The Godbrothers (1D Fiction)

1. An End

Camilla POV

The police had come in the middle of the night. Rex and Beth had been fast asleep on the couch while Spongebob played, muted, on the TV.

The two officers, one a tall young man and the other a stubbier middle aged man, had seemed taken aback as I opened the door hesitantly. They looked solemn.

“Is your mother home, young lady?” the older officer asked me, looking around me into our large living room.

“No,” I answered. But then I decided to add, “She left us a long time ago. What is this about?”

They ignored my question. “Are you alone here, miss?”

My heart skipped a beat as I momentarily questioned the legitimacy of the men at my doorstep. But then I remembered that they had flashed their badges, and their LAPD squad car was parked outside.

“Just my brother and sister,” I replied, glancing toward Rex and Beth still sleeping where I had left them. “My dad should be back soon though. He’s working a late shift at the hospital…”

Immediately, I realized with a sinking feeling what this was about.

Both officers avoided my eyes and set their face in a customary sympathetic expression.

“Where is he?” I asked, my voice barely above a squeak.

Neither of them said a thing for a moment, and the only sound that could be heard was Rex’s breath and a dog bark far, far away.

“He went into cardiac arrest while he was driving down the interstate,” the young man finally spoke. “He passed away almost an hour ago in the ER.”

That had been several hours ago.

Now I sat in the police precinct, with my little brother and sister, watching the sun rise. It had to be at least six in the morning now.

When the huge ordeal of acknowledging that the corpse was indeed my father was all done, we waited for the lawyer to look over everything and call us in.

Beth wept quietly into my sweatshirt as I wrapped one arm around her. My other arm automatically went around Rex, who remained stoic. Although his long lashes were sparkling with the tears he was trying to hold back.

I gave him a quick squeeze before distracting myself, fearing that my calm exterior would crack and I would turn into a huge sobbing mess. But no, I had to remain strong for the two little ones, like always.

“Ms. Camilla Somers, Mr. Rex Somers, and Ms. Beth Somers?” called the familiar younger cop with a kind smile.

He waved us into a private room, and we took a seat in each of the three chairs that were set out across from an unfamiliar woman.

I shook her hand. It smelled like sanitizer.

“Hi,” she practically cooed, as if I were some five year old girl who just got her Barbie stolen. Even Beth gave her a weird look.

“I know how hard this must be for you…” she continued. “But we’ll get through this together okay?”

I’m sorry but who are you? That was what I wanted to say. But I held my tongue and decided that it wasn’t the time to be cheeky.

“My name is Laura Templeton,” she introduced slowly, sounding like she was giving a vocabulary lesson rather than dealing with my father’s death. “I’m your dad’s lawyer. Now, he left this will –”

That took me aback. “I didn’t know he had a will.”

Laura gave me a fake, shut-the-fuck-up-and-let-me-finish smile. “Yes, well he made one after your mother left.”

Ouch.

“Now, I’ve tried to contact your mother,” Laura Templeton explained. “But she didn’t want anything to do with it, unless it was regarding you children.”

Dear god, I was thankful that I was 19 years old and a legal adult. Otherwise I would have to be in the custody of that gold digging, child abandoning, sad excuse of a mother who I hadn’t had any contact with for nine years now.

But Rex and Beth… I would have to fight to be their legal guardian, that was for sure.

“Of course, she probably just wants to have custody of you kids until Beth and Rex come of age so she could take your inheritance money,” Laura commented, earning her a few points in my book. “But that’s just between you and me.”

The older police officer that was also in the room cleared his throat.

“Right,” Laura said, trying to get back on track. “Your dad left you each a big sum of money. Then there’s the life insurance, which is also a pretty penny. You’re of age, Camilla, so you have access to all of it now. You’re going to need to sell the house…”

I tuned out a lot of what she was saying about money and inheritance. That wasn’t important now. For now…

“Wait,” I interrupted. “Sell the house? Why? Rex and Beth are staying with me. There’s no way you’re going to send them off to live with our mo–”

Laura threw a manicured hand in the air as to tell me to slow down. “No one is going anywhere near that woman, don’t worry. Unfortunately, there is little to zero chance the state is going to let you take care of two ten-year-olds.”

I didn’t correct her that Rex was twelve.

“So what does that mean?” I asked.

“It means you’re going to stay with your godfather. Well, you can do whatever you please, but the little ones are going to live with your godfather.”

“Godfather?” That took me by surprise. Since when did we have a godfather? Dad had never mentioned we had a godfather. But then again, he never mentioned he had a will either.

“You didn’t know?” Laura seemed genuinely surprised as well. “His name is Mark Tomlinson. Sound familiar at all?”

All three of us shook our heads as a response.

“He was one of your dad’s colleagues from when he worked at that practice in London.” Laura continued to explain.  “You can keep going to school at UCLA, Camilla, but you’ll be across the world from Beth and Rex.”

The room suddenly seemed too small and stuffy for six people to be in. The younger cop brought out three cups of water.

I blinked a few times in order to clear my head. “Wait, our godfather lives in London?”

“Not London,” Laura said simply. “Doncaster, South Yorkshire.”

Like that was supposed to make any difference to me. “Still… England?”

“Let me see if I can put this in terms that a normal teenage girl can understand,” she pondered.

Good luck with that.

“Do you know who Louis Tomlinson is?” she asked.

It sounded familiar, but only vaguely. I was surprised when Beth perked up, as a knowing smile lit up her face.

“Are you familiar with a boy band called One Direction?” Laura asked.

Now Beth was practically bouncing up and down in her seat, making me recall Louis Tomlinson as one of the members of the UK boy band. The girl was a professed Belieber and Directioner.

But what the hell did this have to do with us and our godfather? The only similarity between Mark Tomlinson and Louis Tomlinson from One Direction was that they were from…

Oh my god.

Just as I connected the dots in my own head, Laura uttered the words. “Mark Tomlinson is Louis Tomlinson’s stepfather. He’s your godfather.”