Chapter 3

Adelaide's family fin ds out about the immense inheritance.

A couple days later, Adelaide came home early from work. She glanced at the small, silver watch that was resting on her tiny wrist. Dad is most likely still at work. There’s also a chance that Eric might be here though, she thought as she made her way into the kitchen. Adelaide decided to grab a bowl of grapes along with a bottle of water out of the refrigerator before going to her bedroom to change out of her clothes.

After her pit stop in the kitchen, Adelaide opened her bedroom door to discover her little brother standing by her desk, reading the letter their great aunt had written to her. She walked as fast as her chocolate pencil skirt and her matching high-heeled boots would allow. As soon as he was within arm’s reach, Adelaide snatched her letter away from him after she slammed the bowl of grapes and bottle on the corner of her desk.

“What the hell are you doing in my room?”

“I was searching for a pencil, and I knew you kept some stashed in your desk,” he explained, strangely calm.

“Then why were you reading my letter?” she shouted, waving the letter back and forth.

“Why did you not tell me that you’re inheriting an entire estate that is freaking six hours away?” Eric snapped back with his arms now crossed.

“Because I’m not sure I want to even accept it!” she shouted before throwing herself face first into her mattress.

“Why?” Eric asked, looking down at her. He ran a hand through his short, brown hair before he sat down in his sister’s desk chair.

Adelaide lifted her head before groaning. “Just leave me and my bed of emotions alone.” She slammed her head back into the mass of blankets where her head was resting.

Eric stood up and moved to like down on his back right next to his sister. He laid his hands flat on his chest and turned his head to look at his blonde-haired sister. “I’m not leaving until you tell me why.”

Adelaide sighed but rolled over onto her back nonetheless. “Fine, but you are going to like what I have to say.”

Eric shrugged. “So? You obviously need someone to at least listen to you. You nearly always listen to me when I need someone to talk to so why not do the same for you? And who’s better than your little brother?”

“Honestly, anyone but you or Dad right now.”

“Ouch.”

“I’m not trying to offend you. It’s just a really big decision and I don’t want my family affecting my decision. I already know that Dad will say to accept it while you on the other hand might want me to stay,” Adelaide rushed out in one breath.

Eric sighed. “You should not assume what everyone would say, Addie.”

Adelaide looked at her brother. “The thing is that I have to decide by tonight in order to be there on time for the funeral.”

“I know,” Eric said as he stood up. “I’m going to let you change and gather your thoughts before we talk any further, which we are definitely going to do no matter how much you resist. So change first, and then meet me in the living room. We can either talk in there or come back in here. It’s up to you.” He strolled out of Adelaide’s room as he closed the door.

Adelaide sat up and groaned loudly. What am I going to f*****g do? she thought. She threw her short, tan legs off the side of the bed. She leaned down to unzip her boots that came all the way up to her knee. She then stood up and walked over to her dresser that was next to her large closet. Adelaide grabbed the first thing she saw, which was a pair of grey sweatpants and a light blue long sleeve shirt. She quickly wiggled out of her tight, brown pencil skirt and unbuttoned her navy blue blouse. Adelaide put on her other clothes before going to the bathroom to put jewelry in all of her unoccupied piercings.

Once she was finished, Adelaide inched her way to the living room where Eric was patiently waiting on the leather couch. Adelaide leaned against one of the hallway’s walls. Her hands were tucked inside the sleeves that were slightly too long. She looked down at the forest green carpet, trying to calm her nerves. Her curled hair covered her face as she trudged towards the family’s living room with her head still down.

“You ready?”

“As I’ll ever be,” Adelaide mumbled, staring at the carpet.

Eric stood up after he had wiped the light sheen of sweat that covered his palms onto his dark jeans. His sister turned around and led the way to her bedroom. He silently followed behind.

Once the siblings were in the master bedroom, Eric sat in the chair near the desk while Adelaide sat against her king-size bed’s headboard with one leg folded under the other which was lying completely straight. “Hey, hand me my snack please.”

Eric picked up the tan bowl full of delicious green grapes and her bottle of water that was resting on her wooden desk. He rolled the chair to the side of his sister’s bed and passed her the snack. “Here you go.”

“Thanks lazy.” Adelaide stuck one of the grapes into her mouth and ate it.

“Whatever,” he replied.

An awkward silence filled the room. “So…do you have any questions you want to ask because I have no f*****g clue on where to start,” Adelaide finally said after the tension became so thick that she felt like water was filling her lungs.

“Do you really want to leave? Please don’t lie to me.”

“The thing is that I don’t necessarily want to leave, and there really isn’t anyone else to take care of the place and keep it clean.”

“Adelaide, you are always worried about somebody else! Do something that you want for once in your life!” her little brother strongly encouraged her.

