/sei/

The article was on the front page of the newspaper the very next morning, and the article was accompanied by a photograph of Father Cesar posing with the Argentine mafia as well as the child that was getting baptized. The men flanking the middle aged priest carried AK-47's while everyone else in the picture smiled very nonchalantly. There was a scene of a party behind them, but no one seemed to care that there were men with guns everywhere. It was probably something they were used to by now.

By noon, the whole village had seen the photographs and read the article. 

Fiorella Vanella was especially angry when she found out that it had been her boyfriend the one who wrote the article. No one in the village believed Father Cesar was capable doing something like that, they knew him as being something of a protector of the community, and they were all more inclined to believe that Rubens was fabricating all of it.

They all knew Fiorella's boyfriend, and his father, to be people who did not believe in God. They were the only ones in the purely Catholic village in the Pampas district of Argentina. The people of the village often shunned them because of it. But Rubens' father did not want to leave the Pampas. He was born there, and had lived his whole life there. Though his parents had arrived from Italy to Argentina, Rubens' father had always known the Pampas as his home. He could not imagine leaving, as much as the community could hate him because he did not believe in God.

With the heavy newspaper in hand, Fiorella grabbed the phone in the kitchen of the restaurant and dialed her boyfriend's work number. She had already tried his house number to find there was no answer. It took a few rings, but when he finally answered, she didn't even let him speak. "You're such a fucking scum, Rubens!" She yelled into the phone through gritted teeth. She was very outraged at what he had done. "How dare you attempt to defame the church this way? I get that you've never been into religion like the rest of us, I respected that. But you didn't have to go around spreading lies!"

"Fiorella, they're not lies-"

He tried to explain to her, but was interrupted. "Don't try to justify what you did! Father Cesar is a man of God. So, you and your nonbeliever ways can just go to hell. We're over! I never want to see you again."

She slammed the phone on the receiver to end the call and stood there for a moment, taking a few deep breaths to calm herself down. Though she was still angry about the conversation she had just had, and about the news article, Fiorella almost felt a sense of relief after breaking up with Rubens. It didn't hurt as much as she thought it would. Her mother was at the other side of the kitchen, cooking, and had heard everything, but thought her daughter needed some space. 

-

At the church, Father Luke was sitting down in his room and had just picked up the newspaper. It had been folded inwards, and he hadn't been able to see the front page yet. But when he saw it, he was shocked.

There seemed to be many more things that Father Cesar was hiding.

And Luke doubted the pictures had been altered just to defame him and the church. Though he was certain that would be the excuse the church would go with. He was reading the article, which he noticed had been written by Fiorella's boyfriend, when he got a call. He set the newspaper down on the bed beside him and went to pick up the phone.

"This is Father Luke from St. Ignatius Catholic Church, how may I help you?" He said as he answered the call.

"Father Luke!" A man said from the other end. "I've heard about you from our brother dioceses in Australia. I'm Father Lionel, the archbishop of the Pampas district, and I'm calling because we've got a situation with Father Cesar in the newspapers. I'm assuming you've seen them by now."

Luke nodded his head. "Yeah, I just read the article. I can't believe someone would attempt to defame the church like that."

"Exactly." The archbishop agreed. "I already called my connections in Valle Daza and they want to meet with you. Since you're an innocent party in all of this, they want you to write a new article claiming that this was all made up and that the pictures were altered to make the church look bad."

"But what about that kid Rubens?" Luke asked with curiosity. "Wouldn't he lose his job?" He thought Fiorella would not like that very much and he valued her opinions. But she was also devoutly Catholic and it was also a possibility that she would take their side. 

"I doubt it." The archbishop assured him.

"I'll do what I can." Luke agreed.

The archbishop gave Luke all the information as to where the meeting would take place, and then their call ended. Luke was to meet at the news station with the editor and they would talk about what had happened. 

-

While Father Luke was at the news building near the edge of the village, Rubens was called into the room as well. The young man was not surprised to see a priest there, no doubt trying to get them to retract their article. He did not yet know that it had already been arranged.

"Rubens," His boss sighed, "This is father Luke-"

"I know who he is." Rubens nodded, but he shot the young priest something of a glare.

"He was sent here by the archbishop of the Pampas." His boss began to explain. The boss was not a big believer himself, but he knew the church had powerful supporters and he did not want to cross them. "They are issuing a retraction of the article, which Father Luke is going to write, and...they are asking for your head."

This angered Rubens. "Why? I was only writing the truth."

Luke shook his head. "Wait. We didn't ask for him to get fired, we just want a retraction."

But the man behind the desk shook his head. "I just got a call from the archbishop and he said he wants Rubens fired. The church has powerful friends and we can't cross them."

Rubens said bitterly, "So that's the way it is."

His boss shrugged. "Sorry Rubens."

With that, the young man with dark hair who had been standing by the door, opened it, and stormed out. That left Luke and the editor alone again. He explained to Luke that he was free to use any of the computers in the building to type the article and they would have it printed on the front page by the next morning.

Luke could already feel this would become a problem with Rubens.

-

It only took Luke about an hour to write a short article for the front page, and he submitted it to the newspaper. He left the building to see Father Cesar waiting for him outside. The older priest was relieved to see Luke. 

"How'd everything go?" He wondered as they began walking back into the village.

Luke gave a small shrug of his shoulders. "Everything went well. But Rubens lost his job and I feel bad for him."

"Don't worry, Father Luke. We will pray for his soul." Father Cesar said, placing a hand on Luke's shoulder. "That boy needs a lot of guidance."

Speaking of Rubens, they were walking down the street when Luke spotted him. The moment he saw Luke, his expression filled with anger, and he charged at them. Luke thought Rubens would probably yell at him, and try to start an argument. But instead, he went right for the assault. The moment the Australian priest was within his reach, he grabbed him by the shirt collar with one fist, while he brought the other to connect with his face.

"Its your fault I got fired!" He spat angrily.

He didn't get to connect another blow because in an instant, Father Cesar and other men from the community pulled him back. But Luke could already feel the bruise forming on his eye.

He wanted so badly to his him back, his hand had balled up into a fist, and twitched in anger. But he had been taught by the church about non violence and turning the other cheek. It was rather difficult to do that when he wasn't too fond of Rubens from the very start.

The men dragged Rubens down to the police station while he thrashed in their hold. Luke followed close by, rubbing the soreness in his eye. 

Valle Daza was slowly becoming like a nightmare to him. And the only dream in it all was Fiorella.

-

an update for you all. 

just a heads up, the REAL sinning begins in the next chapter. so stay tuned for that. and thank you all loads for reading this story. it really means a lot to me.

have a great week, i know i'm having a stressful one because its the last week of school. but once that's over i'll be happy and free to work on my fanfics as well as other things. 

-clary xx