The House (26 page)

Anna said, “My mother was not happy. She was withdrawn and absorbed into her world of knitting and crocheting, constantly reciting Biblical and religious aphorisms. I’ll never know why, only that I couldn’t make her happy.” Anna bit back the claws of sadness. Her thoughts doubled around to Edward. “Some would say my husband lived life to the fullest,” Anna said. “He built from scratch a successful real estate business, and gave us a lovely home. He did what he wanted, and in his way.” She sucked air, and breathed out slowly. “Now life is having its way with him.” The image of Bertrice’s face ran blurry. Tears broke onto Anna’s cheeks, the full meaning of her words revealed. Life was not only trying Edward and claiming its measure, but also issuing Anna the same charge.

Anna said, “Edward and my mother never liked one another.” Years earlier she had said to Edward,
You’re both the same—cold and unloving. I supposed that’s why I married you.
Edward’s reply now echoed in her head,
We would have been better off if my mother had done away with both me and herself.
Anna hated having left her father to care for her mother alone. And now, in her desire to offer penance by caring for Edward in his last days, the quake of impending death left her angry and frustrated.

The night she had laid in bed with him after dinner at Scott’s Restaurant, Inman had said to Anna,
I want you in my life. I need you
. The thought of having been with another man while Edward was home and dying blistered Anna’s conscience and soul, and then to have thrust herself on Edward two days later. Anna had needed to be with Inman. His passion, love, and words had fed her soul. Full and satiated, she had served Edward a full spread. Thanks to Inman, her cup had overflowed with goodness and mercy, all that Elena had lacked and withheld from Anna. While making love to Edward, Anna had envisioned herself living through and surviving what she thought she could not endure—Edward’s constant infidelity. Despite everything, her reasoning had said Edward was not supposed to die, that he would outlive her, as she had foreseen her mother outliving her father. Strong and tenacious individuals such as her mother and Edward had grit. Elena’s fight had eloped when Elijah most needed her. Elena’s will dissolved into the same fears and hopelessness that she had held throughout life. Anna accepted that she had survived and was very much alive, despite the slow rendering of Edward and his life unto death. It takes strength to give. Love moves mountains, dissolves walls, mends broken hearts. A change of heart is the ultimate of miracles.

Anna’s mother and Edward were alike, but they were also like Anna. Edward had made that plain when he said,
I’ve always hated myself. As long as I can remember I’ve held no love for who I am, or what I’ve become. I was the soiled and dirty one; you were clean and pure. That’s why I wanted and needed you.
It dawned upon Anna that perhaps Elena’s anxieties and Edward’s fears had exceeded her own, and those of her father. Again Anna recalled Inman’s words,
I want you to be happy and free
.

She looked at her cup, the tea within now cold. She said to Bertrice, “My husband was a strong man. I’ve never seen him weak like this. It’s frightening and sometimes repulsive. Yet, I’ve never felt so close or attracted to him.”

“Death, like sex
,
is seductive. The French call it the
little death
, sex that is.” Bertrice gave a sad smile. She had passed this way on many occasions, had witnessed families, who were entangled and grounded in their all too imperfect love, face sudden and impending illness. She had watched them push their warts from hidden crevices onto the surface of life for all to see. Despite her fear and frustration, Anna felt comforted that Bertrice had experience in these matters. All would not turn out as Anna wished. Yet as Bertrice had done time and again for others, she would see Edward through his transition from this life to what lay beyond.

“Your husband says he needs me to come every day,” Bertrice addressed more practical matters. “That you’ll be busy over the next few weeks with your company.”

“My husband’s illness is forcing me to rethink who I thought myself to be,” Anna’s chest tightened. One last challenge manifested by Edward left her afraid to move forward concerning a matter where she held little choice. “Edward gave me his company, Manning Ventures,” Anna said. Her voice felt tight, sounded foreign. “I have to prepare for a board meeting.”

