Saving Grace | ✓

Chapter Seven

{ Chapter Seven }

I peer out the windows through the rain, trying to find the road that leads to the church. Nothing looks familiar. I finally see the small white sign shoved into the ground and turn sharply onto the road. Parking messily in the lot, I sprint inside before I get soaked. 

The door creaks when I pull on the handle. An old man with white hair is standing at the pulpit, talking quietly. He looks up when I step inside. "Hello there."

"Hi." I squeak, making my way to the front pew and sitting down. "You can keep going. You won't even know I'm here." 

He smiles and walks down the stairs. Once he is sitting beside me, he opens his bible again and skims through. "W-what are you reading?" I say quietly, looking over his shoulder at the book.

"Anything that I can see." He chuckles. "I'm Pastor Miles. And you are?"

"Grace. I'm staying with Eliza Brian. I think she said she's the Sunday school, um, something that starts with a C."

His laugh is louder and stronger now. "Eliza. Our Sunday school coordinator here at Calvary. She's a sweet woman, she is."

I nod slowly, watching my feet. "Are you Christian?" He asks me.

I look up and shake my head. "God doesn't like me. I don't want anything to do with Him. If He cared about me, He would've done something when I was getting abused." I tell him without thinking. 

The preacher nods slowly. "Well, I believe that God still has a place in His heart for you, Miss Grace. But you just have to make a place in your heart for him."

I shake my head. "I don't think I can do that after all I've been through."

He sighs, placing his hands on his knees. "Well, He's waiting for you." The preacher reaches to the end on the pew and hands me a small Bible. "Read through it. See what you find. When you're finished, come on up here and we can talk. I or anyone else here will be happy to help you with any questions you may have."

I barely glance at the brown cover before rolling my eyes secretly. "Whatever you say." I stand and so does he. He holds out his hand for me to shake and I comply.

"I'll see you Sunday, I suppose?" He smiles.

I shrug. "I don't know."

"You're always welcome, Miss Grace." He claps a hand on my shoulder before making his way back up to the pulpit.

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When I get home, I go straight to my room and toss the Bible on the desk in the corner. Rolling my eyes, I flop onto my bed and start reading my novel. 

A knock on my door a few hours later pulls me out of the fantasy world. "Grace?" Michael peeks his head in before entering my room. "We're going out to supper with a few people from church. Would you like to come?"

I shrug. "No thanks. I'm not hungry." 

He nods, walking over to my desk and squinting down at the Bible. "Where did you get this?"

"That?" I sigh. "I went to the church and the preacher was there. He gave it to me. It's nothing."

He cocks his head at me. "Nothing? Hmm." Walking towards the bed, he sits beside me and opens the book. "My favorite verse is 1st Thessalonians 4:17." He finds it and begins to read.

"Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord." He smiles briefly before laying it back down softly and going towards the door. "Will you pick up a few things at the grocery store while we gone, if you don't mind?"

I nod, standing up. "Sure."

"Alright. The list is on the fridge." He comes over to me and kisses my forehead. "Be careful."

I nod, blushing as he pulls away. "See you later."

Michael smiles at me before I hear him go downstairs. I watch out the window as he climbs into the driver's side of his SUV and leaves. 

Going downstairs, I grab the list off the fridge quickly and jog to Caleb's car. They left his convertible for me to drive. Putting the address of the grocery store into the G.P.S, I follow the directions until I arrive. I pull into a parking spot and cut the engine. When I turn my head, I scream.

There, at my window, stood my mother, smiling down at me with yellow teeth.

"Hello, Gracie."