“Gus, can we talk?” Justin asked his son privately in his room one afternoon.

“Sure Justin; what about?"

“I’m curious how you could so easily forgive your mother for hurting you. Can you tell me what you were thinking on those lines?”

“Well, it happened almost 6 years ago; to me that’s half a lifetime since I’m almost 12 now. There’s a lot of time between what happened then and today. I have more good memories of Mom than bad ones; that helps me too. I did research on line about child abuse. I learned about the stages of being a victim of abuse. Many people never get over being abused. It affects them all their lives. I’m lucky to have you and Dad in my life as role models of good parents. Neither one of you ever raised a hand to me. Many parental abuse victims only have those who abused them so they are at a greater disadvantage. You with me so far?”

“I am; it seems your leading up to something important.”

“I read one girl’s story and she wrote about how she stopped being a victim and became a survivor of abuse many years after the fact. When she did that the memory of her abuse stopped haunting her and she was able to lead a normal life.”

“What was her turning point?”

“She forgave her abuser in her heart; she realized she couldn’t go back in time and stop the abuse but she could control how it affected her now. By forgiving her abuser her anger and grief ended quickly. That was the key she found to stop her memories of abuse from wrecking her life. I wanted that same thing for me; I don’t want to stay angry or be grieving about what Mom did to me. I didn’t want to be a victim of abuse; I wanted to be a survivor. So, I decided to forgive Mom to make the hurt go away and it worked. If she hurts me now it’s a different set of circumstances and I’ll stop seeing her. But what happened in the past stays in the past. Also, I’m helping Mom get better too.”

“You’re pretty incredible Gus to come up with that all on your own. I have anger issues with my dead father for never accepting me after finding out I was gay. Now that I think about it; I never thought to forgive him for it. I’ve got some thinking to do; thank you.”

********************

Justin went to the back yard to find Devin, Peter, and Brian playing ball with Danni. They would take turns throwing a tennis ball to each other and if one of them dropped it; Danni would retrieve it and bring it to Devin to throw unless one of the others asked for the ball first then the dog would bring it to him. Justin sat down in the grass watching his family play. More and more he noticed Brian getting attached to their new pet and that warmed Justin’s heart; Brian rarely allowed anyone to reach him.

********************

The helicopter touched down on top of the Kinnetik Tower and the lovers exited to begin their day of work.  Brian and Justin got off on the 46th floor after seeing Melanie and Nancy exit their floor. Cynthia was waiting with their coffee and juice.

“Good morning” she said as they walked up to her desk and took the offered drinks. “Jennifer wants you to call her when you got in Brian.” They went into their office and sat down. Brian called Jennifer’s office number and put it on speaker phone so Justin could hear the conversation.

“Kinnetik Real Estate”

“Brian for Jennifer”

“One moment”

“Good morning Brian.”

“Good morning; what’s happening?”

“There’s a foreclosure auction in Atlanta today you might be interested in. It’s a 3,000 unit complex of apartments and the opportunity is very good for an investment. Each unit rents for $1250 a month; the property’s only 8 years old. Fair market value its worth $360 million however I believe it’ll sell for about $200 million cash at auction. I’ve taken the liberty to list us as bidders on the phone before the enrollment deadline yesterday.

“How are all the units the same rent?”

“They’re 3 bedrooms each; this is a family complex and it’s 90% full now. If you buy it I may want to change managers since the existing one is part of the problem why it’s in foreclosure. I suspect theft of the rents by him using hidden rented vacancies.”

“Mom, was an inspection done of the property?”

“I have a copy of an independent inspection in front of me. There are no problems with the buildings or the units I can see. The existing owner was overextended and he was draining the cash resources of this property and letting it go downhill to keep his lifestyle afloat. That’s what a little birdie in Atlanta told me. It finally caught up to him and he’s losing it today. There’s only one other bidder besides us and that’s the bank holding the note which is $177 million.”

“So you think it will sell for enough to cover the note and auction fees?” Brian asked.

“Yes; no one else has shown an interest in this auction.”

“What time is the auction Jennifer?”

“Two this afternoon at the federal building in downtown Atlanta.”

“This would give us 20,400 rentals Brian.” Justin commented.

“Buy the property if we can do it within about $255 million Jennifer.”

“Ok, I’ll be on the phone doing our bidding personally.”

“Let’s us know how it goes.”

“I will; you boys have a great day.”