“How nice.” Bertrice curved her lips up in a fashion that said she was not a death angel. Rather, she was a harbinger of
life
in the midst of death, a person who heralded transcendence when the abyss of uncertainty was all within its path. “Some say the greatest mystery lies in death,” Bertrice said. “The Africans say it springs forth in life.”

“We die as we live,” Anna mused. She wanted to take a new path, and not clinch the reins of life too tightly lest they snap back and entrap her as she was beginning to feel with Edward’s approaching demise. Anna wanted to be free. And for that, life demanded she let him go.

“I suppose we need to set up a schedule,” Anna said to Bertrice, “and arrange times for you to come.” ?

Chapter 37

Anna continued alongside Bryce down the corridor. Unsure of herself, she reiterated, “I still don’t understand why Edward chose a hotel as the place for me to meet with stockholders and trustees of his company.”

“Edward never held board meetings in the office,” Bryce said. “We didn’t have enough space, and he wasn’t about to rent a suite of offices that included a boardroom. It’s cheaper to book a hotel conference room when you need one. Neutral ground,” Bryce said. One more secret to the success of his company,” Anna murmured. Reaching the end of the corridor Bryce stopped at the door to the conference room. “Ready?”

“I feel like I’m trying to fake being an MBA,” she said. Anna had spent the last two weeks cramming for the meeting. By day, Edward had sat in bed, bolstered by pillows and laid out the particulars of running of a company. At night and when Bertrice was seeing to Edward, Bryce arrived. Sitting across from Anna at the kitchen table, he expanded upon the particulars to which Edward had introduced her. Anna’s meetings with Bryce often ran past midnight and poured into the early morning of the following day. During the afternoon, Edward provided pointers on what she had gleaned from Bryce the previous night. This continued for three weeks with Anna receiving from Edward and Bryce a crash course in business management.

Standing before the door to the hotel conference room Bryce said, “I’ve got a JD and a MBA, and you know more than I ever learned in graduate school.” Anna frowned. “Edward Manning taught me everything I know about running a business. I’ve shared all of that with you.” Anna held the sinking feeling that Bryce and Edward had been up to something. She feared that unbeknownst to her Edward had crafted a master plan into which she had fallen prey. Inside the meeting room, she would crash face first, in front of the board members. In truth, Bryce behaved as if he were a son doing all he could to grasp the essence of the man he had wished to be his father. Edward Manning, his mentor was failing in his last days.

Anna was about to ask Bryce what was really going on, when he smiled and said, “You’re a wife and mother—two of the hardest jobs I know. You can do this.” He took hold of the doorknob. “Take my cues. I’m with you.” He opened the door.

Six men sat around the oblong table as Anna assumed her seat at the head against the wall. Bryce opened the meeting.

“Thank you for coming, gentlemen.” He circulated leaflets containing a financial report of the previous quarter.

An empty chair toward the far end of the table caught Anna’s attention. The men were leafing through their booklets when the gentleman on her left leaned in toward her and said, “That’s Mrs. McGrath’s seat.” Anna recalled the six names Bryce had given her. He had provided no pictures to associate them with. Bryce had said nothing of a Mrs. McGrath.

“Is she usually late?” Anna said to the man.

“She’ll be along.”

At the lectern beside Anna, Bryce began speaking. “As you know, Edward Manning has decided, for personal reasons, to step down as president and CEO of Manning Ventures. To assume leadership in his stead he has chosen his wife, Anna Manning.” Bryce placed his hand upon Anna’s shoulder. She forced a smile. “Though new to the business, in these last few weeks of acclimating her to the role, I have found Anna quite capable and enthusiastic,” Bryce said. “I think you will, too. I ask you to welcome Anna to Manning Ventures.”

Bryce lifted his hands and began clapping. The six men, their demeanors lodged somewhere between stern anxiety and outright anger, did not join him. Anna had never encountered faces bearing such hardened seriousness. Again, Bryce placed his hand upon her right shoulder. She stood.

