Sins of the Father

by Angela Benson

Saralyn patted her knee. “You need to face a hard truth, Rebecca. Your marriage to Isaac is over. He’s never going to get past this, and frankly, I don’t blame him.”

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Deborah shook her head. She couldn’t believe how her brother had treated Isaac in the boardroom. She placed her order and handed the menu back to the waitress. “Mama, I think we’ve got bigger problems than me and Alan. Your son was fighting with his half brother during a business meeting. We’ve got to do something.”

  Leah took a sip of iced tea. “Well, he said Isaac threw the first punch.”

  “Come on, Mama,” Deborah said. “You and I both know Isaac didn’t jump Michael out of the blue.”

  Leah shrugged. “We don’t know any such thing.”

  Deborah could not believe this conversation. “You can’t be making excuses for Michael, Mama, not now, not after what he did today.”

  Leah wiped her fingers down the side of her glass. “I’m not making excuses for him,” she said. “I’m trying to see things from his perspective.”

  Deborah loved her mother but she couldn’t hold her tongue any longer. “Maybe we’ve tried to do that too much, Mama. Maybe all we’ve done is turn a blind eye to Michael’s misdeeds.”

  “That’s not true,” Leah said.

  Deborah bit her lower lip. “Yes, it is. The most glaring example is how we treated his relationship with Josette. We should have made him tell her that Abraham was his father and Isaac his brother. And if he didn’t tell her, we should have. Instead, we went along with it, convincing ourselves that Michael’s motives were pure. When is it going to stop, Mama?”

  Leah wiped at a tear with a hand. “I don’t know what to do. How do you think it makes me feel to see how much my son hates his father?”

  Deborah squeezed her mother’s hand. “It’s not your fault, Mama. It’s nobody’s fault. It’s just the way things are. But if we love Michael—and we do—we have to find a way to help him.”

  “I’ve talked to him and talked to him,” she said. “My words don’t penetrate.”

  “I know what you mean,” Deborah said. “Words aren’t working. Everything he’s doing goes back to the animosity he feels toward Abraham.”

  Leah smiled weakly. “Now who’s making excuses for him?”

  “I don’t seem to be able to help myself. I know the rejection he feels. I felt it, too. And I think Abraham was wrong not to put Michael on the board. That was only more rejection. We shouldn’t have gone along with it.”

  The waitress brought their meals and placed them on the table. When she was gone, Leah said, “The proposal made sense when Abraham first put it to me. I think he had good intentions.”

  Deborah sprinkled salt on her fried potatoes. “Maybe he could have made them work if he weren’t in the hospital, but I can safely say that his plan is one big failure.”

  “What can we do about it?”

  “We can give Michael his seat on the board. All we need to do is tell Alan that we think he’s ready.”

  “Do you think he’s ready? Abraham was concerned that he might try to sabotage the company.”

  Deborah picked up her hamburger and took a bite. “What could he do? Saralyn made it perfectly clear that we don’t have enough votes to do anything. What harm could come of it?”

  “I promised Abraham—”

  Deborah stopped her mother. “Mama, we need to think about what’s best for Michael, not what’s best for Abraham. I think giving him some say in his father’s company would go a long ways toward helping him establish some relationship with Abraham. As it stands now, there is no chance for that. He’s still an outsider. He probably feels more of an outsider now that I’m working at MEEG and sitting on the board. It’s his birthright. He shouldn’t have to earn it if Isaac and I didn’t have to.”

  “I’ll think about it,” Leah said. “It’s hard for me to picture Michael and Isaac working side by side, given what happened today.”

  Deborah chuckled. “It’s hard for me to picture it, too, but that’s where we are. They’re both Abraham’s sons. They both have to adapt. This would be a lot easier if Abraham were awake, but we have to work with what we have.”

  “When did you get so smart?”

