“I’m sharing this story because I want people to understand that when parents make selfish decisions, they affect a child for the rest of his or her life. Being forced to basically grow up as an orphan is the reason I made so many bad choices. I committed a lot of sins and hurt a lot of people, but today I’m a completely different man. God has delivered me from sin. He called me to minister, and I thank Him for giving me another chance. He’ll give everyone in here another chance as well. He’s a good God, and none of us would be anything without Him,” he proclaimed, speaking louder than he had been. “We don’t deserve his grace, mercy, and favor, but I’m here to tell you that He gives it to us anyway. He forgives us because He loves, and if you agree, you ought to give Him a huge amount of praise today! Praise His sweet, holy name!”
The entire congregation applauded and most stood up. Many shouted their words out loud, all while in tears.
Dillon smiled and was glad to know his testimony still worked. It made people take notice and feel sorry for him. He watched the reaction of his parishioners and daydreamed about the ten-thousand-member congregation he wanted. His goal and dream was to have the largest church in Mitchell, Illinois. More than anything, he wanted to have a church larger than his dad’s, and he wanted this sooner rather than later. His dad’s existing sanctuary seated two thousand people, so to accommodate five thousand members—four thousand of whom attended regularly—he had to hold two services. Every week, Deliverance Outreach operated at 100 percent capacity, and for this reason, Curtis was finally building a five-thousand-seat building adjacent to the current one. That way, all his members could worship together at one service, and there would also be room for new parishioners. New Faith could hold two thousand people as well, but since Dillon only had one thousand members, the church never filled more than half its space. This wasn’t good enough for Dillon, and his plan was to have twenty-five hundred members by the end of this year, a total of five thousand twelve months from now, and another five thousand within two years.
He wasn’t sure what he’d have to do to make this happen, but he’d decided a while ago that he was willing to do whatever it took. Nothing was off-limits…not even sleeping with the woman he now glanced at in the audience. Her name was Porsha Harrington. He’d tried his best to ignore her, and until three months ago, he’d been successful. But now he couldn’t get her out of his mind or his system, and he saw her as much as possible…regardless of how much he loved his wife. He didn’t fully understand why his genuine love for Raven wasn’t enough or why he had this burning desire to sleep with someone else, but he couldn’t help it. For now, though, he had to refocus on the matter at hand. He had his congregation right where he wanted them, and as soon as everyone settled down and took their seats, he smiled and said, “I know you’ve already given your tithes and offering this morning, but when God speaks to me I’ve learned not to disobey him. So let us turn our Bibles to Second Corinthians nine, verses six through seven.”
Dillon waited for everyone to open their printed editions or pull up their electronic versions.
“Are we all there?”
“Yes,” everyone replied.
“And it says, ‘The point is this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.’”
Dillon gazed at his members and never said another word. He didn’t have to. Not when they were already pulling out additional cash and writing new checks.
He’d heard lots of stories from Alicia about how when she was a small girl, their dad had been loved by all. She’d told him that members of his church seemed to have no problem doing anything he asked, including giving whatever amount of money he requested. She’d insisted that it was simply a gift that their father had been blessed with. He was a handsome, charismatic, and very smart man, and people gravitated to him. Dillon hadn’t been sure he’d believed her, but when many of his congregants had begun saying how much he looked and sounded like his dad, he’d known he could use his father’s good genes to his advantage.
He’d decided that not only could he be his dad, he could be better. When it was all said and done, the good Reverend Curtis Black would be history and Pastor Dillon Whitfield Black would be all the city of Mitchell cared about.
Also by Kimberla Lawson Roby
The Reverend Curtis Black Series
The Prodigal Son
A House Divided
The Reverend’s Wife
Love, Honor, and Betray
Be Careful What You Pray For
The Best of Everything
Sin No More
Love & Lies
The Best-Kept Secret
Too Much of a Good Thing
Casting the First Stone
Standalone Titles
Best Friends Forever
A Christmas Prayer
The Perfect Marriage
Secret Obsession
A Deep Dark Secret
One in a Million
Changing Faces
A Taste of Reality
It’s a Thin Line
Here & Now
Behind Closed Doors
Praise for the Novels of
Kimberla Lawson Roby
The Ultimate Betrayal
“Roby is a master of making a delicious mess of otherwise good, merciful, God-fearing people’s lives…compellingly readable.”
—Kirkus
“Roby’s highly engaging prose offers edgy characters and intense drama.”
