The Strength to Fall (McKinnon Brothers Book 1)

by Chisolm, D. M.

  “Ozias, I want you to hear this next part and try to reserve judgement until you’ve heard me out.” Ozias sat stone-faced but he nodded slightly. He still held my hand so I gave him a light squeeze. He squeezed back. Doc walked back to the window, the summer sun high in the afternoon sky casting shadows around him. “As I mentioned, my father did not like Claire so I knew we would have to get married in secret and then he would have to accept it. He had too much pride in his public image to force a divorce upon me just to get his way. What I didn’t expect was how controlling and cruel he really was. As, you know, your mother is from Massachusetts. She had graduated in May of ‘85 from Radcliffe. She was a Literature major and had started teaching. We couldn’t have been more different people in our dreams and desires if we tried.”

  He came and sat in the chair again. “My father came to Cambridge on business from time to time, as a many of his good friends lived there and invested in his company. He made me attend a holiday party the week of finals even though I tried to get out of it. I met your mother that night, of course I could tell my father’s intentions the minute he introduced me to her father and to her. She was beautiful, and still is, but I was in love with Claire so no woman could catch my attention. I admit, I was indifferent towards her, if not rude. I talked about Claire as much as I could to make it clear to everyone, especially my father that I was not free. During dessert my father dragged me out to the hall and told me in no uncertain terms that I was to get to know Josephine and impress her father, Mr. Wallace. He was a very wealthy man that owned a lot of prime real estate. To sum it up, he was attempting an old fashioned arranged marriage between Jo and I, and a merger of our families. I was angry. Furious. I learned a valuable lesson to never let my temper get the best of me, however, I know I still fail at that. I told him that Claire was pregnant and that I was marrying her on winter break.”

  He went back to his spot at the window. I knew he’d be mad but I learned right then how cruel he was. He told me that if I married Claire, he would not continue to pay for my education. I only had a semester left so I wasn’t too concerned about that. I’d take out loans if I had to. When I told him so, he told me that he would destroy Claire professionally. He said he would tell her employer she was expecting and make it appear as if Mr. Howard was the father. I asked how he would accomplish that went Mr. Howard would know the truth. Well, turns out the truth doesn’t matter if you spread enough gossip and lies people start to doubt the truth even if you know for a fact what’s being said is a lie. My father explained to me that with the Howard Tech being such a new company that the company’s image meant everything and that if stock holders had any reason at all to be nervous, they’d sell, essentially destroying his company.”

  “Shit,” Ozias swore under his breath. “I knew grandad was an ornery SOB but I didn’t realize he’s always been that way. Dad, I don’t know what to say.” He looked at me and took his hand from mine but placed it around my shoulders. I tried to ignore how natural it felt. I was in just as much shock about Doc’s story. I can’t believe all this had happened to Aunt Claire. I wondered if my mom or grandmother ever knew any of this.

  “Yes, well, I think the man was the most miserable man on the planet so he wanted everyone else to be too.” Doc turned to us. “I still had every intention of marrying Claire and I told him so. He told me I had no idea what he could do if he didn’t get his way. At that moment he was no longer my father but my enemy, and I could tell he saw me as the same. I was scared at that point, not for myself, but for Claire. I didn’t want to be a heartless prick but I knew Claire wouldn’t be working much longer anyway with the baby coming and I could try to warn Mr. Howard before my dad could follow through on any threats.”

  “How could he get away with such things? I mean, this was the late 80’s, not the 50’s. Surely at that time no one would have been able to act like this and get away with it.” I was angry at the whole situation.

  “Money and power can do more than you can imagine, even today,” Doc said sadly. “I went home two weeks later still planning on marrying Claire. I hadn’t told her about my conversation with my father. I didn’t feel the need to worry or upset her. Sometimes, I wonder if things might have turned out differently if I had, if she had been warned. My father must have believed me when I told him I was still marrying Claire because when I came home, she was nowhere to be found. I looked for her at her apartment, at her friends, everywhere. Even at work they told me she had someone calling in sick for her but didn’t know where she was. I threatened my father to no avail. I heard nothing for almost two weeks. Then Claire called me and I could tell she was weak and crying. I went to see her and she looked like death.” He stood up and gripped his fists, still angry about this after all these years. “She told me that she tried to call me the day I was leaving to come home but she missed me. Remember no cell phones in those days. Such a small thing would have made so much difference. She cried as she told me that one day after leaving work she tripped on the sidewalk. She said she swore she felt a push but when she looked back no one was there.” Doc’s jaw tensed.

  “You don’t think Grandad paid someone to, I mean,….he was mean but that goes beyond,” Ozias said.

  “Who else could have done it? It was too coincidental. Claire had lost the baby and a lot of blood, so much she was so weak she was bedridden for over a week. She had asked the nurses to call me and they told her they did but I said I wasn’t coming. Even though she knew in her heart I would never do that, when I didn’t show up she started to believe I had abandoned her.