“But what about you and Dad?” Adelaide whined, throwing a grape at him.

Eric managed to catch it in his mouth and eat it. “We’ll be fine. I’m sixteen. I can perfectly take care of myself.”

“And Dad?”

Eric waved a hand in the air. “He’ll be fine as long as you tell him when he gets home.”

“But he’s so absentminded sometimes. Plus, you two barely know how to work the damn stove properly.”

“Between Dad and I, I’m pretty positive we will survive without your cooking.”

Adelaide stared down into her bowl of grapes. “So you think I should accept the inheritance?”

“Hell yeah! Adelaide, this is literally a chance that most people will never get in their lifetime! I’m not going to let us, and especially yourself, from accepting this,” Eric said, waving the letter for emphasis.

“Accepting what?” the siblings’ father asked, walking into the room. Roger was wearing a pair of dark blue jeans paired with an old t-shirt with his signature jean jacket with is name patched on it. He had already taken off his brown, steel toe boots so he was standing in worn, black socks.

Eric immediately turned to look at his older sister.

Adelaide sighed as she leaned the back of her skull against the bed’s headboard. “Eric, just give him the letter please. It will tell him everything he needs to know better than I can.”

Her sixteen-year-old brother stood up and walked over to the doorway where their father was leaning against the door frame.

As Roger took the letter from his son, he gave his daughter a bewildered stare. “What is this about? Who is it from?” he asked.

“It’s the letter from our Great Aunt Irma Barnhardt that I told you about a couple days ago,” Adelaide answered, not bothering to open her eyes.

“What is it about though?”

Adelaide shrugged her shoulders. Just read the damn letter! she internally screamed. “Read it and find out,” she decided to say instead of what she was thinking.

Roger gave his daughter a stern look but did not say a word as he began to read the long letter.

Adelaide leaned forward and stared into her bowl of grapes, robotically eating them as she waited for her father to finish reading the letter.

Roger looked at her with die eyes. “Addie! This is awesome! Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”

Adelaide cringed a little at what her father had just practically yelled. “Honestly, I wasn’t going to tell either of you,” she whispered, silently hoping neither of them heard.

“So I was going to come home tomorrow and find you gone?”

Adelaide violently shook her head. “No, I was simply planning on not accepting it!”

“Why in the world would you do that, Addie?”

“She’s too worried about us,” Eric answered before his sister had the chance to think of a lie.

Her father tilted his head in such a fashion that it was similar to a confused puppy. Roger and his son walked over and sat on each side of the petite blonde, strategically capturing her. “Why would you worry about us?”

Adelaide flashed her brother a dirty look, complete with intense glaring, before calming her face and looking back at her father. She simply shrugged as she popped another juicy grape into her mouth.

“There are reasons to everything you do. I know that’s a fact because your mother raised you that way, so you might as well answer me,” Roger said sternly.

Adelaide sighed for what appeared to be the hundredth time since she had arrived home. “Fine. I worry because Eric will be left alone at the house by himself majority of the time.”

“All three of us know that’s bullshit, Adelaide. You were staying home by yourself at a much younger age than he is now. I am your father and I demand the damn truth,” he slightly shouted.

Staring down at the tan down that was now about half-full, Adelaide mumbled, “I don’t know who else would be able to keep an eye on you.”

“What do you mean? Eric and I are more than capable of taking care of ourselves.”

“That’s exactly what I said!” her not-so-little brother yelled.

Roger leaned forward a little bit to look at his son. “I love you, son, but you need to shut the hell up right now because you aren’t helping.”

Eric immediately turned his head away and found the blank navy blue wall very interesting.

Adelaide attempted to hide the smirk that was threatening to show. He acts so childish sometimes, she thought about her younger brother. Adelaide looked back at her father once she had regained her composure and self-control. “Not to offend you or anything, but you and Eric can barely use a stove without almost starting a fire.” She held up her hands before clapping them together and pointed them ahead of her.

Eric looked back at his older sister with his arms now crossed. “At least I haven’t burned water.”

Roger turned his attention back to his daughter. “How in the hell did you manage that?”

“I have no f*****g clue. All that I know is that it was this weird brown color, and it tasted like it was burnt.”

“And you said we don’t know how to cook.” Her father stared at her with his arms crossed.

Her brother mimicked him. He looked exactly like a younger version of their father with the exception of a light dusting of freckles and a pair of hazel eyes.

“Stop that!”

“Stop what?” Eric asked, feigning innocence but still held the same posture of their father.

“Both of you stop staring at me! It’s creeping me out!” she all but shouted.

The two men simultaneously dropped their arms but kept their eyes on the only female in the room. “Why? Does this bother you?” Roger asked, barely holding back his amused laughter.

