Truth Be Told by Victoria Christopher Murray Page A

moon had come to visit her tonight.

Chapter 6
    S tarlight was sure that there were at least ten stacks of cash and credit card slips on the conference table in her home office. Lexington sat with the piles, steadily recording. He hadn’t looked up in an hour, but his smile widened with each tick of the clock.
    â€œHave to admit, Starlight. Brilliant.”
    She folded her arms across her chest. With a pencil behind his ear, a pencil in his hand, and the grin on his face, he looked like Uncle Billy from It’s a Wonderful Life .
    When she didn’t respond, he looked up. “What’s wrong?”
    She lowered her eyes. A second later, she could feel him moving. Probably hates leaving that money, she thought.
    The couch’s violet leather squished as he sat. Their shoulders almost touched when he took her hand. “Thought you’d be happy,” he whispered. “So much money in just three hours.”
    There it was again—the money was all he saw. She turned away, not hiding her disgust.
    He sighed, and Starlight wanted to kick herself. She knew he was thinking this was one of those high-maintenance-chick moments that required him to talk, soothe, and carry her through some crisis that neither could identify.
    She walked to the windowed wall. This view was the same as the one from her bedroom. But the ocean that settled her during the day couldn’t be seen at midnight. The night sky converged with the ebony water, making it impossible to discern the ending of the sea and the beginning of the heavens. The glow of the full moon hanging in the center of her view was the sole source of light, and the vision made her smile.
    Through the glass, she watched Lexington’s reflection. His face was covered with confusion, but his concern was short-lived. With a shrug, he returned to the cash and credit slips and calculators and receipts and ledgers.
    She sighed. Lexington thought she should be dancing in the streets. He hadn’t given the final count, but she could imagine the numbers. Between their percentage from the tickets and the sales of her books and CDs, they had easily cleared one hundred thousand dollars. And as Lexington said, it hadn’t taken three hours.
    Speaking at Greater Faith Chapel was a major coup. Before she finished, those church women dashed to the back, eager for a piece of Starlight. She’d signed books, tapes, and CDs until her hands cramped.
    At first, she’d been concerned about her church appearance. Although she’d been speaking at sold-out venues for years, she’d never been at a house of worship. In fact, many of those do-good holier-than-God pastors put her down, knocking her principles from their pulpits. She’d read about their attacks in Christian newspapers. On one occasion, Lily told her of the words of a pastor who was unaware that Starlight’s mother was a visitor in his church.
    Lily had repeated the pastor’s words: “The Word of God warned of Starlight and others—false prophets appearing during the end times, professing enlightenment, and having some direct-channel to some higher being. I’ll tell you where their direct line leads—straight to hell. As 1 Timothy 4:1 and 2 says, these people are here to lead you astray. As Christians, we must be grounded and stand with the truth. We cannot fall prey to false doctrines and teachings that are disguised in messages of self-esteem.”
    The pastor had continued to quote scripture, associating her with the evil one:
    â€œJust read 1 John 4:1: Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Starlight is one of whom the Lord speaks.”
    She laughed about it in public. “You know you must be doing something right when people persecute you.”
    But she grieved about it in private. “Mom, why do people hate me when I’m only trying to help?”
    The worst