Sins of the Father (29 page)

Abraham blinked his eyes, shuttering his emotions. “You’ll be a father soon and understand
how far a father will go for his child. In case you’re wondering, if the situation
had been reversed and you had needed a liver, I would have asked Isaac to be tested.”

Michael felt his temper rise with those words. Just who did this old man think he
was talking to? “Why didn’t you have those feelings for me when I was born?” he asked
in a calm voice, even as he fought the urge to shout. “Why was it so easy for you
to walk away from me and Deborah?”

Abraham lifted his arms as if in supplication. “I don’t have any answer that will
make what I did right or acceptable. I only hope that one day you find it in your
heart to forgive me. I know it’s a lot to hope for, but I’m feeling hopeful these
days. I’ve given you everything you’ve asked for, Michael. I don’t know what else
to do to show you that I want to right the wrongs I did all those years ago. What
more do you want from me?”

I want you to have been there when I needed you. I wanted you at my basketball games.
I wanted you at my college graduation. I wanted your advice when I started my business.
I wanted you to be my father so I could learn to be a man.

Michael thought all these things but couldn’t voice any of them.

“I know what I want from you,” Abraham said, when Michael didn’t answer his question.
“I want to get to know you.”

“It’s too late,” Michael said, but the words rang hollow to his ears.

Abraham shook his head. “As long as we both have breath in our bodies, it’s not too
late. All you have to do is give me a chance.”

M
ichael was surprised when he received the signed contracts from Alan a couple of days
later. Even though the old man had assured him their deal was solid despite the fact
that Isaac had another donor, he hadn’t quite believed him. Old habits were hard to
break. He’d read every word of the document to make sure that Abraham hadn’t tried
to sneak in any changes and found none. The old man had given him everything he’d
asked for, and gotten nothing in return. It didn’t make sense.

Regardless, he’d felt the need to celebrate, only to discover that he didn’t have
anyone to celebrate with. He hadn’t heard from Josette beyond that first call, and
he was pretty sure his mother and Deborah wouldn’t be in a celebrating mood. Nevertheless,
he found himself seated on their porch waiting for them to get home so he could share
his good fortune with them. They arrived about an hour after he did.

“If it isn’t the prodigal brother,” Deborah said when she got out of the passenger
front seat. She waved him over. “Get over here. We need help with these groceries.”

“Why didn’t you let yourself in?” his mother asked when she got out of the driver
side door. “Did you lose your key?”

Michael ambled over to the car and followed his mother and sister to the trunk. “I
didn’t lose my key,” he said. “I was just taking advantage of a beautiful spring day.
Nothing wrong with that.”

Deborah picked up four plastic grocery bags. “You’re right about that,” she said,
heading for the house.

Before picking up her bags, his mother leaned over and kissed him on his forehead.
“You’ve been avoiding me,” she said. “And I don’t like it.” She picked up three grocery
bags. “Bring the rest of these in for me, please.”

Michael nodded. He removed the remaining four bags from the trunk, lowered it closed,
then followed his mother and sister into the kitchen. They’d already started putting
food in the refrigerator and pantry. He placed his bags on the table and began removing
their contents.

“Guess what I got via express mail yesterday?” his mother asked, putting a gallon
of milk in the refrigerator.

“I have no idea,” he said. “So you may as well tell me.”

“A contract from MEEG giving me a seat on the board.”

Michael met his mother’s eyes. “You deserve it, Mama. I’m glad Abraham finally realized
it.”

“Did you get a contract, too?” she asked him.

“Sure did,” he said, not bothering to explain that his contract specified more than
a MEEG board seat. He let his mother assume his was the same as hers.

“Guess what she did with it?” Deborah said.

“I hope she signed it and sent it back.”

Deborah rolled her eyes. “She sent it back, all right, but she didn’t sign it.”

Michael turned to his mother. “Why didn’t you sign it?”

After putting a five-pound bag of sugar in the pantry, Leah said, “I didn’t sign it
because I don’t want the seat.”

