We Were Real by Nadine C. Keels

Author:Nadine C. Keels
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: sexual abuse, love story, social issues, spiritual abuse, sweet romance, sexual assault, bwwm romance, church abuse, christian novella, toxic christianity
Publisher: Nadine C. Keels

~*~

Chapter Seven

~*~

“I just…I miss us, Nikki. You know?”

Here, driving down the streets of this all-too-familiar town in her crossover vehicle, she had two more turns to go.

She took them, pulling into the far side of the parking lot of a new business establishment, which wasn’t open yet at this early hour of the morning.

Nikkita parked, got out of her crossover, closed the vehicle’s door, and leaned back against it, folding her arms. As she stared over at the building near the center of the property, her mind slid back to much that she’d gradually learned in past years, piece by piece, through a few connections of hers on social media.

Shortly after Nikkita’s departure for college, news about Pastor Tyler and Jayme leaked into the church. The leak came along with news about Pastor Tyler and another teenage girl at the church. Sandra.

The church leadership board conducted in-house questioning through a series of separate meetings with different members of the church. The meetings revealed that at various times in the years since the church had hired him on, Pastor Tyler might have carried on sexual relationships with at least five girls while they were in the youth ministry.

“You were next on his list, apparently,” Jayme had mumbled to Nikkita during one of their rare check-up conversations over the phone, back when Nikkita was nearing her graduation from college. “Who knew he had a list? I didn’t.” Jayme let out a gravelly sound that might have been a laugh. “Because he told me I was different, I was stupid enough to think I was his only one. When Sandra started pushing to get me to stop seeing him all of a sudden, she didn’t even hint that he had something going on with her too, and the further she went trying to ‘trust the process’ with him was starting to scare her.”

Nikkita had shaken her head at that, getting a tighter grip on her phone. “You weren’t stupid, Jayme. You were conditioned and manipulated by someone who had a lot of practice at twisting things. A man you looked up to and counted on.”

The in-house questioning at church never uncovered the whole picture of exactly how many girls Pastor Tyler had made advances to or drew into “unique relationships.” Moreover, the church’s general members remained unclear on how many of the girls and their families had been pressured into silence on the matter.

“Yeah,” Sandra had eventually said on social media, in a private group of a number of people from different parts of the country who’d broken away from churches they’d once attended. “The church board met with me and my parents. The board told us that letting a scandal get out in public would hurt the body of Christ because we’re supposed to have grace and cover other believers when they fall. And Pastor Paul said telling anyone about it outside of our church would ruin our witness and hinder the Gospel. So basically, if I or any other members reported

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