Never Keeping Secrets Read Online Free Page A

ain’t on the same Christian path as you and it’s time to leave them behind.”
    Those were words Latoya James wished her fiancé, Taquan, had never let leave his lips or even enter his thoughts. But he did. Hours earlier he dropped all of that weight on her shoulders as they strolled out of church after Bible study.
    Humph, I’m trying to get filled up with the Lord and he disturbed my spirit with foolishness. Negro, please.
    But his words were still on her mind and keeping her from sleep.
    She kicked the sheet off her legs and sat up on the edge of the bed, running her slender fingers through her scalp to the trimmed ends of her shoulder-length hair. The walls of the stylishly decorated bedroom felt like they were closing in on her. She glanced at the clock.
    It was almost four in the morning.
    â€œDammit,” she swore and then waved her hands in frustration at herself for swearing.
    No one ever said being saved was easy.
    And Latoya should know. After years of growing up in a family with very strict religious beliefs she had learned early to play across the line separating sinning and being saved. For years she lived a double life of the good daughter for her parents and the wild child with her friends—and that was long after she was supposedly grown and should’ve been able to stand in the shoes of the woman she wanted to be. If anything, all of the lying and sneaking pushed her so far over the edge of sinning and away from her church upbringing that she felt lost to the woman in the mirror.
    And her sins were many.
    Losing her virginity in her teens and carrying on a secret affair with the minister of the church . . . in the church.
    And that was just the beginning of it all. It was a very slippery slope when nothing mattered but what you wanted.
    Lying and sneaking.
    Abortions.
    Secret boyfriends.
    Falsely accusing the father of her child of rape.
    And then selling false stories about the platinum-selling rap star to the tabloids to ensure he backed off his fight to snatch custody of their daughter away from her.
    Purposefully trying to seduce Taquan to break his vow of celibacy during the first weeks of their relationship had been the act to make her check herself and fall on her knees before the altar. She had sworn in that moment to forge a closer relationship with God and to live by His word.
    Latoya glanced over her shoulder to make sure her one-year-old daughter, Tiffany, was still asleep in her mahogany crib. Looking at the way her daughter pouted her heart-shaped mouth even in her sleep, brought a soft smile to her lips as she left the room and walked down the hall to the spacious living room of the apartment she shared with Danielle and Keesha.
    Everything about the apartment spoke of comfort and luxury. Hardwood floors. High ceilings. Plush furnishings. Style. Substance. Completely away from any of their lives growing up in Newark.
    And completely out of any of our budgets .
    There was a hefty rent to go along with it. No wonder Danielle used to run through men like they were her personal ATMs. How else could she afford the rent alone?
    Latoya felt guilty at the judgment she cast on her friend. Judgment fed by the man she loved. And too much pillow talk about her friends had fed his dislike of them. And all the pillow talk had been easy because they needed to fill the gap left by their celibacy.
    But she hadn’t laid out all of her own secrets to him and had no plans to do so.
    Latoya grimaced as she made her way to the kitchen, opening the glass-front refrigerator to pull out a bottle of water. The coolness of the liquid felt good going down her throat as the heat of her dilemma burned her stomach. She turned and leaned back against the small granite-topped island as she looked down at her engagement ring.
    Taquan was going to be her husband. The head of their family. And his role as a husband could not be denied. It was clearly written in The Word: Wives, submit to your own