“We will Mom.” The call ended and they went to the break room to find Ted drinking his morning coffee.

“Good morning Brian and Justin.”

“Good morning Ted; did Peter behave at your house last night?”

“He’s never a problem; we’re glad to have him over. His relationship with Shawn has really helped our boy come out of his shell. They have a lot of fun together.”

“So they ate dinner; went to their room and you never saw them again?” Brian asked smiling.

“That’s pretty much what they do.”

“It’s the same at our house. Once in a blue moon they can be found in the media room watching a movie or playing with the Play Station.” Justin commented. "And they like to go swimming."

“What I would give to be young again and know what I know now.” Brian thought.

“You need to decide the Christmas bonuses this year soon Brian.”

“I’ll let the assistant CEO handle that major decision Ted.”

“Do you have the records what we gave everyone last year?” Justin asked.

“Yes; I do somewhere in the files on my computer.”

“I’ll start from there; they I want a list of who won bonuses for outstanding ad ideas during the year. Brian, how did you decide who got what for an end of year bonus?”

“I gave everyone 5% of what they earned for the year which included their bonuses automatically with some exceptions for outstanding employees. For example upper management people got 10%.”

“That sounds like a good way to go and fair to everyone. It’s consistent with what we did before.” Justin thought.

“When do we leave for the holidays?” Ted asked them.

“December 18th; we return on January 4th.” Brian answered. “I’m closing the office and giving everyone the time off with pay. We’re ahead of schedule on all our obligations.”

“I’m going to send a company memo about the days off and make an announcement on the intercom about it.” Justin said. “People need time to make plans for the holidays.”

“Shawn’s very excited about flying to California. He's very fond of Mark.”

“I just hope our dog Danni finds jet travel to his liking.” Brian said hoping not to have a sick dog on his hands.

********************

By the end of the day Brian and Justin owned 3,000 more residential rental units in Atlanta for $205 million cash. Arrangements were made for Jennifer to fly down tomorrow in the company jet with the new manager ready to take over the property and kick the old manager off the lot. She found the perfect couple with 18 years of large complex management experience to take over. The wife would handle the office staff and the husband would handle the maintenance staff. All rent payments had to be made by check, money order, or credit card payment with a fee. Jennifer had an ironclad way of maintaining the cash flow of an out of state property. Detailed records of vacancies kept a manager from being able to rent a unit for side cash and it not go unnoticed. This wasn’t Jennifer’s first rodeo.

When Brian and Justin walked into the kitchen door they smelled tonight’s meal cooking: Crockpot Orange Curried Chicken; it was Devin’s favorite dish. Justin grinned knowing that by the end of the evening none of this food would be left over. The aroma was enough to make you want to grab a bowl right now. They went upstairs and changed clothes. Right after getting dressed Devin raced in their room to greet them home.

“Where were you when we got in?” Justin asked his young son.

“I was watching TV in my room with Danni. She likes cartoons too.” The boy said grinning as he hugged his father and then daddy Brian.

“Tray is cooking your favorite meal tonight: Crockpot Orange Curried Chicken and he made a big pot of it too.”

“Good; I could eat a horse.”

“Are you looking forward to seeing the ocean soon?”

“I guess so; I’ll know better when I see it. Right now I don’t know what the big deal is.”

“It’s very pretty Devin and really big. The waves are nice crashing on the shore. I like it there a lot.”

“Why don’t we live there?”

“Well this is our home and we work here in Pittsburgh; all of our family and friends are here.”

“We can take them with us to the ocean. They’d like to live there too.”

“I can’t see grand ma Debbie leaving her home. She’s very attached to it. We can’t move a big house.”

“Oh, ok dad.”

********************

The limo pulled into the cemetery and drove to the plot of Justin’s father. The head stone proved he was at the right location. Justin got out of the car and walked up to his father’s grave. He read the head stone’s information of birth and death. When he read the inscription ‘beloved husband and father’ Justin frowned. He wasn’t much of either but it served no purpose to say that now at the end of his time. Justin laid down a dozen roses on the grave.

“I ended the mortgage on your store and gave it to Molly free and clear. We saved it with our advertising and made her a lot of money. It’s quite valuable now. I don’t care why you couldn’t accept me as your gay son. For a long time that hurt me dad but not anymore. I forgive you for the things you did and said to me. It ends here.”

Justin then entered the limo and returned to Kinnetik Tower to finish his day.