Sins of the Father (16 page)

A
braham sat in his hospital bed reading a report that Alan had left for him earlier
that morning. He found himself distracted by his wife, who sat in a chair next to
his bed flipping through one of her fashion magazines. She had one leg crossed atop
the other, the top one moving rapidly back and forth. She was angry, he knew. He also
knew she would never admit it unless he asked her. This was the pattern with them,
always had been, and always would be. Saralyn had been a spoiled child who grew up
to become a pampered wife. It was too late to change the rules governing their relationship
now.

Besides, she had always been a good wife to him and an excellent mother to Isaac.
She’d been the perfect woman to have on his arm when he needed to impress a business
colleague, and the perfect woman to share his bed when he needed to have his ego stroked.
He loved her. He knew he always would.

“Okay, Saralyn,” he said, closing his file and placing it on his
bedside tray. “What’s wrong?” She kept flipping through the magazine. “You have my
full attention,” he said.

She closed the magazine and placed it on her lap. “You know what’s wrong,” she said.
“That part of your memory wasn’t affected. What are you going to do about them, Abraham?
This plan of yours isn’t working.”

“We have to give it time, Saralyn,” he said, already growing weary of the conversation.

She got up and came to the bed. “The price is too high. You almost lost Isaac over
all this. You might lose him still.”

“What do you mean?” he asked, knowing his wife was given to hyperbole.

She perched on the side of the bed. “Isaac left MEEG when he found out about Deborah
and Michael. He only came back because you were ill and he was needed at the company.
I don’t see him staying there, not if he has to deal with Michael. The man hates him.”

“I’m going to convince Isaac to stay,” he said. “Maybe all he needed was a bit more
responsibility.”

“Don’t kid yourself. Did Alan tell you Isaac and Michael got into a fistfight at the
board meeting?”

He eyed her skeptically. “You’re exaggerating.”

“No, I’m not. Our son, who’s never been in a fight in his life, was rolling around
on the boardroom floor fighting with Michael Thomas. I wouldn’t have believed it if
I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes.”

“I can’t believe it. Not Isaac.”

Saralyn nodded. “That incident should tell you that it’s going to be impossible for
the two of them to work together. You’ve got to come up with another plan, Abraham.
This one is not going to work.”

“What was Michael doing at the board meeting?” he asked. “He’s not on the board.”

“I tried to make that point, but Alan, Leah, and Deborah basically shut me down. Michael
even wanted to nominate himself for acting president and CEO of MEEG in your absence.
The nerve of him.”

Abraham bit back a smile. He could relate to Michael’s audacity, though he’d never
tell Saralyn. “What happened?”

“Nothing happened. Alan explained to him that he didn’t have a chance in hell of winning
against Isaac because Leah and Deborah only had two votes and we had four. That bit
of information seemed to put him back in his place.”

Abraham wanted her to see that Michael’s place was no different from Isaac’s but he
knew she wouldn’t view it that way.

“I don’t know what more I can say, Abraham. Obviously, you don’t trust the boy or
you would have given him a seat instead of giving the seat to his mother. If you don’t
trust him, I don’t want him around.”

“I hear what you’re saying, Saralyn, and I’ll think about it.”

“You’d better do more than think about it,” she said. “You need to take some action.
Have you thought about giving them a settlement of some sort? That would be a quick
and easy way to get them out of our lives.”

Abraham studied his wife. At times like this he found her selfishness and self-centeredness
very unattractive. “I don’t want them out of our lives, Saralyn. I want to get to
know them.”

She eased up from the bed. “You’ve always accomplished whatever you set your sights
on, Abraham, and usually on your own terms. Something tells me things won’t work out
so smoothly for you this time. You’re going to have to make some hard choices.”

“What are you saying, Saralyn?”

She folded her arms and looked down at him. “Let me be perfectly clear. You have this
unrealistic vision of your two families living together happily ever after. Well,
it’s not going to happen.
I’m never going to accept Leah and her bastards, and you’re wrong for even expecting
me to.”

“Don’t threaten me, Saralyn,” he told her. “I don’t like threats.”

“We’ve been married thirty years, Isaac, and I’ve never threatened you and I’m not
starting now. I’m only making you aware of the consequences of your actions. Pretty
soon you’re going to have to choose between me and Isaac and them. You can’t have
us both.”

“Why are you so unwilling to work with me on this?”

“Do you even hear what you’re saying? Do you know what you’re asking of me?” When
he nodded, she added, “Why would you think I’d accept those bastards now when I didn’t
accept them when they were children?” She picked up her magazine and her purse. “Write
them a check, Abraham, and send them on their way so that we can get on with our lives.”

