Page 12 of Dyson

The front doorbell rang, and Poppy went to answer it. After calling her to the front door, she had to sign for a registered letter that was from a law firm of Shuttle and Shuttle. Not bothering with thanking the man, she closed the door in his face after he told her that he had recorded her receiving the letter. The man had some nerve laughing at her when she asked him what it was about.

Opening the letter up, several business cards fell to the floor. While having Poppy pick them up, she read the letter that had come with them. Sitting down hard, she was shocked to see that her father had gone to all the trouble of letting her know that he was moving into the big house again with her step-sister Emma Walsh and her new husband.

“It says here that I’m not allowed on the property, nor am I going to be able to set foot in the house. What the fuck does that mean? It was my childhood home.” She didn’t bother trying to figure out what Poppy was saying but continued to read the letter. “It also says that while I’m mentioned in the will of my father, I’m not going to be receiving anything but a bill of laden for all the things that I’m supposed to have stolen or borrowed from him and never returned. What the hell kind of bullshit is this? I don’t owe him anything? Emma put him up to this. I just know it.”

“Does that mean that I won’t get anything either? Not as his only grandchild?” She told her thatthere was no mention of her. “Good. Maybe that means that he’s going to be leaving it all to me. That would be wonderful. Now you have to be nice to me, or I won’t allow you to live in the big house with me.”

“You’ll have me living there, or I’ll kill you where you stand if you try anything like that.” She just looked at her, and Darling went back to the letter. “Oh, here it is. It says that any offspring that I’ve had will not be considered family either and that they will not be mentioned in the will. I suppose that means you since you’re the only offspring I’ve ever had.” She was on the second page when she had to put the letter down.

“What is it, Mother? Did he say what he’s going to be doing with his money? If he leaves it to some charity, I’m going to be really pissed off. I’ve been waiting my whole life for some of that cash, and he’d better not be giving it away to some down and trodden place that doesn’t need it as much as I do.” Darling didn’t say anything to her daughter, thinking about what the rest of the letter said. “If you’re not going to tell me, at least let me read it. I don’t like the look on your face, Mother. I need to know.”

“He’s giving it all to Emma. Every stock and bond, every piece of property. Home and car. All of it is going to Emma as she has been his rock since she’d been his child.” She thought of the last line of the letter. “He said that he’s letting us know so that we can move on with our lives and not think about ways to get back at him or Emma since it would result in us being put in jail until well after he’s gone. It’s as if he’s thinking that now that we know, we’ll just give up on the money and the house and act as if it’s all right for him to be turning it all over to her. Christ, I’m going to be sick.”

She laid back on the couch she was on and closed her eyes. However, it was as if every word of what he’d said to her was burned into her brain. How could he do that to her? This wasn’t right. None of it was.

“What are you going to do?” She couldn’t think past the thought of what her father, her only father, was doing to her. “Mother? What do you want to do now? You’re not going to just give up, are you? That’s not like you at all.”

“I need to think, and I can’t do that with you jabbering all the time.” Poppy was pissed off and huffing and puffing all around the room. “Poppy. For Christ’s sake, will you just shut the fuck up and allow me to think for a minute. The entire world had just taken a big dump on me, and I need to figure out what I’m going to do about it.” Poppy took the letter from her fingers and looked it over. “You’re not getting anything either. That’s not right either. It mentions your father, too, on how he’s not even mentioned in the will as he doesn’t like him either.”

There were other things that had been said in the letter. How she was to pay back the four point three million dollars that she had borrowed from him over the years. The other two million dollars in things that she’d taken from the home and sold. It went on to list those items as well as the money that she’d gotten for them. How did he know that? How did he have such an exact price on the things that she’d taken to sell off and where she’d sold them too.

She must have fallen asleep at some point and woke up to an empty room. Good. With Poppy gone, she’d be able to think better. She did love her daughter but there were times that she wished she’d never had her. All she did was run her mouth on things that didn’t concern her and go on about things too that she had no idea what was going on. She needed to talk to her husband. Maybe he had an idea of what they could do to get their money back from her father.

“I got a letter from him as well. Right here during a business meeting.” Darling told him that Poppy had been here with her. “Yes, it does mention that any offspring that you had wouldn’t be getting anything either. I wish I had an attorney like his. Whoever it is, they’re good. Not a single loophole that I can find. And I looked hard, too. Did you read the business cards that came with the letter? He’s been tested for being sound of mind, so you can’t even get him on that either. Also, he has a clean bill of health from his doctor. There isn’t even a loop that we can use saying that he’s not fit to be making changes like this to his will. Christ, Darling, he’s going to do it. Take away all the shit that we’ve had to put up with over the years. Had I known he was going to do this, I swear I’d of nevermarried you in the first place. Much less had a daughter. What plans do you have now? I think he’s well and truly fucked us over. So anything you come up with will have to be solid.”

“I don’t know what to do. Killing him off won’t do me a bit of good. The will has been changed and filed. He made it a point to tell me that as well.” David said that he’d seen that too. “Poppy is more than likely going to go and try to suck up with him to see if she could get into the will as well, but I don’t see that happening. It’s too little too late, I think.”

