Read Online Fortune & Fame: A Novel by Victoria Christopher Murray, Reshonda Tate Billingsley - Free Book Online Page A

eyes popped open.
    “Hello?”
    With a sigh, Natasia clicked off the phone.
    The voice was like nails on a chalkboard. Jasmine!
    Jasmine had answered Hosea’s phone. Jasmine was on to her. And even though she had blocked her number, Natasia was sure that Jasmine knew who was on the other end of that call.
    There was no way Natasia would get to Hosea now—at least not during these two days.
    “Miss . . .”
    Natasia blinked.
    “This is the Plaza,” the driver said.
    Natasia peered through the window; she hadn’t even realized that the cab had come to a stop. “Oh,” she said. And then, in the next moment, she added, “Would you mind waiting? I left my bag with the bellman and I just want to run inside and get it.”
    “Okay, where’re you goin’?”
    She paused for just a moment. “To the airport, LaGuardia.”
    “Okay,” he said. “I’ll be right here.”
    She pushed herself from the cab and walked as fast as she could into the lobby, all the time thinking that she hadn’t lied to Melinda after all. She was going home tonight. There was no need to stay in New York if she couldn’t see Hosea.
    She would just have to come up with another plan.
    *  *  *
    As the airplane descended and the Atlanta skyline came into view, all Natasia could do was sigh. In the time that had passed since New York, she hadn’t come up with anything else. And now she was about to be in Atlanta . . . with Jasmine. Natasia didn’t know if Hosea would be joining Jasmine, but from what she remembered about the man she still referred to as the love of her life, he wouldn’t want any part of reality show madness. But he was also a man who loved his family and even if he wasn’t on the show, he would definitely come to visit Jasmine and his children, who she assumed would be with their mother.
    It wasn’t going to be easy, but during one of his visits, Natasia was going to see Hosea alone. The only challenge was that it would have to be soon. It would have to be before her time ran out.

Chapter
EIGHT
Mary
    T his was where she was supposed to be. This was the life she was supposed to live.
    As Mary sat in the second pew of Pleasant City Missionary Baptist Church, she couldn’t help but smile at how far God had brought her. Gone were her cut-too-low blouses and cut-too-high skirts. She was dressed in a respectable, metallic jacquard suit that she wouldn’t have been caught dead in a year ago.
    Mary had longed for this life with Lester Adams, and at the time, couldn’t understand why she couldn’t have it. Now, she knew it was because God had something better in store. That something better was standing in the pulpit, straight showing out.
    “Family,” Nathan said, a huge smile on his face, “you’ll have to excuse the extra pep in my step.” He did a little jig. “The bounce in my ounce. But y’all know, the missus is home and let’s just say, we’ve been like some bunny rabbits.”
    Mary gasped as the congregation erupted in laughter.
    “But I come to you today to tell you that dreams do come true,” Nathan continued, his voice rising. “When I came to thischurch, I took a leap of faith. I walked in that faith because I knew there was something great in store.”
    A chorus of amens rang out as Nathan talked about all of his plans for Pleasant City. It didn’t escape Mary that not once had he preached the Word or referred to any scripture; he’d just spent the last twenty minutes talking about all the big things in store. And the congregation had been eating it up. Maybe this is what they did in church. Lord knows she didn’t know. A product of the foster system, Mary never saw the inside of a church growing up and had only started going when Rachel’s enemy hired her to seduce Lester.
    Yet here she was, not only going to church, but sitting up as First Lady. If anyone from her past could see her now, they wouldn’t believe the woman that she’d become.
    Mary brushed a piece of lint off Alvin, who was