SELFLESS OR SELL OUT?

CHAPTER 1

The rich man’s wealth is his strong city, and like a high wall in his own esteem. (Proverbs 18:11)

APRIL 11, 1980

            “I don’t understand Mr. McQueen,” seventeen-year-old Mary Jean Patrick said with a puzzled frown. She had thought this interview was for a receptionist position. “Did you just propose marriage, or was it, like, some sort of business proposition?”

            “I suppose it could be perceived as both,” the sixty-one-year-old business tycoon John McQueen replied, wincing inside at how callous that sounded. He tried to counter act his tone by saying, “And please, call me John.”

            He fidgeted nervously with the pen in his fingers but kept his demeanor calm and cool. He kept silent so the breathtaking beauty across his desk from him could process the startling request. He had never felt more uneasy in a business meeting. And that’s exactly what this was, he couldn’t fool himself. The odds of a teenage girl feeling romantic for a senior citizen were slim at best.

            Her left hand swept her long red-gold hair off her shoulders, and she grabbed it into a makeshift ponytail that she gripped tightly over her left breast. John noticed her knuckles whiten as she squeezed her hair like a lifeline. Her large, lovely green eyes had looked startled at first. Then she squinted with something like hostility, but she calmly inquired, “Why me Mr. McQueen?”

            “Miss Patrick,” he addressed her since she apparently wanted to keep things formal, distant. “My wife passed away a year ago.”

            “Yes, I know. I’m so sorry,” she interjected warmly.

            Her genuine sympathy was one of the many reasons that John had become smitten with this young woman. His attention was first drawn to her when she began working part time for his sister last summer. It was around a month after Abby had a stroke. Although his sister regained an ability to walk and take care of personal hygiene, she had a hard time doing household chores. She especially needed help caring for her three cats and two dogs, as well as her garden and many house plants.

            “Thank you. We were married thirty-nine years,” he said. He paused and wondered if it was too soon for what he divulged next. “She was unable to have children.”

            “Why didn’t you adopt?”

            “We discussed it. Many times, actually. But she always found a reason to put it off,” he answered, then paused. “So, now that I find myself single… I would like to, well, yoke with a woman young enough to have children.”

            Mary Jean spoke slowly, her brain spinning, baffled at the situation she found herself in. “And you want me to have children with me?”

            “Yes, after we marry, of course. I, like you, am a devout Christian, and believe in doing things, shall we say, proper.”

            “How soon?” she asked without thinking, and instantly cringed inside. She didn’t want to give the impression that she was actually considering his proposal.

            If he were closer to her age, she most definitely would consider it. He was a nice-looking man. She thought he kind of looked like Clint Eastwood. Ironically, his menacing demeanor was similar to Dirty Harry’s. Yet, his sister had proclaimed what upstanding character he had. But would she approve of him asking a seventeen-year-old to marry him?

            “Ideally we would be wed as soon as you turn eighteen.”

            “That’s two months away!”

            She did again! She made it sound as if she was considering his offer. She needed to put her foot down right now!

            “Mr. McQueen, I’m flattered, I truly am. But to be quite frank, and meaning no offense, I am not going to marry a man that is old enough to be my grandfather, let alone father.”

            John’s desire for Mary Jean went beyond lust. There were plenty of pretty women, plenty of fish in the sea, as the saying went. Over the last nine months, John had been extracting information from his sister about this young woman who intrigued him like no other.

            Getting information wasn’t hard. After Mary Jean would leave, he would simply make a comment, and his talkative sister was off to the races, divulging everything she had learned about the teenager that day.

            Mary Jean went to the same church as his Bible thumping sister, but he wouldn’t hold that against her. He had long forgiven his sister for leaving their family church they grew up in. But she was now a legalist that kept Saturday as their Sabbath, claiming it was Biblical, rather than the tradition of Sunday. But their congregation seemed like good, well-adjusted people otherwise. Plus their pastor was an old Army buddy of his pastor.

            Mary Jean’s conservative attire, wholesome beauty, and old-fashioned values is what had captivated him. Also her caring, yes, motherly demeanor. She even seemed more mature than the thirty-two-year-old woman from his own church, who was his second choice, if his pursuit of Mary Jean Patrick ultimately failed. If only Mary Jean were thirty-two. But despite his vast wealth, he couldn’t help her age, just as he couldn’t help his own.

            From his sister, he learned that Mary Jean’s mother worked two jobs, and twelve to sixteen hours a day to provide for her three children. The one exception was their Sabbath. She loved animals, including horses, of which he had seventeen. Her favorite color was pink, and her favorite food was Mexican. She had a boyfriend for almost a year, but he broke up with her because she refused to have sex before marriage. She also had at one time longed to be a writer, then a nurse. Now with her family’s finances in dire straits, she hoped to find a full-time job upon high school graduation.

            It was this last aspect he saw as his ace in the hole. A year ago after John’s wife died, Mary Jean’s father had died three days later under suspicious circumstances. John found out that Mary Jean’s dad had major debts from gambling and was probably killed by some loan sharks. But the poor fool didn’t even have enough life insurance to pay a fraction of the debt he left his wife.

            “If you marry me, your mother will never have to work another day of her life,” John told Mary Jean.

            Mary Jean’s lips parted, and her eyes stared as if hypnotized. It was like when fishing, and he just felt a tug on the line. But then her lips pursed, and her jaw clenched. Oh, she was gonna put up a fight, that rod was bending. But taking care of her mother hooked her, he could see it. He just needed to be smart, and patient as he reeled her in.

            She aimed a glare at him. This sweet, meek pleasant girl had a fiery side. He like it! “So what, do you think I am some type of prostitute?”

            “God forbid, no, Mary Jean! Like you, I am a born-again Christian.”

