Read Online The Runaway Pastor's Wife by Diane Moody, Hannah Schmitt - Free Book Online Page B

truth be finally exposed. I ask that you personally forward this
information to the United States Attorney General immediately. I’m not kidding,
Grady. This is serious.
    I guess
I need to begin at the beginning, with my marriage to Amelia Thomas, the
daughter of U.S. Congressman Elliot Thomas of Texas , in
1991. As you know, a few years later, after a successful career in major league
baseball, I retired and pursued my present career as CEO of The Sports Page. A
couple of years ago my company made the Fortune 500. While my father-in-law
initially helped me get the company started with his financial backing, The
Sports Page belongs to me and my shareholders.
    Or so I
thought. I’ve recently learned that Elliot has, in fact, manipulated my
shareholders from the start. They are his cronies and they answer to him
directly. Every single one of them. This deception apparently began from the
inception of my company. It is with a deep sense of betrayal that I now know my
entire staff, which I have always believed to be totally loyal to me, has
instead been loyal to Elliot from the outset.
    I
suppose this information would have remained a secret indefinitely had Elliot’s
direct “spies” not reported to him of my plans to divorce Amelia. He confronted
me with this report and made it clear that he would not allow a divorce. I
wasn’t actually surprised by his reaction. Anything that could remotely cause
an unfavorable reflection on Elliot Thomas or his family is never
tolerated—even something as simple as a divorce. People get divorced. It
happens. But to blue-bloods like the Thomases, divorce is apparently not
acceptable. It’s not an option. You have to know Elliot Thomas to understand
that. Everything, but everything revolves around his political career. And if
he deems it bad for his political standing, he won’t stand for it. He’ll do
whatever it takes to avoid a controversy, no matter how big or how small. No
matter how ridiculous it may seem to anyone else.
    But it
was the threat that caused my alarm. It was more than a threat—it was
blackmail. Elliot said he would pull The Sports Page out from under me if I
divorced Amelia, and he proceeded to tell me just how he could do it.
    At
first, I thought it was hopeless. I would certainly lose my company. Then I
remembered an incident that happened several years ago. An incident that
implicates Congressman Elliot Thomas of conspiracy to commit first degree
murder.
    It
happened in 1992, about a year after Amelia and I got married. Elliot invited
me to join him and his chief of staff, a guy named Duke, on a weekend hunting
trip. We went to a place near Natchitoches , Texas , where
Elliot always goes on his hunting trips. We stayed at a big cabin out in the
woods. He thought it would give us a chance to get to know each other better.
It was my off-season so I figured, why not?
    The
last night we were there, we built a big fire in the fireplace and pulled up
some chairs and a sofa in front of it. We were all drinking and telling
stories. The usual kind of stuff. They wanted to hear stories about some of the
ball players I knew, and they were telling all kinds of stories about people in Washington . Some
unbelievably private stuff about presidents, first ladies, Supreme Court
justices. The two of them talked and laughed long into the night.
    Duke
and Elliot kept drinking like a couple of sailors on leave. I stopped earlier
in the evening because I wasn’t feeling well. I felt awful—my head hurt, I was
nauseated, I had chills—the whole flu thing. I finally stretched out on the
sofa, right in front of the fireplace and tried to go to sleep. By then they
were both drunk. Completely smashed. They were giving me a hard time for not
keeping up, but I felt so rotten I didn’t care. I just ignored them, rolled
over with my back to them, and finally drifted off to sleep.
    I must
have slept a couple of hours or so. Evidently I had a pretty bad fever because
even with that fire