He watched as she stalked to the door and snatched it open. When it closed behind
her, he began to do what he often saw his mother do but he had never taken up himself:
pray. He knew he needed a miracle to get what he wanted.

D
eborah stood at her desk and flipped through the slides she’d copied for her meeting
with Isaac. Even though she told herself the meeting wasn’t a big deal, she was anxious
about it. She felt she needed to prove to him that she was competent for the position
Abraham had given her with Running Brook. Even though she wished it wasn’t so, it
was important that he thought well of her and Michael.

Satisfied that the status of Running Brook was accurately represented in the slides,
she put one set in each of the two folders on the desk before her. Taking the folders,
she headed out of her office and to Isaac’s. Not seeing his secretary, she checked
her watch. Two minutes early. Perfect timing. She knocked on his door.

“It’s open,” Isaac said. “Come on in.”

She opened the door and entered his office. Hers looked like a
cubbyhole in comparison. She knew from Alan that this was actually Abraham’s office.
The massive desk drew her attention first—it was twice the size of hers. She didn’t
want to gawk, but couldn’t help sneaking a peek at the photos on his desk. She thought
she saw one with him and former President Bill Clinton. The bookcase—actually, a library
media unit—was filled with gilt-edged books.

Isaac waved her over to the conference table where he sat, a multitude of files and
papers in front of him. When she reached the table, he stood. “Thanks for coming,”
he said, a welcoming but professional smile on his face.

“No problem. You’re the boss, after all.” His smile faded a bit. She wanted to take
back the words as soon as she said them.

“Have a seat,” he said, reseating himself.

She followed his direction.

“This is awkward, isn’t it?” he said.

She was taken off guard by the comment. She’d expected him to keep their conversation
strictly work-related. “Very awkward.”

He studied her for a long minute. “Do you mind if we talk about it?”

She shook her head. She didn’t mind but she had no idea where or how to start.

He chuckled. “I don’t know how to talk about it.”

She smiled. He was trying, and she had to give him credit for that. “It must be harder
for you. You grew up an only child. I grew up with Michael.”

It was his turn to laugh. “I don’t know if I’d agree. Growing up with Michael couldn’t
have been easy.”

Deborah had to walk the tightrope of defending her brother and making excuses for
him. “I apologize for what happened at the board meeting. Michael shouldn’t have hit
you.”

“I hit him first,” Isaac said. “He provoked me, though.”

“I’m sure he did,” she said. “I don’t know what else to say.”

“Our father wants us to be this big happy family but I don’t see how that can be,
since Michael hates me.”

“He doesn’t hate you.”

“He and my wife Rebecca used to date. Did you know that?”

Deborah shook her head. Michael had gone through a lot of women before he married
Josette. He didn’t bring many of them home to meet the family.

“Well, they did. Michael sent us a wedding gift and followed that up with anniversary
gifts each year. He was taunting me, even before I knew he was my brother. I’d say
he hates me.”

“I’m so sorry,” she said. “I don’t know what gets into Michael.”

Isaac tossed his pencil on the table and slouched down in his chair. “I don’t blame
you or him for what happened between your mother and my dad, so why does Michael blame
me?”

“Think about it, Isaac,” she said. “Put yourself in Michael’s shoes. It’s easy for
you to be magnanimous. You grew up with a father and all of this. We had neither.”

He seemed to consider what she said. “Do you hate me, too?”

She gave his question similar consideration. “I don’t hate you,” she said, “but I
hate what you represent.”

“And what’s that?”

“Someone my father chose to love when he didn’t choose to love me.”

“Oh, my God.” Isaac wiped his hand down his face. “I never looked at it that way.”

“Why should you? You’ve always had Abraham. You probably took—take—his love for granted.
You have a sense of entitlement that’s been inbred in you, and nobody blames you for
it. You’re entitled because you’re a son. It’s different with us. I’m a daughter,
but I was never entitled. Just the opposite, in fact. Same with Michael. You’re on
the inside and we’re on the outside.”

He picked up his pencil and twirled it between his fingers.
“Did you take the job here at MEEG because you felt you were entitled to it as his
daughter?”

“That was part of it. Abraham presented it to me as my birthright and I agreed with
him. Does that make you feel threatened?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. My mom feels that way—that you’re taking something from
us.”

“She’s right. What was originally to be given to one child is now being shared with
three. You’re getting two-thirds less than what you would have received had we never
showed up. That has to make you feel something.”