“But you deserve it, Mama,” he said.

“Don’t waste your breath,” Deborah said. “She’s not going to change her mind.”

Leah slapped Deborah lightly on the shoulder. “Stop trying to stir up trouble. I told
you why I didn’t want the seat.”

“Well, tell me,” Michael said, thinking of all he’d gone through to get it for her.

Leah raised a brow. “If you’d answered your phone or returned your messages, you’d
know already.”

Duly chastised, Michael said, “I’m sorry about that.”

“As you should be,” Leah said. “I turned down the seat because I don’t belong at MEEG.”

“Yes—”

She cut him off with a raised palm. “You and Deborah belong there with your father,
but I have my own life. If you’d returned my calls or answered your phone, you’d also
know that I’m getting married.”

Michael stopped removing items from the bag he was working on. “What are you talking
about? How are you getting married?”

Deborah laughed.

After giving her daughter her version of the evil eye, Leah said, “I’m marrying Reverend
Melvin Reeves.”

Michael sat down in a chair to keep from falling down. His world seemed to be spinning
off its axis. “You’re marrying a preacher? I didn’t even know you were dating.”

“I’ve been down this road,” Deborah said, “so I’m going to let you two travel it again
without me.” She took an apple from one of the bags and left the kitchen.

Leah took at seat at the table next to him. “I know this comes as a surprise to you,
Michael. I should have told you both about
Melvin sooner.” She went on to tell him how she and Melvin had met and how long they
had been seeing each other.

“I can’t believe you kept it a secret from us,” he said.

“Melvin is the pastor of Saralyn and Abraham’s church,” she explained. “That made
things complicated.”

Michael understood. A grin spread across his face when he thought of Saralyn’s reaction
to the news. “Do they know?”

She shook her head. “We’re announcing our engagement at his church on Sunday. I want
both you and Deborah to be there.”

Michael nodded. “Of course I’ll be there. I only wish Josette could be there with
me.”

Leah squeezed his shoulder as she got up and resumed putting away the food. “Don’t
give up hope. She called yesterday and I asked her to join us.”

Michael tried not to be hurt that Josette hadn’t called him yesterday. “How is she?”
he asked.

“She sounds good, said she and the baby were fine.”

Michael appreciated his mother not asking questions about the separation or berating
him for causing it. “Josette’ll be home soon,” he said. His mother gave him a look
of pity. He turned away from it and focused on one of the grocery bags.

“I hope you’re right, son. And I hope you’re doing the things you need to do to make
her want to come home.”

Deborah’s reentry into the room saved him from having to respond. She surprised him
when she pressed a kiss against his forehead.

“What was that for?” he asked.

“Can’t a sister show a brother some love?”

“Yeah, but there’s usually catch with it.”

Deborah looked at Leah. “Can you believe it, Mama? He’s rejecting my love.”

“Don’t put me in the middle,” Leah said. “My days of refereeing your fights are over.
You’re on your own.”

Deborah looked at Michael, while tilting her head in her mother’s direction. “She’s
gotten sassy since she’s gotten engaged.”

Leah didn’t even bother to respond. She picked up the phone when it rang and then
stepped out of the kitchen with the handset to talk.

“I’m glad you didn’t have to go through with the liver transplant,” Deborah said when
her mother was out of earshot. “I think you dodged a bullet there, Michael. I’m fairly
certain that plan of yours to outwit Abraham would have backfired on you and caused
trouble all around.”

Michael saw the relieved joy in his sister’s eyes. He wondered if telling her what
had happened would change her expression. “I went through with it, after all,” he
said, deciding to go all in.

Her eyes dimmed a bit and she sat next to him. “Why? What happened?”

Michael explained what had happened. “Can you believe it?”

“To be honest, I can. Abraham was right when he said he was only agreeing to what
he would have given you before, other than the board seat for Mama. He probably knew
she wouldn’t take it anyway.” Deborah chuckled. “He beat you fair and square.”

