Chapter Three:340Please respect copyright.PENANAlI2EjGs4Xy
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It wasn’t long before the car pulled up into a foreign driveway near the heart of the city. John and Marie gazed at the house it belonged to, not entirely sure what to think.
“It’s not as big or impressive, I know,” Ricky said as he climbed out of his car, “but it should do. It’s already been refurbished and such… It just needs people in it.”
John got out of the car, Marie reluctantly following close behind as they followed Ricky through the front door.
He was right; the house wasn’t anything to write home about, but it was still pretty nice. Ricky left the two siblings to look around for a minute in peace. He knew it would take some time for them to adjust, especially since grief hadn’t completely enclosed itself around them.
He cleared his throat. “Well, if you need anything, you call me right away, ok?”
John only glanced at him before nodding. Ricky returned the nod, giving him silent condolences before turning to leave.
“Ricky!” Marie ran up to the door before he closed it. He turned to her in the doorway.
“Thank you…” she said with the deepest sincerity, “I mean… we really couldn’t ask for anything more… John just isn’t himself right now…”
“And neither are you,” he replied. He looked at the older Lowry for a moment before turning his attention back to her, “There’s no need to thank me. I understand; this isn’t ideal for you two. But as long as you both stick together, I’m sure you’ll help each other get through it.”
With that, the executive closed the door, leaving silence in the house. It was as if no one had set foot inside.
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The two siblings sat in silence at the kitchen table, their minds almost refusing to go to sleep. The thought of sleeping in an unknown house on top of an unknown bed was unfathomable. Despite this, John had suggested to his sister that she get some sleep at least three times. He wasn’t going to stop until she did.
He sighed at her from across the table. “Marie, you’re exhausted. It’s one o’clock in the morning. You need to sleep.”
Her tired, tear-filled eyes stared into his. “So do you. Why don’t you go to sleep?”
He looked away in annoyance, but didn’t say anything.
“No, seriously, why are you trying to get rid of me?” she questioned.
He stared at the table, not saying a word.
“Is it because you don’t want me to see you cry?”
He took a deep breath, biting his lip.
“John, I don’t care if you cry.”
“I’m fine.”
“No, you’re not!”
“Yes, I am.”
“Stop acting like you’re fine, all right?! You’re not fine, I’m not fine; neither of us are fine!”
“Well no dip, Sherlock. You think yelling at me is gonna fix that?”
“No, but talking might; or crying, or yelling, or… or something! Come on, John! You heard Ricky! We only have each other now! We’re the only ones that can help each other get through this!”
“So what the hell do you want me to do, huh?! You want me to start yelling at you?!”
“That’s not what I meant!”
“Then what did you mean?!”
Marie opened her mouth, but her words got caught in her throat.
“Y’know, I’ve been trying my hardest to stay collected for you ever since our lives blew up! I’ve been trying to keep my own feelings aside for you! I’ve been trying to reassure you that everything’s gonna be fine, that we’re gonna ok in the end, even though it’s not, even though I can’t guarantee that! I’ve been trying to keep a brave face for you!”
“Is that really what you think? You think that you have to lie to yourself, to me, for me?”
“Ya wanna know what I think?! I think this sucks! I think that it should’ve been me in that house, not them!” Tears started streaming down his cheeks.
“John…”
“I-I think that life is just one giant slap to the face! One second, we’re livin’ the good life, have everything we could ever want… The next, we have nothing, absolutely nothing! Although, I guess that’s what we get, right?! That’s what we get for being happy our entire lives! It had to get flipped around at some point, right?! No one can be happy their entire lives, can they?! Life doesn’t work like that, right?! People you love just have to get ripped away from you!”
He punched the wall beside him, slowly starting to sob. Knowing that he wouldn’t lash out at her, Marie got up from her chair and made her way over to him, slowly embracing him. He closed his eyes, no longer caring about crying. He returned the embrace, holding his sister as her tears became heavier along with his.
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The next morning, John and Marie sat in silence once again, the night before only seeming like a blur. They had both cried themselves to sleep, but neither was willing to admit it. Marie finally understood what her brother was feeling, but they still seemed no closer to moving on. Their conversation held no sign of continuing, and Marie wasn’t about to start it up again. She knew how John could be. He was never one to admit how hurt he was; or at least, not more than once. Marie wanted to reach out to him, to help him, but he wouldn’t have it. He was the one that felt like he should be there for her, not the other way around. Marie couldn’t understand it. Maybe it’s just a man thing, she thought.
As if that wasn’t enough, the rest of the family had heard the tragic news and was already rushing to get their hands on Mark Lowry’s fortune. John was badgered into coming to a meeting regarding his father’s money; mainly because his family knew that he would get the largest portion of it. Marie hadn’t been invited, but John didn’t want her to come even if she was. He wanted to at least keep her safe from their blood thirsty relatives.
They were an interesting bunch; their grandparents, Philip and Lora Lowry (who were already on retirement funds), had always pretended to have no money when it was convenient for them. They always asked their son to pay for vacations, but they always paid for dinner at The Cheesecake Factory and a trip to the mall for John and Marie. Before Mark started to make his millions, they never paid much attention to him once he went into college. He told them about his dream to start his own business, which was returned with a scoff. They left him to fend for himself, which was fine by Mark. Once the money started rolling in, his parents magically started to claim him as their son again. They pretended that they had always loved and supported him.
When they were at parties, they would always say, “Oh, Mark is our favorite son! He always worked so hard when he was young, and just look at him now! Of course, we’ve been encouraging him and his big dreams since day one!”