Isaac closed his eyes, opened them quickly. “Right now, I can’t go there. I’m still
dealing with the fact that my half brother has ruined a relationship that I thought
would last a lifetime. I probably hate Michael as much as he hates me. Maybe more.”

“He’s my brother, Isaac, so I have to stand with him.”

“I’m your brother, too,” he said, “your half brother.”

The words were a jolt to her system. He
was
her brother. “To be honest, it’s not real for me. I don’t even know you.”

“You don’t really know Abraham but you’ve accepted him as your father. Or, you’ve
accepted his largesse.”

Deborah tried not to be insulted by Isaac’s words but she found it difficult. “To
answer the question that you haven’t asked, I don’t love Abraham like a father but
I wish I did. It’s going to be a long road for both of us. There’s a lot of mistrust
and hurt between us, mostly on my side.”

“So do you think Abraham’s plan will work?”

She shrugged. “I want it to. It’s in my best interests that it does. What about you?”

“Honestly?”

She nodded.

“My life would be a lot less complicated if Michael were not in it.”

“Well, that leaves us at a stalemate because I’m not going anywhere and neither is
Michael. If I have anything to say about it, he’ll be given a position here at MEEG
in the same way that you and I were given one.”

Isaac nodded. “I guess we’d better get back to the stated purpose of this meeting.
What do you have to tell me about Running Brook?”

Deborah handed Isaac the folder of materials she had prepared for him. She outlined
the projects she wanted to keep and why, as well as the ones she wanted to discontinue.
He listened intently and asked pertinent questions. When she left, she was more determined
than ever to see that Michael’s interests were protected. She also had a greater respect
for her half brother.

D
ressed in a pair of his favorite navy silk pajamas and robe that Saralyn had brought
him from home, Abraham sat in the recliner in his hospital room and perused a stack
of about twenty national newspapers while CNN blared from the television. He put the
hometown paper, the
Atlanta Journal,
in the trash pile and reached for the
Wall Street Journal.

Hearing a knock on his door, he looked up. “Come in,” he said, pulling off his reading
glasses and putting them in the breast pocket of his robe.

“Good morning,” Deborah said when she entered the room, followed by her mother. “I
hope we’re not disturbing you.”

Abraham shook his head. “Not at all. I’m glad you came by.” As usual, his daughter
mesmerized him. He felt his mother’s spirit strongest when she was around. He got
up from his chair. “Leah, you can take this chair and I’ll sit on the bed,” he said.
He pointed
to a chair in the far corner of the room. “Pull that one closer, Deborah, so we can
all talk together.”

“How are you feeling this morning?” Deborah asked after she’d pulled the chair over
and sat in it.

“If the doctors are to be believed, I’m doing great. They’re kicking me out of here
later today or first thing in the morning.”

“That’s good,” Deborah said. “I bet you’re ready to get back to MEEG.”

Abraham had been thinking about that, and he wasn’t sure what he wanted to do. If
he needed to bow out for a while to ensure that Isaac stayed at MEEG, he was willing
to do it. “Is the place falling apart without me?”

Deborah shook her head. “Not at all,” she said. “That’s not what I meant.”

Abraham chuckled. “I was teasing you,” he said. “How are things with Running Brook?
I’m sorry I wasn’t there to help you settle in.”

“That’s all right. Alan stepped in and showed me the ropes. He’s been a lot of help
during my adjustment. So has Isaac.”

Abraham smiled. “I like hearing that. How are you and Isaac getting along?”

“So far, so good,” she said. “He seems fair. That’s all I can ask.”

“He’s a good boy,” he said.

Leah grunted, her first contribution to the conversation. “He’s a man, Abraham, for
goodness sake.”

Abraham didn’t know how to respond to her snappish remark. Apparently, neither did
Deborah because she just stared at her mother.

“Sorry,” Leah said. “It’s early and I didn’t have my coffee.”

Deborah’s widened eyes told him Leah was lying. It was unclear why.

“No problem,” Abraham said, wanting to smooth over the situ
ation. “Besides, you’re right, but I still think of him as my boy. I guess I’ll always
think of him that way.”

Leah gave him a too-sweet-to-be-real smile. “I know what you mean. That’s how I think
of Deborah and Michael. No matter how old they get they’ll always be
my
kids.”

Abraham felt her words as if they were a strong blow to his chin. In her sweetness,
she had reminded him that he hadn’t been there for Deborah and Michael in the way
he had for Isaac. He glanced at Deborah. “I’m sorry if I put that badly.”

“It’s fine,” she said, but her voice was tight and her smile was gone.

He was a smart man. How could he make such a dumb, insensitive comment? “How is Michael?”
he asked.

