Tears Fall at Night-The Blessed One Box Set (Praise Him Anyhow and Blessed and Highly Favored Series) Read Online Free Page A

encouraging her to keep moving forward, one more day, one more step.
    Carmella was feeling it and was about to break out into a praise dance right in her kitchen, but then Joy walked in and killed the mood.
    “Mama, why didn’t you tell me that Daddy left you?”
    Carmella had hoped not to have that discussion at all. She had prayed that Nelson would come to his senses and move back home where he belonged, before the children found out about his mid-life crisis. She’d thought he’d get the message when she didn’t sign the divorce papers, but mailed the shredded document back to him. But Nelson had just sent her the document again. “Joy, this doesn’t mean anything. Your Dad is just going through a mid-life crisis. He’ll be back home soon enough.”
    Joy’s eyebrow went up and she sat down at one of the counter seats. “You’d take him back after he moved Jasmine into his new house?”
    Carmella took two lemon pound cakes out of the oven, closed the oven door with her foot and placed the cakes on her prep table. “What did you say, dear?”
    Joy got up, walked further into the kitchen and stood next to her mother as she looked her in the face and said, “Daddy is living with my best friend, Jasmine.”
    She dumped the cakes out of the baking pans. “Don’t say things like that, Joy. Where in the world would you get an idea like that?”
    Joy put her hand on her mother’s shoulder. “Listen to me, Mother. It’s true. I saw it with my own eyes.”
    “Your father wouldn’t do anything like that to us. He’s a God-fearing man and he loves us.” Carmella hadn’t been feeling much love from her husband lately, but she didn’t want to discuss any of that with Joy. Her daughter was a daddy’s girl through and through. She hadn’t even wanted Carmella to tuck her in at night when she was a child. Joy always asked for Nelson, to the point of hurting Carmella’s feelings at times.
    “Mom, come sit down with me in the family room.” They walked out of the kitchen and made their way to the family room. Joy waited until her mother sat down on the sectional. Joy sat next to her and took her mom’s hand in hers. “I helped Jasmine move today. She told me that her boyfriend had gotten a place for them. By the time we finished with moving things around in the house, Daddy showed up. I thought you had sent him to get me because I was taking too long, since I had called and told you that I would be coming over for dinner. But that wasn’t why he was there.”
    Carmella was silent as she listened to her daughter. This doesn’t seem like my life, she thought. Certainly doesn’t sound like my husband, the man I married and promised to spend the rest of my life with. Nelson had been so sure that he would become a success in life and Carmella had just been grateful that he’d wanted her to be a part of what he was destined to create. They had spent a lot of nights praying for Nelson’s career, his judgment and their finances. And just as Nelson had expected, their life had turned out great, with all the trimmings: a beautiful home, exotic vacations, college and mutual funds, the works.
    “Dad admitted it to me, Mom. He said that you two were getting a divorce and that he was now with Jasmine.”
    “But that doesn’t sound like Nelson,” was all Carmella could fix her mouth to say. And then she thought, maybe it wasn’t Nelson. Maybe some demon had come out of the pits of hell and climbed into her husband’s body and was doing the slimy things that Nelson Marshall never would have dreamed of doing, if he wasn’t under demonic possession.
    “Mom… Mom. Where did you go?”
    Joy was waving her hands in Carmella’s face. “I’m still with you, Joy. I was just wondering if we should find a priest to perform an exorcism on your father or something.” She then lowered her head and laughed hysterically.
    “Mom, this isn’t funny. Stop laughing.”
    But Carmella couldn’t stop. Her husband had left her for