Theirs (Possession #2)

29. Luke

29

Luke

M y siblings and I were not prepared for losing our parents. We didn’t know what to do because losing them had never crossed any of our minds. There was no will, there was nothing to indicate what they wanted, and the necessary paperwork was awful.

We were all unprepared and even a week after their deaths we were still trying to figure out what we needed to do with the insurance and the farm. Doing farm work again was therapeutic in a way, but it also made me realize that my choice to leave was the best one for me. I realized then how much work we had left for our parents and a little bit of guilt would set in every morning when I would work with my brothers.

I thought I was in shape, but doing farm work made muscles I didn’t know about hurt. The one good thing was that my brothers and I were together. We didn’t speak much, but it was nice to be with them, and even better when our sister brought us snacks and lemonade while we worked. It let me picture what it might have been like if I had stayed on the farm, but if I had done that, I wouldn’t have met Camila, and I would never regret her.

“Should we talk about the farm?” my brother Theodore asked as we sat around a fire outside.

“Seriously?!” my sister Iris snapped. “Our parents just died and you want to sell the farm already?!”

“It’s the next logical thing,” he said softly, his brow furrowed in confusion.

“We haven’t even put them in the ground and?—”

“Izzy, he didn’t say that,” I said, trying to calm her down as I felt Camila squeeze my hand.

Since we had gotten here, Iris had been hurting the most out of all of us. She still lived with my parents and was the closest to them.

“The farm needs someone to run it, we need to figure out everything because they didn’t have anything written down,” Theodore said calmly. “We don’t know what needs to be paid or who needs to get paid. The farm can’t go on like this.”

“I can handle it,” she said, getting up. “I don’t need your help.”

“Izz,” Jude said, getting up and hugging her.

She sneered.

“He’s just trying to help,” he said, as she pushed him away.

“Just like he helped take over the ranch instead of the farm?” she spewed.

I tensed at her accusation.

“You know why I did that,” Theodore said softly.

We all know why he moved to Sterling Ridge. It wasn’t a secret that my parents didn’t know how to raise my brother who was neurodivergent. My father had no patience for him and when he mentioned that he might like men, that didn’t go over well.

She glared at him like he had betrayed her, like what he went through was his fault. I knew it was her grief talking, she was the closest to our parents and she was the only one who had stayed.

“We are not selling it,” she snapped. “You might not love it, but I do and if you had been less selfish and come visit more often, you might have seen that mama and papa were trying to do better.”

“The phone works both ways, Iris, and if I remember correctly.” Theodore stood up, “I never received an invite for Christmas ever again and I did call for Christmas and no one answered. I’m going to sleep.”

We watched Theodore walk back into the house in silence. I looked back at Iris with tears in her eyes, but she was angry. This is what happened when we all came together. We fought because some of us, I should say most of us, didn't agree with our parents and for some reason she always made excuses for them.

“I’m going to sleep too,” Jude said, getting up, following Theodore.

He was going to go check on Theodore. He had always protected him and he was pushed away by our parents since he always sided with Theodore. All this arguing these past couple of days was weighing heavily on me.

“I don’t want to hear it,” she snapped when we locked eyes.

“I don't want to argue, I’m tired of arguing, especially when we should be grieving,” I said, rubbing a hand over my face.

“He wants to sell the farm,” she snapped.

“No, he asked what we were gonna do.” I corrected her. “Look, Izzy, the farm needs a lot of work and we are eventually going to have to figure out what is the best course of action for all of us.”

“You mean, for you guys,” she sneered.

Camila tensed by me, ready to tell my sister something.

“I know you think none of us cared for mom or dad, but unlike them, we all tried, Izzy,” I said, standing up. “You think they ever came to one of my games? Not once have they ever called me other than the yearly Christmas or Thanksgiving call or a card to invite us for the holidays.”

“You turned your back on this family,” she snarled.

Camila stood up, opening her mouth to say something when I grabbed her hand.

“No, Iris, they turned their backs on us,” I said calmly. “Instead of nurturing us, keeping us safe and loving us, their love had conditions and that's not how you raise children.”

“What conditions? You all act like they didn’t love you,” she snapped.

“Did you know Theodore was bullied in high school and there was not a damn thing our parents did for him,” I said, trying to keep my anger down. “One day he came home bloody, with a broken rib, bruised torso and a broken arm. He told them who had done it. Mom and dad didn’t do shit for him. Jude and I had to walk him everywhere because the bullying never stopped.”

Her eyes grew wide.

“He came home bloody another day and he never said a word to any of us. Not who did it, where it happened, nothing because he knew our parents wouldn’t do anything for him.” My voice broke. “I left for college and they didn’t call me for three years, telling me my dreams of playing ball were stupid. The only reason I came back was because Theo called me to tell me you and Jude had been in an accident.”

“Why didn’t you tell me that,” she said softly. “Why didn’t they say anything?”

“Would you have believed us? I didn’t want to tarnish your view about our parents, it wasn’t my place to do that and I honestly hoped they would do that themselves, but with you, a lot of things were different,” I said wearily. “It felt like they sheltered you from us and until now, I didn’t realize how much they made you believe we were the bad guys. If you don’t think Theodore did anything for this farm you should go back through bank records and see that he sold some of the ranch to help mom and dad. Almost a half a million dollars went to them and did they even say a simple thank you? No, they didn’t.”

Her lip trembled.

