#8 :: Not Everything Is Shared

1) NATASHA

It had been a week since I moved into my brand new home and I could not have been happier. What made it even better was I had moved back to where I grew up. I was back home. It was a bitter sweet feeling as I hadn't been back here for a long period of time since my father died. I sure did miss him. The last time I was here was his funeral and I hadn't been back since due to me not needing to as I don't speak to my mum or younger sister. They had always envied me as I was daddy's little girl. There was no hiding that I was his favourite of the three. I think because I looked like him the most and we were so alike that was why we got along.

My daddy was my world. I grew up around his family. And we all had a great bond. I loved them all dearly - my grandma, my aunts and my uncles it didn't help that they loved spoiling me either.

I had the same dark brown complexion as my dad and the same smile. He called it the 'golden smile'. Said with that smile I could have anything I wanted. That he weren't lying. He spoilt me rotten and I guess that's why they never liked me.

I know you are most probably thinking but they are your mother and sister; well, that don't mean a thing. My mother was a very disrespectful woman. My dad's family didn't even like her and towards the end of my father's life he didn't even like her. But for the sake of me and Natalie - my sister; he stayed. They never got married because his parents wouldn't approve it. You could say my father was torn between the two.

Due to them never getting married my mother always spoke to him like he was something on the bottom of her shoe. It was obvious that she was mad, she wasn't mad because they didn't get married, she was mad that she wouldn't be able to get hold of his money. Yup. Gold digger.

As my father got sicker she started being nicer. I guess she had hoped he would change his will on his dying days. He never did. In fact he made a point of telling me that he never left my mother with a penny. Nat and I were both adults so we never needed her to look after us. He said that was the only way he would leave any money for her. When she found this out she went mad. Told me it was all my fault and that I brainwashed him. She even said I was not allowed to attend MY OWN FATHERS funeral. Little did she know SHE was the one who wasn't allowed to attend!

My grandma on my dad's side told everyone that was invited that we would wear white in memory of his life rather than to wear black in mourning of his death. Had my mother not been such a cow and my sister who followed in her footsteps I would have told them.

Instead I did even better and "accidentally" mentioned the change of address in front of them knowing they never knew. My mother thought she had one up on me when really I had one up on her.

The day of the funeral everyone looked beautiful in all white. All family members on his side wore white and green as green was his favourite colour.

Then; they turned up...in all BLACK!

If it wasn't for the fact that this was not the time nor the place I would have broken out in hysterics. They looked out of place and I know they felt it. Out of respect for daddy; my grandma never said a word but you can imagine how mad she was. Not only did she turn up uninvited but she turns up in all black.

Nevertheless daddy had a good send off. I did break down as I found it extremely hard. I was twenty at the time and not ready to say goodbye. Luckily I had the support of my friends and fathers family.

Due to daddy being ill I took time out from my education to stay with him. I was actually my dad's carer up to his last days. He was not happy that I chose to take a gap year after college but he was my priority. I could still go university after.

The week after his funeral we all went to find out who was left what. Surprising enough he left my mum the house. Under the conditions that me and my sister stayed there until we was ready to move out. I'm assuming the will was edited recently because my sister was eighteen when he died so he left her eighteen thousand pounds. Me being twenty he left me twenty thousand pounds. The rest of the money went to his family. There were arguments between my mum and my grandma about daddy's final decision. Mum said me and my sister should have got the same amount and that I should give my sister an extra thousand to make nineteen thousand each. I laughed. Some people may think twenty thousand is a lot of money but for what I want it isn't. That money was going straight to my savings. I wouldn't even touch it till I graduated.