John and Marie’s aunts and uncles were no better; on their father’s side, his sister, Cynthia Obrien, and her husband, Dean Obrien. Cynthia never cared for her older brother. She was spoiled more by her parents than he was. She was always ahead of him in their eyes. In college, they gave her all of the financial support she needed, never turning a blind eye to her every demand. But their little princess was ignored in a flash when news of Mark’s new status as a millionaire came about. Their attention was then fully turned to him, not once spending another thought on her. She convinced herself that if she found the right man, they would have to notice her at least one more time. But even her marriage wasn’t able to grab their attention, because Mark had already gotten married two years before her, which by the time of her wedding had produced a grandson for his parents.
On Michelle Lowry’s side of the family, there was her older brother, Brandon Spencer, her younger brother, Tommie Spencer, and his wife, Melody. Even though Michelle was the only daughter of her family, she never got much attention. Brandon was always the “perfect” child, despite his drug use and several arrests; always forgiven nonetheless. Tommie was always the baby, always needing to be cared for. So then who was Michelle? She was the dishwasher, the lawnmower, the window cleaner, the car washer… You name it, she did it. She never had the luxury of free time until she was at college. While there, she met Mark, and quickly fell in love with him. After only two months of dating, they were engaged. Her parents were shocked by this, insisting that they needed to think through it more. But they were soon married anyways, and their marriage lasted for over twenty years. Brandon had asked two women to marry him; one rejected him upfront, another left him at the altar. Tommie had about thirty different girlfriends before he finally asked one to marry him. To the disappointment of his parents, they were beyond the age of having children, leaving John and Marie as the only grandchildren. Brandon never considered Mark, John, or Marie as family, but Tommie tried his best to stay involved.
John sat in his new room, dreading the meeting that was only days away. With a family like this, what could possibly go wrong?
“I think that’s fair, don’t you?”
“Fair?! Ha! You call that fair?!”
“It’s as fair as it’s gonna get!”
“Oh please, who said anything about being fair anyways?”
John could hear every word his clashing relatives said as he stood just outside the door. He sighed, knowing that this was going to take a while. He opened the door as quietly as possible.
He walked in, seeing his Aunt Cynthia cross her legs, like she always did when she got testy. “My mother is right. No one said we were going to play nice and pretend to like each other. We’re here for one reason and one reason only; Mark’s inheritance.”
John closed the door, causing her to glance at him. She smiled that scheming smile she always seemed to have whenever he saw her. “And now that John’s here, we can settle this.”
“Settle what?” he asked, playing dumb. He knew full well what they were after, but he wanted to see how they would try to explain it.
“Well, as you may already know, your father has left behind a great sum of cash in his will. Exactly how much, we aren’t entirely sure; we’ll have to wait for his will to be read before that’s clear,” Philip Lowry explained. He looked around at the others before continuing. “As far as we can figure, you alone will receive about 70-80% of that money. That means that the rest of will be left with…”
I can do math, John thought with annoyance. “What about Marie?” he asked, ignoring the statistics his grandfather was throwing at him.
The room went silent. The others looked at each other, having clearly forgotten about Marie in their equation. John scoffed at them before he moved to sit in an empty chair in the back of the room.
“Well, even with Marie in the shares,” Lora said, “I think there will still be about 15-20% left for the rest of us.”
John stared at her in disbelief. She honestly thinks Marie will only get 5-10%?
Dean nodded in agreement.
“The $65,000 question here is: how did Mark divvy up that final percentage?” Brandon asked through the cigarette in his teeth.
Dean rolled his eyes. “Isn’t the real question whether or not Mark actually did divvy it up? Are we sure he didn’t just leave it up in the air for us to duke it out over?”
Cynthia looked at her husband scornfully. “That’s what I’ve been saying! I’m telling you, Mark didn’t divvy it up at all!”
Tommie shrugged; his first response of the meeting. “I guess we’ll just have to wait until the will gets read then, right?”
“Yeah, I don’t see why we’re arguing about this now. Shouldn’t we at least wait until after the funeral?” Melody added in her small voice.
Cynthia huffed. “Fine; we’ll wait until then. Although I don’t see why they can’t just read the frickin’ thing now…”
“You do realize two people were burned alive, right? Not just any two people; your brother, your sister, your son, your daughter!”
Everyone turned and stared at John. He couldn’t take it anymore. He couldn’t just sit there and listen to those people he was embarrassed to call his family sit there and only focus on the money aspect of the whole situation. They hadn’t brought up his mother’s name once, they hadn’t talked about the tragic situation of it all; as a matter of fact, they didn’t even seem relatively upset about it! The only thing that upset them was the fact that John was getting most of the money.
As they continued to stare at him, John scoffed again, getting back on his feet. He didn’t even address them as he walked right back out the door.
The day of the funeral came, and even though the caskets were shut for the viewing, the emotions were still blatantly obvious. People from all over the city came dressed in black, flowers in hand. After not crying for days, Marie felt her emotions bubble to the surface again as she stood by her parents’ side. John kept himself together, not once shedding a tear. Hours felt like days, but everything was a blur nonetheless. The arrangement of bright-colored flowers and gifts seemed unfitting among the sea of people in black. The color they were wearing wasn’t the only thing that unified them; the prayers were said in unwavering unison, and every head was bowed in silence as John and Marie said their final goodbyes. Everyone traveled from the church to the graveyard in one unit, not once going out of line. All eyes were on the caskets once again as they were lowered into their final resting place. John and Marie locked hands as their parents disappeared for the last time. Marie turned, seeing everyone still standing there, watching on in silence.
“I don’t get it… Why did they all come here? I mean, all of them aren’t even our family and friends,” she whispered to her brother.
He didn’t turn around, because he already knew. He smiled at her, a tear running down his face. “No, Marie. They are our family.”340Please respect copyright.PENANAbsQ2Gj5hnf