tidal wave

Breanna remained sitting downstairs on her laptop but had moved to the dining area, Conrad was sitting opposite her again on his phone texting people. Bre was thinking about all sorts of scenarios that could happen on the phone with Conrad's dad but she didn't know if Adam would see sense. Bre was never a big fan of Adam since she found out about his affair when Sussanah was sick and she never appreciated the amount of pressure he put on Conrad and the lack of support he seemed to give both his boys.

"Do you mind if I join?" Belly asked as she and Jeremiah entered the room. Bre looked up to see Jeremiah and Belly holding hands, meaning they'd made up.

"Of course, this house is ours as much as it's yours" Comnrad said gesturing for her to sit down. As he moved to sit down next to Bre he noticed her screensaver was still of everyone at the Thanksgiving the year before. It made him somewhat happy to think back to that Thanksgiving it was the first one that he remembered with happy memories and it wasn't ruined by his dad or some other family judgement. And it was the only one he'd spent with Bre.

"Thank you," Belly said smiling, she felt awkward around Conrad since Sussanahs funeral as she knew the amount of pain he caused her sister and she didn't like it.

"You've helped us get this far, both of you" Conrad said looking down at his phone. Bre flipped her laptop down as she tuned in to listen to the phone call.

"Dad, Hey," Conrad said answering his phone.

"Hey, Con. I only got about a few minutes here." Adam spoke through the phone, Bre rolled her eyes at the thought of his not even having the slightest time for his sons to call him.

"Hey, Dad" Jere said causing Adam to go quiet, they all knew that Jere was Adam's favourite as he was more like him.

"Jere? You're in Cousins, too?" Adam said sounding annoyed, Bre and Belly looked at each other knowing if he told Laurel about this they'd both be in trouble.

"Yeah, just got here last night," Jere said bluntly, Bre looked at Belly and rolled her eyes. It was typical of Adam to not know that they both would've come together to fight for this house.

"All right, look, I got a heads-up from the bank telling me you're trying to access your trust. That's not gonna happen."

"So you've already made up your mind?" Jeremiah said raising his voice.

"Yeah. I mean, that money is for your future. I'm not gonna let you blow it on a beach house." Adam said getting defensive. Bre looked at both the boys and saw how annoyed they were getting. Adam would never truly understand how much the beach house meant to them because he was never there for the memories.

"It's not just a house, Dad. You want me to beg, Dad? 'Cause I will. I will. I'll do whatever you want." Conrad said passionately, Bre reached out to hold his hand which he put into a fist. It was the only thing she could think of to do to let him know she was there.

"Guys, I had my lawyers look into any possible loopholes right after the funeral, but there's none. Okay? The house is legally Julia's." Adam said, Conrad sighed knowing that he'd known for a while.

"Wait, so you've known we're losing the house since the funeral?"Jeremiah said angrily.

"Jere, I'm not your evil father trying to ruin your life. Believe it or not, I'm just as upset as you are about it." Adam said once again trying to smooth things over but not smoothing things over just making it worse.

"That's such bullshit. That's such bullshit. You never cared about this house, Dad. You never cared about it 'cause you never cared about Mom." Conrad shouted, letting go of Bre's hand as he said it. She quickly moved her hand by her side to not draw attention to it.

"You know that's not true. Jere, come on. You get it, don't you?" Adam said again directing his words towards Jere which was making Conrad more annoyed because Jeremiah was always the one to fold and go to his dad's side but Jere wasn't budging this time.

"Dad, I-I don't, I don't get why we can't just use our trust to buy it, and then we can sell it later if we need the money," Jeremiah said desperately trying to find a way to keep the house.

"No. Julia's gonna go ahead with the open house tomorrow. I appreciate the attempt here, but this is the end of the conversation. You just make sure that Julia gets everything that she needs. You got it?" Adam didn't even care or listen to what Conrad and Jeremiah had been saying and he was treating it more like a business deal than a family issue.

"Conrad was right. Talking to you is pointless." Jeremiah spat before Conrad hung up the phone. Bre sighed knowing all the hope they had was gone. Conrad went to take Bre's hand again and noticed she'd crossed her arms so he could grab her hand again. He realised when he dropped her hand it probably hurt. The four teens were all looking around at each other all seeing the disappointed looks on everyone's faces.

"So that was a waste of time?" Belly asked breaking the silence.

"I still have my inheritance left and there's a possibility of getting through to your trusts, right?" Bre asked trying to instill hope into everyone.

"Ana you don't need to use your inheritance, we will figure this out" Conrad said brushing his hands through his hair. There were two things Breanna always found attractive about Conrad one was him relentlessly calling her Ana even when he knew she hated it and the other was when he was overthinking or stressed brushing his hands through his hair.

Breanna didn't even have time to think of a response before two people fell through the front door. Bre turned to look at Con and Jere and they were both as surprised as she was.

"Surprise!" Taylor and Steven said in sync. Breanna started laughing because she hadn't told Steven she was at Cousins so he must have found out from Taylor.

"Oh, Shit!" Taylor said looking at all of their faces, although they were all surprised and happy to see them they also had to tell them about losing the house.

"I knew we should have told them we were coming" Steven said walking towards the table where they were all sitting.

"No, it's not that. We are losing the house" Belly said getting up to hug Taylor and Bre got up to hug Steven. A hug they both needed.

"They put it up for sale" Conrad said sighing.

"Oh, Cinderbelly" Taylor whispered.

Bre looked up at Steven who she was standing next to and had missed her younger brother a lot. And she knew she wasn't leaving this house until they had made up.

"I bought you blueberry" Steven whispered to Bre knowing if he told Belly she'd eat them all before Bre could have some.

Bre looked back seeing Jere exit the room and head towards the beach. Bre looked at Conrad who hadn't even noticed before he quickly got up and followed. It was something Bre was always good at reading for each of the teens when they needed support and this time she knew Jere needed his brother.