—Booklist
“Roby hits the jackpot again in THE ULTIMATE BEYTRAYAL with Alicia Black…another extraordinary episode in The Reverend Curtis Black series.”
—RT Book Reviews
The Prodigal Son
“Roby’s latest [is] an entertaining read for any lover of family drama.”
“Definitely worth the wait…by far the juiciest and most compelling of the set.”
—The Dallas Weekly
A House Divided
“Roby delivers a well-developed and entertaining plot and fascinating characters readers just love to hate.”
—Library Journal
“Riveting…Roby will have you totally engrossed, eager to see what twist or turn is just around the corner.”
—RT Book Reviews
“[Roby] is in top form…This one may well be her best.”
—Essence
The Reverend’s Wife
“Engrossing…The writing is cinematic and the juicy plot moves quickly…Roby has a talent for underscoring the universal challenges of people of faith.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Roby writes with high-octane levels of emotion. She pushes her characters hard, spotlighting their flaws, showcasing their weaknesses, drawing in the readers to be more than bystanders.”
—USA Today’s Happy Ever After blog
“[Roby] knows how to give readers what they want.”
—Essence
“4 stars! There’s nothing like a healthy dose of drama to keep readers on their toes. Underneath the deception, gossip, and bad decisions lies a storyline that any reader will be able to relate to. The author paints an interesting story with an accurate view of what goes on within the family behind the pulpit.”
—RT Book Reviews
Secret Obsession
“Roby is the queen of redemption! She has a knack for taking characters that readers love to hate and turning them into ones everyone will cheer for. This one’s definitely a page-turner!”
—RT Book Reviews
“Filled with unexpected twists and turns…a dramatic, engaging, and entertaining piece of work.”
—Prominence Magazine
“An exciting page-turner!”
—Upscale
“[A] juicy read!”
—Essence
Love, Honor, And Betray
“For those thousands of fans, who can’t get enough of the ‘good’ reverend and his wives, this is a book that should not be missed.”
—Philly.com
“Lively, action packed, and full of sassy sensuality, Roby once again has created a story that grabs the reader’s attention and holds it until the very end.”
—Las Vegas Review-Journal
“An entertaining read…remains true to Roby’s style of creatively telling a story.”
—New York Amsterdam News
“Like her previous fiction, Love, Honor, and Betray provides an unflinching examination of the human condition while keeping the reader engaged and entertained at the same time.”
—Examiner.com
“Much of Kimberla Lawson Roby’s bestselling success is due to her irresistibly complex character Rev. Curtis Black. In Love, Honor, and Betray, her eighth [book] about the self-justifying, greedy, womanizing minister, she tackles one of the most challenging situations facing the explosion of blended families today.”
—Heart & Soul
“Full of drama and splashed with plenty of suspense and love triangles.”
—Upscale
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Contents
Cover
Title Page
Welcome
Dedication
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Three Months Later
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Reading Group Guide
A Preview of A Sinful Calling
Also by Kimberla Lawson Roby
Praise for the Novels of Kimberla Lawson Roby
Newsletters
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright © 2015 by Kimberla Lawson Roby
Excerpt from A Sinful Calling copyright © 2016 by Kimberla Lawson Roby
Reading group guide copyright © 2015 by Kimberla Lawson Roby and Hachette Book Group, Inc.
Cover design by Elizabeth Connor. Cover image © George Kerrigan.
Cover copyright © 2016 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.
All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher constitute unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at permissions@hbgusa.com. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
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Originally published in hardcover and ebook by Grand Central Publishing in June 2015
First trade paperback edition: April 2016
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The Grand Central Publishing name and logo is a trademark of Hachette Book Group, Inc.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Roby, Kimberla Lawson.
The ultimate betrayal / Kimberla Lawson Roby. — First edition.
pages ; cm. — (A Reverend Curtis Black novel)
ISBN 978-1-4555-5956-5 (hardcover) — ISBN 978-1-4789-2989-5 (audio download) — ISBN 978-1-4555-5957-2 (ebook) 1. Triangles (Interpersonal relations)—Fiction. 2. African American women—Fiction. 3. Mate selection—Fiction. 4. Marriage—Fiction. 5. Urban fiction. I. Title.
PS3568.O3189U47 2015
813′.54--dc23
2014049907
ISBNs: 978-1-4555-5955-8 (paperback), 978-1-4555-5957-2 (ebook)
E3