“The war’s not over,” Michael said, even as he remembered Abraham’s win-win words.

Deborah got up and patted him on his shoulder. “It’s over, Michael. You just refuse
to concede defeat. If you want to be a family with Josette and that baby, I strongly
recommend that you start looking forward and stop looking back. Everything you want
is within your grasp. Don’t lose it all fighting some war that exists only in your
mind.”

M
ichael’s day was off to a good start. It had begun with a call from Josette. She’d
been a bit distant and hesitant at the start of the call, but warmed up as she began
talking about the baby. He’d surprised himself and told her about his ill-fated showdown
with Abraham. She’d been disappointed in his actions but quite pleased that he told
her about it. Women! Go figure.

She’d only asked one thing of him in the call, and he promised to do it only because
she said she’d call back later that night to hear how it went. His wife was definitely
honing her manipulation skills. He wanted her and the baby back with him and she knew
it, so she was using that knowledge to her advantage.

So here he stood outside Isaac Martin’s hospital room, having no choice but to go
in. He’d considered not coming and telling Josette that he had. He decided against
that course of action after calculating the price of being found lying and realizing
it was a
higher price than he wanted to pay. He took a deep breath and pushed open the door.

Isaac and Rebecca both turned toward him. He was relieved that Saralyn and Abraham
were not there. He hoped he wouldn’t have to see them again until the next MEEG board
meeting. “I bet you’re surprised to see me,” he said, after discarding the idea of
giving a traditional greeting.

To his surprise, both of them smiled. “Surprised is a good word,” Isaac said.

“I’m not surprised,” Rebecca said, “Josette told me she’d get you down here somehow.”

It was Michael’s turn to be surprised. His Josette was in communication with Rebecca?
“She’s a miracle worker,” he said, coming to stand closer to the foot of the bed.
“How are you doing?” he asked Isaac.

“Glad to be alive,” he said, his face serious.

Michael couldn’t think of anything else to say. Josette had asked him to come see
how Isaac was doing and he’d done that. What else was there left to do?

Isaac turned to Rebecca. “Give us a minute, sweetheart.”

She nodded. “Thanks for coming by, Michael,” she said. “I’ll make sure to thank Josette
for getting you here.” She smiled and then she left him and Isaac alone.

“Dad told me about the settlement,” Isaac said.

Michael stiffened his spine. “I only asked for what I thought was fair.”

“I’m not judging you, Michael,” Isaac said. “In your shoes, I may have done the same
thing. Anyway, I’m glad you came by today. I know our history is not that good, but
I’d like for us to have a new start to go along with my new liver.”

“I just came here to see how you were doing because Josette asked me to,” Michael
explained. “I wasn’t looking for more than that.”

“Is that a no?” Isaac asked. “Because if it is, I’ll have to tell Josette that you
rejected my olive branch. I don’t think she’s going to like that.”

“You’re blackmailing me?”

Isaac chuckled. “I know it sounds that way, but I’m just trying to create an amicable
environment in this family. Your daughter—my niece—will be born soon and she’ll draw
the bonds between us even tighter. Josette is determined that we get along for the
baby’s sake. I don’t want to let her down and I know you don’t either. That leaves
us with no choice other than to take a first step toward some kind of reconciliation
or cease-fire. We don’t have to be best friends, Michael, but we do have to be able
to be in the same room without having the tension choke us all to death.”

Michael agreed with everything Isaac had said. “I think I can do that,” he told him,
“for Josette and the baby.”

Isaac extended his hand. Michael looked at it for long moments before moving to the
side of the bed and shaking it. When he would have ended the shake, Isaac held onto
his hand. “One more thing,” he said. “And this is for Rebecca, not for me.”

“What?”

“I need you to apologize to her for the gifts and for the things you said in the boardroom.
Everything else that’s happened between us was fair game, but it wasn’t fair to bring
her into it. Will you do that? Will you apologize to her?”

Michael looked into his brother’s face, a face so like his own, and nodded.

