What Is The Ending Of 'Bad Faith: Race And The Rise Of The Religious Right'?

“Forgive me, Father… for I’m about to sin again.” "Get on your knees and take my cock like it’s your only salvation. Hold it like you held your rosary tight, desperate. Suck it like it’s the only prayer left to save your filthy soul." She’s temptation wrapped in innocence. And I’m a sinner beneath this collar. ~~~~~~ When Mia Voss escapes heartbreak and moves in with her grandmother, the last thing she expects is to fall for the man behind the altar. Reverend Thorne Maddox—quiet, composed, and dangerously handsome—sees right through her walls.And she sees what he's trying to hide.Their encounters are supposed to be innocent, church duties, quiet confessions, polite conversation. But glances linger too long. Words slip too close to sin. And when she falls into his arms… it stops being holy.In a town full of watching eyes and sacred vows, desire becomes the ultimate sin. But the deeper they fall, the harder it becomes to let go. Where salvation ends… temptation begins. ❕ ❕Trigger/Content Warnings:This story contains themes of religious conflict, age gap, power imbalance, sensual scenes, and morally gray decisions. Reader discretion is advised 100% Sex ❕

The night before our wedding, my fiancée let her so-called "best friend" butcher the gown my late mother had sewn, chopping it into a revealing mini dress. I rushed over with the ruined dress in my arms, ready to demand answers: only to catch their voices through the door: "Imagine him expecting me to wear something a dead woman stitched. What a curse!" Through the narrow gap, I saw my distant, frigid fiancée flushed with color, straddling his lap. "What we did at the bridal shop wasn't enough," she murmured. "Tomorrow, walking down the aisle in this tiny dress you made me, it'll be even more exhilarating." Their lips met. My hand froze against the door, and inside, something broke with a soundless crack. If she longed for thrills, I would grant her some.

Vivienne has always believed she was Ashford’s daughter, never questioning the life she was given—until she is married to Damon Marshal Williams. To her, it’s just another cruel joke that life has thrown at her. To him, it is strategy. Damon knows exactly who she is, and more importantly, what she is worth. What begins as a calculated move soon becomes something neither of them planned. But when Vivienne uncovers the truth behind their marriage, love is no longer enough to make her stay. Faced with a choice between the life she wants and the man she never meant to love; she makes a decision she cannot take back. Years later a kidnapping, forces her back into Damon’s world—one she thought she had escaped. With time, distance, and secrets between them, the lines between past and present begin to blur. And as danger closes in, so does the truth—about the child, about their choices, and about everything they left unfinished. Bound by lies and broken by truth, this is a story of love, power, and harsh decisions that define us.

On the day my father died, his seven most trusted men all met violent deaths within the same twenty-four hours. Hugh Castillo sacrificed his legs to butcher the gang and put me in power. “Taz, don’t be scared. Those monsters are gone. You’re finally free.” In the years he lay paralyzed, I tried over a thousand experimental drugs and prayed at every church across the country. I hunted down every possible remedy, praying for just one that would bring him back to his feet. When Hugh learned of this, he swallowed a bottle of pills one night to end his life. After he was revived, he smiled and wiped the tears from my face. “Taz, I don’t want to be a dead weight. You deserve a better life than this.” That night, we held each other and wept. We swore that from then on, no matter what, we would never leave each other behind. But seven years later, a sweet-looking girl showed up at my door with a thousand photos I was never meant to see. “Every month, while you were praying to God in churches, Huey was busy trying out new positions with me. “Ms. Sheargold, don’t you know that used goods like you kill a man’s desire? It was no wonder he’d rather play the cripple than touch you.” I looked through every single photo, then put them up for auction underground.

The Thornes built their aromatherapy business generations ago, but their ancestors made a fatal mistake and brought down a divine curse. For ninety-nine generations, every Thorne heir drew their punishment on their eighteenth birthday. Julian Thorne was the last. He drew the worst punishment: death from hemorrhage in ten months. The only way to break it was to marry a witch from the Old Bloodline and complete the life transference ritual. The witch inscribes a sigil on a parchment and infuses the child's blood essence on it, and the curse transfers to the parchment. I was that witch. My family owed the Thornes a blood debt going back three generations, so I married Julian, gave him a child, and performed the ritual to save his life. I was terrified of missing the ritual window, so I didn't even use anesthesia as the baby was cut out of my womb. However, Julian drove ninety-nine soul spikes into my body while I was still bleeding from the delivery, then set me on fire. "Miriam is the real heir. You're nothing but a fraud who wanted to marry up. "You drove her into the wilderness to protect your position. She went into labor alone and died with the baby. Even dying, she thought of me. She finished the ritual and saved my life. "You deceived my father. I'm destroying your soul. You'll pay for what you did to them." He ignored my screaming while he drained our newborn's blood essence. I watched helplessly as my child's life faded. Then I was nailed to a cross and burned until there was nothing left. When I opened my eyes, I was back on my wedding day.

Paul never understood his family’s hatred. His father despised him. His brother tormented him. His mother ignored him. Betrayed and framed, he landed in prison for crimes he didn’t commit. But they made one mistake—they let him live. Five years later, Paul walks out of prison a different man. Quietly, invisibly, he builds an empire no one sees coming. No face on the covers. No name in the headlines. Just power, moving in the shadows. When the truth about his family finally surfaces — the lies, the secret that his brother was not actually his father’s son, and the fact that Paul’s mother had covered for the real criminal — everything they built on top of their betrayal begins to collapse. Paul didn’t come back for revenge. He came back for answers. Revenge was the unexpected prize.