I
’m gonna be a match, Michael thought as he walked out of the Cancer Center, where
the donor match tests were administered.
I just know it.
“Michael?”
He turned and saw Alan heading toward the center from the opposite direction.
This has to be an omen.
“What are you doing here, man?” he asked.
“I could ask you the same,” Alan said. “I’m surprised you agreed to be tested.”
“Be tested? I’m praying I’m a match.”
Alan eyed him skeptically. “You’re praying to be a match? Now that’s a bit much.”
“Don’t you see how perfect it would be if I were a match? We couldn’t have asked for
a better scenario. Forget waiting for Josette to deliver the baby and trying to invoke
some obscure clause in the MEEG bylaws. If I’m a match, I’ll have Abraham and Saralyn
exactly where I want them, groveling at my feet to save the life of their precious
son. Who said there was no God?”
“What are you planning?” Alan asked.
“It’s all contingent on the results of that test. If the results indicate that I’m
a match—which I’m confident they will—I’m going to have Abraham and Saralyn make me
an offer I can’t refuse.” He chuckled. “Or I could make them an offer they can’t refuse.
Don’t you love it?”
Alan shook his head. “I knew you hated them,” he said, “but—”
“But nothing,” Michael said, pointing a finger in Alan’s chest. “A few months ago
you came to me with a plan to take down Abraham Martin, remember? I didn’t come to
you. I signed on to hit him where it hurts, to give him a dose of his own medicine.”
He dropped his hand from Alan’s chest and rubbed his chin. “How’d you put it? Yeah,
show the big man that he can’t get away with hurting people. Well, we’ve had the perfect
way of doing that placed in our laps. Don’t you see?”
“I can’t do it,” Alan said. “I can’t use Isaac’s illness to bring Abraham down. He’s
already down. I want a fair fight.”
“You haven’t been paying attention to how the old man works, have you? There’s no
such thing as a fair fight. You fight to win, by any means necessary, or you lose.
It’s that simple.”
Alan looked at him as if he had two heads. “You know what, Michael? You may not have
been raised in Abraham’s home but you’re definitely his son. You’re more like him
than Isaac is. In fact, you’re exactly like him. Look at yourself. Standing in a hospital,
hoping to hold the keys to a man’s life in your hands so you can use them to take
vengeance on your absentee father and his wicked wife.”
Michael’s lips tightened. “He’s going to pay for what he did to me and my family.
I thought you wanted him to pay for what he did to your sister.”
“I did. But the funny thing is, I think he’s paying for it now. We can’t bring him
down any lower than he is now, Michael. He knows there’s a good chance that Isaac’s
life lies in your hands. His past has finally caught up with him. He needs the son
he deserted to save the son he cherished. But he knows that even asking the deserted
son for help will only widen the gap between them that he’s been trying to bridge.
He’s at his lowest point, Michael. The game is over and everybody lost. It’s time
to call it in.”
Michael folded his arms across his chest and gave Alan a look of disdain. “I always
knew you were a weak man. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have taken you so long to avenge
your sister’s death. Instead of taking Abraham down, you remained his flunky. Your
sister is probably rolling in her grave.”
Alan smiled, seemingly unmoved by Michael’s taunt. “My sister is resting peacefully.
That’s something we have in common, Michael. Sisters who sleep easy because they always
look for the best in others. Sisters who love us unconditionally. The sledgehammer
that these weaker women hold over our heads is that their love comes with expectations.
They expect us to be bigger than we are because that’s how they see us. It would have
hurt my sister had I brought Abraham down, but it would devastate her to know that
I used Isaac’s illness to do it. I never wanted to see that kind of disappointment
in her eyes. I don’t want to imagine it now that she’s dead. You don’t want to see
it in Deborah’s.”
“Who are you to tell me anything about my sister? You know nothing about her.”
“I know more than you think. I know she has a soft heart, and despite all you’ve done
against Abraham and Isaac, she still thinks you’re one of the good guys. If you do
what you’re planning to do, you’ll break her heart. She’ll never look at you the same
again.”
“Let me worry about my sister,” Michael said. He tapped Alan in the chest again. “You
stay away from her. I wonder what she’ll
think of you when she finds out our initial plans for Abraham. My guess is that she’ll
drop you so fast you won’t know what hit you.”
