The Daughter They Abandoned Twice novel · Chapter 19 of 24

Chapter 19: The Congregation

The treasurer on the phone had asked for four days to read her own books before she would hand them over.

She had said she would bring them to church on Sunday, in front of everyone, where nobody could call them forged.

So on Sunday morning the Open Door Fellowship was full.

Marlene had made sure of it.

She had called every family in the parish herself, I heard later.

She told them a poor sick girl was spreading lies, and they should come show whose side God was on.

I sat in the last pew in a borrowed navy dress.

Lorna sat on my left with her purse in her lap, and Levi sat on my right in his gray suit.

Two men in plain jackets stood quietly by the back doors.

They were from the state bureau of investigation, and one of them carried a folded paper in his breast pocket.

Up front, Marlene stood in a lavender cardigan beside the pulpit with her hands folded.

Her silver curls were set.

Her blue eyes were wet, and she looked kind.

She had not yet seen me.

"We have prayed all week," she told the congregation, in that warm, low voice, "for a girl who lost her way. Some of you saw her on the news."

A murmur went round the pews.

"I raised that child," Marlene said. "I loved her when no one else did. I'd ask you to pray with me, that she comes home before she hurts anyone else."

She lifted her eyes to the back of the church.

She saw me.

For one moment her smile stayed exactly where it was.

"Why, there she is," Marlene said softly. "Hallie-bug. You came."

Every head in the sanctuary turned.

I stood up.

My knees were not steady, and I put my hand on the pew in front of me.

I could feel Levi's shoulder against mine, warm, and I felt Lorna's hand slip into mine.

"I came to say something," I said.

"Of course you did, honey."

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