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Joel cruised back to the office. The money had been wired, the legal documents would be ready in two days, and an airline ticket was reserved in his name. “Dial Sheba,” he spoke into his hands-free mobile headset. The voice activation feature dialed as requested. With minimal effort, Sheba was there, a truth he’d grown to cherish. “Guess what—I have the money.”
“Of course you have the money. I knew you’d work it out, never a doubt.”
“When are you leaving Chicago and moving closer to me?” he asked, and she laughed. “I need you and that positive attitude of yours here with me. I can’t tell you how much it means to have your faith in me. I don’t see much of that around here,” he said, exiting I-75 at Grand River, four city miles from the office, twenty minutes tops.
“My only regret is that I didn’t have more to give you. If I had the entire three hundred million, it would have been yours.”
“Your hundred was perfect. Trust me, every dollar made a difference,” he said with no intention of sharing how far he’d gone to get the money. He didn’t want the three women he cared most about to be subjected to his creative financing. As soon as the marriage was in effect and Musar expired, Uncle Frank’s people would have their money and the ugly mess would be over like it had never existed. In the meantime, no one would know, not Sheba, Abigail, or his mother. “I couldn’t have gotten this far without you.”
“I’m flattered, Mr. Mitchell, but you didn’t need me.”
If only she knew. When he fell short on encouragement, she stepped in and offered the best of what she had. It was enough to get him recharged and back on the attack. She was irreplaceable. “This time next week I’ll be the proud owner of Harmonious Energy.”
“You’ll be a husband, too. In spite of the conditions, there has to be a tiny amount of excitement that you’re feeling?”
“Excitement” wasn’t the right word. “Obligated” was far more appropriate. “I’m okay with what has to be done. Just so you know, nothing changes between us.”
“It has to change.”
“No,” he said, bent on making sure. “We’re solid. You’ve been with me during tough times. I can’t abandon you, and I won’t entertain the thought of you abandoning me.”
“You’ll have a wife, and of course there’s always Abigail.”
“Please, let’s not go there. Like I said, DMI isn’t lined with people that put trust in me. You and my mother are it.”
“I’m in your corner, but I’ll have to keep you honest when it comes to your marriage. I couldn’t be considered a true friend if I didn’t encourage you to do right by your new wife. It will be the godly thing to do,” she said, submerged in humor.
“She doesn’t believe in the God you’re talking about. So His rules don’t apply in my situation.”
“Isn’t this ironic? When I first met you, I wasn’t convinced that God existed, but being around you, your faith was rich, like electricity,” she said. Talking about religion made him squirm in his seat. “Remember that. I repented for my sins standing outside your boardroom, acknowledged Christ as the son of God, and accepted Him as my savior. That happened solely because of you. Let’s face it, I haven’t managed to incorporate church visits into my schedule, but I’m definitely a believer. That’s why I said it’s ironic, because you’re the one who opened me up to spirituality. So what’s happened with you since then? You seem tenser.”
He didn’t want the pressure, not even from Sheba. “Different discussion for a different time,” he said, not interested in discussing religion any longer. He wanted to keep his visit free, uncomplicated, like every other time he had with Sheba. “My wife will adjust with no problem.”
“No, she won’t. She will be a stranger in a new country. I’ll always want you, but she’ll want you more. I’m sure of it.”
“The marriage isn’t what you think. It’s purely an arrangement. I have to stay married three years and then we both go our separate ways,” he said, turning into the corporate parking lot.
“That’s what you think. Women see marriage differently than men. Indian, Asian, African, or American, doesn’t make a difference. She’s expecting a husband.”
“We’ll see.” He pulled into the executive row and eased into the top spot. “I wish I could route the plane through Chicago to see you and then go on to India.”
“Why can’t you? I thought you ran the company?”
“I’m on a commercial flight this time. My perks don’t work everywhere.”
“Since you can’t stop by, then let me wish you safe travel and may the Lord be with you.”
He fidgeted, absorbing her comment. She didn’t usually push religion on him. There was a time when her faith and hope were reduced to a box of crystals and stones. His influence on her spirituality had come full circle, becoming a source of torment for him. He let the comment sit without a response to the Lord portion. God was silent when he and his mother were being attacked relentlessly by Madeline. God hadn’t shown up along the way and there was no reason to push the issue. Joel had worked hard without assistance. The victory was his, and his alone. “I’m at the office. I’m going to dash in and tell my mother the good news.”
“I’m surprised you didn’t tell her first.”
“I keep telling you that you’re high on my list.” At that moment his mind was drowned with the flood of information he’d once shared with Abigail. She used to be his first to know. Those days were over. He wasn’t going to dwell on her and let his spirit fall. He had to cast Abigail out of his mind—not forever, but definitely for this moment.
“Good-bye, Mr. Mitchell.”
Joel killed the engine and got out of the car. “You mean see you later—never a good-bye from you.” He was amused but she couldn’t see the content look on his face.
“Let me know when you return. I’d like to get you a wedding gift.”
Joel walked into the building and waved past the security desk. “That won’t be necessary. My new house is completely furnished.”
“Safe travels, my friend. We’ll talk,” she told him.