            “Some Christian! Offering to buy a teenage girl to sleep with!”

            “I’m not offering to buy you; I am offering to marry you. Husband and wife.”

            “Yeah, so I can be your personal baby factory.”

            “No, so we can be parents together. Raise a family together.”

            “And what if we are unable to produce children?”

            “To have offspring has always been a desire of mine, but not a need. I have had a very full, satisfying life without children. If it’s not the Lord’s will, so be it. Besides, I am open to adoption, and if that’s the case, my children will still need a mother.”

            “So what if you die in ten years. Then I’m a twenty something widow with a bunch of kids.”

            “Two things, both my parents lived into their nineties.”

            “And your sixty-five-year-old sister recently had a stroke that could have killed her.”

            He liked that she was sticking around to argue. It told him she was considering his offer, even though she probably told herself she wasn’t.

            “Mary Jean, if we marry, I am going to change my will so that you will get the vast majority of my estate when I die. Whether that’s a year from now, or forty years from now. I do want my extended family to be taken care of. But you will be a multi-millionaire.”

            “Mr. McQueen, I better go,” Mary Jean said with a shaky voice. She rose hastily, and he noticed her eyes were welling with tears.

            “So are you telling me no then?”

            “Yes! No! I mean, I don’t know,” she put her face in her hands and began sobbing.

            He tried to gently hug her, but she recoiled and barked. “Don’t touch me!”

            “Sorry,” he said, stepping back.

            She dashed out of his office, and he felt adrenaline surge through him. Just a minute ago, he thought everything was going well, now it couldn’t have gone worse.

            His sister! What if she told his sister? Abby just lived down the road, on the edge of his property where he had a ranch style house built for her a decade ago.

            He followed Mary Jean out of his house and watched her trot toward a rusty Ford Falcon. After she opened the door and plopped behind the steering wheel, he grabbed the door before she could shut it.

            “Mary Jean, wait,” he said, breathing hard. “I’m truly sorry. I only meant to offer you a good life, I didn’t mean to upset you. All you had to do is say no. I wasn’t putting out any demands. It was strictly an offer. No pressure, and one hundred percent your choice. And once again, my apologies, I didn’t mean to upset you. Also, please keep our dealings between you and me for now.”

            She wiped her eyes, and to his relief, emitted a little laugh. “It’s not you, it’s me. So I too am sorry… To be honest, my head is telling me to say no to your offer, but my heart is telling me to consider it.”

            “Then I say follow your heart,” he said with an easy smile.

            She turned a cool gaze on him. “But the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can know it?”

            “That’s from the book of Jeremiah? Chapter seventeen?

            “Yes, chapter seventeen and verse nine,” she replied, and he could tell she was pleased that he at least knew the book of the Bible it was from. He felt like a schoolboy getting a commendation from his pretty teacher. Yet she was a youngster, and he a seasoned citizen.

            “Please understand, I am in a strange situation. I am not a dirty old man; I am a very wealthy man. Forgive me if this sounds arrogant, because maybe it is arrogant, but I am a king in search of a queen. I know you are very young, but you are also a grown woman. And the plain truth is, you’re my first choice. And not just because you’re very beautiful. There are countless pretty women that would jump at my offer. But I’ve watched you working for my sister and believe you would make an exceptional mother. I also like how devout you are with spiritual matters. I too am devout.”

            “You are?” she asked with an arched eyebrow. “I happen to know you gave your sister grief when she first became a Seventh Day Adventist.”

            “Guilty as charged,” he admitted. “But that was when she first left the family church. I have since held nothing but admiration for her beliefs and character. I also wouldn’t be pursing the institution of marriage with an Adventist if I didn’t have the utmost respect for your religion.”

            “If I were to accept your offer, would you join my church?”

            “Having been married for a long time, I believe compromise is a key component to a good marriage. I’ll attend your church as much as you attend mine.”

            “Was your marriage good?”

            “It was. But to be quite honest, we drifted apart over the last decade or so. But we were always faithful to our vows.”

            There was a minute of silence before Mary Jean declared. “Mr. McQueen, once again I am flattered by your offer. But if you need an answer now, it has to be no.”

            “I know I’ve surprised you and given you a lot to think about. I’d actually be concerned if you said yes today. How much time do you need?”

            “I don’t know.”

            “I willing to give you as much time as you need, within reason. Do you like horseback riding?”

            She looked at him quizzically, maybe even eagerly, but shrugged noncommittedly. “Sure, but I’ve only done it a couple times. Once was right here at your place, in the corral with Sylvia Masters. You know Sylvia, right Mr. McQueen? She goes to your church.”

            “Yes, I know Sylvia,” he replied, and then felt his body tense. Please don’t ask why I’m not pursing Sylvia for marriage and babies, he thought. Thankfully she didn’t, and he was pretty sure it was because Sylvia had a boyfriend. “Are you free Sunday?”

            “I work for Abby in the morning.”

            It didn’t go beyond his notice that she called his sister by her first name. On the positive side, she specified morning, rather than just leaving it as I work Sunday. Whether she did it on purpose or not, her reply insinuated she was free in the afternoon.

            “Perfect, when you are done you can swing by my place, we’ll have lunch, and then go riding. What do you say?”

            She didn’t answer right away. She bit her lower lip, and the expression in her eyes looked pained. “That’s not much time to think about your offer.”

            He laughed, and then it turned into a nice smile. This made her smile. Up until today, she had always thought of him as uptight, stern, and unhappy despite all his money. “

            “Mary Jean, I simply want to take you horseback riding. I’m not expecting an answer to my offer the day after tomorrow.”

            “Okay, yeah, I’d like to go horseback riding.”

            “Great! It’s a date then,” he blurted, and instantly regretted the word date as he watched her bite her lower lip and frown.