Chapter 25 Iris #2
Mr. Yarbrough quickly got up before it spilled on him.
“My bad, I wasn’t paying attention,” Beau said, going into the kitchen to grab towels.
“It’s ok, no one got wet,” I said, helping him clean the tea as Mr. Yarbrough stood back.
His judgmental stare made me squirm.
“I’m a sucker for her egg sandwiches,” Beau chuckled, taking the towels into the kitchen as I glanced at the Yarbrough men who were sharing a look.
“No harm, no foul,” Brooks said, as I poured tea in the rest of the glasses.
Beau came back, handing me another glass with some small plates.
“Well, we don’t want to keep you, but you have everything we asked for?” Mr. Yarbrough asked.
“Yeah, I do. My realtor and I don’t know how we missed these files,” I said, going to the living room to grab the folder. “I signed everything that was needed.”
I laid the folder in front of Mr. Yarbrough as he pulled a pair of readers from his pocket.
“What about the title of the land adjacent to the farm?” Brooks asked.
“I brought that too, but I don’t understand why that was under my name and not with the rest of the farm,” I said, taking a sip of my tea. “My parents should have—”
“I will need you to transfer ownership of that—”
“That land is separate from the farmland and that requires a purchase,” I said.
“In the survey, that should have been included from the beginning,” Brooks said.
“Then why was it under my name?” I narrowed my eyes at Brooks. “If it had been a part of the farm, it would have been under the farm, under my parent’s names.”
“That’s not what the paperwork says,” Brooks said.
“Then show me the paperwork,” I said, getting frustrated. “I don’t remember an additional ninety-something acres in the purchase.”
“Why would we lie to you, Iris?” Mr. Yarbrough asked.
“Well, you haven’t been very forthcoming from the beginning, so excuse me for not trusting you blindly when you haven’t given me a reason to,” I snapped.
“Iris, we’ve given everything you’ve asked for and—”
“Brooks, you have not given me everything I have asked for. When I wanted to come back, you ignored me,” I said, standing up. “You all cut me off as soon as I married Nash. You said I could come back to work the farm and be involved with it as much as I wanted.”
“You are married, a farm is no place for a married woman,” Mr. Yarbrough scoffed. “Your place is with my son, bearing children and making him realize his dream was just that, a stupid dream.”
“Excuse me? Bear children? That choice is between me and Nash, if we ever wanted children,” I snapped. “We made this deal because I wanted to keep the farm in the family and—”
“And by you marrying into the family, that is how you are keeping it in the family," Brooks sighed. “You’re getting your wish without having to do the work or worrying about how to keep the farm afloat.”
“Well, now, this entire conversation is pointless anyway,” Mr. Yarbrough snapped. “Just sign over the land and let us complete the sale we’ve had to wait for you on.”
“What sale?” I looked between Brooks and Mr. Yarbrough.
Brooks sighed as another truck pulled up to the house.
“I assumed Nash would have filled you in,” Mr. Yarbrough said innocently. “We told him the sale of the farm was waiting on this paperwork and the additional acres.”
“Excuse me?” My chest grew tight.
“Did you tell your brother to—”
The door swung open and Nash walked in. He looked around until he found me and then Beau. They exchanged a look that changed Nash’s demeanor.
“Iris, don’t—”
“Aren’t you supposed to be at a rodeo?” Brooks interrupted Nash.
“If we knew you were going to be here, we should have gone to lunch,” Mr. Yarbrough said eyeing Nash warily.
Nash walked towards me and I took a few steps back, shaking my head. “I can’t believe you knew and didn’t tell me.”
“Things changed. At first, I didn’t care, but as time went on, I felt trapped. So, I started to look for a solution instead of telling you,” he said.
“If I had known you were coming I would have—”
“You would have what, Nash?!” I yelled. “Broken the news sooner? But you still didn’t tell me the truth. You lied to me, lured me into believing everything was alright, just so that I could do this for your father without any pushback. You tricked me.”
“Petal, you know that’s not true,” he said immediately.
