The payoff was scheduled for 7pm. Reverend Write and I sat on the front pew waiting for our blackmailer. The church door opened a few minutes after seven. I saw the women walk toward the Reverend and me. She wore a dress, either specially for the occasion, or because she was comfortable in one. I expected her to be in shorts and some kind of small top. I should have known better.

The jilted wife was about fifty pounds over weight. She had large soft breasts and a professional wrestlers body. Thick all the way from her shoulders to her knees. She did have nice hear if that was any consolation to her.

"Hello Monica," Reverend Wright said to great her. "This is my bother Thomas. I'm sure you have heard me mention him."

"Hello, Thomas your sister is a home wrecking whore," She said angrily. She was ignoring Edith. "So do you have it?"

"By it, do you mean the money?" I asked it wanting to have her say the words.

"Oh course I mean the money."

I handed her the envelope containing twenty thousand dollars. "Count it," I demanded.

"Why I trust you," Monica said belligerently.

"I want you to count it, then I want your word that you will not be back for more."

"Alright," she said opening the envelope. I watched as she counted the money. "It's all here." she said finally.

"So you have been paid and I don't expect you to threaten my sister again," I said angrily.

"No, I won't bother the husband stealing slut again."

"Good because if one word of this comes out, no matter who leaks it, you are going to jail." With those words I took the envelope.

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"Lucy," I said in a loud voice.

Lucy stood up in the balcony. She was still taping. "Lucy has been recording our little meeting. Would you like to see the tape, or do you still trust me."

"You son of a bitch," Monica said.

"Actually my mother was not a bitch, but that is immaterial at the moment. What is material is that the sentence for blackmail is ten yeas in state prison. So go on home and try to get the money somewhere else. It's time you looked to your husband for financial aid, not my sister."

Monica turned to Edith, then said, "God will get you for what you have done." With those words said, she turned and left the church quickly.

"Will that stop her?"

"It will stop her long enough for you to find another church."

"What do you mean?" Edith asked.

"You are going to start looking for a new church home. If you don't I will play that tape for the church elders myself."

"Dear God, you are blackmailing me too?"

"Such an ugly word. I think of it more as motivating you to do the right thing. These people deserve better than you as their pastor. I hope you have learned something and that you will take the lesson to your next church. But whether you have or not, you are leaving this one. How you leave is your only choice.