Deborah had wondered at her mother’s decisions but had never been bold enough to ask her about them. “What happened between you and Abraham, Mama? You’ve never really told us, and I haven’t wanted to ask because it seemed painful for you to discuss.”
“I know,” she said. “And I’ve known you were curious. I just didn’t know how to talk to you two about it. I wanted you and Michael to look up to me, and the story of my relationship with Abraham hardly paints me as a woman worth looking up to.”
“Don’t think like that, Mama. There’s nothing you could tell me that would make me love you or respect you less. Me or Michael. You played the cards you were dealt. One thing I really appreciate is that you never painted Abraham as the bad guy, and you could have. If you had, I probably wouldn’t be able to accept him now. You left room in my heart for a relationship with him to grow. I thank you for that.”
Leah squeezed her daughter’s hand. “I’ve always hoped there’d come a time when you could get to know him. You and Michael both. Things aren’t working like I’d hoped with Michael, though.”
“I think it’s different for him because he’s a man. It’s been especially hard for Michael to have had no relationship with Abraham, while Abraham has lavished everything on Isaac. Maybe I’d feel the same if he had another daughter. I don’t know.”
“All I can say, Deborah, is I hope you make better choices in your life than I have, that you keep your head when you fall in love. Don’t always trust your heart. It can fool you sometimes.”
“Tell me, Mama. I want to know about you and Abraham. What happened?”
Leah gave a wry smile. “I fell in love with a man who wasn’t ready to be in love.”
“What does that mean?”
“I think Abraham loved me, in his way, but he loved other things more.”
“Saralyn?”
“And what she represented. Abraham was always a big dreamer. I saw myself working side by side with him making those dreams come true. But Saralyn represented the dream. She and her family were much farther along the road to Abraham’s dream destination than either his family or mine.”
“So you don’t think he married her for love?”
“I didn’t say that. Of course he loved her, loves her still. But back then I think Abraham loved himself more than he loved anything or anyone else. How else could he make the decisions he did where you and your brother were concerned? He’s a better man today than he was then, I think. He’s learned something from life’s lessons.”
“I don’t know how to ask this…” Deborah murmured.
“Just ask, sweetie. We’ve started this. We may as well finish it.”
Deborah took a deep breath, then let it out slowly. “Okay, you had two babies with Abraham. Michael and Isaac are about the same age and I’m two years younger. What happened?”
Leah winced as if in pain. “It’s something straight out of the tabloids. Abraham was dating both Saralyn and me at the same time, though neither of us knew, and he got both of us pregnant. Unfortunately for me, I didn’t find out I was pregnant until after Abraham told me he was going to marry Saralyn because she was pregnant. When I found out about my condition, I had too much pride to tell him. Saralyn had beat me to the pregnancy line by about four months.” She shrugged. “What could he do anyway?”
“So what did you do?”
“I spent a year with some relatives in Ohio. I had planned to live there, but my mother got sick and I had to come back home. Abraham found out about the baby and we started up again.”
“Even though you knew he was married?”
She nodded. “I told you the story doesn’t make me sound like a good person. I knew he was married, but my heart was still his. It remained his until the day I found out I was pregnant with you. Something happened to me that day, Deborah. It was as though a lightbulb went off and I clearly saw who I was and what I was doing. I didn’t like what I saw at all.”
“So you ended it?”
Leah gave a wry smile. “Relationships don’t end in such a clear-cut manner, sweetie. I said the words but the relationship had been over since the day Abraham decided to marry Saralyn. I just refused to accept it.”
“So what happened when you told him about me—being pregnant with me, I mean?”
“He was dumbfounded. Before you even ask, no, he didn’t ask me to terminate. He was shell-shocked because Saralyn was pregnant again, too.” Leah lowered her eyes. “I wouldn’t believe this if I hadn’t lived it, but sadly it’s true. Again, Abraham had two women pregnant, the same two women.”
“Man,” Deborah said, “I had no idea.”
“It’s not something we talk about. Saralyn found out about my pregnancy and had a miscarriage. Though neither of us spoke of it, I think both Abraham and I felt responsible. Saralyn demanded that he cut all ties with us. I didn’t blame her. Abraham agreed, but told her he had to support us financially as best he could. Saralyn didn’t like it but she went along with it.”
Deborah thought about the harsh words Saralyn had spoken and felt a bit of compassion for her. “No wonder she hates us—me, especially. Why didn’t you tell me, Mama?”
Leah studied her hands. “Because it’s hard to think about that time in my life, even harder to talk about. I told you it wasn’t a pretty story.”
“No, it’s not,” Deborah agreed. She had a lot of new information to process. It would take some time to make sense out of it all.
“Do you hate me?” Leah asked.
Deborah met her mother’s eyes, saw the fear there. “I could never hate you.”
“But what I’ve told you makes you think less of me. I know it does.”