  “I’m not smart, Mama.” She stabbed a fry with her fork. “Abraham told me that he wants me to help bring this family together. I think he’d approve of what we’re considering. We’re never going to be a family if Michael is on the outside looking in. It won’t work and it’s not fair.”

  “I bet this will go over well with Saralyn.”

  Deborah laughed. “We’ll leave the telling to Alan. He’ll find the best way to break it to her.”

  Leah took a bite of her salmon. “Alan’s an attractive man.”

  “Does that mean I’m going to have to fight you for him?”

  Leah shook her head. “He’s too old for me.”

  Deborah laughed and flicked a fry at her mother. “No, you didn’t say that.”

  “He seems like a nice man. Your type—smart, established, handsome, older.”

  “Right on all four counts, but there’s nothing to worry about. Yet. We haven’t even gone out.”

  “But you will,” Leah said.

  “Probably,” Deborah said. “I’m taking it slow. Part of the attraction is that he’s known Abraham for a long time and he’s willing to share those stories with me.”

  “Be careful,” Leah said, “of your own heart and Alan’s. There are quite a few broken hearts in your past, sweetheart.”

  Deborah sighed. “Don’t start. If another person tells me I have commitment issues, I think I’ll scream.” She picked up the dessert menu in the middle of the table. “Enough of the serious talk,” she said. “My sweet tooth is calling me.”

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Why do women always have to clean up after men? Saralyn asked herself as she strode to Deborah’s office after lunch. She and the young woman needed to come to a meeting of the minds after that disastrous board meeting. It was obvious to a blind man that Isaac and Michael could not continue together at MEEG. Even though Michael Thomas was not officially on the board, it was apparent he was going to make a nuisance of himself. Somebody had to take charge.

  When she reached Deborah’s door, she opened it without knocking.

  The desk chair faced the wall. When it turned around, she saw Leah sitting there instead of Deborah.

  “Where’s your daughter?” she asked, not interested in speaking with the woman. She could barely stand to be in the room with her, but desperate times called for desperate measures, as the saying went. She’d tolerate her as a means to an end.

  “She’s in a meeting.”

  Saralyn assessed this woman who had been her husband’s mistress, and as she had years ago when she learned of the affair, concluded that she was not a worthy opponent. She closed the office door and strode to the desk. Instead of sitting in the chair, she walked around the desk and leaned on its edge, facing Leah.

  “What do you want?” Leah asked, rolling back a bit in her chair in a futile effort to regain her personal space.

  “I want to talk about that fiasco of a board meeting,” she said. “You have to know this idea of Abraham’s is not going to work.”

  “That’s your opinion,” Leah said, giving away nothing.

  Maybe the woman had some skills after all, Saralyn thought. “Look, Leah,” she said. “Abraham tried to do the right thing by your children, but he went about it the wrong way. He made it much more complicated than it had to be.”

  Leah eyed her skeptically. “What do you mean?”

  “It would have been much simpler had Abraham written a check. In fact, I’m ready to do that now. Name your price and I’ll have the check cut before the day is over.”

  Leah rolled back some more and then got out of her chair. “You want to pay us off?”

  Saralyn followed her with her eyes. “Let’s just say I want to make a better arrangement for all
of us. You’ll get what you want and I’ll get what I want.”

  “And what do you want, Saralyn?”

  “I want you and your children out of my life for good. I thought I’d gotten rid of you twenty-eight years ago, and yet here you are. So tell me your number.”

  “You think you can buy us out of your life, out of Abraham’s life?”

  Saralyn laughed. “I did it before,” she said. “I’ll do it again. Though I’m sure I’ll have to spend a bit more this time. You went cheaply before.”

  Leah’s eyes widened. “What are you talking about?”

  “Don’t play innocent with me, Leah,” she said. “I’m talking about the checks you received each month when your kids were growing up. Surely, you didn’t think Abraham sent them, did you?” Saralyn laughed again. “And here I thought you knew Abraham. Honey, I told Abraham to offer to send you money—it was better than having you go through the child support system—and I personally had those checks sent every month like clockwork. Abraham never gave you another thought until he had his ‘come to Jesus’ moment after his mother died. He was too busy building his empire to think about the small details of life, which is what you and your children were to him. Don’t ever think you were more than that.”

