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me?”
    â€œYou’re all I have in this whole wide world right now. You, and of course, the Lord. Everybody else has forsaken me . . . turned their backs on me.”
    Gabrielle looked long and hard at him. He was her father. How could she turn her own father away? He’d confessed to being saved now. He’d asked God to forgive Him and God had done that. Whether she was at a place to forgive him was yet to be determined. But if she turned him away, where would he go?
    â€œOkay. You can stay the night,” she said. “Tomorrow, we’ll see where we go from there.”
    Bennie smiled. “Thank you. And God bless you for this. Glory to God, I thank You for hearing my cry! Thank You, Jesus for being true to Your Word.” He nodded toward Gabrielle. “I’ll go out and get my bag.” He hurried out of the door and came back in quickly with one small suitcase.
    â€œI’ll show you to your room,” Gabrielle said, taking him to the bedroom the farthest away from all the other bedrooms. The house was full now; no more vacancies. Miss Crowe stayed with her often these days and had her own bedroom. Jasmine’s room was next to Gabrielle’s.
    Bennie set his beat-up suitcase on the bed. He pulled out a small bag of potato chips. “I’m kind of hungry. I haven’t eaten since they released me earlier today.”
    â€œWe’re about to eat supper. You’re welcome to join us if you’d like.”
    He smiled. “Bless you. Bless you. I’d like that very much.” He nodded.
    â€œThere’s a bathroom in your room there. Towels are already in it. I’ll see you downstairs in a few minutes.” She turned to walk out.
    â€œGabrielle, thank you. I really appreciate this.”
    â€œNo problem,” Gabrielle said, having turned back to him.
    â€œOh, and Gabrielle?”
    â€œYes?”
    â€œI love you.”
    Gabrielle nodded, then stepped into the hallway. She stopped midway down the hall, braced her back against the wall, and covered her face as she silently cried.

Chapter 4
    He hath hedged me about, that I cannot get out: he hath made my chain heavy.
    â€”Lamentations 3:7
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    D arius Connors was at the end of his rope. He and his wife, Tiffany, had been separated for close to five months now. Though admittedly, he’d been shocked when she took that extra step of having him legally put out of their house, he’d never had any real doubt when their troubles began that they’d make their way back to resolving things just as they’d always done. But her doing this (something totally out of character for her, by the way) made it more difficult for him to work his magic as he’d been able to do in the past.
    Early on, Pastor Landris had offered him housing where he could have also received marital counseling while working things out with his wife. But he’d been adamant that there was no way he was going to reside in a place riddled with folks who had drug, alcohol, and who knew what other kinds of problems.
    So for the months he’d been not only without a job but out of his house, he’d crashed at the homes of various folks, starting with his good friend Big Red, who’d promptly put him out after only three weeks when it became apparent that Darius wasn’t trying to find a job or make any sincere effort toward making things right with his wife and family. Darius contended that was more of Big Red’s wife’s doing than Big Red’s.
    It hadn’t been that Darius wasn’t trying to find a job, but the 2011 economy was proving to be not much better than 2010. As for his marriage, he was working on Tiffany, who he could tell was breaking down. If it hadn’t been for the friends that surrounded her, she wouldn’t have lasted a week with him out of the house. He knew that. Tiffany loved him; of that much he was certain.
    But at this point, he’d exhausted all