Holy hill church
Grace sat down and listened to the speaker during the Bible study section. She could only hear half of what was being said. What her son said to her continued to play in her head. Mr sky was seated next to her, and he could see her discomfort.
"You don't have to worry about this bit of money; I will sort it out," Mr Sky said. He was angry at his son for putting pressure on his wife, but he could not deny that it felt good to have her worry about him.
Grace nodded and turned her attention to the man standing on the pulpit teaching. "You shall tell the truth, and it shall set you free. The tool the enemy uses to hold you captive is lies and cover-up. You would remain in the shame and guilt so long as you tried to lie to yourself first..." The teacher was still speaking, but Grace could not hear anything else. She was back to a night eighteen years ago when her husband had confessed what happened.
She had been angry and frustrated. It took him over a month to tell her the situation of things. She could still remember how her husband cried his eyes out. He could not tell what came over him, but she realised something was wrong when he narrated the situation.
That night Mr Sky had attended a party that lasted late into the night, so he had decided to sleep back at the hotel. Mr Sky did not touch any alcohol that night, but he said he felt his vision blurry in the middle of the party, so he decided to take a short rest in his room. Unfortunately, his Secretary followed him back and tried to seduce him, but he was still rational and sent her out.
Then there was a knock on the door; Mr Sky was surprised to see his young teenage student in the hotel.
"What are you doing here?" Although he knew something was wrong with him, he could not act so mean to her.
"I was sent away from the house I used to work, a friend recommended me to work here as a cleaner, and I saw you..." The teenage girl was still talking, but he could no longer hear her. No matter how he tried, he had lost control over himself and forced himself on her. The following day, when he saw what had happened, he felt too ashamed and tried to hide it from his wife until someone threatened to tell his wife about the incident.
If the person had wanted money or anything else, Mr Sky would have given him, but the person wanted to become his kept mistress. This had been very hard, so he turned and confessed to his wife. Grace was disappointed, but she had picked his words, "for some reason, she looked just like you, it's not that I am trying to make excuses for what he did, but it is true," her husband said.
Grace, as a pharmacist, has heard the rumour of an experimental drug that was banned from circulating and could only be sold on the black market. Although he might not have drank alcohol, she knew the drug could work well in fruit juice. There was also a chance of overthinking, but she immediately started the investigation. At that time, Mr Sky had already fired the Secretary for trying to seduce him. Fortunately, it was only a few weeks since the incident, and soon, she found a waiter that confessed to adding something to his drink. It happened that the Secretary was indeed the person that had paid him.
It took a few days to find the Secretary, the case was handed over to the police, and since the incident had led ro rape, Mr Sky had even turned himself in. Mr Sky's family had used their influence to suppress the news from coming out. Two months after the incident, when they found Maria, the teenage girl was already pregnant. The court has acquainted Mr Sky as a victim of the incident. Since the girl was already pregnant, she had been in charge of taking care of her. Their belief did not let them abort the baby. She had set up a charity organisation to ensure that all the funds for the mother and child were provided. Grace ensured that the news never got out; she thought she did a perfect cover-up but never expected it to come back and slap her in the face.
Her husband was a scheme victim, but she doubted anyone would believe their story, so she kept it hidden. But now that she thought about it, it wasn't easy to keep something secret.
"Let us do like the girl said," Grace made up her mind.
"No," Mr Sky rejected.
"This secret had been buried for years; the girl is right; let us come forward and tell the truth. Then, of course, there will be those who would not believe us, but we would have a clear conscience," Grace said firmly.
Mr Sky did not like the plan, but he knew well enough that his wife would not change her mind. "Let us do this together," Grace whispered to him; she held his hand and smiled. She knew that this might put her family in a difficult position, but she did not want to be her family to be threatened by the secret again.
Grace was invited to the pew to take the closing prayer at that time. Grace smiled at her husband and stepped forward. Mr Sky knew that she was going to say everything.
Grace walked over to the platform and led the closing prayer. "If you are not in such a hurry, I have something I would love to share with you," Grace announced. She was scared she would not have the courage to want to come forward after this time. But she did not wish for the burden of what happened years ago to continue to hunt her home.
Many people were surprised; a few had things to do, so they left. Some felt she was about to preach another sermon, so they left. a Majority stayed, some out of concern, others just wanted to listen and thought it was an opportunity to hear her speak. Some did it to show her respect, but they were in for the shock of their lives, whatever their reasons were to listen.
Since it had got to this point, Mr Sky got up and walked over to her. It was his mistake, to begin with; he should have been cautious at the dinner party years ago. He should have sent the teenage girl away when he noticed something was wrong with him.