He couldn’t stop thinking about the house. When he initially asked Abigail to oversee the construction, his intentions were sincere. He had no idea that a marriage to someone else would follow. Joel sighed, thinking about the anguish Abigail had felt when he’d told her. He wasn’t heartless, having experienced loneliness and rejection from childhood companions. He knew what a broken heart felt like.
Joel ended the call and entered the elevator. He went to the executive floor and stopped two doors from his. He knocked on the door and heard the quiet voice on the other side.
“Come in.”
He entered. “Mom, do you have a minute?”
“For you, I have a whole hour. Is everything okay?” she asked with a fearful expression.
“Better than good. Life is wonderful. DMI is wonderful, and—” he reached for her hands and gently letting her rise to her feet—“you’re wonderful.”
“Joel Mitchell, what’s gotten into you?”
“Victory. There’s nothing like the taste of sweet victory. We won.”
“What did we win?”
“Harmonious Energy. I have the deal finished.”
“Oh, son, that’s great news. I’m happy for you,” she said, holding him tightly. She wasn’t a businesswoman with the level of experience that Madeline had, but his mother possessed class where Madeline fell short. His mother understood how important the merger was to him, and it gave him comfort in not being totally alone. “I had no idea you’d convinced the board of directors to change their minds and let you proceed.”
He pushed from her hug. “I didn’t exactly get their endorsement.”
“What do you mean?” she asked, letting the fear frame her expression once more.
“I’m CEO. I can run this company. I already have, flawlessly. I’m not going to let a group of shortsighted busybodies cause me to lose the d
eal of a lifetime.”
“What’s going to happen when they find out?”
Joel ushered her to the phone situated on her desk. “We’ll handle one crisis at a time. By the time they find out, it will be done. The first order of business for you is to get a ticket to India. My assistant can get you the information. We don’t have any time to waste. We need to hop a plane in two days and get to India to close this deal.”
“Two days, that’s not nearly enough time for me to get through this stack of papers.”
“Don’t worry about the papers. The CEO is giving you several days off, mandatory to go to India with your son. He truly needs you there.”
“All right, all right, I’m going but it’s only because I love you,” she said, lightening the mood substantially. Joel was ready to leave when he turned to say, “Be sure to bring a dress for the wedding ceremony.”
“You’re going through with the wedding,” she said, taking a seat behind her desk. The enthusiasm fled and left a ring of seriousness. “Are you sure this is what you want to do?”
“Positive.” Wanted to do, needed to do, had to do, it was the same. “No sacrifice is too great if it can keep DMI afloat.” Finally he could make his family’s legacy an actuality. His father would be proud of his youngest son, the one who made it happen in the face of staunch opposition. Not Don, the son who got to wear the label of legitimacy.
“Joel, your father is gone. You don’t have to live out his vision.” She stood and went to Joel. “You are the only child I have. You are fulfilling your father’s legacy by living your best life. I want you to be happy. If that happens to mean marrying Mr. Bengali’s daughter, so be it, but make sure you’re doing it for the right reason. It’s the only way you’ll be able to survive. You can’t live in bondage, locked in a marriage of convenience. You won’t survive. As crazy as times got between your father, Madeline, and me, my love for your father was what enabled me to stay, otherwise the chaos would have driven me to suicide.”
“Mom, don’t worry,” he said, lifting her hands and leading with a few dance steps. “I’m doing exactly what I want to do. This is happiness for me, truly I’m happy.” She seemed convinced. For a second he felt convinced, too, before truth rushed in.
chapter
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Thirty years. Every grueling minute of those years had been met with accusations, put-downs, and flat-out mean-spiritedness mostly waged by Madeline. Loving Dave Mitchell was her joy in the beginning but realism had a way of stamping out the flame, leaving just a smoldering whiff of love between them. Sherry tidied her desk in preparation for the upcoming trip to India. Her support for Joel was unquestionable. The decision he was making for his personal life was very questionable. She was overcome with doubt. Sherry went downstairs to Abigail’s office hoping for something, she was not sure what.
Abigail was finishing up a conference call but beckoned for Sherry to come in anyway. The wait was brief. “You were looking for me?” Abigail asked as she ended her call.
Sherry meandered to the windows located on one side of Abigail’s office. “You know Joel is—” she said and caught herself. She remembered Joel telling her the board of directors didn’t know about the trip to India, which probably meant Abigail didn’t know, either. She needed to confide her concerns in someone but couldn’t risk betraying Joel’s confidence.
“I know Joel is what?”
The awful distress swirling inside threatened to overtake her hopes for Joel. She’d lived out a distressed marriage for what seemed to be the right reasons. Inhaling the air of independence and self-worth transformed her view of those years. She saw the marriage with Dave for what it was, awkward from the beginning and straight through until the end. There was more for her son and she wanted him to have it now, not wait until he was fifty-five years old to start living, as she had.
“If the merger ever goes through with that Indian company, you know he’s going to marry the daughter.” Abigail acknowledged Sherry’s comment through eye contact but didn’t respond. Maybe it was Abigail’s heartache, or her confusion, or worse, her lack of interest in Joel. “Did you hear me?” Sherry said turning her body to face Abigail, but staying by the windows with her arms clasped. “He’s going to marry another woman.”
