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“I’m fine,” he replied.
“I mean, how are you with . . . everything that’s going on.”
Ah. There it was. If there was one thing Daniel would erase, it was his coworkers’ knowledge that his wife had left him. Ever since then, they had treated him as if he were a child, ready to explode at any moment. He was tired of it.
“Everything is good, just as usual.”
He walked toward his office, leaving his employee behind, feeling the familiar tightness in his chest.
Yes, his wife left him.
Yes, he lived in an empty apartment with no one to share it with.
Yes, he was throwing himself into work in an attempt not to think about it, but he was fine. Work was fine. Everything was fine.
One day, even he would believe it.
After working for a few hours, Daniel left the office to get some lunch, needing to get away from his employees’ stares and questions.
After he’d gotten food and sat at a table in the corner, his phone rang, and it was the last person he wanted to talk to.
“Hello?” Daniel answered, his voice level despite his annoyance.
“My boy! How are you?” Michael Anderson’s booming voice said. Daniel hated that voice. It was the same one he used on TV while preaching to millions on his live streams. Once upon a time, Daniel wished his father would talk to him like a normal person, but now he knew he treated everything like a sermon, even family conversations.
“The same as always.”
“Lucinda’s been asking about you.”
Daniel put down his fork, feeling a familiar rush of anger. “Good for her,” he replied.
“We’re both worried about your mental well-being,” his father said. “I think you need to come down to the church. This is nothing God can’t forgive.”
Daniel rolled his eyes. He would rather be anywhere other than his father’s church, which was nothing more than a TV studio and a not-for-profit moneymaking scheme that he ran. Daniel hadn’t been religious in years.
“I didn’t do anything. You committed adultery, with my wife, no less.” The thought still made him sick, and he angrily pushed away his lunch.
“An affair due to neglect isn’t an affair. Besides, I atoned for my sins.”
Maybe with God, but certainly not with Daniel.
“Is this the reason why you called?” he asked, changing the subject.
“No, it’s more important than that,” his father started. “Lucinda and I have been talking. We want to go public with our relationship.”
“What?”
Daniel had been enjoying this time where no one had known why his wife left. Despite their pity, it was easier this way. But once his father went public, Daniel knew he would say exactly how he met Lucinda.
And that was through him.
“Son, lying is a sin, and keeping my love for Lucinda secret is going to send us both to Hell. You don’t want that, do you?”
“I don’t want any of this. You can’t tell people. This is going to ruin my life at work.”
“God will take care of that.”
Daniel gritted his teeth together. “You have to give me time, at least.”
