i can see you - tsitp

fourteen.

THE HOUSE FALLS into complete silence as everyone examines each room. Carlee and Steven head upstairs to see if there's anything left, but when they return with defeated expressions, all hope it lost.

"The fuck is happening?" Carlee breathes out, running a hand through her curls with a shocked look on her face.

"Everything's gone," Jeremiah confirms after doing a solo sweep of the house, something he'd insisted on as if he didn't believe Carlee and Steven. His eyes are locked on Conrad, who seems to pale when the words leave his brother's mouth.

The back door opens in the kitchen, and Conrad immediately turns around, his hands flexing at his sides when he sees that it's Julia coming in.

"What the fuck, Julia?" he snaps, although his tone is more heartbroken than anything else, as if every ounce of anger and frustration in his body has already been milked bone dry from months of agony and fighting.

"I'm sorry." Julia says, and for once, she sounds sincere. "This must be such a shock. I-I spoke to your father this afternoon, and-and he and I decided that it would be best not to drag this out any longer than necessary."

"I don't give a shit what the two of you decided on." argues Conrad, jabbing a finger out. "You had no right to touch anything in this house. Those were her things."

Steven grabs Conrad, trying to soothe him as Conrad's voice cracks. "Breathe, man. Okay?"

"Stop." snaps Conrad, but his voice wavers and betrays him.

Julia sighs, her eyes flickering between Conrad and Jeremiah. Jeremiah just lacks all emotion while Conrad is fuming. "Everything's in storage. I made sure that everyone was very careful with every single thing. I'm just doing what I have to do to sell this house-"

"Bullshit." Conrad interjects, his teeth bared. "You could have said something. You could have warned us. All you want to do is fight our mom, constantly."

"Okay, enough." shouts Julia, putting her hands on the top of her head. "You're not the only one that's hurting here. And I'm not the one you should be angry with. Your mother could have warned you that this was gonna happen. She just wanted to make me the bad guy, as usual."

Nate is sure Conrad is going to explode. His face reddens and then so do his ears, and he bares his teeth like an animal in attack mode. "I'm so sorry that she was too busy dying to make your life a little easier."
he takes a deep breath, then adds, "You know, it sucks that our grandfather loved her more than you, but I'm not surprised."

And with that, he storms out. Nate lets himself go a little slack jaw, trying to analyze Julia's expression, but it's so blank that it doesn't take much to understand. Skye's mouth is shut into a tight line, and Taylor stands beside Nate like she's anchored in place.

Jeremiah is the next to go, followed by Belly. Nate isn't sure if he should go, but he isn't given much of an option when Taylor seizes his wrist and drags him out behind the Carlee and Steven pairing.

When Nate gets outside, he sees Conrad on the phone, his jaw clenched. "Of course, Dad did nothing to stop her."

"Connie, what can he do?" Jeremiah says hopelessly.

"Jere! He doesn't care about us!" yells Conrad— he has figurative steam coming out of his ears, and for a minute, Nate is a little scared of him.

"And this asshole won't even pick up my... calls." Conrad slows himself down when the front door opens to reveal Skye, who tiptoes toward them cautiously. "Did you know about this?"

"Easy, Connie." Jeremiah tries to warn, but Conrad is already storming forward.

"No, I'm serious. I'm serious." Conrad huffs out, his eyes narrowed into tiny slits. "Did you know about this?"