“Poppy never cared for him or the manor. What does she think she’s going to say to him that will have him change his mind? That she’s had a change of heart? He won’t believe that any more than I would.” Someone spoke to him, and he answered. “I have to go, Darling. Now that things aren’t going to go our way, I’m going to have to keep my job so that we can have a roof over our heads. Christ, he surely has fucked us over, Darling.”

“I know.” She hung up when he told her again that he had to go. She realized in that moment that she had no idea what it was he did for a living as it had never come up before. For all she knew, he could be an attorney who could get them out of this mess with her father, but she just didn’t know. After all these years of marriage, she wasn’t sure that it was a good time to ask him. Just go on pretending like she has forever. It had served her well, not knowing anything that was going on around her.

~*~

Dyson loved the big room that he’d been assigned. It was the master suite, one that had a big enough bed for him and Emma was on the second floor with Emitte in separate rooms. Standing at one of the biggest windows he’d ever seen, he looked around the backyard and marveled at the color of the trees that were there. The changing weather was making the backyard a wash of warm colors, and he could stare at it for hours and not see all of it.

“Can I talk to you?” He turned around and smiled at Emma. “I’ve just gotten off the phone with your sister-in-law, Amy. She said that we’re married in the eyes of the court system, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t have a real wedding later. Why would she do that without asking?”

“I would say she thought that she was doing us a favor when it came to us having everyone believe that we’re married already so there won’t be any trouble with you using any credit cards that I’ve had made for you.” He walked to one of the three dressers that were in the room. “Here you go. I meant to give them to you earlier. Also, you should know that your grandda had her put our names on the deed to this place and every other place that he owns and is leaving to you.”

“To us. He’s left everything to us. And speaking of which, he’s decided that he wants immortality for a little while. He said that he wanted to wait around a bit and see if we have children so he can go back to his Sally, my grandma and tell her all the stories that he’s come to be a part of. Did you want to have children someday?” He told her that he would like to have as many as she wanted. “I don’t know how that is supposed to work. Do I have—speaking of dragons, there is one on my arm.”

She showed him the little dragon that seemed to be clinging to her skin. After asking her if it hurt, she said that it didn’t that she could feel him move when he did. Showing her his, a much larger dragon, he told her that he was there to protect her when she needed it. He mentioned a house fire and a car accident that his brother told him about. She didn’t seem all that concerned about it but only nodded when he finished.

“Will we need to have sex at some point soon to bond? I have a wolf friend who told me that I’d be safer if we were to have sex. I don’t know if I believe him or not, but he seemed to be sincere when he was telling me.” Dyson told her that it was true, that she’d be stronger and have more magic. “I have that too. Magic now. I only just realized that I could change my clothing at will and that when I want something, a glass of something to drink, it’s right there for me to enjoy. You’re saying that I’ll have more than that.”

“A great deal more, as I’ve been told.” She nodded and moved around the room. “I feel bad for taking this room from you. Are you sure you wouldn’t be more comfortable up here and me take one of the smaller rooms?” She stood beside him without speaking and seemed to be engrossed in the window’s view. “If you wanted, we could both sleep in here with separate beds if you’d like.”

“I want to sleep with you. No sex right now. I’ve never slept with anyone before. But I would like to get used to having someone in the bed with me.” He said that nothing would happen unless she wanted it to. “I’m glad to hear you say that. I’m not ready for sex just yet. I mean, we’ve only known one another for a few days. I’d like to get to know you by asking you questions about yourself and being a dragon.” She looked up at him. “Can I see him? Now?”

“We’d have to go outside. I’m fairly large and would ruin the house if I were to shift into him. But I’d love for you to see him. I know that he’s ready to show off for you.” She turned and left him in the room. Dyson had to laugh. She wasn’t one to waste words when she wanted something, and he liked that about her. Going down the stairs, she said she was going to the backyard there should be plenty of room out there for him to shift.

“My dragon can come to me in parts. What I mean is I can shift just my hand into him or bring out my tail a little. I don’t have to shift all the way if that would be something that you’d like.” Emma told him that she wanted to see his entire dragon. “All right. Just don’t get too close to his tail. It’s quite large and sometimes has a mind of its own. It’s very sharp and could harm you. He won’t want to, but it could happen.”

Even though she said she wanted to see his entire dragon, he took his time in shifting. First, his body elongated, and then his great arms and legs. As each part of him moved to be his other half, Dyson was careful that she didn’t seem frightened by him. When he was fully dragon, he laid down on the cool grass and watched her.

“You’re beautifully scary, if that makes any sense.” He told her that it did. That all his brothers were scary. But not so much as their mother was. “I would imagine that with her job as a time adjuster, she’d have to be large enough to shift the world around.”

His mom and Aunt Ember, Mom’s sister, had been time adjusters forever. They would go about the world, changing things that perhaps would take out a single person that might be needed in the future. Or his descendants. They were so good at it that there would never be that many flaws in the timeline that would have people confused. One time, his mother told him she’d had to make it so that a mountain didn’t come down on a little town so that a child that his family would need later wouldn’t die. They both did that until they met their mates. That, as a matter of fact, was how she’d met his dad.

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