Page 126 of For I Have Sinned

Us in the chapel.

I think back to that night. Alex made sure to lock the door because I was worried someone would walk in on us. I inspect the photo again and realize it wasn’t taken from where we usually enter, but from somewhere behind the altar.

My head feels dizzy as I look at each photo, and then when I’ve had enough, I begin clicking on videos. One by one, I watch bits and pieces of them because that’s all I can take.

The first video was of Alex, standing outside my bedroom on those nights he’d listened to me touch myself. His soft grunts fill the hall as he pleasures himself.

The next, him pouring the holy water on my body.

There are multiple videos of us, but some we aren’t even in the frame. It’s just audio of him fucking me in his bedroom that night Father Keaton caught us.

“Celine?” Esther says my name carefully, as I click back on a video of us in the chapel.

I barely hear her over the pounding of my own heart. This sick asshole was creeping on us? He knew the entire time what was happening between Alex and me, but why would he film all this shit? Then it dawns on me.

Blackmail.

“Celine.” This time, my name doesn’t come from a woman’s voice but a man’s. Somehow, my eyes tear away from the screen to see Alex standing in the doorway with a furious expression on his face. “What the hell are you doing? You promised you wouldn’t come back.”

“I—” There are no words that will leave my mouth.

When my moans from the video finally reach Alex’s ears, his face drops. “What the hell is that?”

Esther steps away from me, allowing Alex to join me by the computer. The video of us in the chapel is playing, and I watch as Alex’s face goes completely white.

“He was spying on us in the chapel?”

“Everywhere,” I whisper and close out of the video so he can see all the images and videos Father Keaton has of us.

Alex runs his hand over his mouth and curses. “Close out of it, Celine. We are getting out of his office right now.”

“But, Alex… he has videos and images of Joanna and Bekah on here,” I say.

He turns to face me, his jaw tight. “Lunch is over, and Father Keaton could come to his office at any second. We are leaving. Now.”

The last word is spoken with such authority that Esther quickly moves from her spot and into the hall. She glances down the corridor and looks back at us. “Coast is clear. Let’s go.”

“Esther, get in my office.” Alex moves around the desk and heads for the door, pausing to glance at me. “Celine. Do not make me drag you out of here.”

“But the videos of the women… We can use them⁠—”

“What do you expect us to do with it right now, Celine?” Alex stalks over to the opposite side of the desk, anger flashing in his gaze. “We can’t do anything, so leave it be, and we will figure something out.”

My teeth grind together, and my eyes dive back down to the screen. I close out of the folder with my name on it. If we are going to use this computer to bring Father Keaton down, there can’t be any evidence of Alex and me. With the thought in my head, I drag my folder to the trash icon. Opening the trash, I right-click on my folder and choose delete permanently.

“Now, Celine,” Alex orders harshly.

I watch the bar on the screen as the files are being deleted one by one. After what feels like forever, the gray bar turns green, and when I get the pop-up that all the images and videos of us have been deleted, I let out a sigh of relief and slam the laptop shut. Sliding the device back to where it was on his desk, I follow Alex to his office.

Chapter 40

Celine

Alex sits in his office chair with his head in his hands, while Esther sits in the chair opposite him, staring blankly at a wall, and I pace back and forth behind her.

None of us speak as we try to gather our thoughts on what we just saw. Well, Alex only saw the images and footage of us. He didn’t witness the horrors that Father Keaton was doing to Joanna and Bekah.

Bekah.