I Actually Have Four Properties
Mr. Hayes's face was a stony mask as he stomped over to the sofa, fishing two bank cards out of a worn, peeling leather bag. He sat down and patted the empty spot beside him.
When Avery sat, he got right to it. "When your parents died in that car accident, your mother's family, your grandmother and uncle, took most of the settlement money. But I managed to get some of it back for you."
He paused, looking at her as if seeing a ghost.
"You were just a kid then. Your aunt and I tried to talk about it, but you wouldn't have understood. I was going to wait until you came home for the holidays to tell you all this, now that you've graduated."
He ran a rough thumb over the two bank cards, his voice growing thick with memory.
"After your mother died, her family had a huge falling out with us.
But you were such a good kid. When they asked who you wanted to live with, you said you wanted to stay here.
That's the only reason we were able to hang on to your parents' things for you."
He cleared his throat. "They were smart, your parents. Educated people. Worked at some investment bank, I don't really get what they did, but they made good money. Before they even got married, they each bought a house in California. After they passed,
both properties were transferred into your name."
He shook his head, a grim set to his jaw.
"I must have fought with your mother's brother a dozen times to hold onto those two houses for you. If the law hadn't been on our side, her family would have picked clean the estate your parents worked so hard for."
Talking about it seemed to pull him right back into those difficult years. Back then, Avery was just a little girl, oblivious to the war being waged over her future. It had all fallen on her uncle to fight for what was hers.
His voice turned a little hoarse. "California has developed like crazy since then. The houses were in a prime location, and they were eventually torn down for redevelopment. I didn't take the cash payout. Instead, I traded them for four new properties, all in your name.
One of these cards has the original settlement money, only fifty thousand dollars left of it. The other has all the rental income from those four properties, saved up over the last sixteen years."
When he said "fifty thousand dollars," his eyes turned red.
Her parents' lives, boiled down to a cold, insulting number.
They'd been in New York City on a business trip when the crash happened.
Two lives, and between the company payout and insurance, the total was over two hundred and fifty thousand.
The Chen family had taken almost all of it.
"I've been saving all this for you," he said, his voice firm again. "It's yours now. You handle it from here." He shoved the two cards into Avery's hands, then pulled four bright red property deeds from his old leather bag. The deeds were old, their edges worn soft with time.
A heavy silence settled in the room. Her uncle didn't say anything else, just watched her.
"Uncle," Avery finally managed to say, her own voice sounding deeper than usual. The sight of the old man's reddened eyes sent a wave of bitterness through her. That one word, "Uncle," carried a secret she could never, ever tell him.
She desperately wanted to confess that the niece he had raised and protected was already gone, a casualty of a malpractice suit.
That she was just another soul borrowing this body.
But she couldn't. She didn't have the courage.
The four property deeds in her lap felt impossibly heavy, like a stone pressing on her chest, making it hard to breathe.
She tightened her grip on the papers, forcing herself to pull her thoughts together. "Uncle, please, you keep these for me."
Her childhood was a blur. If he hadn't brought it all up, she never would have been able to access these memories, the ones the original Avery had deliberately buried.
In those fragmented memories, she'd lost her parents at eight, and her aunt and uncle had taken her in.
They didn't have much, but they'd raised her like their own daughter, never treating her as a burden.
She'd studied hard, driven by the dream of making enough money to move them out of the countryside.
But it seemed the original Avery had never known the family's real situation, that they weren't struggling at all. She was always so focused on her studies, and after graduating, she went straight to work at the hospital. She never had time to go home, so she never found out.
Whether the original Avery knew or not, the fact that this man had fought so fiercely to protect her inheritance was enough to earn her deepest respect.
In her past life as a lawyer, she had seen families tear each other apart over money, brother turning against brother.
Her uncle's integrity moved her to her core.
Avery lowered her eyes, a knot forming in her throat. Her eyes began to sting, and she had to fight to keep her composure. She took a slow, deep breath, forcing the feeling back down. When she looked up again, her expression was calm, though her eyes were still rimmed with red.
"You're a grown woman now. Why would you want me to keep them?" Mr. Hayes cut her off with a deep sigh, pressing his large hands on his knees to push himself up from the sofa. His back was still straight as an arrow as his eyes lingered on her face, his gaze seeming to look right through time.
"Avery, you have to make something of yourself," he said, his voice raw.
"Back then, your other uncle got right in my face and cursed me out. He said a country guy like me could never give you a good life, that I'd only hold you back. I've held on to that anger for sixteen years. So you have to succeed. You have to show the Chen family what your uncle is capable of."
He swiped at his eyes. That fight had nearly broken him.
He'd begged and pleaded, calling in every favor he had just to get back what belonged to his brother and sister-in-law.
But the Chens were well-connected in California, and his brother's company was based there, too.
What could a farmer from the outskirts of Westlake City do against people like that?
With nowhere else to turn, he had finally swallowed his pride and gone to New York to ask an old army buddy for help.
Only then did he manage to claw back that fifty thousand dollars and secure the two properties.
"Alright, alright, you're too old to be crying," he said gruffly, unable to stand the sight of her tears.
"I made gumbo, your favorite. Eat dinner and get to bed. Don't you have to go to New York tomorrow?"
Before he finished, he turned and walked toward the kitchen, his back to her, hiding the tremor in his shoulders.
"Uncle," Avery called out again, her voice steady now. She carefully separated one property deed from the other three. Then she tucked the three deeds and the bank card with the fifty-thousand-dollar settlement back into his peeling leather bag and zipped it shut.
"You keep this card for emergencies," she said, her tone leaving no room for argument. "I'll hold on to one of the properties. You can take the rest back home and keep them safe for me."