BENEATH HER VIRGIN SIGN

Beneath Her Virgin Sign By Leona --- Chapter One: The First Sunday The first time Adanna saw him, the incense had just started to rise. Sunlight beamed through the stained glass windows of St. Mark’s Anglican Church in Otokoma. It was a sleepy riverside town in southern Nigeria — the kind of place where people didn’t just know your name, they knew the sins your father confessed to in private. Adanna sat in the third pew from the altar, wrapped in her usual flowing white gown. Her head was covered with her mother’s lace scarf — the one reserved for Holy Communion Sundays. Her hands were folded tightly in her lap, as if holding them too loosely would let something slip. She was a Virgo, in every way: Precise. Quiet. Holy. At least… that’s what they all thought. That Sunday was different. Because he walked in. He didn’t wear the red cassock of the altar boys or the stiff white of the choir. He wore black jeans. And a T-shirt. In the house of God. The gasp that left Adanna’s lips was silent, but her heart skipped as if someone had shouted it. He didn’t bow before the altar. He didn’t kneel to pray. He just sat — right behind her. --- “Who’s that?” she whispered, without turning. Beside her, Sister Ijeoma, a deaconess’s daughter, leaned in and whispered back, “That’s Pastor Obinna’s nephew from Port Harcourt. They say he got suspended from Covenant University. For what, I don’t know. But he’s here now.” Adanna didn’t respond. She could feel his eyes on her back. The choir rose to sing “Draw Me Close to You”, but her spirit wasn’t focused. For the first time in her seventeen years, she didn’t feel like God’s favorite child. She felt… noticed. And not by Heaven. --- After service, Adanna stepped into the bright sun, clutching her Bible like it could shield her from temptation. That’s when she heard him. “You don’t say ‘Amen’ very loudly.” She turned slowly. His voice was smooth. His smile — crooked. His presence? Unholy. Deliciously so. “You were watching me?” she asked, not meeting his eyes. “Only because you glowed,” he said. “Even your silence was loud.” Her heart fluttered. Virgo. Rule-keeper. Pastor’s shadow. And now? She was smiling at a boy whose sin was written all over him. ---