  Hot tears fell from my eyes and I just let them fall without wiping them away. Ozias just pulled me closer.

  “So, I knew my father had paid the nurses to tell her that. She also told me that Mr. Howard had been receiving threats, not just to his business but also physical harm. He had a wife and children so he hired a body guard. It was all so crazy to think that my marrying Claire was this upsetting to the man. I left her with a promise to return and confronted him. He told me I was going to marry Jo and not to speak to Claire ever again. I told him no and the look in his eyes was cold and heartless. I ran to Claire’s apartment but she wasn’t there. He wouldn’t tell me where she was until I agreed to marry Jo.” Doc was back at the window his head hung down and his eyes closed.

  “I had no choice but to agree.” Doc was trying to hide tears and my heart beat wildly. This was outrageous. “This was no longer just a case of rebelling to marry the woman I loved, it was about Claire’s life and her safety. I found out later that she wasn’t in any physical danger that day. My dad had sent his lawyer to take her to a new apartment, give her a very large keep-quiet sum of money, and tell her that if she complied with his demands that she would be safe and taken care of financially, and Mr. Howard would no longer be in danger professionally or physically.”

  “I can’t believe Aunt Claire took that deal.” I said more to myself than to Doc. He smiled.

  “I had it on good authority that she didn’t go down without a fight.” He chuckled. “She wrote to me about a month after I married Jo. She said she saw the wedding announcement in the paper and that she could tell by my face that I wasn’t in love with Jo, that she would always love me. She said she understood what I did and hoped I didn’t hate her for taking the money because she said she didn’t use a dime of his filthy money. It was all in savings. And she didn’t stay in the apartment he paid for her either but she wouldn’t tell me where she was because it would be too tempting for the both of us.” He lowered his head, a pain still as raw as if it just happened on his face.

  The money. That has to be the money Aunt Claire invested and willed to me. Carla heard her say she wanted good to come from it. She was determined for Ozias and I to meet.

  “This is like something out of a Jane Austen novel! Why did you marrying Ms. Jo matter so much to the merger of their companies?” I asked in disbelief this could happen in the 20th century.

  Ozias answered, “To ens
ure the business stayed in the families and investors like family companies. It makes them appear more stable. Not an excuse for my grandad’s action but that is the reality of business.”

  Doc agreed. “I learned many years later that my father had made a series of bad property investments and he needed the money from Mr. Wallace to keep from going bankrupt. He and Jo’s dad had merged their companies and both made millions from the deal. Jo and I were a casualty of that deal. Seems Jo’s dad didn’t approve of her love at the time either. Both of our fathers’ got their way by the arrangement. You have to realize our fathers were older men who had very old fashioned values. They believed in sons taking over family business and keeping the money in the family for generations. He expected me to not practice medicine and run the business with him. I wouldn’t quit medicine but I worked at the company as much as I could and still have enough time to eat and sleep and occasionally see my family.”

  “Huh, I thought you didn’t like us, that’s why you were never home,” Ozias said to his dad.

  “No, Son. I love my family. I do love your mother. We were engaged almost immediately but we didn’t marry until I finished school, June 22, 1986. It was not the passionate, fiery love I had with Claire, but Jo and I fell in love, slowly. I liked her from the beginning but love came many years later. She had another love too, you know. It was not as serious as Claire and I but Jo was forced to marry me too. She’s an amazing women and a wonderful mother. Seeing her slowly fade away is almost more than I can bear. Especially now that I’ve lost Claire.”

  “Doc?” He looked at me. “I don’t know how else to ask this than just say it, so forgive my crudeness, but when did you and Claire reconnect and start an affair? And, did you never in all those five years meet her family? Did she never talk about them? About my mother?

  “Well, ok, let me take those one at a time. Yes, she spoke of Elizabeth and Matthew and her mother. I never got to meet them. Remember outside of that one year, the majority of our relationship was long distance. I was in med school so even my off time was filled with studying. We had so little time together that we spent the majority of it doing things around the city that we both loved and being alone.” His cheeks flushed at that last comment and he seemed far away reliving a memory in his mind.

  I cleared my throat embarrassed, “That makes more sense to me now as to why she never brought you home and why she wouldn’t come home on all the breaks from school.”

  “As to how I came to know her now or before she passed, well that in itself is just as sad a story. I’m exhausted from telling that one. I’ve never told it all the way through like that. It’s hard to relive it. This afternoon after you left, Carla confessed to me all that she heard Claire say to Jo. I knew when Ozias called I had to just tell you everything from the beginning before telling you about the present. It would have made you believe things of Claire that wasn’t true and I couldn’t live with that.” Doc looked exhausted at sharing that story. “I need to go let Carla go home, it’s Sunday after all and I don’t usually have her work on the weekends.”

