Indecent Proposal (A Contemporary Romance Story) by Blair Babylon

Author:Blair Babylon [Babylon, Blair]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Malachite Publishing

Chapter Four

Confession

Maxence

Maxence was trying to be good.

He strolled along the streets of downtown Paris, dodging pedestrians and smiling at people who made eye contact. Even in the bright morning sunlight, the evergreen bough Christmas decorations tied with red velvet ribbons were festive and cheered Maxence considerably.

As it was Sunday morning, he’d been to confession before Mass to absolve himself of the mortal sins on his soul, and there were many, before he took Holy Communion.

He had arrived at Église Saint-Sulpice, a massive cathedral near his hotel, only fifteen minutes before Mass was supposed to start.

Inside the airy cathedral, where the air sparkled with color from the immense and many stained-glass windows soaring five stories into the sky of France, Maxence had found Father Moses Teklehaimanot, a friend of his from previous charity missions. Father Moses had visited Max at his uncle Rainier’s hospital bedside just days before to perform Last Rites for Rainier again. Max had been there for weeks, praying and sitting vigil, but the time had come for him to leave.

That morning, Max admitted to Father Moses that he needed to be reconciled before Mass.

Father Moses commandeered a small room behind the main part of the church and sat knee to knee with Maxence, staring directly at him. A beam of sunlight shone silver on the old priest’s ebony skin, illuminating his folds of age and smiles. “Just the minimum. No details. No other information. I don’t want to know.”

Maxence whipped through the prayer before confession, and his throat tightened. He forced the words out with his eyes squeezed shut. “I have committed sins of a sexual nature since my last confession, two of adultery and three of fornication, and many more in my heart, and quite a lot of impure thoughts. And a sin of wrath. And I committed a solitary sin against chastity once. No, twice.”

Father Moses widened one eye and dropped his other white eyebrow. “Maxence, it’s been three days!”

“I’m not proud of it,” Maxence muttered. When he slipped like that and went rogue, his psyche seemed to crumble from within.

“How many other people were involved during this time?”

“Two. Three, if you count the man I punched in the sin of wrath.”

“One for the fornication, and one for the adultery.”

“That’s what happened.”

“Oh, Maxence.” Father Moses shook his head sadly.

After Mass, Max had planned to go back to the hotel and consider what he should do in Paris during the four more days until he would fly away to begin his next charity mission. For a month, Max had been sitting beside his uncle’s hospital bed, reading to his uncle who was on a ventilator after a massive, hemorrhagic stroke.

His Uncle Rainier had always been a vital, energetic man who had kept a full schedule right up until the morning when he’d grabbed the side of his head and collapsed. He was only in his middle sixties, and the stroke had shocked everyone in Maxence’s family. Everyone had assumed they would have at least another decade before the patriarch of the family passed away and the battle for his assets began.

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