Page 41 of Feeding Hope
When we arrived home, our parents were there, waiting for us. Based on their expressions, I knew I was in for another argument, and I already felt emotionally bankrupt.
Our father was apparently in charge of this conversation. “Boys, my office.”
Resigned to the argument ahead, I headed down the hall. Since we were little, we’d always called it The Lair. For nineteen years, our parents never allowed us inside unless we were in trouble, which didn’t happen often. Jamie spent more time there than me.
My father sat behind his desk, and my mother stood at his side, one hand resting on the back of his chair. No seats were available in front of the desk, so we stood before him, like supervisors at his company about to be taken to task.
“Jesse, your mother and I have been discussing your friendship with Lyrical Mewes.”
I kept my face blank, staring him in the eye.
“This obsession has gone on long enough. Your mother presented you with our offer, as you blatantly disregarded her wishes by attending the funeral. We are offering you one last chance to come to your senses. If you see this young woman again, I will not be forwarding your tuition payment to Stanford tomorrow.”
A double bluff? Possibly.
“All because I’m friends with Lyrical? A girl who had the misfortune to be born in poverty. Who works her ass off to make herself a better person and deserves none of what life has dealt her?”
“You are correct, Jesse. She can’t control the circumstances she was born into. But you were born into different circumstancesthan she was, and it’s inappropriate to lower yourself to her level.”
“Inappropriate to lower myself?” Seriously?
Beside me, I felt Jamie vibrating with anger. Of the two of us, he was the rebel twin, constantly called on the carpet for his inappropriate behavior. His, however, was more of “boys need to sow their wild oats” type, and they believed he’d straighten out with age. However, my actions stemmed from progressive ideas about mixing social classes, and apparently, society did not permit that. It was something to be stamped out rather than grown out of. Not that I ever would.
“Yes, Jesse.”
I’d never been someone to rock the boat. I was about to do so now.
“Then I guess you have to do what you have to do, Dad. I’m not afraid of hard work. I’ll take the year off, get a job, and then apply to the local state school next fall. You don’t need you to pay my tuition.”
“Then you won’t be living here, either.” My father stood up from the desk, buttoned his suit coat, and pushed a piece of paper across the desk at me, turning it right side up. “If you insist on traveling this path, you will do it alone.”
“What is this?” I asked.
“I’m effectively disinheriting you. This is the codicil to my will, which I’ve just drafted and had witnessed while you were out. Beginning tomorrow, you will never receive a penny from me if you have any contact with this girl. Everything we’ve provided for you will be forfeited. You will leave this house with nothing.”
My jaw tensed. I felt a tic in my cheek. “Fine. I choose Lyrical. I don’t need your money.”
“Think about this long and hard, Jesse,” my mother added. “We’re not bluffing.”
“Neither am I, Mother.”
I turned, left the room, and went upstairs to my bedroom. When I got there, I thought long and hard about my next steps. If they treated people like this, I didn’t want to be like them, and that’s what might happen if I stayed. And if my parents were willing to disown me so casually over this, they weren’t people I wanted to claim as my own either.
I cataloged the items in my room. Things I paid for with my own money I packed. If I couldn’t recall, it stayed here. I wasn’t taking the chance.
I’d been at it for about twenty minutes when a knock came on my door frame, and I looked up to see my twin. “Do you have a plan?”
Sighing, I replied. “For now, I’m grabbing a bag of stuff that’s mine and getting a hotel room. Then I’ll go to the bank. I’ve got money from grandpa that’s mine outright, and they can’t keep it from me. I’ll move it to another bank. Then I’ll go get a new cell phone and laptop. Once those things are done, I’ll start figuring the rest out.”
He leaned against the doorjamb. “Almost ready?”
I looked around my room, one last glance at my nineteen years as a Forbes golden child. Sadly, I didn’t think I’d miss it all that much. Would it be a change? Sure. Would I wonder occasionally if it were worth it? Undoubtedly. But I knew in my heart I was doing the right thing.
“Yeah. I’m ready.”
As I walked past him, he picked up a backpack and followed me downstairs. I stopped when we got outside. “What are you doing?”
“I’m going with you.”
