Stripped by Jasinda Wilder Read Free Book Online

changed for you. I won’t do that. That was her choice, and that’s fine. For her. But it’s not my choice. I don’t want to be a pastor’s wife, Daddy. I don’t want to go to prayer meeting every Wednesday, two services on Sunday mornings and small groups on Mondays and women’s Bible study on Thursdays. That’s not my life. I don’t even like church. I never have.” I let that sink in, and then I drop the real bomb: “I don’t believe in God.”
    Daddy’s lip curls in horror. “Grey, you don’t know what you’re saying. You’re upset. It’s understandable, but you can’t say these things.”
    I want to scream in frustration. “Daddy, yes, I’m upset, but I know exactly what I’m saying. This is stuff I’ve wanted to say for years . I just haven’t because I didn’t want to upset Mom. I didn’t want to fight. I’m basically an adult, and I…I don’t have anything else to lose.”  
    “Grey, you’re eighteen. You think you’re an adult, but you’re not. You’ve never worked a day in your life. Your clothes, your manicures, your dance classes, everything, it’s all paid for by the generosity of the congregation…the church that I built on my own. I started with six people in the back of a restaurant in 1975. You wouldn’t last a day on your own.”
    Wrong thing to say. “Watch me.” I pick up my suitcase and extend the handle, tip it onto its wheels, grunting as the weight nearly topples me over.  
    Daddy moves in front of the door. “You’re not leaving, Grey.”
    “Get out of the way, Daddy.”  
    “No.” He crosses his arms over his chest.
    I set the suitcase upright and rub my forehead with the back of my wrist. “Just let me go.”
    “No.” He seems to swell, to take strength from defying me. “You’re not going to that Babylon. Los Angeles is the home of…of…prostitutes and homosexuals. You’re not going there. You’re not leaving.”
    “Daddy, be reasonable.” I try the cajoling method. “Please. You’ve known this is what I’ve wanted since before Mama got sick.”  
      “You’re not leaving. That’s final.”
    I do scream then, an enraged howl. “God, you’re so mother fucking stubborn!” I want to shock him with my vulgarity; I don’t like swearing, but I want to make him angry. “Just move out of the way!”
    I shove at him, and he moves. I’m a tall girl, strong from dance. He stumbles to the side and I throw open the door so hard it smashes into the wall, cracking the plaster and knocking off-true a framed picture of Mama and Daddy when they were young, before me.  
    He grabs the frame of the open front door, sagging against it. “Grey…please. Don’t leave me.”
    I want to love him. I want him to be the daddy I need, the kind that hugs me and holds me close. The kind that comforts me. My mother, his wife, is dead. We’ve both lost her. But instead of bringing us together, it’s fracturing us.  
    Devin stands there horrified, just outside the door. She grabs my suitcase and hurries to the car, pops the trunk, and heaves in the heavy black case. I follow after her, stopping as I stand in the open door of the car, about to duck in. I stare back at my father over the blue fabric of the ragtop convertible roof. He stands in the doorway, looking lost. I almost go back. Almost.
    “Goodbye, Daddy.” It’s the last attempt.
    He rallies, takes a step toward me, resolve hardening in his eyes. “Grey, please. Don’t break us apart like this. Don’t do this to us.”
    “How can you turn this back on me? I’m not going away forever. I’m just going to college, Daddy. I…I’m just doing what’s right for me. Please try to understand.”
    “If you leave this house, you’ve made your choice. If you leave, you’ll be willfully choosing sin.”
    “It’s not sin! It’s my life. Why can’t you be reasonable?”
    He clenches his fists, straightens his back. “I am being reasonable. Come back in and we’ll discuss your options.”
    “I