“I’ll let him know you’re here.”
“This is your last chance. You can take your stock and run back to Europe, and Mother won’t ever know you were here,” he told her, not really wanting her to take him up on the offer.
“I’m tempted, believe me, I’m very tempted, but, honestly, this isn’t quite as awful as I was expecting.” She initiated the hug this time, not as shaken as she was a minute ago.
“Excuse me, Mr. Mitchell, Attorney Ryan will be right down,” the guard told them.
Don spun around the lobby in slow motion.
“And to think, you will be the new CEO before the day is over,” Tamara said.
“Hopefully as soon as the board meeting is over, which is in about three hours,” Don said, peering at his watch. “But as crazy as this family is, I’m not counting my chickens before they’re hatched. This whole plan that Mother has concocted could fall apart at the last minute, like the countless other failed tactics she’s tried ever since Father made Joel CEO. She refuses to let Joel have the company. With the questionable business decisions he’s made recently, I guess she was right all along in questioning his ability to run the company.”
“Quite frankly, I couldn’t care less about DMI, or . . .” she said and stopped.
“Or the family, is what you were going to say.” She winced. “It’s okay,” he said, placing his arms around her shoulders. “Like I said, this family is crazy. Our father definitely has to be put in that category. Why would he require you to physically be in this building in order to sign over your stock? I don’t know what that’s about.” Don wouldn’t dare raise the topic, but he knew Tamara’s distance had been equally directed toward both parents. Mother seemed to get the brunt because she did more pushing. Dave Mitchell had an irritating way of accepting what he couldn’t change and shifting his focus to what he could. A noble gesture in theory wasn’t so great for those on the other end, which Don learned firsthand.
“Well, Dad may have gotten me here, but I’m not staying,” she said, peering out the plate-glass windows and honning in on the cab waiting out front.
Having his sister within arm’s reach was going to be short lived, but no less gratifying. “Mother is going to burst a blood vessel when she finds out you’re home.”
“I’m not home,” Tamara said, shaking her index finger at him. “Monaco is home.”
“Uh-huh, I said the exact same thing when I moved to South Africa and look where I am,” he said, stretching his arms wide. “I’m not sure where my heart is, but this is where I am for now.”
A couple of jovial people from the training team and one from the mailroom got off the elevator. Don immediately recognized them.
“We heard you were in the building. Welcome back, it’s good to see you,” they told Don, each offering their own greeting and vigorous handshake. Tamara had been gone so long that the employees didn’t recognize her as Dave Mitchell’s only daughter, but when the people swarmed, Don sensed her discomfort. In the midst of the well-wishes, Don heard his cell phone ring and extracted it from his pocket. “It’s Mother,” he told Tamara. A cloud of panic hovered over his sister, ready to erupt. He took her hand and answered the phone with the other.
“Where are you?” Mother asked. “I’ve been trying to get in touch with you for hours. You know the board meeting is in less than three hours? Please tell me that your plane has landed and that you’re in Detroit.”
As they talked, Attorney Ryan arrived in the lobby and extended greetings. “I have a room reserved upstairs. Please come with me.”
“No!” Tamara belted out. Her hands were moving faster than her words. “I’d like to sign the papers right here if it’s okay with you. I have a cab waiting and a plane to catch.”
“This is too open. There are too many employees around.”
Don juggled Madeline on the phone while staying engaged in the dialogue between Tamara and Attorney Ryan.
“It’s right here or nowhere,” she demanded.
“No problem,” their father’s estate attorney said, and commandeered a coffee table and small sitting area with the documents. He used the folder to cover 85 percent of the legal-sized paper. Not much more than the signature line was exposed.
They were within minutes of completing what had seemed like two impossible feats a month ago, having Tamara in the U.S. and assuming the CEO role. Don was both overwhelmed and woozy again.
“Who is that in the background?”
“Attorney Ryan and Tamara are signing the papers.”
“Are you here in the building?” Madeline shouted with excitement impossible to contain.
“Yes, we are, Mother,” he said, keeping an eye on Tamara.
“I’m on my way. Are you in one of the guest offices on the third floor?”
“No, we’re in the lobby, but don’t come down here.”
“What do you mean don’t come down there? My children are in the building. I haven’t seen my daughter since she was twenty-one and you tell me not to come down there. Only death could keep me from lugging these bones down there, do you understand?”
Don knew any further discussion on the matter was a waste of time. Her mind was set, and deep down he understood but wasn’t sure Tamara would be as accommodating. She was fragile and couldn’t handle much more attention. He excused himself from the growing crowd of employees and found his way to Tamara. Maybe it was the look on his face or the lack of confidence that he expressed. Whatever the hint, Tamara figured out the gist of the conversation he’d had with Madeline.
“She’s on her way down, isn’t she?”
He wouldn’t lie to his sister. At his request, she’d made the sacrifice of leaving her sanctuary, far from the strife of DMI, to help him. He owed her honesty and that’s what she got. “Yes, she’s on her way to the lobby.”
