Storm and Rein

Chapter 44

"This is way too much," I stated when I gawked at the number before me. Five figures stared up at me. If Benson and Ian hadn't been there in the room, calm and unsurprised by everything that transpired, I probably would have fled by now. The lawyer, Shannon, was clean cut, but kind. I would have smiled, thanked her for all her time, then excused myself as gracefully as I could have, never to be seen again in this office.

"This is a very low amount," Shannon stated, arms folded over her chest. She looked like she was prepared to go to war in her sharp suit with her pin straight platinum blonde hair. Thank God she was going to war for me, not against me, because I doubted I would survive.

"This is insanely high."

"No, this is on the lower scale. You have been working on the ranch for your entire life, but we are trying to play it safe to avoid getting this too tangled too quickly. So, to get to this number, we took the minimum wage for each of the years you worked, calculated what you would be receiving as a full-time employee working forty hours a week, even though you probably did more, then deducted living costs that the ranch would have covered like food, utilities, the cost of rent for a single room, gas that you would have used personally. This is the final amount, after all those deductions, paying well under what you're worth while also assuming you took the minimum required two weeks of vacation, didn't work a single stat holiday, and never exceeded forty hours a week."

Even with the logic behind it, the number seemed huge.

"Take it," Benson said flatly.

"But--"

"You and I both know that you worked every Christmas, that you never had enough money to buy yourself something you actually wanted, that you had to ride mom's horse all the time. We were all kids on that ranch. We were all the ones fixing the tractor, cleaning the stalls, staying out with the sick calves when mom was soaking in her bubble bath or watching her shows. It might seem like a lot of money now, but if you think about rent or going to college, getting yourself a car, it's going to be gone fast."

He was right. I knew he was right. But that didn't stop the sticker shock.

"I would have personally demanded another twenty grand on top of that, easily," Shannon interjected.

"She'll say no," I said. Maybe it was because I wanted to talk myself out of this insane situation. Maybe it was because I knew my mom and I knew that this wouldn't be the end of it. For each strike against her, she would retaliate.

"She can try and say no. I would be very happy to see her in court and get you even more money," Shannon said, a cocky grin tugging at her lips.

"Mom will not put up a fight, not when she knows she could end up losing," Ian assured. "You saw how bad she spiraled when people were just spreading rumors about her sleeping with Bart. Can you imagine how badly she'd fall apart if this ever went sideways and we did have to go to court?"

I didn't know what I was feeling towards my mother right now. It was complicated and sticky and the three days I had spent at Ian's house hadn't made it any clearer. But I could identify how I was feeling just thinking about that money: free.

"Okay, let's start with this letter and see where it goes," I agreed.

My brothers took me out for lunch after the meeting with the lawyer concluded. It was a small joint, a place with greasy burgers and limp salads. They mostly talked about sports and their jobs around me and I was struck once again about how much of their lives I had missed out on. I had no idea that Benson had gotten a promotion, that Ian was booking a vacation down south. I wanted to engage, even when the numbness was surrounding me, but I knew that they wanted to keep an eye on me. Like sitting at the doctor's office after getting a vaccine, they just wanted to make sure I wasn't about to pass out or have some kind of reaction and I appreciated that.