Deborah thought about it before she answered. Her mother had been honest with her, so Deborah felt she deserved honesty in return. “I’m glad you waited to tell me the details. I don’t think I could have handled all this as a teenager. I’m also glad you waited until after I had a chance to get to know Abraham some. I’m not sure how knowing these details would have affected my reaction to his outreach. I do know that I’m glad for the chance to get to know him. And I’m glad you’re my mother. You made some bad decisions, Mama, but you made up for them. You went off and made a career for yourself and you raised two good kids. Well, one good kid and one great kid. I’m the great kid.”
Leah smiled, as Deborah had hoped she would. “I love you, sweetie.”
“I love you, too, Mama,” Deborah said, standing up to embrace her mother. Only now did she realize the full gravity of Abraham’s request that she try to put the family together. There was a lot of history and a lot of hurt on both sides. She didn’t know if she was up to the task.
Chapter Fifteen
Rebecca stood outside her father-in-law’s office on the twelfth floor of the MEEG Building in downtown Atlanta. She braced herself to come face-to-face with her husband for the first time since her confession last night. Isaac had become so angry with her that he had left their bed and spent the night in one of their guest rooms. Then this morning he’d left before she awakened. She knew she had work to do to repair his trust in her. He was on the phone when she walked in, so she took a seat in front of the massive mahogany desk with inlaid granite top that had Abraham’s masculine stamp all over it.
“I’ve got it,” Isaac said into the phone. “We’ll have a companywide meeting at noon to update everybody on Dad’s condition and to reassure them that the company will operate as usual while he’s in the hospital. Thanks for getting on this so quickly, Alan.”
Isaac hung up the phone and jotted something on the calendar in front of him before looking at her. “You should be at the companywide meeting,” he said. “It’s important that we present a unified front.”
“I’ll be there.”
He drummed his fingers on the desk. “Was there something you wanted?”
She leaned forward. “I wanted to talk to you about last night.”
He flipped through his dad’s desk calendar, refusing
to look at her. “I think you said enough last night.”
She shook her head. “We didn’t talk,” she said. “You stormed out of our bed and our bedroom and refused to speak to me.”
He finally lifted his eyes to hers. Her heart ached at the weariness she saw there. He hadn’t gotten much sleep last night, either. “I didn’t trust myself to talk to you,” he told her. “I still don’t. The thoughts I’m thinking, believe me, you don’t want to hear.”
“I know you’re hurt, Isaac, but believe me, if I had known Michael was your half brother, I would have told you. This whole thing is only an issue because we both found out about your relationship to Michael. Otherwise, he’d just be some old boyfriend who didn’t matter to either of us.”
“Well, he’s not just some old boyfriend.” He pressed his hands, palms down, on the desk and leaned toward her. “And all this time he’s been thumbing his nose at me and I had no idea.”
“I’m sorry, Isaac, but I didn’t know.”
He leaned back in his chair, took a deep breath. “But if you had told me about the gifts, I would have looked into it and maybe learned about my dear brother long before now.”
“We’re going to get past this, right?” she asked, praying for an affirmative answer.
“I don’t know.” Isaac steepled his fingers across the bridge of his nose. “I know it shouldn’t matter, but it does. One of the downsides of being born into a family with money is that you always wonder about the motives of the people you meet. I never had those questions with you, but I do now. When you tell me that your relationship with Michael was based on what you thought he could do to advance your career, I have to wonder if our relationship is any different. Being married to me has certainly helped your career.”
Rebecca felt like a battered boxer in the ring with a much more talented opponent. “How can you even say that to me?” she asked. “I love you, Isaac. I’ve always loved you. You have to know that.”
He shook his head. “Let’s not get into it now. There’s too much going on with Dad. We’ll get through this storm and then we’ll deal with our marriage. In the meantime, in public we’ll act as if everything is all right. I don’t want to add to my mother’s stress. She’d be in a bed beside Dad if she knew about your history with Michael and those gifts he’s been sending. I can’t do that to her.”
Rebecca accepted this punishment, though she didn’t think it was fair. “I understand. I’ll do whatever it takes.”
“Thanks. Right now what I need is for you to cover for Mom, take over her PR responsibilities so she can focus on Dad. You should probably head over to the hospital after the companywide meeting and talk with her.”
“Aren’t you going too?”
He rubbed his temples as if he had a headache. “I stopped by to check on her and Dad on the way over this morning.”
“How is he?”
“The injuries from the accident aren’t serious, but they’re worried about his heart. They want to run more tests. He’s in a lot of pain and they can’t figure out the cause.”
“So we probably won’t see each other until dinner. I’ll pick up something and we’ll eat with your mother at the hospital. I’m sure she won’t want to leave.”
He shook his head. “That won’t be necessary. I told Mom you had to work tonight, so she isn’t expecting you for dinner. You can see her and Dad when you meet her to discuss work.”
Her heart ached. “So that’s how it’s going to be, huh? You’re shutting me out.”
He met her gaze. “I’m doing the best I can, Rebecca. I can put on a front for a few hours at work but I can’t do it for an extended time around my mother. She’s not stupid. She would know something wasn’t right between us and she would worry. I don’t want that.”
“I don’t want it either, Isaac, but surely your mother will realize that we’re rarely together.”
“We’ll just attribute it to work. I’ll be busy here at the office trying to catch up anyway, so we won’t really be lying to her.”
