Blindsided

BLINDSIDED

    Mitch felt like he’d been kicked in the gut. How could he have done this to me?... We were best friends and business partners. How could he stab me in the back like this? He buried his face in his calloused hands and sobbed.
    Sitting across from him at the kitchen table was his wife, Martha. She had never seen Mitch like this. Something horrible must have happened; but what? He had to be talking about Myron, but what could he have done that would be this bad?
Mitch raised his head and looked at her. “I guess you want to know what happened, don’t you?”
    Martha nodded, afraid to say anything lest she also break into tears.
    “Myron came to see me at the jobsite today and brought along the accounting books. We’d just received full payment on the job I’m finishing up…a check for seventy-five thousand dollars!”
    “That’s wonderful, Mitch,” Martha said. “Now we can pay off your logging truck and finally get out of debt.”
    “I thought the same thing, but then Myron dropped the bombshell. It seems there is an obscure law that says a partner in a business can buy out the other partner without notice or consent. He stumbled across it doing research for one of our contracts a few years ago. He began to secretly buy up shares of the partnership and when he had enough drew up an affidavit and hid it for the right time to use it.”
    Martha felt a flush of fear and anger as the impact of what Mitch was saying hit her. “You mean…”
    “That’s exactly what I mean.” Mitch sighed. “When Myron saw that check, he decided now was the time to use that affidavit. He went down to the courthouse, served the affidavit, bought it out and fired me.”
    Martha reached around his muscular shoulder and hugged him tight. She was too stunned to speak. After a moment, Mitch continued: “Get this – he told me that it was nothing personal. It was just a business decision he needed to make to ‘further my career’ as he put it.” Martha could feel the tenseness in his shoulders and sense the anger welling up in him. “Nothing personal my foot! You can’t do something like that without it being personal. He believes he’s the brains of the business and can run it better without me. He can hire someone to do the logging at minimum wage and keep more profits for himself.”
    “What about the truck?” Martha asked.
    “We still have it. We were wise to have it registered and titled in my name instead of through the company. The problem is we still owe over fifty thousand on it and have no way to pay it off.”
    “You mean we won’t get any of the seventy-five thousand dollars?” Martha gasped.
    “Not a single penny,” Mitch replied. He started to chuckle… “You know he had the gall to ask me if I’d stay on and finish the job.”
    Martha couldn’t believe her ears. “What did you say?”
    “There were lots of things that came to mind, but I knew if I said ‘em I’d regret it later, so I just told him to forget it and walked off." said Mitch. "Well, I went down to the courthouse and checked on it and there is nothing we can do about it. The guy said we could sue, but would probably lose.”
    Martha sat quietly, tears streaming down her face. “What are we going to do?”
    “Logging is the only thing I know how to do. I guess we’ll have to start all over. I would like to make one change, though.”
    Martha looked at him expectantly. “And what would that be?”
    “You know that I’m no good with figures and need a business accounting partner…well, I’d like that partner to be you.”
    Martha hugged Mitch tightly. “You’ve got yourself a deal, but what are we going to do about Myron?”
    “That’s going to be the hardest part of this whole ordeal,” Mitch said. “We have to forgive him and move on.”
    “Forgive him!” Martha blurted. “After what he’s done to us you just want to forgive him and pretend it never happened?”
    “Honey, we can’t forget about what he’s done to us. That’s not what forgiveness is all about. If we don’t forgive him, he wins a second time.”
    “What do you mean?” Martha asked.
    “If we don’t forgive him, we will continually rehearse in our minds what he has done and will become filled with resentment and bitterness,” said Mitch. “And I for one will not allow that. We have to put a period on it right here or we won’t make it.”
    Martha struggled with conflicting emotions. On one hand, she knew Mitch was right: they had to forgive Myron. On the other hand, she wanted revenge. I don’t want to live with this anger, she thought. Looking up at Mitch, she nodded, “You’re right. Let’s put a period on this and move on.”
    Mitch bowed his head and prayed, telling God of their desire and pledge to forgive Myron and committing their new venture to Him.
    After praying, the two sat silently contemplated their future. They knew it would be difficult for the next few years, but together they would make it. They had weathered bad storms before and they would weather this one. Ten minutes before they had been at rock bottom, now there was hope. They knew they would make it and their spirits began to soar.