  “I don’t believe you,” Leah said. “Sending the money was Abraham’s idea.”

  Saralyn shrugged. “Believe what you want. What matters now is how much the last check should be for. Pick a good number because this will be all you and yours get from us.”

  “I don’t want a check, Saralyn.”

  “What do you want, Leah?”

  “I want my children to have their birthright.”

  Saralyn laughed again. “Bastard children don’t have a birthright. Don’t you read your Bible?” She took satisfaction in the pain in Leah’s eyes. She focused so much attention on the other woman’s eyes that she didn’t see Leah’s left hand until it was too late. The slap caught her totally off-guard. She rubbed her throbbing cheek but refused to give any other reaction.

  “My children are as much Abraham’s children as your son,” Leah said. “You and Abraham ignored them all their lives and I went along with it, but no more. My children are here, in your life and here at MEEG, as long as they want to be here. You can’t buy them off and you can’t run them off. I’m sure you’ll try, though.”

  Saralyn smiled at her. “You’re no match for me, Leah Thomas. You never have been. You think I didn’t know Abraham was sneaking around with you when we were dating? Please. You were no competition for me then and you’re no competition for me now. You know why?” She paused for effect, to let little Leah stew for a bit. “Because you don’t know how to handle Abraham. You let him tell you what to do. Unlike you, I told him what to do, and look which one of us he married.”

  “He only married you because you were pregnant,” Leah spat at her.

  “You keep thinking that. We both know Abraham was always going to choose me. He was too self-involved to make any other choice. Your only chance to get him was to get pregnant, and I beat you to it.”

  Leah studied her. Then, with a horrified expression on her face, she said, “You did it on purpose. You got pregnant to trap him.”

  Saralyn didn’t bother to answer. “I did what I had to do to get the man I wanted.”

  Leah lifted her chin. “But Abraham still came back to me after he found out about Michael.”

  “I wouldn’t boast about that if I were you. All you got out of it was a second bastard child. You still didn’t get Abraham.”

  “I turned him away,” she said, “because I had sympathy for you.”

  Saralyn shook her head. This woman was not allowed to bring up the miscarriage that she had caused. “Don’t pity me,” she said. “I got what I wanted. Now pick a number. We both know I’m going to win. I always do.” Then she got up and stalked to the door. “You know how to reach me,” she said, and left the office.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Isaac rubbed the back of his neck as he stepped off the hospital elevator after work the next day. The day had been long, too long. He wanted a day off but didn’t see one in the near future. He had to deal with the all-consuming work of MEEG combined with the ultimate dysfunction of his own family.

  “Hello, Isaac,” a warm, feminine voice said.

  He looked up to see Josette standing before him. “What are you doing here?” he asked.

  Her lips turned up in a slight smile. “It’s nice to see you, too.”

  “I’m sorry,” he said.

  “Don’t be sorry,” she said, a full smile on her face now. “To answer your question, I was here to see your father. Since no one was around, he and I had some quality time. I told him he needed to wake up so he can fix this mess that he’s made.”

  Isaac smiled. “It’s good to know that somebody around here is thinking with a clear head. I hope he heard you.”

  She rubbed her belly. “This little one keeps me sane. I’m not going to lose my mind, even though it feels like it some days.” She met his eyes. “Your father is my baby’s grandfather and you’ll be his uncle. Be honest with me, Isaac. Will you love my child the way an uncle loves a child?”

  Isaac didn’t answer immediately.

  Josette began to weep. “I don’t want my child born into a family like this. Had I known everything, maybe I wouldn’t have married Michael and I wouldn’t be here now. But I did marry him and now I have to make the best of it for my child.”