Tamara’s gaze scoured the document and then the floor. In a split second she leaped to her feet and bolted toward the door. “I have to go.”
“Tamara, wait—I can stop Mother at the elevator.” This close to easily becoming CEO without having to wage a war, how could he let her walk right out the door with his mission trapped in her fingertips? Yet he’d clamored back to sanity, purging the anger and rejection heaped onto him by his father and God. He could appreciate her need to be away from this situation, from these people, from the agony until her healing was realized. Half of him wanted to plead with her to stay and the other half was willing to let her fly away like a wounded sparrow seeking refuge.
chapter
4
Securing financing, a drop in sales, Abigail’s betrayal, and Madeline’s schemes. Joel was juggling a list of issues with no support, except from his mother. He left his car in the company’s circular entrance. Approaching the entryway, he fixed his eyes on a woman fleeing the building. A natural hairstyle framed her caramel-colored face. She blazed past him in a whirlwind, but not before his gaze zoomed in on her beauty during a fleeting glance. A sense of familiarity overcame him but Joel shook it off. Between DMI and the exhaustive media attention he’d claimed over the past three years, there was no telling where he’d met the woman. He was prepared to squeak out a hello but she didn’t allow a single second for socializing. In a swoop she was in the cab barreling away from the complex. Joel shrugged his shoulders, thankful for the brief distraction while equally intrigued about why she looked so familiar. Madeline came tearing out of the building and ran smack into Joel.
“Get out of my way,” she told him, practically plowing him down. “Where is she?” she belted.
“Where is who?”
“Never mind,” she said, appearing worked up, and went back inside.
Today wasn’t making much sense for Joel. He walked through the revolving door and stopped. The lobby was filled with employees, but his gaze was drawn to Abigail, Attorney Ryan, and Don. That’s when it clicked: the lady outside was Tamara, his half sister. His knees buckled, understanding the significance of her visit. She’d left Detroi
t when he was twelve. With the strain between his father’s two sets of children, he didn’t have much interaction with Madeline’s four children, and it wasn’t from lack of interest on his part. He remembered the fantasy of having a real relationship with his siblings. He recalled going so far as to create fictional events with them which never came true. Honestly, he didn’t really know the two older brothers, Sam and Andre. They died when he was a young child. He knew Don best, but Tamara was pretty much in name only, except for a few family photos his father kept. In all these years, she’d never returned to Detroit, not to his knowledge, not for their father’s funeral or for the reading of his will. Reflecting on the specific terms outlined by his father, there was only one reason for her to show up now, signing her stock ownership over to somebody. It didn’t really matter who, if it wasn’t him. Joel wanted to panic but beat down the notion. He needed answers. Business had to be handled first; he could deal with his fears in private later.
Don approached Joel and extended a hand. When he came for the reading of their father’s will, Joel reached out in an effort to make amends. Don was cordial but not receptive about fostering too much brotherly love. Their attitudes were reversed. Joel wasn’t in a friendly mood and didn’t accept Don’s handshake.
“What’s going on here?” he asked Don.
“We have a board meeting.”
“Come on, man, you can do better than that. I know we have a board meeting, but you haven’t shown up since I’ve been CEO for any other meeting and suddenly I’m supposed to believe that you and Tamara just happen to be here on the same day for an emergency board meeting.” Joel’s blood was pumping fast, racing through his veins. His thoughts wanted to get ahead of his words, overcome by the massive number of possibilities threatening his position in the company. They were out to get him, to undermine his ability to lead. He knew it. He had to think quickly. He couldn’t be discounted, otherwise they might get another chance to validate his illegitimacy. Who could he trust? The security guard was in on the sneak attack, he could tell. He panned the room, logging the face of each employee lining the lobby. They were to be watched, too. No one was going to blindly knock him out of the CEO position, not without a serious duel to the death. The job was his. He had been chosen for the role.
Joel pushed past Don and Madeline in search of Abigail. He found her and aggressively grabbed her arm. “What’s going on here?”
“Joel,” she cried out, startling him back into the moment. He let her arm go. For a bit, his thoughts had carried him far off into a state of confusion, a place he was frequenting more often.
“Are you turning on me?” he demanded.
“Joel, get ahold of yourself. This is a lobby full of your employees,” she whispered. “Don’t make a scene down here. This isn’t like you.” She pulled her jacket down on both sides.
Don flew into the conversation with Madeline in tow. The day was already a bust without having to deal with Madeline and her mouth, but there didn’t seem to be an escape route.
“Joel, you need to back off of Abigail. If you have a concern, address it to me,” Madeline said.
“What is this, you have to protect Abigail from me? Come on, you can’t be serious.”
“That’s not what she meant to do, Joel,” Abigail said.
“Everybody take a breath and let’s go talk,” Don butted in to say.
“Okay, big brother, since you’re speaking for the entourage, you tell me what’s going on, as if I don’t already know.”
“Let’s step into the waiting room. Everybody out here doesn’t need to know what we’re discussing,” Don said.
“Oh, and who are you, the new boss giving orders and taking charge?” Joel chuckled, having no other way to relieve the mounting sense of vulnerability.