“And what do you want me to do about it?” Abigail asked. “Do you want me to go and plead for his love, hmm?” Sherry kept her arms locked and looked away into the sparsely cloudy sky. “Do you want me to wrestle him to the floor, or, better yet, how about this: what if I clobber him over the head and tow his limp body back to my cave and make him mine?”
“Of course I’m not suggesting you do anything remotely as dramatic, but you should do something.”
Abigail gazed up to the ceiling, then back down to the desk.
“I know you love him,” Sherry said, taking a few steps toward the desk. “You are what he needs—stability and genuine love. I’m not going to be here forever, and I’d like to know that he’ll have someone in his tiny corner.”
“Now who’s being dramatic? You are the picture of health. You’ll be around for a long time. That’s not a concern.”
“Perhaps, but whether I’m here one day or one hundred years, I want my son to experience happiness every day of his life. The prospect of him engaging in a marriage for business purposes is absolutely frightening to me. I know Joel. Nothing good can come from that kind of arrangement.”
“Well,” Abigail said, seemingly distracted, “maybe you’re worrying prematurely.”
“What do you mean?”
“If the board is effective, Joel won’t have the backing to finalize the merger. They’ve blocked his funding, stalled his legal review, and turned down his request for approval. Unless he creates a miracle, the deal isn’t happening.”
Sherry wanted to share the truth with Abigail but couldn’t risk it. “I know it looks hopeless, but my son is Dave Mitchell’s child. Miracles aren’t beyond them.”
That got Abigail’s attention. “No disrespect to you, Sherry, but Dave and Joel are very different leaders.”
“As they should be.”
“Well, Dave’s miracles came from the favor he had with God. I can’t begin to guess where Joel would find a miracle, but I’m pretty certain it’s not from God. At least not the same God that Dave and I serve. Joel has his own way of doing things.”
“I didn’t come here to demonize my son. Maybe I was wrong coming to you. I believed he meant something to you.”
“You’re right, he did, but that’s ancient history. I’ve accepted his choice. Perhaps it would be helpful to all of us if you did, too,” Abigail said and pushed the power button on her laptop.
Sherry read the signal and departed gracefully, refusing to let her son be maligned by anyone. She shifted her energy to the India trip. There was much to be done for Joel, and such little time.
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Abigail was mildly agitated with Sherry’s implications. Joel had made his choice. Abigail had accepted it; Sherry needed to. Abigail went a few doors down the hall to Madeline’s office and saw Don there. “I didn’t know you were in the office,” she told him.
“I dropped in for a short visit.”
“You can do that when you’re around the corner instead of being two continents and thousands of miles away,” Madeline said, not attempting to hide her satisfaction in having Don in Detroit. She’d struggled to get him home. Abigail’s original purpose for coming to Madeline’s office seemed juvenile in the presence of Don. Venting about being plopped in the center of Joel’s romantic rescue plan was pointless and embarrassing with Don sitting there. “Are you here to see me or Don?” Madeline asked.
“I had a small DMI question, but it’s no big deal,” Abigail said, joining the two. “I’d much rather sit here for a few minutes and catch up with Don.” She patted his knee before sitting.
“Your timing is perfect. Don is flying to South Africa for a few days.”
“Oh?
” Abigail said. She was becoming accustomed to his juggling multiple companies across multiple continents. His frequent flyer miles could cover a nice exotic vacation to any corner of the earth he wanted to visit, first class.
“Now that I have you here, it’s tough for me to let you go, even for a short visit,” Madeline said.
“I can agree with you there,” Abigail said, “but I’m okay with you leaving so long as you’re committed to coming back. We need you here.” She, especially, needed him close.
“Why don’t you bring Naledi here for a visit instead of constantly traveling there to see her?” Madeline suggested.
“I’m not sure that she’d come to the States.”
“Why not? We know how to treat visitors. Isn’t that right, Abigail?”
Abigail couldn’t pull her comments together. She was stuck on him running back and forth to South Africa for Naledi. Where did his affection for her come from? What had she missed?
“It’s easier for me to hop flights than to ask her. Plus, she’s already running LTI for me there while I’m here saving a ton of your disgruntled clients. I have a stack of contracts this high,” Don said, raising his hand vertically above his head.
“And nobody appreciates what you’re doing more than I do.”
“You’re really serious about her,” Abigail said, attempting to join the conversation without revealing her bruised emotion. “She means a lot to you?”
“She has been my lifeline.”
“Well, I’m grateful that you have someone there, but you’re here now. Between me and Abigail, you’re covered,” Madeline told him.
Abigail processed Madeline’s response in fragmented phrases. Abigail felt like her priorities were messed up. Timing was the problem. She’d just been reminded about Joel’s engagement and did pretty well with not letting it derail her. Having her friendship with Don threatened wasn’t digesting as smoothly. When had it happened, she wondered. When had Don moved to a level of seriousness with Naledi? She wasn’t prepared to deal with another departure from her inner circle. First it was Dave, then Joel, and now Don.
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