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Chapter 44

Honorial crouched next to the monitor that showed the devil and Dan Cooley in Dan's living room, so angry he almost couldn't form words. "He's lying!"

God glanced over at him. "Of course he's lying. Did you expect him to tell the truth?"

"But he's lying about you. He killed his own wife and child—he did terrible things to the other two. And he's blaming you for all of that. You don't give humans diseases. You don't take lovers away from each other. You gave them each other so that they wouldn't be alone always, so that their lives wouldn't be so hard. Diseases and pain and death are all a part of life—they have nothing to do with you." Honorial sputtered to a stop when he saw the strange look God was giving him.

"Honorial, do you need a vacation?"

The Data Processing angel flushed and turned away from his Creator. "Your Glorious All-Seeing All-Knowing Awesomeness, please don't mock me."

"I'm not mocking you, honest to me." God vaulted onto the half-wall that ran around part of Honorial's workspace and sat there swinging his legs and absently braiding and unbraiding a section of his beard. "I'm wondering if I've been working you too hard since I instituted Operation Tarheel. How can you possibly be surprised that he's lying to Dan? He's lied about everything from the moment the two of them met—and he arranged their meeting."

"But he was doing better! He tried to save your daughter Maralee's life in the parking lot when the bomb killed her."

"No, he didn't. He put on a good show, but had he wanted to save her, she'd still be alive."

Honorial said, "But he saved Dan's life."

"Which only proves my point about Maralee. He led both Janna and Meg into damnation—Janna through greed and laziness, Meg through idealism."

"But saving Dan's life was a good thing."

"Was it? Maybe. Maybe not. It all depends on why the devil did it. Even good things can be done for evil reasons. See how things turn out with Dan before you say that with such assurance."

Honorial frowned. "I began to hope that devil would repent. He seemed so different. He seemed so caring."

"He spent his life seeming to be something that he wasn't. I didn't expect him to change so quickly or so easily."

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Framed