Tyler, piles into Daddy’s Cadillac.
    After a twenty-minute drive through little to no traffic, we make our entrance into the ballroom. Immediately, I scan the room for Darrin, who is already seated at our reserved table. He and Dorcas are having an animated conversation. I feel my temperature start to rise.
    I stride confidently over to them. “Darrin, aren’t you supposed to be reporting on this event?”
    “Wow … uh, good evening to you, too, boss.”
    I don’t crack even a hint of a smile. “Good evening, Brother Darrin. I hope you’re taking notes.”
    He pulls a little notebook from the inside jacket pocket of his tuxedo.