  Ozias broke the heaviness in the room, “Dad, could you come back later this evening when mom is asleep?”

  “Yes, please. I need to know the rest as this is the part that directly relates to me. To Ozias.” I looked pleadingly at Doc.

  He didn’t answer right away, but then agreed.

  Chapter Sixteen

  I decided to take a shower and just take my chances at not falling rather than asking Ozias for help again. I needed to be alone and clear my head anyway. What I’ve learned about my aunt so far is shocking and profoundly sad. To know why it was so important that I live here and meet Ozias, is still a mystery until Doc returns and finishes the story. My emotions are all over the place and it may be wise for me to stay in this room and not come out until then. I have never been affected by another person the way Ozias affects me. It’s uncanny. I truly feel I’ve known him for years. There’s a feeling of calmness and safety when I’m near him but I don’t really know him. That needed to change. After I shower I’ll ask if he wants to talk.

  The shower wasn’t the easiest to maneuver but I did it. I put my pj’s and white tee back on. I don’t have many clothes with me right now and I’m not in the mood to do laundry. I was feeling hungry again so I ventured into the kitchen.

  “Hey,” I heard Ozias say from the living room. He had been watching TV it seemed.

  “Hey,” I answered back. “Is there somewhere I could order lunch for delivery?”

  “Oh, yea. Look in the drawer by the fridge. There’s menus in there. What do you feel like?” He had moved next to me and I could smell his soap and deodorant. I noticed his wet hair. Just knowing he was showering at the same time I was gave me a chill. Seriously, girl…calm down! I’ve got to focus on food and not this man!

  I looked through the menus. “Um, this place looks good. I like Middle Eastern food. A falafel sandwich sound good.”

  “That’s one of my favorite places. One order is enough for two, wanna share some hummus and pita as well?”

  “Sure.” I made my way to the couch and sat down while Ozias ordered the food.

  “I’ll go down and get it when they get here. Are you ok?”

  I wasn’t paying attention to what he said because I noticed two books sitting on the coffee table that weren’t there before, and they were kind of freaking me out. “Ozias, how long have you had these books that just happen to be by two of my favorite authors?”

  “Oh, I got those for you when I went out this morning for breakfast. The coffee shop has a small bookstore in the back. I thought since you’d be lying around resting your ankle for a while you might enjoy them.”

  Is this guy for real? I picked them up, one was by Kristin Hannah, The Nightingale, her newest book. I haven’t read it yet. The other was the Hunger Games, which I have read but still so sweet of him to buy for me.

  “Are they ok? Have you read them? I can’t bring them back if you don’t…”

  “No, they’re wonderful. Thank you. And no, I haven’t read this one holding up the Kirstin Hannah book. You didn’t have to do that, but thank you.”

  “No problem. I want you to feel comfortable here.” He looked at me as he sat down next to me. “You want me to rub your ankle again? I don’t mind and it helps healing.”

  I was just dumbfounded. Men I had dated for months didn’t treat me this well. I was trying to get words to form when I felt him take my feet and place them in his lap. His touch was so soothing. That electricity flowed through my body again tinkling me all over. I needed to talk about something serious, fast.

  “You’re so sweet to me,” I smiled at him. “Can we try to get to know each other until your dad comes back? I think we need to really spend some time talking about ourselves.”

  Just then the intercom buzzed signaling the food was here.

  “Seems no one wants us to talk, including delivery people. I’ll be right back and then, yes, we will talk. We need to.”

  Ozias returned with the food and the smell of the falafel made my stomach growl. He arranged the food on two plates and brought my portion to me along with mine a bottled water. He sat back down and we both ate in silence.

  After a few minutes, he turned to me. “So, what do you want to know first?”

  “Um, I don’t know, so much I need to ask that I’m drawing a blank. You know what I’d love right now though?” He arched his eyebrow. “Chocolate. I need chocolate. Do you have any?”

  “Ok, that was random,” he laughed. “But, yea, I think I do. Hold on a minute” He went to rummage through some drawers in the kitchen. “Ah, ha! Found some.” He came back to the couch with a bag of Hershey’s chocolate kisses that looked empty. “There’s not many, um, let me count.” He peered in the bag. “Yea, there’s only nine pieces. Here, you can have them.” He handed me the bag.

  “You don’t like chocolate?” I asked.

  “No, I do. I just don’t buy it often.”
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  “Why don’t we play a version of truth or dare? The truth has to be some aspect of our lives we don’t know anything about. So that leaves a lot, of course. If you don’t want to answer the question, it automatically becomes a dare. If you lose the dare, you lose your piece too. With so few pieces I figure we’re pretty safe from too much soul bearing and too many dares. What do you say?”

  Ozias looked at me like I was crazy. “You don’t just want to ask me questions and keep all the chocolate to yourself? This feels like middle school all over again where the pretty, popular girl is trying to trick me into something really embarrassing. I’d rather just answer anything you can think of.”