25
Raine
"This is makingme so uncomfortable," Lenore says as we walk into a small, run-down office building in the middle of this factory town.
"How does this all work? Do you know?" I ask her. "Are we just getting some kind of check today, or is there a process? I don't know a thing about this," I tell her, feeling just as nervous.
"I don't know either, honey. We'll see."
"Mama, that man is bad," Lauren says, walking through the door I'm holding open.
"I'm genuinely afraid you're right, Lauren," she says. "But we must give him the benefit of the doubt."
We have spoken to Mr. Leigh several times over the phone in the past few weeks, planning for this meeting to discuss Granddad's will and everything that comes along with it. However, the things Mr. Leigh was saying didn't match up with what Granddad told me when he found out he was dying. He died only a few weeks later from a stroke, so if there was something he wanted to say, maybe he just waited too long. But, I truly don’t think that’s the case. He was a prepared kind of man, always had his ducks in a row.
Lenore knocks on the tattered, wooden office door with Mr. Leigh's name etched into the fake golden plaque hanging at a crooked angle. If that’s not symbolic, I don’t know what is.
I glance over at Lauren, whose lips are pursed with anger, and her eyes are narrowed in on the door as if she were ready to assault it. Placing my arm around her back, I pull her in for a hug. "We'll get this all sorted out," I tell her. Granddad told Lenore and Lauren that he was leaving the two of them a third of everything he owned. The rest was to go to me. Lenore was finally going to get her own house and send Lauren to the Special Ed art school that just opened a couple of towns over from us. She's been talking about it non-stop for over a month, and it's the first thing she's truly ever gotten excited about. Granddad would have sent her on his own if he were still here, but he's not.
After a long minute of waiting for Mr. Leigh to open his door, we're finally welcomed into his office, which is probably smaller than an average size bathroom. It's hot and stuffy as we pile in.
I offer Lenore and Lauren the two available chairs as I take my spot behind them. Lenore's leg is shaking as she folds it over the other. Her hands clasp on top of her knee, and the whites of her knuckles glow through her thin skin. I place my hand on her shoulder, trying to calm her down, but it's useless while we all look at the smugness lining Mr. Leigh's face.
"How are y’all doing today?" he asks.
"We're just fine," Lenore says before I can get a word out. "Let's get on with it now, shall we? I don't have much time today."
Mr. Leigh's lips curl into a menacing type of smile as he peers down at the folder he has clenched within his grip. He pulls in a loud inhale through his nose and drops the folder on his desk. The papers inside of the folder slither out of the opening, but it doesn't seem to bother him. He opens the folder and drags the pad of his finger down the length of his tongue before flipping through some of the paperwork. "Your granddad was a good man, Raine. Just remember that." I've had a bad feeling. I tried to keep it to myself, but I'm not sure how much longer I can keep it inside. "It turns out, your granddad accrued a lot of debt over the last ten years, and his taxes were all completely out of order. There's no good way to really say this, but unfortunately, he owes the state about four million dollars in back taxes and debt."
"No way," I spit out. "Granddad was a stickler with finances. Not once did he ever pay a bill late. He once drove down to a company he owed money to because the postal service might have taken a day too long. You're lying."
"Raine," Lenore says, hushing me with just the tone in which she said my name. "What exactly are you saying, Mr. Leigh?"
"I'm saying, you won't be receiving the lump sum you may have been expecting."
"What's left after all is said and done?" Lenore asks, pointedly.
Mr. Leigh thumbs through the papers, appearing to make himself look busy as he nods his head with fake disappointment clouding his eyes. "I mean, it looks like when everything is settled, Raine will end up with about fifteen-hundred dollars and you will receive approximately five-hundred."
"There's no way," I say again, louder, more confident this time. "You're a liar, Mr. Leigh."
"It's all right here, Raine, clear as day, son. I'm not sure what else I can say to make this better. I know this isn't what you were expecting to hear today, but you'll understand someday that life isn't the bowl of cherries your granddad led you to believe it was."
I walk out of the office, letting the door fly into the wall while I make my way outside as fast as I can, needing more air than I'll be able to take in. I pace around the front grass-covered area while tugging at the roots of my hair. There's no way. He would have told us. He'd never try to get away with something like that.
During one of my pacing strides, I see Lenore through the glass door, struggling to drag Lauren away from Mr. Leigh's office. I run to help her, clutching Lauren into my embrace as I walk her outside. "It's okay. We're going to be okay." But really, in no way are we going to be okay.
"He's a liar," Lauren shouts through her now hoarse voice. "He's a liar. He's a bad man, mama. I told you, he's a bad man."
Lenore has tears in her eyes as she's staring up at the sky, probably asking Granddad the same question I was just asking him. After a few minutes, Lenore collects herself and places an arm around both Lauren and me as we silently walk back to the car.
There's one thing Mr. Leigh never thought much about, and that's the fact that I can't let things go. I am just like my granddad and I like to overanalyze, study, research, and figure out puzzles and mysteries just like he did. It's an area I've greatly excelled at. If he's pulling a fast one on us, he won't get away with it.
Haven is staringat me with wide eyes, waiting for an explanation I should have been honest about when we first became friends. Not that honesty was an actual thing between us, but I should have tried harder. As the pink in her cheeks melts into a pool of whiteness, I take a pausing breath and release the pent-up words from my mouth, "I am the person your dad stole the money from."
I didn't think her face could turn any whiter, but I was wrong. She slowly pulls her hands out of mine and covers her mouth. Shock doesn't begin to describe the look in her eyes. "Four million dollars?" she asks.
"My granddad was the previous owner of your parents' house. Your dad was our gardener for years, and my granddad wanted to help him. From what I've been told, he put your father through law school. Your father ended up being the attorney who oversaw his will. Except, when I went to meet with your father shortly after my granddad passed away, he told me every dime was going to a debt I was unaware of. Less than four weeks later, you and your family moved into my granddad's house—my house." Apologetic tears are in Haven's eyes, and I don't want her to take the blame for what her father did, but there's no other way to say all of this.