“Your threats don’t work with me, Michael. I’m going to come clean with Deborah because
I care about her.”
A trickle of fear rolled up Michael’s spine. “I don’t believe you.”
“I don’t care what you believe. I’m going to tell her and she’s going to tell your
mother. Our plan is over.”
“Good,” Michael said, though he wished he could have kept Alan on his side until they
lowered the boom on Abraham. “I don’t need you anyway. I’ve been given another path
to get what I want.”
“You’re so much like Abraham that it’s no wonder you two don’t get along. The funny
thing is, you probably wouldn’t have gotten along any better if he’d been there for
you from day one. You’re too much alike.”
“I don’t have to listen to this,” Michael said, hating the comparisons of him and
Abraham. He was nothing like the man. “You take care of your business and I’ll take
care of mine. And when the doctors confirm that I’m a match, I want a meeting with
Abraham and Saralyn in the MEEG boardroom. I want to take them down on their turf.”
Then he turned and stalked away.
D
eborah hadn’t known what to expect when Alan offered to drive her home from the hospital,
but she’d never expected this news. “I don’t believe you,” she said.
Sitting next to her on her mother’s living room couch, Alan tugged her hand into his.
“Yes, you do,” he said. “I have no reason to lie.”
She pulled her hand away. “You’ve been lying since we met,” she said. “Lies of omission.
Was your interest in me part of your and Michael’s plan?”
He shook his head, but she didn’t believe him. How could she? “Your brother is very
protective of you. He warned me not to start anything with you. He didn’t want you
to get hurt when you found out our plans. I tried to abide by his wishes, but I was
drawn to you despite myself.”
Under other conditions, Alan’s words would have melted her
heart. Under the present conditions, they only made her sad for what could have been
between them. “That makes no sense,” she said, focusing on his comment about Michael
and ignoring his words about their relationship. “If he knew the plan would hurt me,
why would he follow through with it?”
“You know the answer to that, Deborah. Michael’s need to hurt Abraham is much greater
than his need to protect your heart. To be fair, he did say you’d forgive him in time.
He trusts the love he has with you and your mother that much.”
Deborah’s heart ached. How could her beloved brother plan to use her this way? And
dear sweet Alan, she never would have expected him of such deceit. She wouldn’t have
thought it was in his character. “So why are you telling me now?” she wanted to know.
“Because if there is to be any hope of a future between us, you had to hear it from
me. And I do want a future with you, Deborah. I haven’t thought much about the future
since Alisha died, but I think it’s time. It’s been a long while since I’ve been in
a serious relationship, and as we both know, I’m old enough to be your father, but
if you’re willing to take a chance on me, I promise to give you and this relationship
all I have.”
Deborah wanted to believe him, thought maybe there could be something between them,
but she couldn’t be sure. “I don’t know,” she said.
He stood and looked down at her, his eyes full of sadness and regret. “I understand,”
he said. “It’s my loss, really.”
She wanted to tell him that it wasn’t a loss yet, but she couldn’t force the words
through her lips. She stood, her manners forcing her to escort him out, and as she
did, the front door opened and a harried Michael entered the house.
He saw her first. “Is Josette here?” he asked. “Did you give her a ride from the hospital?”
When Alan stepped around her and made himself visible, he added, “What are you doing
here?”
Alan didn’t bother to respond. He looked down at Deborah. “I really am sorry,” he
said. “More than you know.” Then he headed out of the room, past Michael, and out
of the house.
When he was gone, Michael asked again, “Is Josette here?”
Deborah stared at her brother as if he were a stranger. “No, she’s not,” she said.
“The last time I saw her, she was going into Isaac’s room at the hospital.”
Michael marched past her to the living room and sat on the couch. “Where could she
be?” he asked himself.
Deborah leaned against the doorjamb, remembering her conversation with Josette. “She
did it, didn’t she? She left you.”
Michael looked up at her. “You’re talking crazy. You know Josette, she’ll be back.”
Despite everything she’d just learned about Michael from Alan, Deborah’s heart ached
for him and his loss. He’d lost his father through no fault of his own, but the loss
of his wife lay squarely at his feet. “This time is different, Michael. She’s not
coming back.”
