??| ???????? ??? ??? ─ ?????? ??????

The girl woke up the next morning with a weird feeling in her stomach. Today was the day of the Open House and she hoped it didn't happen at all. The girl got out of bed and walked downstairs. She saw Belly standing in the hallway.

"Hey Bells."

"Sh." She said, pulling the girl closer to the wall.

"What?"

"Aunt Julia's here."

The girl's eyes widened. "Already?"

"Yeah."

"Oh hey Belly. And..." A girl said to them.

"Briella." Briella said to the girl. 

The girl nodded. "And Briella. I'm Skye."

"Hm." Briella slowly nodded. She didn't want to trust this girl. For all she knew, she could be as evil as her mom.

"Sorry, we just smelled muffins." Belly said walking into the kitchen, the girl following her friend. 

"You guys want one?"

"Uh those are for the open house." Aunt Julia spoke. "Morning."

"Mmm, did somebody get muff..." The girl heard Jeremiah's voice. "Muffins? Hi."

"Hey Jeremiah." Skye said. "Conrad."

"Skye." Conrad said, not excited to see her. "You didn't tell me she was here too."

"It's 'they', not 'she'. God. I guess it's been like a decade since I saw you guys. Um, how are you doing since you mom?" Skye asked, concerned.

"It's been rough." Jeremiah answered.

"Rougher now that our aunt's stealing our house." Conrad said.

"I'm not stealing anything, Conrad. Like it or not, I get to choose what happens to this house and I choose to put it on the market." The girl rolled her eyes at the woman. "You boys should get on the road. Beat the traffic back to Boston."

"There's no chance. We're staying for the open house." Conrad said. The girl knew he wasn't gonna give it and neither was she.

"Hey dad."

"Hey pumpkin. Are you having fun? How's Jeremiah?"

"Um..."

"Is something wrong?"

"They're selling the house?"

"What?"

"After Susannah died, the house now belongs to her sister, Julia and she doesn't want it so she's selling it." Briella explained to her dad.

"What about Adam? Shouldn't he do something about it?"

The girl scoffed. "Yeah you would think. But he said he's got his lawyers to look into it and it's legally Julia's."

"So he isn't gonna fight for it, he knows how much that house meant to Susannah. Gosh that guy was always such a prick."

"Yeah. he wouldn't even let Conrad and Jeremiah took out their trust to pay for the house."

"Of course he wouldn't. Do they need money, I can buy it for them and they don't even need to think about paying me back."

"Dad, Conrad doesn't want our money. He never did. I already asked him."

"How about I'm buying it for you as like I don't know an 18th birthday present. But typically it's for them?"

The girl chuckled at her dad. She liked this side of her dad. The side that cared for her. "Dad, I don't think they'll like that."

"Yeah you're right. Just let them know if they need anything, really anything, I can help. I own Califia Farms for crying out loud."

The girl chuckled. "Thanks dad. Night."

"Night pumpkin."