Afterlife || irwin

[ 41 ] 2014

[ 41 ] 2014

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"My name is Clarissa Hood. My deepest condolences at the passing of our nephew. But I think we have some financial matters to discuss."

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Calum's remains were kept in the hospital morgue for about half a week before they were transferred to a funeral home. Arthur and Harleen were taking care of all the arrangements. Calum had been Arthur's nephew after all, and Arthur was his last known legal guardian before he passed. Harleen just didn't want Harley to have to be involved in any of it. Not that she was even emotionally secure enough to do anything. With only one week of school left, her parents didn't make her go to classes and Billy explained to the teachers that she was not going to return for the rest of the school year. At this point, none of them were even sure if any of them would make it to the graduation ceremony. Harley was likely not going to make it, while Billy and Cindy didn't want to celebrate when she was feeling so upset.

Harley spent the next three days in her room, spending all of her time crying and in her bed. She wasn't eating and spending hours asleep to forget about her troubles. Harleen and Arthur were often mind controlling her into having to eat because she wasn't doing it on her own. Arthur was something of a wreck too. He was coping with his own grief at having lost a nephew who he cared about. But his powers included emotional manipulation and empathy. He could feel the emotions of those around him, and Harley's grief was so great that he couldn't find it within himself to sleep at night either. He didn't eat and walked around disheveled all day. His facial had grown out substantially too. With his emotional manipulation powers, he knew he could easily get her to stop feeling depressed. But death was a natural part of life and he just didn't want to do that to her. But Harleen noticed too and was worried for both of them.

Two days to the graduation ceremony and Calum had been buried at the St. Genevieve's cemetery alongside his parents and his sister. The whole thing was so surreal for Harley Quinn. Just a couple of weeks back they had buried Ashton and she would have never imagined then that she would be back there today burying her boyfriend. Her eyes were red and puffy, but there were no more tears running down her face. It was like she had run out of them.

Luke Hemmings had been sent to jail following the assassination of Calum and the attempt on Harley's life, as well as the fact that he had injured his own sister. But it came as no surprise to anyone when it was found out that his parents had paid off a bunch of judges to get Luke ruled insane. The trade off for sparing him being thrown in jail for the rest of his life was that he had to go to an asylum for a number of years until he could be ruled clinically cured. Cindy apologized deeply to Billy and Harley for everything, but they assured her that it wasn't her fault. She had said so to her parents too, that she did not agree with how things were handled.

And her father dangled his money and power in her face coldly, something that did not surprise her in the slightest. He told her that if she did not comply, and did not agree, she could leave his house, and that had been exactly what she did. For years he had ignored her, and whenever he was around he insulted her intelligence and instilled misogynistic thoughts in her head. How she had to get a good husband to take care of her because she was too stupid to do anything else with her life. The family fortune would go to Luke anyway, and she was to find some other way to cover her expenses eventually.

He didn't allow her to pack anything--no clothes, none of her belongings, no car. He had left his daughter homeless and without a single penny, all without a single bit of remorse. It wasn't like she needed it anyway. Cindy Hemmings had a real family to support her. Harleen and Arthur had invited her to stay with them. She would be turning eighteen in less than a month anyway, and did not need her parents permission to move in with her boyfriend and his family. Luke had asked to see Cindy before being sent off to the mental hospital and she agreed to see him, but that did not mean she agreed with how things turned out for him in the end. Harley asked her to be more sympathetic towards her brother, as she knew things were not entirely his fault. It had been Con's doing and Luke was only a pawn in all of it. But she would have to explain it to Cindy later, with more time.