“Was any of it true? Or did you just feed me a sob story so that I would empathize with you? Did he offer you a cut of the farm?” My lip trembled as I went through our interactions together. “Fuck, Nash. Why?!”
I pushed him away, seeing movement behind him.
“Iris,” Beau said softly, looking around Nash’s shoulder.
“You knew about it.” I looked between them, guilt written all over Beau’s face. “You let me come here to believe I was walking away from my trauma when, in fact, it was being sold!”
“I didn’t know it was being sold so quickly, and I thought that maybe you coming to terms with this on your own was better and fuck…I’m so sorry,” Beau’s voice broke.
“You’re sorry?” I scoffed.
“Don’t blame him. I told him I was going to fix it,” Nash said quickly. “He was the one who told me to tell you, but I was too stubborn and wanted to give you a solution because I knew I had already fucked up.”
“You manipulated me!” I snapped. “Every single one of you used me for your own fucking gain, whether it was for this farm or keeping the peace.”
I gave Beau a look so he would know what I was talking about because he might not have done it for the farm, but he hadn’t told me. So, whatever arrangement we had could keep going, apparently the sex was worth more than being honest with me.
“It wasn’t like that, Petal.” Nash stepped forward as I shook my head.
I was done with this farm and all the pain it had brought to me. Walking around the table, I grabbed the folder in front of Mr. Yarbrough, pulled out the deed to the land and signed where I needed to.
“Sell it, burn it, for all I fucking care,” I said, walking to my bedroom unable to meet anyone’s eyes.
I threw everything into my bag, looking around my room for anything sentimental I wanted to bring with me, but nothing stood out except a photo of the entire Malone family when I was a few years old.
The only picture I had of all of us together.
I grabbed that and a few more photos I had hung on to that I had hid from my parents.
The rest of my room didn’t even feel like me anymore, this was no longer my home. Right now, it felt like I had no home.
Shouting outside of my room reminded me I needed to get the hell out of here. I thought I would always have the farm even if I didn’t exactly run it. That it would always be here if I missed or wanted to come for a visit. I was so fucking na?ve and stupid.
“Goodbye,” I whispered to the room and the house that I grew up in.
I walked out, ignoring the fiasco in the living room,
“Iris.” Beau’s voice almost had me stopping but left straight to my truck. These men didn’t deserve an ounce of my attention anymore.
“Iris!” Nash yelled, as I opened my truck door.
I ignored him, throwing my stuff in the back seat.
“Iris, please,” he said, closing the driver’s door as I opened it. “I’m sorry. I should have told you. I came to Sterling Ridge to tell you what I needed to and just leave, but we—”
“I want a divorce,” I interrupted him.
“No.” He forced me to look at him. “Sit down and talk with me. If after I tell you everything and you still want to get divorce, I will sign the papers.”
His blue eyes held me captive. I searched for the truth that I didn’t even know was there.
“I will tell you everything, but don’t sign the land away until you hear everything,” he said, handing me back the deed.
“Nash, what the fuck are you doing?” Brooks growled, coming out of the house. “She signed it. Give us back the deed.”
“Petal, go back to Sterling Ridge and we will speak there,” Nash said, pushing the deed into my hand and pushing me into the truck like he was protecting me.
“Nash, I will cut you off once and for all, and if you think that DWI was a nightmare, then this will look like child's play.” Mr. Yarbrough came out of the house, furious.
Nash’s hand on my waist tensed as he went completely still. Beau came out of the house, the door slamming shut as he glared at Mr. Yarbrough.
“Beau, take Iris home,” Nash said, with a deadly edge to his voice.
“Nash,” I said, grabbing a hold of him, afraid to leave him with the threat his father had just given him.
Something wasn’t right and while I was still livid, I wasn’t going to leave him to fight this alone, I loved Nash.
I was mad at him for not telling me the truth, but I was fucking pissed at his father for selling my farm and being an asshole to his child.
I wanted to leave, something told me to stay and fight with Nash, even if it was the last thing we did together.