Free Sins of the Father by Angela Benson Page B

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 hadbeen 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
    R ebecca 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 thecompanywide 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