Moving On

Chapter 1 - Part 2

Tyler clutched the phone in his hand and waited for the grief to come, but it never came. Perhaps he'd already done his grieving twenty years ago. Perhaps his childish hopes that his grandfather would someday turn up at his door finally died.

Whatever it was, he couldn't find a single ounce of sadness or any feeling of loss.

"What is it, Ty?" Joanne asked. "Is it work?"

Tyler couldn't deal with Joanne right now.

He stood and strode away, hoping to put some distance between them before Joanne started her motions of coaxing, then whining, and eventually throwing a fit to get her way.

"Ty." Joanne sighed and hurried after him. "What's wrong?"

Tyler rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"You know you can tell me anything. I'm your fiancée," Joanne cajoled while Tyler cringed.

He didn't know how Joanne had got into her mind that they were engaged; they weren't even a couple. She was simply his friend's spoilt younger sister.

But he wasn't interested in dealing with that right now.

Going into his room, he slammed the door behind him—right in Joanne's face.

"Ty!"

He closed his eyes while Joanne continued shouting for him from behind the door. He wasn't in the mood to entertain her; he never was.

He sat on the ledge by his window and gazed out of his house. He'd wanted to go back to the mansion for the longest time. Not to visit his grandfather, but to look at the house he'd grown up in.

He hadn't been back there since his parents' funeral.

He remembered everything about that day. He remembered crying his eyes out when they lowered the coffins. He remembered Marianne embracing him while his grandfather turned his back to him and walked away. He remembered how he'd called after his grandfather, only to see him getting into a black sedan.

His grandfather didn't bother to turn back and offer him a hug or even some kind words.

Instead, almost as soon as the funeral was over, his grandfather got someone to pack up his things and ship him and Marianne off to another house.

Every day, he waited for his grandfather to come for him or at least to visit him, but he never came.

Each time the phone rang, he would race to it, only to hear another unfamiliar voice.

Not once did his grandfather call to check on how he was doing.

Once he was out of sight, he was out of his grandfather's mind.

Why should he go to his grandfather's funeral when his grandfather had never bothered to look him up for the past twenty years?

He never understood why his grandfather was so cruel to him. He was just an eight-year-old who didn't know any better.

Marianne had told him that his parents' death was an accident and it wasn't his fault.

Then why did his grandfather punish him by abandoning him when he needed his grandfather the most?

Tyler clenched his jaw and tightened the grip on his phone. Just when he'd made up his mind not to attend the funeral, his phone rang with another call from another unknown number.

He sighed and picked up the call. "Hayes."

"Tyler Hayes?"

"Yes."

"Good evening, Mr. Hayes. I'm your grandfather's lawyer, Joel Sawyer. Your grandfather insisted that I read his will in front of you, Miss Marianne West, and Miss Kate Mitchell after the funeral. You will need to be present before I can reveal the contents of the will."

Tyler rolled his eyes.

He didn't need any more money. The company that his parents ran became his when he turned twenty-one. There was only one thing he wanted—the mansion.

The mansion that he grew up in and was ripped from after having his parents taken away from him.

"Let me know what the contents are over the phone. You can call me after the funeral."

"There's a clause stating that if you do not turn up, no one else in the will gets anything."

Tyler drew in a long, frustrated breath.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Hayes. I'm merely following your grandfather's instructions."

Though he wasn't willing to attend the funeral, he couldn't allow the bad blood between him and his grandfather rob Marianne of what she rightfully deserved.

For the past twenty years, she was all he had. She was his only family; she was there for him when no one else was. He couldn't allow his anger to blind him to that fact.

He sighed and said, "I'll be there."

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