“Come on, Joel, let’s talk,” Don offered again and pointed to the waiting room off to the side of the lobby.
“I don’t need a private room to hear your lies,” Joel told Don. Then he turned to Madeline and said, “I know this is your doing. You just won’t give up. When are you going to get this in your head,” he said, tapping his index finger on his temple. “I’m CEO, not you, not your son, not my father, me. Deal with it,” he said and walked away.
“Mistakes can and will be corrected,” Madeline said, pouring her rhetoric over Joel like molten lava. He was instantly yanked back into the heat. Before he could hurl a word, Don stepped between Joel and his mother.
“I said back off,” Don said. “This is between you and me, leave my mother and Abigail out of this.”
“Or what, big brother, what are you going to do? You’ve taken me on before and lost, each time,” he said, stepping within breathing distance of Don. Joel didn’t want to ignite a duel but he couldn’t show any signs of weakness. If Tamara had signed her stock ownership to Don or Madeline, then that meant they had controlling interest with 55 percent and enough weight to oust him from the CEO role at the upcoming board meeting, not counting Abigail’s 5 percent. His thoughts were jumbled, his emotions frantic, but they couldn’t know.
“Joel, what’s gotten into you? This is not you. Don’t you see what’s happening?” Abigail said in an emotional tone not easily hidden. “Ever since you started pursuing Harmonious Energy, you’ve become a different person. You have to see this,” she persisted.
He didn’t want to hear anything she had to say. She was in the other camp, a traitor. Joel stormed up the stairs two at a time, bypassing the elevators. He needed time and space to figure out how to stay the coup d’etat that was obviously brewing among these people masquerading as family and friends. Six flights up didn’t allow adequate time, but it was a start.
chapter
5
Well, that went well,” Madeline said, tapping the toe of her spiked heels, arms folded, barely able to harness the unbridled anxiety stemming from not catching her daughter in time. “I can’t believe Tamara is gone.” She was unable to calm the escalating sense of not knowing what to do next. When it came to plowing down Joel or running the East Coast division of DMI, she was effective and resolute, needing help from no one. But reuniting with her daughter wasn’t a task she’d mastered. “That’s it. I’m going to the airport. I’m not letting Tamara leave Detroit without me seeing her. I’m not going to let that happen,” she said and trotted to the door.
Don called out to her. “Stop, Mother, let her go.”
“I can’t,” she said, refusing to break down. She needed to maintain composure and get to the airport. This could be her one and only chance to reach Tamara. If her daughter had come this close to home, there was a chance that Tamara was ready to reconcile. Madeline couldn’t be deterred. Finally she had both of her last remaining children in town, a dream come true. Grief sneaked in as she pushed away the crippling demise of her two oldest sons. Tamara was her concern.
“She needs time to figure out her feelings,” Don said.
“How much time does she need? None of us are going to live forever. I wish she’d give me a chance to be her mother again.” Grief and anguish swooshed in. Rationally she knew Tamara’s rape wasn’t her fault, but as a parent she assumed the guilt. Madeline threw up the barricade on her soul and kept focus on Tamara.
“Mother, she has her reasons for wanting to keep a distance. I’m not going to judge her. You know I’ve been there.”
“But you’re here,” Madeline said, clinging to Don. She heaved a deep sigh, acknowledging that there was hope. She released the grip, feeling slightly less anxious. “At least we accomplished one key goal, getting Tamara’s stock signed over to you.” She patted Don on his back, full of joy, finding the impossible act to be a pure miracle. Don tried to interject, but she didn’t want to lose her train of thought. “Who would have thought that you would be standing here today, ready to assume the CEO role after your father foolishly appointed Joel? It really is a miracle.” Don tried to interject again, but she was almost finished. “I guess God finally decided to have mercy on this old wom
an and let me have something in life, too, finally. Every other time He let me get close to something good, He would then let it disappear like a mirage. Finally the mirage has become reality. Finally my children have come out on top for a change. It’s bittersweet, with Tamara leaving the way she did, but I’m thrilled for you. Now, what were you saying?”
He wouldn’t make eye contact, which made her nervous.
“I don’t have Tamara’s stock.”
“What do you mean?” Madeline said, feeling the anxiety zip up the chart to a nearly unbearable level.
“Tamara left as soon as she realized that you were coming to the lobby. We didn’t get her signature on the papers.”
“Don’t tell me this,” she said, wanting to pull the strands of hair from her head and let out a shrill scream that could probably be heard two continents away. Why was God always doing this to her? “How can we be this close,” she said, pinching her thumb and index fingers together, “and lose again? I really don’t think I can stand another loss. This is it. If we don’t claim this ministry now, there will be nothing left in a few months, based on Joel’s poor management. If this merger with Harmonious Energy goes through, we can kiss our churches and other religious-based clients goodbye. The sacrifice and years of service that I’ve poured into this ministry with your father will be down the drain. I can’t let that happen. Your father was a fool for appointing that inexperienced child in the first place, but I’m not giving up on righting his wrong.”
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