Chapter 6 - What Belonged to Whom
The showing lasted seventeen minutes. Jenna, my parents, and the twins waited outside near their cars, furious and whispering under the bright Malibu sky. From the living room window, I could see Jenna pacing with her wineglass still in hand, as if refusing to set it down preserved some claim over the afternoon.
The buyers loved the view. Of course they did. Everyone loved the view. That had been the trick. People saw the ocean and forgot to ask who had paid for the glass between them and it. Dana kept the conversation smooth, but her eyes moved once toward the faint sandy footprints on the hardwood and the small empty space where Eli had been kneeling. She had children of her own. She understood more than I said.
When the buyers stepped onto the deck, my father came through the front door without permission. “Mason, this has gone far enough.”
I turned. “Leave.”
He stopped, genuinely shocked. My father was a man who believed doors opened for fathers and stayed open for patriarchs. “I am your father.”
“And I am the owner.”
The sentence hit him harder than I expected. Maybe because no one in our family had ever spoken property and boundaries in the same breath. My mother appeared behind him, quieter now. “We only wanted a summer together.”
“No,” I said. “You wanted the house without respecting the people it was for.”
Jenna stepped in last. “You’re choosing your kids over your family?”
I looked at her for a long moment. “Listen to yourself.”
She flushed.
“My children are my family,” I said. “And you taught them today exactly where they stand with you.”
Dana cleared her throat softly from the deck, giving me a chance to return to the showing. I looked at my parents and sister one final time. “Take your towels, your wine, your toys, and anything else you left here because you assumed I would keep paying for your entitlement.”
May you like
My father’s face hardened. “You’ll regret this.”
I almost smiled. “Not as much as I regret waiting.”
