Chapter 4 - The Confrontation in the KitchenWhen I burst through Sister Martha’s front door, Marcus and Derek were standing in her modest kitchen, holding a clipboard with legal transfer documents.
Derek snapped his head around, his eyes widening in alarm. “Naomi? What are you doing here?”
“What am I doing here?” My voice echoed off the floral wallpaper, vibrating with a cold, righteous fury that made both men instinctively take a step back. “What are you doing terrorizing an elderly woman in her own home?”
Marcus recovered quickly, plastering on his best pastoral smile. “Now, Naomi, calm down. Sister Martha was just exercising her faith by sowing a seed into the expansion fund—aren't you, Martha?”
Sister Martha looked at me with tear-filled eyes, shaking her head weakly. “I... I didn't want to sign, Naomi. They said God would judge me.”
I stepped between Marcus and Sister Martha, snatching the clipboard right out of Derek’s hands. I ripped the transfer papers straight down the middle in one violent, satisfying tear.
Derek shrieked, lunging forward. “Are you out of your mind?! That’s a legally binding agreement!”
“It’s a criminal fraud,” I shouted, pointing my finger right into Derek’s face. “Forged documents, spiritual extortion, and theft under false pretenses. And you two are going to prison for every single page of it.”
Marcus’s face turned an ugly, mottled red. The mask of the pious pastor shattered completely, revealing the desperate, cornered con man underneath.
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“You ungrateful bitch,” Marcus hissed, stepping up to me. “You think you can destroy everything I’ve built just because you found a few paperwork errors? Without me, you’re nothing! You’re just a pastor’s wife living off my charity!”
“I built this ministry with my prayers, Marcus,” I said quietly, looking straight into his terrified eyes. “And I’m going to dismantle your empire with the law.”
