Page 93 of For I Have Sinned

She instantly freezes at the sound of the volume and the displeased tone, and when she hears his footsteps approaching, her face goes white and her shoulders droop. When he stands next to us, he pulls Joanna away from me.

“Celine, I am so sorry for her outburst.”

My teeth grind together, and now I’m the angry one. I step around them, heading down the hall to find Esther. Before I get too far, I look over my shoulder.

“Might want to keep her on a tight leash, Father.”

From here, I can see his jaw roll, but I don’t pay attention to him any longer. I keep walking, letting the tension build between them. I have more important things to attend to. Like, telling Esther about what the hell just happened.

“She slapped you across the face?!” Amelia screeches from the other end of the phone.

Esther and I sit in my room, criss-cross on the bed, with the phone on speaker between us. “Yup.”

“Because you called her out for fucking the priest?” Vince questions.

“No, because I told her he was messing with her head. He’s been telling her that God would forgive them for having sex and she’d still get into Heaven.”

“What a creep,” Amelia says with disgust.

“I mean, I don’t like Joanna at all, but even she doesn’t deserve to go through that,” Esther chimes in. “Makes me look at Father Keaton differently.”

“Giving that he had sex with her?” Amelia asks.

“That and the ridiculous lies he is putting in her head,” Esther says.

“Do you look at the hot priest differently, too?” Vince asks.

My body tenses. I hadn’t told them that Esther doesn’t know about Alex and me, so I can’t really be mad at him for bringing it up.

Esther’s brows dip in confusion when she looks at me. “Hot priest?”

“Father Alexander,” I tell her.

She throws her head back, laughing over the nickname. “Oh, that’s great! And very accurate, but why would I look at him differently?” she asks my friends, then pauses, her gaze meeting mine. “Celine…”

“I was going to tell you⁠—”

“Oops! Sorry!” Vince apologizes.

“You sneaky little thing!” Esther laughs and pokes my arm. “I need all the details.”

“Get ready, girl,” Vince begins to warn her. “It’s juicy, and you might not want to go into that booth thing anymore.”

“Vincent Taylor!” I scold him.

“The confessional booth? Really?” Esther asks, to which I nod. “Sexy.”

“You were right,” Amelia chimes in. “Esther would fit in very well with our group.”

I lift my eyes to Esther, who is smiling from ear to ear, happy to have found a place where she feels like she belongs.

“We need to go before someone comes looking for us and finds the phone,” I tell the two, remembering what happened last time Alex caught me breaking my promise. Even though he isn’t here, I wouldn’t put it past Father Keaton to show up at my room after today’s events. “I’ll try to call you in a few days.”

“Give hot priest a kiss for me!” Vince says, and I hang up on him, shaking my head.

“How is everyone hooking up with a priest except me?” Esther sighs, repositioning herself so that her back is against the wall.

I do the same, bringing my knees to my chest. “You may have a chance with Father Keaton. With the way he scoped out my body, I’m sure he’d be down for another woman.”