“If magic is real, it won’t do that.”
“Of course it would,” Soraya said. “Everythinghas a cost. You can’t just cast a spell and get everything you want. You can’t just make everything work the way you want it to and not have any ... side effects. You can’t.”
By trying to get revenge, they’d done damage.
Soraya had known they were messing with real power, and she’d let herself get sucked into it anyway because she was so angry. Because she was so ... so ...
“Holy shit.”
She looked up when Nora swore and saw an orange glow in the distance. Her heart stalled, and when they rounded the corner, she could see for sure that the glow was flames. And that those flames were enveloping David’s house.
Nora stopped the car in the middle of the road, and Soraya scrambled to undo her seat belt, then ran down the street toward the fire. There was a police car in the driveway with the lights on, red and blue, but no fire trucks yet. It took her a moment to register that the kids were standing on the front lawn, and David was sitting there, holding something against his arm. The cops had someone in handcuffs.
“What’s happening?” she shouted, running to the scene.
The world was on fire. Hell was on earth.
She’d had sex with someone she wasn’t married to. It couldn’t be a coincidence.
It couldn’t all be a coincidence.
“Ma’am, stay back.” An officer held her hand out, trying to stop Soraya’s forward motion.
“Those are my kids!” Soraya said.
That made the officer relax, just a fraction, and Soraya went past her to grab both boys, holding them tight.
“Mom, oh my gosh. Pastor John lost his mind. He lit the house on fire, and he tried to shoot Dad.”
“What?” She whipped around to see that Levi was right. John was, in fact, the man in handcuffs being pushed into the back of the police car.
She could hear sirens in the distance, coming toward the house. Everything was a blur, and they were herded away from the residence and out into the street, just as the flames burst through the windows. She clung to her sons, David standing distant from them.
“Look what you did.” She turned to look at David, who had an expression of horror on his face. She’d been talking to herself, but she knew she couldn’t take all the blame. He was the one who’d slept with John’s wife.
“I know I . . .”
She moved closer to him. “You’re bleeding.”
“I was shot,” he said.
“David, this ... this is not okay. All of this. It’s not okay. You need help.”
“I know I do.”
He sounded genuinely contrite. Was it the house burning down? His kids being in danger? His own life being in danger?
Was it having his facade go up in flames along with everything else? He couldn’t hide anymore. Everyone knew.
Was that the reason he was finally admitting it?
The neighbors were out on the streets now, too, watching the house burn. They were on a stage. They had been ever since David’s video had played at church, and now it was all crashing down on them.
“I’m sorry, Mom.” Levi held on to her more tightly. Jaden didn’t say anything. He just let her hug him.
“I forgive you,” she said. It was easy to forgive her kids.
She’d been part of raising them in the place that had taught them to make her the villain for what she’d done. She’d made other women in her situation the villain in their hearing.