“I love you, but everything isn’t as black and white as you think it is,” I said, kissing her forehead. “Get some rest, we have a long day tomorrow.”

I grabbed Camila’s hand and began walking away from Iris, hoping this was the last time we argued. We didn’t need our parents tearing us apart even in death.

“I’m going to check in on Theo and Jude.” I kissed Camila.

“I’m going to go to our room so I don’t say something to your sister,” she said cupping my face. “You and your brothers did as much as you could.”

“I know,” I sighed. “They didn’t let her see anything that could have painted them in a bad light, we know this.”

“I love you,” she said, kissing me.

“I love you too, Hermosa,” I said, kissing her forehead. “I’ll be just a minute. Genevieve called and I want to chat with her before we head to bed.”

She tensed briefly before smiling. It made me nervous that she wasn’t going to give Genevieve a chance. She had been like this since we had left and I knew something was wrong, but she told me it was nothing. My mental load was too much and I didn’t know if I wanted to dive into this just yet.

“Ok, I’ll be in the room,” she said, heading down the hallway.

I watched her walk away, my heart ached for many reasons and it felt like I was being pulled in so many different directions. Taking a deep breath, I walked to my brothers’ old room. Jude was already in the room on the floor reading a book, but no sign of Theo.

“Is he ok?” I sighed, leaning on the door.

“Yeah, he’s ok,” he said, putting his book down on his chest.

“Where is he?” I looked around the room that surprisingly hadn’t changed much.

“He’s talking to Atlas and Colt outside,” he said.

“I’m glad he still has them,” I said. “They have been good friends to him.”

Jude snorted.

“What was that?”

“You think they are his friends?" he chuckled.

“They’re not?” I looked out the side door where he probably was. “I didn’t… have they been together long?”

“I don’t know, he’s pretty private about them,” Jude said, sitting up. “He hasn’t said anything and I haven’t pried, but I think they are. I think he is scared to tell us.”

My heart hurt even more as I clenched my jaw. I had failed my brothers again.

“Hey, don’t do that,” Jude said, standing.

“You know Theo, he’s like a vault and he only talks when he thinks he has to,” he said. “I’m surprised he even said anything earlier.”

“I know, I was surprised too,” I said, looking out the door again. “Well, I’ll leave him alone. Whether they are dating or not, I’m still glad he has them.”

“Me too,” Jude said, sitting on the bed.

“Alright, I’ll see you tomorrow bright and early for chores,” I said, pushing myself off the door, glancing outside to see him pacing and nodding his head.

I couldn’t help but smile, wondering what it was like for all of them to be together. It made me happy that he not only found one person, but two, because Theo deserved the world just like anyone else.

Heading back to my room, I wondered if maybe I should bring up my situation to him so he would maybe tell us something or so he knew that I was happy for him no matter what. I opened the door to my room and saw Camila already dressed for bed, sketching on a pad.

I changed quickly, grabbed my phone and dialed Genevieve.

“Hey,” she answered.

“Hi,” I said, feeling shy again.

Even though we had talked a little, I still felt shy with her. We needed to talk more, but I appreciated that she was making an effort to check in.

“How are you?” she asked, as Camila looked up at me. “How are things going?”

“I’m ok.” I sat next to Camila. “Things have been tense with my siblings. We’ve been arguing a lot and it's just not easy to have to do all of this stuff when we are still grieving. How are you?”

“I’m ok, trying to decide what I want to wear tomorrow. Easton, Vincent and Noemi decided to get married on a whim,” she said with annoyance clear in her tone.

“Wow,” I said surprised. “When did they decide?”

“Today,” she chuckled. “Apparently Noemi wanted to get married today, but they convinced her to wait a day so they could have some kind of ceremony, which I don’t doubt will be gorgeous since Vincent is loaded.”

“Tell them we say congrats,” I said, wishing I was going to the wedding with her instead of burying my parents.

“Are you ok?” Her voice was soft and sweet.

“Yeah, just getting ready for tomorrow,” I said, feeling my chest tighten.

“I’m sorry,” she said softly. “How is the farm?”

“A pain in my ass,” I said, grateful for the subject change. “I’m not cut out for farm life anymore. I’m sore almost every day.”

“Maybe you don’t need fancy workout equipment, just the farm life,” she chuckled.

“No, thank you.” I laid back against the headboard. “I think I have almost hit my limit for farming for the rest of my life.”

“I have to say, I think I would love to see you all rugged from work,” she sighed. “I think you would look sexy as hell.”

“I’ll have to ask Camila to take a picture to show you,” I said, looking over at Camila who was very focused.

“How… how is she?” Genevieve was always hesitant to ask how Camila was.

“She’s good, just working on a few sketches,” I said, debating if I wanted to offer to talk to her.

“Can I say hello?” Her voice was timid, so different than what I was used to hearing and it made me wonder if something had happened between them

“Let me see,” I said, putting my hand over the phone. “Camila, she'd like to say hi.”

She looked at the phone like it was the bane of her existence before she grabbed it.

“Hello,” she clipped.

Camila looked bored as she gave one-word answers until she began to look a little softer.

“Ok, I can do that,” she said, taking a deep breath. “I will, ok, you too.”

She gave the phone back to me, going back to her drawing quickly. I didn’t like this tension between us and it only made me want to go back home more quickly so we could hash this all out and move on together.

Coming here had made me realize that I wanted us all together. Life was too short to not live with the two women who had stolen my heart and made life so much better.