[[OLD]] A Handful of Daffodils (Forgotten Series, #7)

Chapter One

I swallowed hard and tried to calm my pounding heart. The apprehension I felt was almost enough to have me turn around and go back downstairs to find new chores to do. However I steeled myself, it was my right to ask about my inheritance from my mum. I was twenty-five and it was well past the time for me to take over her estate.

"Stop standing there like an idiot, Minnie." My father's voice was sharp with agitation and I stepped into his office, walking until I stood right in front of his desk. "It's not close to dinner, what do you want?" He didn't look up at me as he went over the papers on his desk. He always sat there, behind that big piece of wood, moving papers around as if he were doing something big and important.

That desk was like a giant monolith to the untouchable and cold face of my father. It always separated us and I understood why. I was an unwanted interloper, someone he never wanted and was forced to deal with all the same. I wasn't welcome and that desk sat as a symbol of that divide.

"I-" I swallowed hard and clasped my hands in front of me.

"Did you want more scraps for your little crafting projects? If so you need to ask Lisa and not me. You know I hate being bothered by trivial matters like that." His voice was agitated as he frowned at a piece of paper, writing on it with pen before setting it off to one side.

"Not, it's not about my quilting." I had more than enough scraps of fabric for making what I wished. "It's about my inheritance." The words came out slightly straggled and I coughed my throat to clear it. I could feel my pulse throbbing in my neck and I felt almost light headed. I didn't like being this forward with my father, I really didn't and I knew he liked it even less.

"What inheritance?" The words were snapped out and I blinked at him.

"My inheritance from my mother. Her estate that was left to me." I blinked rapidly, the memories I had of her and that place were foggy at best. I had forgotten more and more as the years went on but I remembered him telling me about my inheritance when I was eight, right after he told me my mum had died. "I figure I am twenty-five now so I could potentially take it over and think that I could-"

"You figure? You think? Mind your place, Minnie." His words were cold and the look he sent me was brutal in its iciness. "What is this nonsense anyway? You couldn't handle the logistics of inheritance law. I warned you about reading books above your station, Minnie." There was a clear warning to his voice and I swallowed hard, trying to hide the shakiness in my hands.

"No. nothing like that, father." I winced at how quiet my voice was. There was no confidence, no authority. I sounded like a little girl. "It's just you told me that my mother left me a house in Louisiana and-"

"Oh. That." He interrupted me with a slightly amused tone. I glanced up at him and he looked at me before he shook his head, an amused little smile on his face before he waved me off. "I sold that years ago." The words made the bottom of my stomach fall out and I blinked rapidly.

Sold it?

"Pardon?" It came out as a whisper and he waved me off again.

"What did you not understand, Minnie? I sold it." He raised an eyebrow at me as he set his pen down and clasped his hands together, leaning on his desk slightly as he looked at me. "It was a drain on my resources and a continual headache. So I got rid of it. I received a fair market value for it even though I priced it low." The words made me feel dizzy and I wanted to reach out and grab his desk to keep from hitting the floor.

I blinked rapidly, tears burning in my eyes. That was the last thing I had left of my mum. The last piece of her I could have. "That was my inheritance. I thought-"