He eyed her skeptically. “How do you know so much? Did she tell you where she was
going?”
As she looked at her big brother, her protector, her longtime best friend, she could
only shake her head at what his life had become. “She just told me she wouldn’t live
with a man she didn’t trust and who didn’t trust her. I didn’t understand fully at
first, but I do now. You really should have told her that Abraham was our father before
you married her. It shook her foundation and the foundation of your marriage when
she found out. She feels as though you never trusted her and as a result she has nothing
to stand on in the marriage. Without trust, what is there?”
Michael jumped up out of his seat. “Not you, too,” he said. “I didn’t tell her because
it wasn’t important.”
She thought about the news Alan had just given her and how it made her feel. “Yes,
it was important,” she said. “You romanced
her and convinced her to build a life with you without really sharing yourself with
her. Then you stood before God and shared vows with her, all the while knowing that
you were hiding a big piece of who you were from her.”
“That’s a load of bull,” he said, running his hand across his head.
She sat down on the arm of the couch and watched her brother try to pace his troubles
away. “Alan was telling the truth, wasn’t he? You planned to use me, Mama, and Josette
in some crazy plan to usurp Abraham’s position at MEEG, didn’t you?”
He met her eyes with his own clear ones. “That was Alan’s plan. I went along for the
ride.”
His callousness made her heart ache. “How could you, Michael?” she cried. “Even after
Mama and I went to Abraham and made the case for you, you were going to use us to
undermine him. He would have thought we were in on it.”
“Who cares what he would have thought?” he shot back. “We’d have what was rightfully
ours as his heirs.”
She patted her chest. “I would have cared,” she said, tears rolling down her cheeks.
“I want a relationship with him, Michael. I thought you knew that.”
His eyes flared with contempt. “You make me ashamed to be your brother when you spout
that crap. That old man that you care so much about went back on the deal he made
with you and Mama. He can’t be trusted. That old man ignored us until—”
“I don’t care how long it took,” she said. “Don’t you get it? He’s my father and I
want him in my life. He can’t change the past, Michael, but he’s trying to do better
now. You just won’t give him a chance.”
“He doesn’t deserve a chance,” he declared.
She wiped her wet cheeks with the back of her hand. “And what do you deserve, Michael?
What do you deserve for under
mining your marriage to Josette with lies and half-truths? What do you deserve for
sacrificing me and Mama on the altar of your vendetta? What do you deserve for exploiting
your half brother’s illness for material gain and personal gratification? What do
you deserve for seeking to destroy your unborn child’s grandfather? You’d better be
careful about not giving second chances. It seems to me you’re going to be needing
more than your share of them in the not so distant future.”
“I didn’t come here for this,” he said, turning on her. “I came looking for my wife.”
“Maybe if you had spent half as much time and energy on keeping her happy as you did
plotting against Abraham, you’d know where she and her unborn child were. She’s gone,
Michael, and I’m glad she is. You’re not ready to be a father. How can you be? You’re
still a child angry with an absent parent. But you’re not a child, you’re a grown
man, and the actions you take will have long-lasting ramifications. Please think before
you do something more stupid and destructive than what you’ve already done.”
“If I wanted a sermon,” he said, “I’d go to church.” He headed for the door. When
he reached it, he turned and said, “If Josette contacts you, tell her that I want
her to come home.”
“I’ll think about it,” she said. Then she added, “I’m not going to tell Mama about
all of this, Michael, because it will break her spirit. I’m praying that you have
a change of heart while there’s still time. If you go through with this, I don’t know
if you’ll ever get back what you lose in the process.”
Without another word, he turned and left the house the same way he’d entered. Deborah
slumped down on the couch, trying to get her mind around all that had transpired that
day. Several of her illusions had been shattered. The good news was that one illusion
had been restored. She was no longer angry with her mother for keeping her relationship
with Reverend Reeves a secret. There
was no telling how Michael would have tried to exploit that connection to Abraham,
and perhaps, in the process, ruined their mother’s chance for happiness. She loved
her brother, but right now she saw him as a rabid animal, destroying everything in
his path. She feared he’d destroy himself in the process.