Heywood Equestrian Stables

When It Rains

It had been a cold and dreary winter. Thankfully, with the help from Mr. Babington we were able to feed the horses all winter long and prepare for our trip in the spring. Mr. Babington was insistent on us coming to his estate as early as possible to start training Onyx and getting him ready. Since he was the one putting forth the money for entrance fees and all that goes into entering a horse into a race, he wanted to be sure of Onyx's abilities.

Sidney and I made all the final arrangements to travel to the Babington Estate with Onyx. I was having a lot of fears and beginning to second guess myself. What if we were making a huge mistake? What if something happened to Onyx? What if he wasn't good enough and Mr. Babington lost millions because of us?

I had so many thoughts running through my head, I could barely sleep. Sidney rolled over on the bed and draped his arm across me. I tried not to move so I didn't wake him. After a few minutes, his arm tightened around me and pulled me into a spooning position. His entire body wrapped around mine bringing me comfort but also fear that I would wake him.

"He's going to be fine," Sidney whispered. "Stop worrying so much and get some sleep."

I grinned, realizing even if I tried to pretend I was asleep, he would know. He always knew what was going on in my mind, sometimes even better than I did. I rolled over and curled up against his chest. He tucked me under his chin and wrapped him arms around me. His assurance that everything would be fine, helped me finally relax and get some sleep.

In the morning, Sidney and I got up and started our day like usual. He went out to the barn to start tending to the horses while I made breakfast and got Georgiana up for school. Thankfully, Otis had been dealt with and she didn't need to live in fear of what he might do next. After a five day trial, he was found guilty of a whole list of charges including attempted murder and arson. He was sentenced to twenty years in prison with the possibility of parole after five. Even though we all agreed he needed some time in prison, we made a plea for the judge to go easy on him. We did not want him to spend his entire life in prison and addressed him by saying we hoped he took this time to truly think about what he did and how he could have done things differently. We asked him to move on with his life and leave us alone in exchange for a lighter sentence. The judge made it clear he should be giving him a life sentence, but he was willing to listen to our requests and gave him a lighter punishment with the understanding that if he came near any of us ever again, his sentence would not be so light.

Otis remained emotionless during the entire trial and wouldn't even look in our direction. Regardless, he was gone, and we were all able to move on with our lives.

As for Mr. Denham, that trial was much longer and drawn out over weeks. Our attorney was not confident in our case as Edward had created false documents that indicated my father had in fact left the entire ranch to him to manage. He had convincing stories for every insurance claim and every false expense had made, which was disputed by multiple employees, including Sidney and Tom. We all knew everything he had claimed and everything his attorney offered as evidence wasn't true. The one thing that saved us was the video my father had created me. We played it in court and there wasn't any denying what my father wished to happen with the ranch. Mr. Denham didn't know about the video and his claim that my father had left everything to him was deemed a lie as were all the claims that he billed insurance for actual events. Everything he still had in his bank accounts and all he owned was liquidated while he also went to jail.

By the time all of the court hearings were finalized, we were only days away from traveling to the Babington Estate. We had everything packed and ready to go. We had briefed Luke and Roberta on all that needed to be attended to on the ranch while they stayed there. Georgiana had settled back into her old room with Mary and Tom. She wasn't so thrilled about being there again, but she was happy that she got to visit the ranch whenever she wanted to see Luke. Having Roberta there also gave them more of a chance to interact and get to know each other better.