  Isaac felt her pain and wanted to ease it. He took her by the elbow and moved her to one of the lounge couches, then sat next to her. “I’m so sorry you and your baby got caught in the middle of this family drama, Josette.”

  “You could help lessen the drama, Isaac,” she said. “All you have to do is give Michael a chance.”

  Isaac didn’t see how that was possible, given this morning’s board meeting, but he didn’t want to disappoint this distraught pregnant woman. “I’ll try,” he said.

  “Put yourself in his shoes,” she said, her eyes pleading with him. “Even though he won’t admit it, he’s jealous of you and your relationship with your father. He’s so focused on what he’s missed in life that he doesn’t see what he has. This should be the happiest times of our lives, but Michael’s so focused on you and your father that he has little energy left for me and the baby.”

  Isaac didn’t have any words of encouragement for her so he smiled and said, “Do you want me to beat some sense into him?”

  She chuckled, as he’d hoped she would. “Maybe a good fight would get it all out of his system. Think you can arrange it?”

  He lifted his shoulders in a slight shrug. “We already had round one.”

  She bit her bottom lip. “Oh, no,” she said. “I knew he shouldn’t have crashed that board meeting.”

  Not wanting to upset her more, Isaac added, “There was too much testosterone in the room. We needed an outlet for some of it.”

  “You see, that’s what I mean. I don’t want my baby around a father and uncle who can’t even be in the same room without arguing or coming to blows. I want her to know her grandfather, spend time with him. How can this happen if you and Michael are always fighting?”

  Isaac didn’t know. Michael had crossed too many boundaries. His actions with Rebecca and the anniversary gifts suggested a pattern that was unlikely to change. He would bet that even now Michael was plotting his next attack. “The good news is that we have a few months before the baby gets here,” he said, seizing on the one positive he could find. “A lot can happen in that time.”

  “That’s what I’m praying for,” she said. “Your father needs to get better. He could help set things right.”

  Isaac grunted. “That would be fitting since he’s the one who caused the trouble in the first place.”

  “It really is a mess, isn’t it?”

  Before Isaac could answer, Rebecca rounded the corner and stopped abruptly. She looked from him to Josette. He could guess what
she was thinking. “I hope I’m not interrupting anything,” she said. He detected her sarcasm but hoped Josette didn’t.

  Josette sat up and away from Isaac. “No,” she said. “Your husband was only comforting a crying pregnant woman. We tend to get a lot of sympathy.” She extended her hand to Rebecca. “I’m Josette Thomas. Michael Thomas is my husband.”

  Rebecca shook her hand. “Nice to finally meet you,” she said. She cast a quick glare at Isaac, then added, “I can always count on my husband to rescue a woman in distress. He’s not a man to sit idly by when a woman needs help.”

  Seeming to sense the tension, Josette stood. “It’s time for me to head home,” she said. “I’m sure Michael will want to give me the details of the exciting board meeting.”

  Laughing, Isaac stood, too, ignoring the scowl on his wife’s face. “You take care of yourself and that baby. Everything’s going to work out.”

  “From your lips to God’s ears,” she said. Turning to Rebecca, she said, “You have a keeper here. Maybe together we can end this family feud.”

  Isaac watched Rebecca watch Josette leave. He was staring at her when she turned back to him. “You two certainly were cozy,” Rebecca said, accusation in her voice.

  “Tell me you didn’t sleep with Michael after he married Josette. Please tell me you had more self-respect than that.”

  When she looked away before responding, Isaac had his answer. And it hurt. He’d loved Rebecca, truly loved her. But he didn’t even know her.

  “What matters is that I wasn’t sleeping with him when you and I started dating,” she said, “and that I’ve never cheated on you. Have I asked for a rundown on the women you slept with before we met? No, I haven’t. And I wouldn’t.”

  “I guess that’s a yes, then.”

  “So what was that I saw with you and Josette? Are you looking for a way to get back at me, Isaac? Seducing Josette would be the perfect knife in the back for both me and Michael.”