Four months later

T
hat was a wonderful meal, Rebecca,” Alan said, patting his stomach as he and Deborah
walked from the kitchen to the living room of Isaac and Rebecca’s condo. “It’s nice
to know modern women haven’t given up on domestic skills altogether.”

Deborah punched him on the shoulder. “Stop dropping hints,” she said. “I told you
I would take a cooking class.”

Abraham chuckled. “This relationship must be getting serious. It says a lot when a
woman starts working on her cooking skills for a man.”

“You know what they say, Dad,” Isaac chimed in. He took a seat on the love seat next
to Rebecca, after Deborah and Alan had positioned themselves on the couch and Abraham
had taken the club chair. “The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.”

“And what’s the way to a woman’s heart?” Rebecca asked her husband.

Isaac planted a soft kiss on her lips.

“You’ve got that right, Isaac. You men take the food. We’ll take romance any day.”

Abraham sat back and watched, with joy, the interplay of people he loved. His heart
grew warm with every smile exchanged between Isaac and Deborah. The sibling bond that
he wanted for them seemed to be taking root. He thanked God for it.

He was thankful, too, that Isaac and Rebecca had found each other again. They’d gone
on a late anniversary cruise as soon as the doctors gave Isaac the go ahead. They’d
returned renewed and more in love than ever before.

He glanced over at Deborah as she laughed at something Alan said. He wasn’t sure how
he felt about that relationship, but she didn’t have any substantive grounds on which
to challenge it. Alan was much too old for Deborah, in his opinion, but he doted on
her and she blossomed under it. A part of him knew that some of his resistance to
the relationship had to do with Alan filling a role he wanted to fill. He wanted to
be the indulgent father, but Deborah didn’t need him to be that when she had an indulgent
boyfriend. Running Brook was where he and Deborah melded. Their mentor-mentee relationship
was probably the closest they’d get to father-daughter. He gratefully accepted it.

As much as Abraham appreciated the family that was with him today, he missed those
who were not. Saralyn and Michael been invited, but both had declined. Saralyn had
yet to get over the ultimatums Michael made when he thought they needed him to be
a liver donor for Isaac. And he knew that she was still angry with him for giving
in to those demands when they hadn’t needed to. The bottom line was that she still
wasn’t ready to accept Michael or Deborah. He counted on Isaac to wear her down, though.
He was her only soft spot.

Michael, on the other hand, was just not ready to give up thirty years of anger. Abraham
hoped that the birth of his first child
would change him. If it didn’t, he didn’t like to think where Michael’s life would
take him. Josette would accept nothing less than full surrender from him.

Thoughts of Josette, who was still separated from Michael, brought thoughts of his
grandchild, which brought a giant grin to his face. Josette was due to deliver any
day now. He couldn’t wait to hold his first grandchild. How he wished his mother could
be there for the birth of her first great-grandchild! He comforted himself with the
knowledge that she was looking down from heaven with a smile. He’d taken her letter
to heart and tried to become the better man she’d wanted him to be. It hadn’t been
an easy road to travel so far, and he didn’t expect it to become easier as time went
on, but he knew the struggle was worth the reward.

“What are you grinning about, Dad?” Rebecca asked. “Let us in on it.”

He smiled. “Josette and the baby.”

“That ought to make you smile, Grandpa,” Alan said.

The phone rang and Rebecca got up to answer it. “Really,” she said into the handset.
“We’re on our way.

“You must be psychic, Dad,” she said when she hung up. “That was Leah and Melvin.
Josette just called them. She’s on her way to the hospital.”

Deborah got up from her seat, clapping her hands. “Come on, folks,” she said. “We’ve
got to get moving. I’m about to be an aunt.”

“And I’m about to be an uncle,” Isaac chimed in.

Abraham looked heavenward. “And I’m about to be a grandfather.” Life was good. He
was living proof that a man’s past sins didn’t have to destroy his future. “Who’s
driving?” he asked. “Grandpa is much too nervous to do it.”