As he stared at the home in procrastination, he realized his father had become the estate. Stately, impenetrable, cold as the grayish-blue exterior. He wondered, after the cancer consumed Mason, if the house would crumble around him as it did for Usher.
Thomas climbed down from the cab and inhaled. The mulch scent mingled with the thickening humidity of the approaching sunset. A crow perched on a cherry tree and cawed at him. The porch grew nearer. Had he stood still, the sidewalk would have swept him up and thrown him onto the steps. The stairs groaned under his weight as he climbed. Then he pressed the doorbell and listened as chimes rang through the house.
Footsteps puttered to the door. His mother, Lindsey Shepherd, pulled her mouth tight.
“At last, you’re visiting us, so I suppose this means you’ve come to your senses.”
“Good evening, Mother.”
She folded her arms and barricaded the entrance with her body.
“Well?”
“I’d like to speak with Father. May I see him?”
She narrowed her eyes.
“Remove your shoes. I just cleaned, and I don’t want you muddying the floors.”
Lindsey tossed her shock of gray hair over her shoulder and turned on her heels. He glanced down at his sneakers. No dirt, but he didn’t relish testing her. After he slipped his sneakers off, he padded down the long corridor toward the study, their footsteps echoing off the high ceilings.
“You have a visitor, Mason,” she said at the doorway to the study.
“Who is it?”
The voice sounded too frail to be Mason’s.
“Your son.”
She lifted her chin in challenge before motioning him inside. Thomas stepped into the study. Books on finance, marketing, and leadership lined the shelves, sharing space with classic fiction from Twain, Hemingway, Dickens, and Fitzgerald. Thomas tugged at his collar. The room felt like a wood stove, but the thin, gray man in the lounge chair wrapped himself in a blanket. Thomas sucked in a breath at the sight of him. His father had aged twenty years since the April encounter. Mason’s hands trembled as he gestured at the chair across from him. Mason often listened to Chopin. The lack of music was an ominous sign.
Thomas slipped into the chair and placed his arms on the rests. He half-expected clasps to spring out of the chair and lock his wrists in place. Lindsey eyed Thomas as she leaned over her husband and kissed the top of his head.
“So you’ve finally come to visit,” Mason said with a dry chuckle. He coughed into his hand. “Or perhaps you’re here to dance upon my grave.”
“How are you, Father?”
Mason waved away his son’s concern.
“You already know. Enough with the formalities. Have you decided?”
The clock ticked on the wall. A march toward the inevitable confrontation.
“I’m not qualified to run Shepherd Systems. You must know this.”
“I can teach you. You’re trainable, I suspect. After all, you’re a Shepherd.”
“The business must stay in the family,” Lindsey added, placing a hand on her husband’s shoulder as she stood behind him.
Thomas shifted.
“If I ran Shepherd Systems, I’d bankrupt the company in the first year. I refuse to believe you don’t have a list of candidates in-house. Hire a CEO.”
Mason focused his gaze. Even in his dilapidated state, he could burn holes through Thomas with his stare.
“The name is Shepherd Systems, and it will stay that way. I won’t have my legacy ruined by an outsider who didn’t dirty his hands building the company from the ground up. Now, stop this foolishness. We all know you went into law enforcement to challenge me. You proved your point, Thomas, as idiotic as your point turned out to be. Stop the charade. It’s time you placed family before folly.”
Thomas chewed the inside of his cheek. No matter how hard Mason pushed, he wouldn’t yell, wouldn’t fight a dying man.
“There’s no reason for me to step down from my position.”
“What does Gray need with you? Tell me, Thomas. When the neighborhood boys picked sides in football, were you the first or last chosen?”
“I fail to see what this has to do with—”
“Last, always last. You always picked yourself up, no matter how many times they knocked you down. Because you’re my son. Yet you were never big enough, Thomas. You spent your entire life trying to prove everyone wrong, including your parents. And look where it got you. A bullet in the back, and now you’re back home because California turned out to be the foe you couldn’t conquer.”
Thomas stood.
“I’ve heard enough.”
“Sit down, boy. I’m not finished.”
His fingernails digging into his palms, Thomas glared back at his parents. Mason’s voice reverberated off the walls and rang in Thomas’s ears.
“I’m leaving. It was a mistake coming here.”
“Consider your future. You’ve seen the company reports. You’d be rich and never worry about money again. Imagine the possibilities if you took the company public.”
“Listen to your father, for once in your life.” Lindsey stepped from behind the chair and strode to Thomas. A challenge flared in her eyes. “This isn’t a game anymore. You could have died. Then there’d have been no one to continue the Shepherd legacy.”
“Is that what this is about? Ensuring the Shepherd legacy lives on? Thank you for caring, Mother.”
She covered her mouth.
“That’s not what I meant. I was…we were devastated after the shooting.”
“I’ll be by to check on Father this weekend. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to get home. I have work tomorrow morning.”
“Don’t walk away.”
“Oh, let the boy go, Lindsey.” Mason struggled out his chair. He gripped the arm rests until he steadied himself. “He doesn’t value what we’ve given him. So why would he appreciate this offer?”
Thomas turned toward the door and stopped. Before Mason reacted, Thomas crossed the room and wrapped his arms around his father’s shoulders.
“I love you, Father,” he whispered into Mason’s ear. His father squirmed. “I’m not the man to lead your company, and I won’t destroy what you spent a lifetime building. If
