Progressive Properties is aggressively taking over where small neighborhoods once flourished. Now Angelique's Shelter, St. Gabriel's, is under attack. Who shows up at her door to deliver the news? John McDougal, now a prominent property attorney, an...
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Michael smiled up at Angelique and soaked up her tears with his bandaged hands. "You are going to see your dad in a minute so we can't allow for any more of these," Michael said as he wiped the tears from her face and his own.
Angelique smiled.
God, he loved seeing her smile.
"You know..." Angelique began, "I don't know if I have any brothers or sisters, but if I had a choice, I'd pray for a sibling like you."
"Ditto for me, Angelgirl. In fact, can I trade you in for the sibling I do have?"
Angelique smacked him lightly on the shoulder.
"What?" Michael asked with feigned innocence.
"John isn't all that bad," Angelique replied.
"Who you trying to convince yourself or me?" Michael asked. "Because if it's me, you're going to have to try a lot harder than that."
Angelique wasn't sure. "I know it sounds strange, especially coming from me, but the past few times I've been with him, he's been different somehow. Like today, for example. He was there for me. In fact, he brought me here. I would have never made it here in one piece in my state of mind. As soon as Mrs. Duncan called, we were on our way."
"Wait a minute, John was with you?"
"Is with me," Angelique corrected him. He came as soon as he heard.
"But you said John warned you last night that something might happen."
"That's right," she said.
"So, what happened between last night and the phone call if John was still in your apartment to answer it?" Michael asked with that smug smile both brothers shared, and it provoked the same response no matter which brother displayed it. The sudden urge to knock it right off his face.
Angelique wasn't about to answer that question. "None of your business, but because I don't want your mind to wander... nothing happened."
"Uh, huh," Michael said, still smirking.
Angelique was about to defend her virtue to Michael, but the doctors had finished with Rev. O'Bryan. Appearing from behind the curtain, the heart specialist had approached.
"How is he doing?" Angelique asked.
"You are?" he asked.
"I'm his adopted daughter, Angelique O'Bryan," she said, holding up her ID badge.
"Well, as you may have already learned, your Father's heart attack was massive. I've been after him for some time now to lose weight, get his cholesterol levels under control to ease up on his heart but well...as I'm sure you know he can be a very stubborn man."
"I'm sorry Doctor...," Angelique began, "but are you trying to tell me he would have had this attack, anyway?"
"Well," he began carefully, "we can't say that for sure. The excited state he must have been in at seeing the church catch fire. His heart having to labor to help his lungs breathe in all that smoke had definitely aided it to come quicker."
