[ 41 ] 2014

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"My name is Clarissa Hood. My deepest condolences at the passing of our nephew. But I think we have some financial matters to discuss."

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Calum's remains were kept in the hospital morgue for about half a week before they were transferred to a funeral home. Arthur and Harleen were taking care of all the arrangements. Calum had been Arthur's nephew after all, and Arthur was his last known legal guardian before he passed. Harleen just didn't want Harley to have to be involved in any of it. Not that she was even emotionally secure enough to do anything. With only one week of school left, her parents didn't make her go to classes and Billy explained to the teachers that she was not going to return for the rest of the school year. At this point, none of them were even sure if any of them would make it to the graduation ceremony. Harley was likely not going to make it, while Billy and Cindy didn't want to celebrate when she was feeling so upset.

Harley spent the next three days in her room, spending all of her time crying and in her bed. She wasn't eating and spending hours asleep to forget about her troubles. Harleen and Arthur were often mind controlling her into having to eat because she wasn't doing it on her own. Arthur was something of a wreck too. He was coping with his own grief at having lost a nephew who he cared about. But his powers included emotional manipulation and empathy. He could feel the emotions of those around him, and Harley's grief was so great that he couldn't find it within himself to sleep at night either. He didn't eat and walked around disheveled all day. His facial had grown out substantially too. With his emotional manipulation powers, he knew he could easily get her to stop feeling depressed. But death was a natural part of life and he just didn't want to do that to her. But Harleen noticed too and was worried for both of them.

Two days to the graduation ceremony and Calum had been buried at the St. Genevieve's cemetery alongside his parents and his sister. The whole thing was so surreal for Harley Quinn. Just a couple of weeks back they had buried Ashton and she would have never imagined then that she would be back there today burying her boyfriend. Her eyes were red and puffy, but there were no more tears running down her face. It was like she had run out of them.

Luke Hemmings had been sent to jail following the assassination of Calum and the attempt on Harley's life, as well as the fact that he had injured his own sister. But it came as no surprise to anyone when it was found out that his parents had paid off a bunch of judges to get Luke ruled insane. The trade off for sparing him being thrown in jail for the rest of his life was that he had to go to an asylum for a number of years until he could be ruled clinically cured. Cindy apologized deeply to Billy and Harley for everything, but they assured her that it wasn't her fault. She had said so to her parents too, that she did not agree with how things were handled.

And her father dangled his money and power in her face coldly, something that did not surprise her in the slightest. He told her that if she did not comply, and did not agree, she could leave his house, and that had been exactly what she did. For years he had ignored her, and whenever he was around he insulted her intelligence and instilled misogynistic thoughts in her head. How she had to get a good husband to take care of her because she was too stupid to do anything else with her life. The family fortune would go to Luke anyway, and she was to find some other way to cover her expenses eventually.

He didn't allow her to pack anything--no clothes, none of her belongings, no car. He had left his daughter homeless and without a single penny, all without a single bit of remorse. It wasn't like she needed it anyway. Cindy Hemmings had a real family to support her. Harleen and Arthur had invited her to stay with them. She would be turning eighteen in less than a month anyway, and did not need her parents permission to move in with her boyfriend and his family. Luke had asked to see Cindy before being sent off to the mental hospital and she agreed to see him, but that did not mean she agreed with how things turned out for him in the end. Harley asked her to be more sympathetic towards her brother, as she knew things were not entirely his fault. It had been Con's doing and Luke was only a pawn in all of it. But she would have to explain it to Cindy later, with more time.

The funeral services were a couple of hours, each of them said a few words, and then they went to a designated plot of land where he was to be buried. Harley felt her heart sink into her chest at the realization that this was happening. She really would never see Calum again. And it was all because she had decided to go back to the past and tamper with things. If she hadn't taken it upon herself to be this grand savior, perhaps Calum would still be with her. Even Ashton would still be with her, as a ghost.

Harley sat alone on the grass near his grave as people slowly started to leave. There hadn't been many people to attend in the first place, which was just as well. She was tired of people constantly asking her if she was okay, when it was quite obvious that she wasn't. Her parents, her brothers, and her friends stood a few feet off and watched her with heartbreak across their faces. They were all so young, and had experienced so many horrible things throughout their lives. Harley just wanted to crawl into her bed, fall asleep, and wish it all away. She hoped that upon waking up, Calum would be there by her side. 

Maybe it was just a bad dream. But no matter how many times she fell asleep, it was all real and it wasn't going away.

-

With Calum gone and no will under his name, the family fortune that had been left for him by his grandfather was to go to any surviving family members. That was his aunt Clarissa Hood and his uncle Arthur Vega. His aunt hadn't shown up to the funeral, to see her nephew off, but she did show up later in the afternoon to talk with Arthur about the division of the money and the properties. Harley could see from her balcony how a luxurious black car parked in her driveway and a woman in a black pantsuit emerged from it. Her eyes were concealed by expensive sunglasses and she walked with purpose as she made her way up to the front door. 