“Yes, we will. We won’t be telling her the full truth.”
He met her eyes, his full of accusation. “Well, then that shouldn’t be a problem for you, should it? You’ve had a lot of practice at it.”
Those words stung and she had no comeback. The ringing phone saved her from having to respond. What had she done to her marriage? What would she have to do to save it? The questions filled her mind and she had no answers.
“Calm down, Mom,” Isaac said as he stood, the phone to his ear. “We’re on our way to the hospital now.”
“What is it?” she asked when he hung up.
“They’ve put Dad into a coma,” he said, rushing for the door.
“Oh no!” Rebecca said, running to catch up.
Chapter Sixteen
Isaac saw the dapper Alan Weems, MEEG’s lead counsel, as soon as he stepped off the hospital elevator wearing his signature Cardin double-breasted suit. The older man, a longtime family friend, greeted his mother first. “I’m so sorry, Saralyn,” he said, pressing a kiss on her makeup-free cheek.
“Thank you, Alan. We’re going to be counting on you a lot during the next few days and weeks of uncertainty.”
“I won’t let you down. I promise you.”
She nodded. “I know you won’t.” She stood slowly, seeming much older than her forty-eight years. She normally looked much younger than her age, but she had been at the hospital all night so she appeared far from her typically perfect self. “I’m going to go sit with Abraham and leave this meeting to the next generation of Martins.” She looked at Isaac. “It’s your time now, son. Don’t let me or your father down.”
“I won’t, Mom,” he said, pressing a kiss against her cheek.
She embraced Rebecca. “I’m counting on you, too,” she told her. “We’re going to need your PR expertise in the office, but Isaac is going to need you even more as his helpmeet. Stand strong with him, Rebecca. He’s going to need the safe haven that you provide.”
“Yes, ma’am,” she said. “I’m behind Isaac one hundred percent. I always have been and I always will be. You don’t have to worry about that.”
“I know,” she said, squeezing Rebecca’s hand. She added for the attorney, “Thanks again, Alan.”
“You take care of yourself, Saralyn,” he said, “and give my best to Abraham.”
She nodded and then turned toward her husband’s hospital room.
“She’s holding up well,” Alan observed. “What are the doctors saying this morning?”
“Not much,” Isaac said. “They induced the coma to deal with his pain, and they’ll keep him in it until they find out the cause. It’s an awful situation. Dad didn’t deserve this.”
Alan placed a hand on Isaac’s shoulder. “Your father’s a strong man, Isaac. He’ll beat this, whatever it is.”
“I certainly hope so.”
Rebecca came and stood next to Isaac. Though he was still angry with her, he appreciated her presence. Until now he hadn’t considered how small his family really was—him, Rebecca, Mom, and Dad. Deborah and Michael were a distant afterthought.
“There’s no good time for this, but we need to talk business,” Alan said. “With the change in Abraham’s status, I’ve postponed the companywide meeting. Our more immediate need is for a press conference.”
“Can’t this wait a few days?” Rebecca asked, rubbing her hand across Isaac’s back. “We’re still in shock.”
Alan shook his head. “I’m afraid not. MEEG is not going to stand still because Abraham is out of commission. We need to mobilize now so that the company doesn’t suffer a loss of momentum.” He turned to face Isaac. “Your father has several deals going, and his partners need to be reassured that MEEG can and will stand by those deals. You’re going to have to convince them of that, Isaac. They’re going to be looking for a voice from the family, and that’s you. It’s what your father wanted, what he ordered.”
Isaac nodded. “I know and I’m
ready. Just bring me up to date on the outstanding projects.”
“We can start that tomorrow. I’ll be in your office first thing—say eight o’clock?”
“That’s fine,” he said, reaching for Rebecca’s hand in a show of solidarity that she knew was simple play-acting. “We’ll be there.”
“Good. There is one order of business that we need to take care of today, though.”
“What’s that?” Rebecca asked.
“The board of directors.”
“Now that Dad’s out of commission, the board consists of you, Mom, and me,” Isaac said.
“That used to be the composition,” Alan said. “Before his accident, your father added two members: Leah and Deborah Thomas.”
“You’re kidding me,” Isaac said. He didn’t want to even think about his mother’s reaction to this news. He sat in the chair nearest him. Rebecca and Alan followed, taking seats on either side of him. “When did Dad do this? I knew he’d offered Deborah a job and that she’d taken it, but he didn’t mention anything about the board.”
“He was supposed to tell you and them the night of the accident. I know why he didn’t tell them, but I’m not sure why he didn’t tell you.”
“He tried,” Rebecca said, “but the conversation deteriorated pretty quickly.”
“I understand,” Alan said. “Abraham didn’t think the news would go over well.”
“Then why did he do it?” Isaac asked, thinking how much his world had shifted in the last four months. He rubbed his temple as he felt another stress headache coming on.
“His only explanation to me was that they are his children.”
“Leah is not his child,” Isaac said, angry on his mother’s behalf. “She’s his former mistress. Putting her on the board is a slap in my mother’s face. How could he disrespect her this way?”
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