Dillon, what happened?” Porsha yelled. “What did you do?”
“I took care of things just like I said I would. You can’t play with somebody like Raven. You have to deal with her like the enemy she is or suffer the consequences.”
Dillon drove out of the church parking lot, and Porsha was still trying to figure out how Dillon had exposed Raven to the FBI.
“Why didn’t you tell me what was going on?” she asked. “Why didn’t you prepare me?”
“Because I didn’t want you involved. I just wanted to protect you from Raven. I wanted to stop her from ever trying to blackmail either one of us again.”
“I get that, Dillon, but why was the FBI there?”
“Because I called them.”
“Why? And is that the reason you made a copy of those documents Raven gave me?”
Dillon pulled up to the stoplight and looked at her. “Baby, I really don’t want to give you any more details. Just know that Raven will never bother you again. She’s going back to prison, and that’ll be the end of it.”
“How did you know she was going to steal money from the church?” she asked.
“I just did. I used to be married to Raven, remember? I know how she thinks and what fuels her criminal side. I also hired a private investigator to follow her.”
“You what? When?”
“Sweetheart, I’m begging you. Please let this be.”
“No, Dillon, I want to know and I want to know now.”
“I hired him months ago, but it wasn’t until these last couple of weeks that he saw Raven spending a lot of time at your CFO’s house. Then he learned that she was staying overnight sometimes.”
As Dillon drove through the intersection, Porsha looked straight ahead. Raven had actually been sleeping with John? And used him to steal money for her? Porsha knew Raven was capable of a lot of things, but this wasn’t something she’d expected.
“Well, who is this D.C. person, and what does he have to do with any of this?” she asked.
“You’re just not going to stop, are you?”
“No, and if you don’t want to answer my questions, you can just drop me off at home and leave.”
“D.C. is the loan shark that you’ve heard Raven talking about in her sermons. You know, when she shares about how she worked for one and stole from him.”
“Yeah, and?”
“Well, D.C. is also one of my brother-in-law’s best friends. And even though D.C.’s profession isn’t legal, he still loves and respects my dad, too. He always has.”
“Are you saying that Levi and your dad asked D.C. to do this?”
“No, neither one of them know anything about this. But when Raven made those rape accusations and got all those rumors started about my dad, I knew it was time to stop her. So I called D.C., told him what was up, and we came up with a plan. And like I said earlier, I knew it would only be a matter of time before she figured out a way to steal money. I also knew her CFO would be the best person to help her.”
“Is that why she cleared your dad’s name?”
“Yep. D.C. told her he would give her more time to pay, if she did.”
“And Raven was that afraid of D.C.?”
Dillon looked at Porsha again. “Yeah, and everyone else had better be afraid of him, too. Because D.C. means what he says, and Raven knows his history. When she worked for him, she saw what happened to people who owed him money but didn’t pay.”
“This is crazy,” Porsha said.
“Maybe, but it was very necessary.”
“But how did you guys make John turn on Raven?”
“It wasn’t like it was all that hard. D.C. just waited for him to get home and then went inside his garage. And pointed a gun to his head. After that, they went into his house, and D.C. told him how everything was going to play out. And that if he did what he was told, D.C. would let him live. That was two nights ago, and then before daylight yesterday morning, some of D.C.’s boys went over and set up a hidden video camera in John’s bedroom.”
“Poor John,” Porsha said, because he’d always been such a nice guy. Porsha was sure he still was, but it was just that he’d gotten caught up with Raven.
“He’ll be fine,” Dillon said. “I mean, I’m sorry D.C. had to scare him the way he did, but it was the only way to get him to make that video and turn over all of Raven’s and the church’s financial information. He met with the FBI early this morning.”
“Will he be charged with anything?”
“Not at all. They’ve already promised him full immunity. Although I will say this: When you told me that Raven was blackmailing you for the same amount that D.C. had told her she owed him, I thought maybe she hadn’t stolen any money from the church. I thought she was just planning to get it from you. But then when D.C. asked John what Raven was up to, he told everything. That gun D.C. was holding made all the difference.”
“So Raven was going to get money from me, and she had John stealing from the church?”
“Yep, and I’m not shocked about it at all. I tried to tell you who Raven was and that you couldn’t trust her.”
“Yeah, you did, and you were right. But that’s not my biggest worry right now.”
“Then what is?”
“That I still can’t trust you, either.”
Dillon frowned and looked at her and then turned his attention back to the road. “Why?”
“Because you had a private investigator following Raven, and you didn’t tell me. Then, when I told you some guy had shown up at Bible study and Raven had gotten all nervous about it, you acted like you didn’t know who I was talking about. But that was D.C., wasn’t it?”
“Baby, I already told you that I didn’t want to involve you in this. D.C. is a professional criminal, and the less you know about him the better.”
“But you still lied to me.”
“Not because I wanted to.”
“But you did, and you never thought twice about it.”
“You’re taking this the wrong way.”
“Really? Because it sounds to me like you’re still the same ol’ Dillon, trying to get revenge on your ex-wife.”
Dillon stopped at another light. “So would you have rather I just sat back and let her take three hundred thousand dollars from you? Or what if she’d still leaked that video?”
“But you know she’s a felon.”
“Yeah, that’s kinda my point. Raven is capable of doing anything.”
“And it doesn’t bother you that you’re sending her back to prison?”
“Are you saying she shouldn’t be punished for stealing money from your church members? Because that’s exactly who that money belongs to.”
“No, I’m not. I just hate that things turned out the way they did. That you used a hardened criminal to threaten John’s life, and that you have no remorse about the revenge you just got on Raven.”
“I won’t even lie. I don’t.”
“Then it’s like I said, you’re the same ol’ Dillon.”
“You just don’t see how serious this is. The kind of damage Raven was getting ready to cause. Not just to the church, but to you and me, too. And I wasn’t going to lie down and take that. I wasn’t letting her get away with it.”
Porsha turned toward the passenger window and didn’t say anything else for the rest of their drive. What a day this had been, and she was burdened with so many emotions. On the one hand, she was glad Raven had been caught—both for trying to blackmail her and for embezzling money from the church. But on the other, she was hurt by Dillon’s lies and deceit. She loved him, but what if the next time someone crossed him, he called D.C. to handle it? So she just didn’t know what to think or how to take this. She wanted to believe that Dillon had only called D.C. because there had been no other way to stop Raven. But what if his sole motive had been to get back at Raven for taking half of his money during the divorce? He’d also had to pay her half of the equity from their house. Or what if he was still upset about his church burning to the ground while Raven’s church had been thriving since she’d founded it? Raven had never stopped believing that Dillon was responsible for that fire, either, and now, sadly, Porsha wondered the same thing. So much so that she wanted to cry because in her heart, she knew Dillon still wasn’t living his life right—at least not as much as he claimed. And Porsha couldn’t spend the rest of her days wondering what he might do next. It was just too much to deal with and too much to take on. Porsha wished things could be different because she did believe he loved her, but she knew it was time to slow down the rekindling of their relationship. If they could somehow work things out and build from there that would be great, but if they couldn’t, she would accept that outcome as well. Because in the end, she just wanted to be happy and live in peace. Joy and no drama was all she wanted from now on.