Isaac Martin waited for his mother in the back of the church. She had just dismissed the weekly mid-morning Bible study group that she led. When she saw him, she smiled and headed his way, but Reverend Reeves stopped her and pulled her aside to chat for a moment. Several other folks stopped her before she reached him. In the meantime, he greeted those who saw him. Since this was his home church, he knew practically everybody. He hoped Reverend Reeves didn’t corner him today. His church attendance had dropped off significantly in the last four months and he knew the pastor had noticed.
When his mother finally reached him, she lifted her cheek for the kiss he always had for her. “Still the life of the party, huh, Mom?” he teased.
Saralyn Martin gave him a 100-watt smile that made her look more like his sister than his mother. “I see you had your share of admirers.”
He held up his ring finger and pointed to the ring. “I don’t have admirers anymore,” he said. “I’m married, remember?”
She slapped him on the arm with one of her recently manicured hands. “Nobody likes a smart aleck, son.”
He laughed. “So where do you want to go for lunch?”
“Honey, I’m sorry but I can’t go to lunch today. I need to get back to the office.”
He lifted a brow. “The office? Since when did you start going into the office? I thought charity events and cocktail parties took up all your time these days.”
“Except for this Bible study class, I’ve had to clear my social calendar,” she said. “Since you decided you were no longer interested in the family business, I figured somebody had to look out for your interests. That somebody is me.”
“Don’t start, Mom.”
“I’m not starting anything,” she said. “I’m telling you the truth. You shouldn’t have left your position at MEEG. That company is yours and you belong there, no matter what your father has done. Don’t forget that my father—your grandfather—started that company.”
Isaac hadn’t forgotten. He also knew that Ellis News was only a minor cog in the wheel that was now Martin-Ellis Entertainment Group. His father had turned a mom-and-pop newspaper into a multi-million-dollar entertainment conglomerate consisting of a couple of magazines, a film and television production company, and a television station. “Don’t start, Mom,” he said again. “I didn’t come here to talk about him.”
“I’m not talking about him,” she said, “I’m talking about you. You’re letting your disappointment in your father cloud your judgment. MEEG is yours. You shouldn’t be working for somebody else. It’s not right.”
Isaac sighed. The position as VP of Special Products at Infinity Games wasn’t his ideal job, but it was a soft landing while he decided what he wanted to do long-term. “It’s right for me, Mom. I can’t live in his shadow anymore. I don’t want to be with him or be like him. I have to become my own man.”
“By working for somebody else? That makes no sense. You come from a long line of entrepreneurs, men and women who took pride in building their own, not taking scraps from somebody else. Where did you get your ideas about work? You certainly didn’t get them from me, your father, or your grandfather.”
Isaac didn’t deny the entrepreneurial bent that flowed through his veins, but after learning about his father’s other children, he’d needed a break from the man, so he took the first decent opportunity that presented itself. With Infinity, he learned about gaming, an entertainment area that MEEG had yet to explore. Besides, working with his father and trying to meet his excessively high expectations had grown more stressful each day. He’d found himself popping antacids like there was no tomorrow. “You’re determined to argue with me, aren’t you?” he asked his mother.
She tucked her arm through his and guided them toward the sanctuary’s exit doors. “I’m determined to get you to see what’s right. There’s a difference.”
Isaac threw back his head and laughed. “You’re the perfect match for Dad. I have to give you that.”
She sobered and her steps faltered. “I used to think so.”
He hugged her to his side. “I’m sorry, Mom,” he said, mentally berating himself for being so insensitive. “I know this hasn’t been a walk in the park for you.” Though his mother had long known about his father’s infidelities, she’d been humiliated by his recent efforts to embrace his outside children.
“No, it hasn’t,” she said. “But you don’t see me walking away from all I’ve worked for. Now is not the time to be emotional.”
Isaac stared at his mother. She looked all prim and proper in her pale pink designer suit and matching heels, but her backbone was as solid and unyielding as the diamonds that adorned her ears, neck, and wrists. “I don’t know how you do it.”
“You’re not a woman,” she said. “If women fell apart every time a man did something stupid, that’s all we’d do. No, women have to be strong. When the man falls, we have to keep standing. Otherwise, there would be no family.”
“Okay, Mom,” he said. He could feel her winding up for a lecture and he wanted to cut her off before she got started.
“Okay, nothing. Yes, I’m angry with your father for his betrayal. I’m angered by the insensitivity to our feelings he’s showing with his ‘do the right thing’ campaign. I hate what he’s done to this family and I’m not sure I’ll be able to forgive him anytime soon. But what he’s done doesn’t take away from what we’ve built together. That company is as much yours as it is your father’s. Now is not the time to walk away, Isaac. I don’t know where your father’s head is these days but something tells me we’re both going to find out soon, and I don’t think we’re going to like what we hear. You need to stake your claim before Abraham starts dividing up the pie. Can you see yourself sharing MEEG with those interlopers, working side by side with them? I’d die first.”
“Since I’m not working at MEEG any longer, it doesn’t really matter to me,” Isaac said. “That’s a battle I won’t have to fight.” He wanted, and needed, peace in his life and his work. He knew that now. Let his half siblings have MEEG and the drama that was Abraham Martin.
His mother stopped walking and stared at him. “Now that’s the kind of crazy talk that keeps me awake at night. You’ve got to wake up and smell the coffee, son. We’re not just talking about a job here; we’re talking about your birthright, your heritage. Don’t be a slouch like Esau and give yours away.” She started walking again. “I blame your father for all of this. Why stir the pot after all these years? Our lives were going along fine the way things were. Now he’s bringing the infidels in among us.”
“You make them sound like the enemy.”
“In a way, they are. That woman had no respect for my marriage. She didn’t have one child with your father, she had two.”
Isaac could feel his mother’s pain, and his anger at his father grew. How could the man he’d held in such esteem all his life, the man who always spoke of the honor in being a husband and father, mistreat his mother this way, a woman who’d always stood by him? He thought about his own wife and wondered if he could ever do the same to her. He tossed the thought aside as soon as it formed in his mind. He’d never hurt Rebecca the way his father had hurt his mother. He hugged his mother to his side. “Let’s go pick up some lunch.”
She looked up at him. “You’ll come back to the office and eat with me?”
He chuckled. “Yeah, Mom, I will.”
“Good,” she said, with that bright smile she gave when she got her way. “I need your advice on a couple of things.”
Isaac knew very well that his mother didn’t need his advice. She had just executed the first step in her efforts to recruit him back to MEEG. He didn’t have the heart to tell her that her efforts would not yield the results she wanted. He didn’t see himself going back to MEEG, not now, maybe not ever. And not even his mother, the brilliantly manipulative Saralyn “I always get my way” Martin, could change that.