Deborah leaned forward in her chair, all business. The loving daughter who’d entered
his room a few minutes earlier was gone. “We wanted to talk to you about him.”

“Is something wrong?”

Deborah nodded.

“Tell me,” he said, concerned. “You know I’ll do whatever I can to help. Michael’s
my son as much as Isaac is.”

Deborah sat back a bit. “That’s what you say,” she said, “but your actions show differently.”

Abraham’s defenses shot up. He felt as though he was being attacked, and he didn’t
like it. He glanced at Leah for support, but her face was blank. He turned back to
Deborah. “What do you mean?”

“I head up Running Brook Productions at MEEG, and Isaac is acting MEEG CEO and president.
We both have seats on MEEG’s board. What does Michael have?”

“He has a seat on the board,” he reminded her. “I explained to you that Leah was holding
it for him.”

“I know what you said, Abraham, but it doesn’t make a lot of
sense and it’s not fair to Michael. How do you think the setup makes him feel? Certainly
not like a son.”

He turned to Leah. “I thought we both agreed that Michael couldn’t be trusted to make
decisions at MEEG because he was too angry with me.”

“We did,” she said, “but Deborah has a point. You—
we
—made the decision thinking first about what was best for MEEG. We should have been
thinking about what was best for Michael. As his mother, I know that’s what I should
have been thinking.”

Abraham shook his head. “I don’t know what to say. I don’t know what you want me to
do.”

“All you have to do is honor your word. Deborah and I have decided that Michael is
ready for his seat on the board. We’ve told Alan. Were you still incapacitated, it
would be a done deal. But, as it is, we know you can override us. We’re here to ask
you not to do that.”

Abraham stood and began to pace the room. “I don’t know,” he said, thinking of all
the hard work and love he’d put into MEEG. He wasn’t ready to open her up to someone
who didn’t have her best interests at heart. “I don’t trust Michael. The things he’s
done, including fighting with Isaac at the board meeting, that’s not the attitude
I want at MEEG.”

“You’re being too hard on Michael,” Deborah said. “You say you don’t trust him. Have
you considered that he doesn’t trust you? You don’t have the best track record where
we’re concerned.”

Abraham heard the anger and pain in her voice, and his heart ached. This woman was
his child, flesh of his flesh. So was Michael. “You’re right, but this is business.”

Deborah shook her head. “When you asked me to come to MEEG, you told me you were giving
me my birthright. Well, where is Michael’s birthright? He’s still a little boy looking
through the department store window at his father buying toys for another kid. How
do you think that makes him feel?”

Abraham went back to bed and sat down. He felt tired, very tired. “You’ve given me
a lot to think about.”

“And—”

“That’s enough, Deborah,” Leah said, causing Abraham to shoot her a thank-you glance.
She turned to Deborah. “Why don’t you give me a few minutes alone with Abraham?”

“But—”

Leah shook her head. “It’s fine. Go ahead.”

Abraham watched the daughter he didn’t really know leave his hospital room. “I didn’t
realize she was still so angry,” he said to Leah.

“Then you’re a bigger fool than I am.”

He flashed angry eyes at her. It was one thing to take a verbal beating from his daughter.
He was not about to take one from Leah. “Make your point,” he said, kicking off his
shoes and stretching out on the bed.

She came and stood over him. “I was too easy on you, Abraham. I should have made you
do better by them when they were growing up, but I had my pride and I was determined
to make a good life for them without you. We can both see how successful I was with
that.”

Abraham closed his eyes as the weight of guilt oppressed him. “What do you want from
me?”

“I want you to do what Deborah asked. For once in your life, I want you to put Michael
and Deborah first. For once in your life, I want you to do something to make them
happy.”

“What do you think I’ve been doing these last four months? I’ve been reaching out
to both of them. I can’t help that Michael won’t give an inch.”

Abraham noticed the tears in Leah’s eyes and his guilt turned to hopelessness. “All
these years,” she said through her tears. “All these years I made excuses for you
because I could always point to that little bit of money that you sent us. How do
you think I felt
when Saralyn told me that she was the one sending the money, not you? I can’t believe
you, Abraham. You had your wife write checks for your mistress and your illegitimate
children? What kind of unfeeling monster are you?”

Abraham closed his eyes. He almost wished for the return of the days when he’d been
in a coma. “I have no excuse, Leah,” he told her. “That’s the man I was then but it’s
not the man I am now.”

She wiped at her tears and her clear eyes met his. “Show it,” she said. “Show it by
doing right by Michael.”

Without waiting for him to respond, she turned and headed out of the room.