“Because Eric looks like a printed copy of a younger and taller version of you,” Adelaide explained as if it was obvious. She threw both her hands up in the air, accidentally hitting both members of her family in the chest.

“You don’t have room to be talking there, kiddo. You look almost identical to your mother when she was your age. The only differences are that you’re probably an inch or so shorter than her and you have my eyes.”

Eric dropped his stare and leaned forward to look at their father who was sitting on the other side of Adelaide. His eyebrows were furrowed so close together that it almost appeared to be one. “She does?”

Roger nodded. “Yeah, she definitely takes after the Barnhardt side of the family. That’s one of the reasons why I absolutely think she should accept this inheritance.”

“WHAT?!” the siblings yelled in unison.

“Are you serious?” Eric asked with wide eyes.

Adelaide was in too much shock to say a single word that was running through her mind. All she could do was gape at him with wide eyes.

“I’m not kidding. The last time all of us, including your mother Elle, went to the Barnhardt Manor was when you were only nearly a month old,” Roger explained mostly to his son. “Your mother died and her family, us, was supposed to inherit the mansion and the entire estate the year she had died. Instead your Great Aunt, who was already living there, agreed to manage everything until Adelaide turned twenty-one-years-old or Irma had passed away. I was ineligible because you have to be a direct descendant from the Barnhardt family. Typically, there is always a few years of specific schooling and training before anything is even discussed about an inheritor receiving anything. This is all from what I understood and remember from when it was originally disputed back then.”

Adelaide slightly tilted her head to the side, minutely confused. “I only went to normal public school so why am I inheriting the estate then?”

Roger looked at his daughter once more. “I was getting to that. Your mother’s dying wish was that you were solely raised by me and anyone else who I saw fit, and also that you were to stay in this town. Normally the successor would live in the mansion all of their life. To both your mother’s and my surprise, Irma actually accepted this but not without adding some of her own terms.”

“Which were?” Eric impatiently asked.

“As I said before, Adelaide would be offered the inheritance when she turned twenty-one or if Irma died first, this as we can see, is what happened. There is most likely more that she had added but I wouldn’t know since I did not read the whole letter. I only read enough to understand what was going on. There is also the possibility of more that aren’t listed but are back listed back at the mansion.”

“I didn’t get the chance to finish either before you caught me and snatched it away.” He slightly glared at his sister before then politely asked, “Is there anything else in there?”

Adelaide shrugged. “Just small stuff.”

Eric nodded.

Another awkward silence fell upon the small family but with less tension than before. Adelaide continued to stare into her bowl of grapes as she busied herself with eating them. She did not look away from the bright green grapes in case of making accidental eye contact. She soon felt both her father and brother staring holes into the sides of her skull. What in the hell do they want? I wish someone would speak up already.

After a few minutes of staring, Eric’s patience flew out the window. “Are you going to accept it or not?” he asked, exasperated.

Adelaide bit her bottom lip as she continued to stare at her half empty bowl of grapes.

“You shouldn’t feel like you have to decline and stay here just because of us. There is no need for you to worry. We can take care of ourselves, and we will definitely not forget about you. Feel free to call us anytime you feel lonely or homesick while you are settling in,” Roger reassured his daughter.

Eric nodded in agreement. “Yeah, I mean there might be times I don’t answer but that will be because I’m extremely busy or at football practice.”

Adelaide looked at her miniscule family as she popped another grape in her mouth, chewing thoughtfully. After their relentless stares, she threw her hand up in the air and yelled, “F**k it! I’ll go!”

Roger leaned over to give his father one of his famous hugs that will leave anyone breathless. Eric soon joined in too.

“Hey, can’t breathe,” she coughed out.

Her father and brother laughed before finally letting go and pulling away. “I thought you liked hugs,” Roger joked.

“Dad, I’m about as huggable as a cactus with six inch thorns,” she deadpanned.

“You’re not that bad,” Eric said sarcastically.

Roger laughed again as he shook his head. “I guess you get that trait from me.” He stood up and tossed the car keys over Adelaide’s head.

Eric easily caught them with one hand. He wore a confused expression on his face. “What are these for?”

“You get to go pick up some empty boxes from the mechanic shop while I cook us something quick to eat.”

“What do I do?” Adelaide asked.

Roger looked down at his daughter as he grabbed the bowl of grapes out of her lap. “You get to start packing, kiddo.”

“But there aren’t any boxes.”

“You don’t need boxes to figure out what you are planning on taking with you, Addie,” her father said as he walked out the door with Eric following close behind.

Adelaide unfolded her legs and slowly stood up. She waited for a moment so the blood could return to her short legs before she walked over to her closet that was packed full of clothes. I can’t f*****g believe that I am actually going! Adelaide excitedly thought as she looked through her endless clothes.