Page 48 of Stranded with the Billionaire
As a result, her parents were destitute and facing an uncertain future. Brant and Sterling had time in their favor. Owen and Paisley did not.
Sterling still had her retirement savings, she thought with a pang of guilt. They were locked into investments. She could have taken them out with a heavy penalty, but Sterling had kept them there as a last resort. Now they would need to be used for her family’s basic survival.
She looked at a tired Brant and realized that he had probably not taken a retirement plan. If he had, he would have put it into the company as well. He probably hadn’t had a full salary over the years that he worked for the company either.
No wonder he didn’t feel right about entering into a relationship with Melody, no matter that they’d loved each other for years. Brant probably felt that he had nothing to offer.
It was sad.
It was even more sad when Sterling said goodbye to her childhood home as she slowly packed up her bedroom. Gumdrop would be taken to a local riding school where she would have a home and care for the rest of her days. Sterling was welcome to visit her old horse there. Brant’s horse Challenger had already been sold. Everything that was of any value had already been liquidated over the years. There were just a few sentimental antiques and regular items left in the house. Some friends were going to help move the heavy items tomorrow morning before the banker came at noon for the keys.
Sterling taped up the last box of the items she intended to keep. The rest would be donated to the local thrift store. Walking across the hall, she offered to tape Brant’s boxes.
He only had a few. Most of everything else was marked for donations.
“Travelling light?” she asked as she bent over the first box.
Brant shrugged as he rolled up a shirt, stuffing it into a duffle bag. “When it comes down to it, a person doesn’t really need all that much.”
“What about love?” Sterling paused in taping the boxes to look up at him.
“We’re not going to talk about that,” Brant said tiredly as he stuffed another shirt into the bag.
“Melody loves you and you love her. Why are you being so stubborn about this?” she wanted to know, her heart aching for her brother.
“She’s engaged,” Brant said tersely, emptying a drawer on the bed.
“Neither of them wants to be engaged. They thought you’d be jealous enough to finally make a move on Melody,” Sterling explained. “When you didn’t, Melody’s pride got in the way and they’ve kept it up.”
Brant ignored her remarks, putting clothes in the duffle then zipping it up.
Sterling got up and grabbed his arm, turning him to face her. “Brant, you deserve love and happiness. If she makes you happy, then you should be with her.”
“It’s not that simple Sara,” Brant sighed. “I have nothing. I owe the bank a debt I’ll never get out from under. I need to earn an income to help support our parents. You heard Dad, they have no retirement anymore. I can’t offer Melody a single thing. Marrying her would put her financial future in jeopardy. I won’t do that to her.”
“You could declare bankruptcy. Maybe find a place big enough that Mom and Dad could move in for a while. I’ll send money when I find a job,” Sterling offered.
“Hawkins’ pay their debts,” his voice was quiet and unmoveable. “I’ve lined up a job. It’s out of state. I’ll send money when I can.”
“Brant,” Sterling knew she wasn’t going to change his mind. “You’ll regret this. You’re making her life miserable as well as your own.”
He just gave her a hug, picked up his bag and headed downstairs.
Sterling sat down on Brant’s bed, looking around the empty room. She was going to miss her childhood home. She’d always known that things were tight financially, yet she’d had a wonderful childhood in Pendle. She would miss the doorway where their dad marked down Brant and Sterling’s growing heights each birthday. She would miss the breakfast nook where she had teased Brant about his high school girlfriends. She would miss the smell of her mother’s baking and their long talks over sappy chick flicks.
Not that she hadn’t missed those when she’d left Pendle, but Sterling had always known that she could come back to the farm and recreate many of those memories. Now the farm would belong to someone else. Someone else would swing from the tire swing attached to the big oak in the backyard that her grandfather had planted. Someone else would paint its walls and paint over their heights on the door frame. Someone else would create all sorts of memories here.
Wiping away a tear, she decided there was no point in crying. Grabbing the packing tape, Sterling finished sealing the remaining boxes, then brought them downstairs to their allocated piles. One for donation, one for Ma Benson’s house which was much smaller than their farm house.
“I hope the next owner has children,” Paisley commented wistfully as she set a box on the growing donation pile. “I hope they slide down the bannister like Brant and you used to.”
Sterling eyed the boxes as she followed her mother back to the kitchen. “Mom, why don’t we sell what is in the donation pile? You need the money.”
“There’s no time,” Paisley sighed as she grabbed another box off the counter. “Besides, who can afford anything right now? The entire town is struggling, and everyone’s budgets are going to tighten even further now that the factory is done. Best to just donate it.”
Sterling nodded glumly, grabbing a box as well to put into the pile.
There was a knock on the door and soon the house was flooded with women armed with cleaning supplies. Sterling smiled as the group clamoured for directions from Paisley and Owen. Someone had hitched a hay wagon to a pickup and a group of men began dismantling beds and hauling furniture out to go to the empty Benson house, under the direction of Owen, carefully situating it on the wagon. It was a regular house moving party, complete with crockpots plugged in at every available outlet for when the group was done they would have a small feast together.