“As Bryce stated, I’m Anna Manning.” She touched her chest. “If I may, I’d like each of you to introduce yourselves and state your name.”

“Everyone here knows each other,” said a man at the other end.

He was sitting next to the empty seat awaiting Mrs. McGrath’s arrival.

“Yes, but I’d like to get to know you,” Anna said.

“Elliott Thompson,” Bryce whispered from behind her. Elliott’s name flashed in Anna’s mind.
Elliot will have a lot of questions
. Bryce had warned. So had Edward.

“This sounds like kindergarten,” said the man across from Elliott.

Elliott interceded. “What I want to know is does the fact that you’re assuming control of Manning Ventures mean you’re no longer divorcing Edward? Has he given you the company to satisfy your demands for a divorce, or perhaps to pacify you?”

“Exactly what
is
going on?” Again, the man across from Elliott spoke.

“I am Edward’s wife, Mr. Thompson. And no, I’m not divorcing him.”

“Well, I guess you
do
know us,” Thompson said with a dry smile. “So, why has he made you head of the company?” Elliott Thompson was undeterred. “Has he given you the company to keep you married to him?”

Faced with her first challenge, Anna chose truth. “Edward is dying.”

A moment of silence wandered the room as the men appeared to enter a struggle of grounding themselves in a reality they had not anticipated. A low residual of murmurs and mumblings rose and faded.

A new voice emerged from Anna’s right. “How do you propose to run Manning Ventures since Edward will no longer be around to guide you or Bryce?” Before Anna could answer, a man sitting at the right center of the table leaned forward. Straining his neck, he looked beyond Anna to Bryce. Anna glanced back and saw that on his yellow legal pad Bryce had written the name
Pierce Dawson
.

She turned back to the men seated around the table and looking to her for answers. With his white hair, and butterscotch skin, Dawson could have passed for Anna’s deceased father. “What’s your specific concern, Mr. Dawson?”

“Money, of course, as it is with all of us,” said the man across from Dawson. That was Claiborne Rochester. Not only did Rochester’s dyed black hair betray him, but also his response about money and profits being the motive of their concerns.

They’re all in it for the money,
Bryce had stated.
For Claiborne Rochester, money is all that matters. No family, no children, no dog, just money
. Bryce had then added,
Rochester’ll also be the first to pull out if he senses you’re about to crumble.
Should Rochester leave, the others would surely follow. The six men at the table along with the absent Mrs. McGrath comprised the seven major investors of what was now Manning Ventures. They were also the board of trustees. Anna set about easing their concerns. “My plan for assuming leadership of Manning Ventures is to continue down the path Edward has laid. The company is running fine as is. I have no intentions of making any broad sweeping changes.”

“Thank God for that,” Pierce Dawson piped.

Rochester then chimed, “Yes, but what happens when the market turns down like it’s trended these last few months? Or a competitor arises? Things happen every day. I want to know that you’re watching the company, not home baking cookies for your grandchildren, worse yet, mourning the loss of a man that was,” the man with jet black hair tilted his head, “—shall we say, less than faithful.”

Elliott Thompson said, “How do we know you’re not planning to raid the company and take what you feel Edward owed you.” A round of mumbling resumed.

“Mr. Thompson, I assure you I have no intention or reason to steal from Manning Ventures or any of you.” A chuckle escaped Anna in her nervousness. “As for Mr. Rochester’s concerns, I can bake cookies, and watch the markets on my computer at the same time.” The grimness of the men’s faces left little time for Anna to ponder the meanderings of Edward’s mind when he signed the documents giving her Manning Ventures. She burned with the thought that he had
done it again
, set her up for another disappointment, was perhaps back at home grinning at the thought of her standing before these men spearing her with questions to which she lacked answers, and grit to address head-on. Anna could have kicked her self for not having filed the deed on the day she learned of Edward’s illness. Bryce’s words returned to her.
You’re a mother. These men are like little boys who need food and time to play. Their favorite entrée and toy is money.