Page 3 of Make Her Mine
Allen looked at me with compassion. “Look, it may be difficult to understand, but let me show you in writing why that is.” He pulled a paper out of the files and handed it to me. “Your father signed a statement that he wanted nothing from Collin or Fiona Gentry from that date forward. He wasn’t forced to sign it. Arny did it to prove a point to his parents when they refused to acknowledge his marriage to Lila Stevens.”
What is he talking about? “Wait. What?”
Bryce took over, “Your grandparents wanted to make the Gentry name something akin to royalty around here. But your father fell in love with a female from the wrong side of the tracks. A woman whose family lived on welfare. A girl who’d once worked as a maid at the ranch house.”
My brothers were just as confused as I was. “Why would they never tell us about that?”
Allen had the answer, “Most likely because they didn’t want you to know what they walked away from. They chose love over moneyandover their families. Your mother’s family was just as against their marriage as the Gentrys were.”
“Wow,” that was all I could muster up. “Seems our parents hid a hell of a lot from us.”
“There’s one more thing you need to know about the will, gentlemen,” the attorney said. “It stipulates that neither your mother nor father is ever allowed on the property. And your grandfather’s money can never benefit your parents in any way. If you so much as hand your parents five dollars, the entire estate will revert to the state of Texas.”
“Harsh,” Dyllan muttered.
“Yeah,” Bryce agreed.
“Your grandfather was considered to be a harsh man. So harsh that most people think your grandmother died at the age of forty-five, only two years after your father left the ranch, because of his hard ways.”
What the hell?
Chapter Two
Ella
“Ella, get your hind end in here, girl!” Mom shouted for me.
Hurrying to see what she wanted, I knew today wasn’t the day to screw things up. Sliding into the foyer that I’d just cleaned every nook and cranny of, she was eyeing a spot up very high on the ceiling. “What’s wrong, Mom?”
“Girl, I know you can see that up there on the chandelier.” Her blue eyes met mine, a tad of aggravation in them. “They’re coming today. For the first time ever, those boys are going to see the domicile their father declined in order to be with their mother. This place has to shine, sparkle, dazzle. You know what I’m saying, right? You do get it, don’t you?”
“Sure, some brats are coming to live in their rich, old grandfather’s mansion. And we’re their servants.” I rolled my eyes so hard it actually hurt.
“I’ve told you about them, Ella.” Mom put her arm around my shoulders. “They aren’t moneyed. Well, now they are, but they weren’t before inheriting Mr. Gentry’s riches and this ranch. Look at it this way; they don’t have to keep us if we can’t make this place look as great as it can. Got me?”
“Sure, to keep thisgreatjob, and I’m being sarcastic just in case you can’t read my tone, Mom, I’ll get up on that loathsome sky-high ladder and dust that damn crystal monster overhead.” I hated dusting the lighting in the house. There were so many chandeliers it made my job miserable.
“This is a great job, young lady,” Mom chastised me. “Not many maids earn what you do.”
“A whopping fifteen dollars an hour, Mom?” I didn’t believe her. As the house manager, she oversaw the hiring and firing of the house staff. She employed my older sister, Darleen, for a few years until she went to college to become a vet. If the wages were so great, then why’d my sister quit?
“Most maids make minimum wage,” she told me. “You’re making over twice that amount. You should be thankful.”
Looking up at the shiny crystal that hung from the ceiling, I thought the wage wasn’t nearly enough for all the hazardous duty that came with keeping the place pristine. “Thankful, huh? For what? Forhavingto climb up on a ladder, then carefully wipe down each and every little crystal teardrop up there?”
“Yep,” she said matter of factly. “And hop to it, child. The new proprietors will be here in about an hour. This room, in particular, needs to shine. It’s the first one they see.”
With a huff, I strolled to the back to get the indoor ladder out of the shed. I grumbled and growled as I carried the heavy thing inside, all the way into the lobby to set it up. “I don’t get it. Who cares if it has a little dust on it? These guys aren’t used to seeing things like this anyway. They won’t even give it a second look. They’ll be so overwhelmed by this place that they won’t look too hard at anything.”
After getting one half of it cleaned up, I climbed down the ladder to move it over to reach the other half. The front door opened as I was halfway up, and I nearly lost my balance supposing it must be the new owners. “Shit!”
“Classy, Ella,” my brother Kyle commented as he came in. He looked up at me with a grin. “You missed a spot.” He pointed at the half I was about to clean.
“You missed the bus.” What did that mean? It came out just the same. Often, I just said what came to my mind, whether it made any sense or not.
“Whatever that means.” He passed the ladder, stopped and took a step back, putting his hands on either side of it. “What if I gave this a little shake? What would you do, baby sister?”
“Kick your ass.” I held on tightly because he’d shake it and laugh as I screamed for mercy.
