Chapter 7 – Elna
I was hurt in a way that my own daughter threatened to take the company hostage. She would do it too. I could see it in her eyes. Gemma always reminded me so much of myself and in that moment it was no different. I didn’t know if I was proud or furious. In honesty it was a little of both.
After dinner, no one felt much like talking and the damper in the air was so different than the jubilation everyone had felt at the hospital yesterday. I went to bed that night feeling like the worst mother in the world. I wish I could tell them why I wanted to sell their childhood home. I really didn’t have a choice, but I knew that it was going to be hard for them to understand. If I was truthful with myself, I didn’t understand why it had to be that way either, but I knew that there were very little choices in life sometimes. Now that I knew the truth.
I didn’t want to burden them with what I knew. I knew that they wouldn’t take it well, as I hadn’t. But there was too much at stake and with almost all of my children at home, I was thankful for that. The fact that one of my sons was out of the country was actually a good thing for once. Nothing could happen to him if he just stayed away long enough for me to figure it out.
If I had been able to just sell without their say, I already would have. But the thing was that my smart daughter pointed out, a mathematical impossibility. I did have Braxton’s okay to sell, he was actually the one that pushed the sale to begin with. I was more than happy to stay at the company and the ranch the rest of my life. It had always been what me and my late husband had thought was going to happen. I just didn’t know that it was going be the way it had turned out.
I had hoped that the kids would just go with it. I was their mother after all, but apparently I had raised them to have their own mind and they weren’t going for it.
Tossing and turning all night, I had nightmares about what was going to happen if I didn’t get them to agree. I knew in my heart what was going to happen and I wouldn’t even bear the thought. I didn’t want anything to happen to my family. They were all I had left and nothing else really mattered.
***
“So?”
I sighed inwardly and swallowed hard. I had been dreading the call for some time, but I knew that it was going to come. He wanted results. Braxton wasn’t a patient man and the things he would do to get what he wanted were not hard to imagine. He would have his way, one way or another and I knew that I wasn’t going to like the way he chose. He was not going to be happy with my lack of progress.
“It didn’t go so well. I told you that they were going to resist it.”
“Well that is why I sent their mother to break the news to them. That was the whole point of this exercise. I could have come up with results already. Do I need to go to my way of doing things Elna? You know I am very good at making people see things my way.”
I blanched and looked away. He was in my office again and though I had done my best while I was at home, the children had banded together and the sale was not going to happen with their blessing. I couldn’t tell him that though. It would be the end of it.
“I just need more time Braxton, that’s all. It’s a lot for them. All of their memories of their father are there.”
“Is it worth them dying for it?”
Braxton was always like that. Even when he had first convinced my late husband to go into business together with him, Braxton had always been very pushy of his ideas. He was supposed to be a silent partner, but he had been pulling the strings all along. I know now that there was no way that I was going to be able to work things out with him. Braxton was the type to get his way. He had a lot of unsavory types that worked for him, but he was the type that didn’t mind getting his hands dirty. He enjoyed the dirt work and there was no way that I was going to let my family get dragged into all of that. There had to be another way and no matter what was happening at home, I had to keep them from it. That was all that I knew for sure.
“Stop saying that. Don’t you think you have done enough to me and my family? I don’t need to be constantly reminded of what you are capable of. I know what kind of monster you are.”
He tsked me and I wanted to hit him. As his hands moved up to my face, I pulled away. There had been a time, before I had known the truth and seen him for who he really was, that I would have melted in his arms. I had loved him at a time when I was most vulnerable, but now his very touch made me nauseated. I no longer loved him, but hated him with every fiber of my being. What he had done to me was enough to hate him for the rest of my life.
Pulling my head back to break the contact of his hand on my face, he made this low chuckling sound in the back of his throat that was almost as bad as his hand on me. He didn’t seem to be bothered by my move, but actually further amused that he was making me so uncomfortable.
“Then stop treating me like I am your husband. I will not take your sharp tongue Elna, so you need to make better choices in the way that you talk to me.”
I nodded my head and I hated the fact that I knew there was fear in my eyes. It wasn’t supposed to be like that. I knew that it wasn’t supposed to be like that and all I felt for him was numbness and fear. Nothing good was going to come from this all.
“I will do the best I can Braxton. Please stop threatening the kids. They are all I have left. You made sure of that.”
“Then remember what I can do. I will not hesitate with the children. You have to remember that your husband was my best friend and if I will do that to him, imagine what I will do to those I care nothing about. You don’t think.”
“Just give me some more time. I will go back down there this weekend and try again.”
He shook his head and I could tell that he wanted to touch me. He had a look of desire in his eyes and I couldn’t believe that he could look that way in a time like this. How could he be thinking about sex at the same time he was threatening to kill my kids? And it was all for what, a few extra dollars?
“That’s not going to be good enough, though if you do me a favor, maybe I will return it, but I am not going to make any promises.”
I knew there was no half ground with him and even if there was a chance that I could get more time, there was no way that I could be nice to him in the way that he was wanting. I could never be with him or look at him in that way again. Why couldn’t he see that?
“No favors. Just give me a couple of days, please.”
“No, you have until tomorrow evening at this time to make them see your way. If not, well you know what is going to happen.” His hand came out as I backed away from him and he pulled me close to him, my body flinging against his hard chest. “And don’t act like you have a choice Elna. If I wanted you bad enough, I would just take it.”
His mouth came down on mine and what had once given me such pleasure, now made me feel repulsed and there was nothing I could do about it. He was too strong and too ruthless. Braxton always got his way.