They came from the same mother, but they were polar opposites. Clarissa Hood dressed in expensive clothes, drove an expensive car, and seemed to feel like she was better than everyone else. Arthur was more simple. He had changed out of his funeral clothes and into a pair of black chinos and a grey t-shirt. When he opened the door, he seemed confused to see her. He did not know her, he had never met his sister before. All he knew about her was that she lived out of town when she got married, and now had three kids who were probably teenagers by now.

"Can I help you?" He asked the mysterious woman.

"You must be Arthur." His sister smiled at him, but it was a cold and calculating smile. Not at all like he was her sibling, but more like he was her competition. "My name is Clarissa Hood. My deepest condolences at the passing of our nephew. But I think we have some financial matters to discuss."

He was instantly taken by surprise and then annoyed by her words. He thought that she was heartless and cruel. His daughter was upstairs, still crying over Calum's death, and this woman was there not feeling anything. She was more concerned about dividing the money amongst themselves. "I really don't think now is a good time to talk about this. So if you'll excuse me..." He started closing the door in her face, but she then surprised him again when she used her shifter powers to force the door open. Had he known she had those powers, or that she was going to use them, he'd have been more prepared to handle her. But as it was, she was marching into the living room home like she owned the place.

"I think now is the perfect time to discuss this. The sooner the better." She said, her tone nice but with underlying tones of hostility. As she looked down at her hand, she said more to herself than to him. "I had forgotten how great it feels to use my powers." Surely her husband and her children were merely human and she never got to use her powers around them.

Hearing two voices in the living room, Harleen emerged from the kitchen to take a look. The care taker was with the children in their bedroom, and she was currently preparing dinner. Her blonde hair was pulled back into a messy pony tail, and she was wearing an apron and oven mits which she removed when she saw they had someone there. "Love you could have warned and told me we were having company tonight." She scolded him slightly before stepping forward and offering the woman her hand. "Hi, I'm Harleen. Are you a friend or relative of Arthur's?"

The woman nodded. "I'm his sister."

Arthur sighed at that, but said nothing.

"Oh, well come in." Harleen said cheerfully. "I was just finishing up dinner. I made Arthur's favorite."

A smile formed on Clarissa's lips as she rejected Harleen's offer. "Thank you. But I just have some important things to discuss with my little brother and then I'll be on my way. I wouldn't want to burden you."

"Alright, lets just go into the study." Arthur urged her, gesturing for her to follow him. The room had once been Aaron's personal work space. But now that he was no longer living there, Harleen had offered it to Arthur as his personal office. That way he wouldn't have to take a plane and then drive out to the outback every time he needed to get some work done. That meant she would have him around longer and he didn't have to disappear for days like he usually did. It was a win win for the both of them.

Clarissa followed him and they entered the room, closing the door behind them to give them some privacy. Not that there was anyone that could eavesdrop anyway. The caretaker was with the children. Billy and Cindy were in his bedroom watching movies together until dinner. Harley was in her bedroom by herself and Harleen was making dinner. But he just didn't want them to hear the terribly selfish things he knew his sister was probably going to say. He could feel that she was likely not going to be as bad as Cole, but her problem was that she was just overcome with greed despite doing very well for herself without her family's money.

"I think the easiest way is to sell all the properties and divide the money in half." She immediately started trying to negotiate with him. But Arthur really was in no mood to argue with her or with anyone over money. His nephew had just been buried that day. A part of him just wanted to tell her to just keep all of it. But the other part of him didn't want all that money to go to someone so selfish. Then he thought about Calum's friends--Niall and Andrea. If they sold all the properties, they'd be left without a home. They could easily stay with the hunters, but Arthur figured that Calum would at least want them to have the house. 

Arthur gave a shake of his head, refusing part of the deal. She had started to explain to him that most of the money was old family money and houses. But the only thing that brought income was a little mattress factory that could not compete with big chains, but brought in some revenue. "Leave me the house on this block. You take the main house a couple of blocks away. Do whatever you want with it. Other than that, I don't care what you do to the rest of the properties and the money. Just split it however you see fit." That was all he really wanted. For Niall and Andrea to be taken care of. He could have easily done it himself with the money he had. But he just didn't find it fair to let his sister run off with the entire fortune.

He really just wanted to get it over with. His sister saw his urgency and grinned. "Okay, little brother. I will do just that. I'll have my lawyers send over the paperwork for you to sign our agreement. But it was nice doing business with you. You're far more reasonable than I thought. Our brother Cole pegged you to be some money hungry orphan. I really thought I'd have to pry this money from your cold dead hands." She laughed loudly at her own words and then rose from her chair.

Arthur then led her out of the house and sighed again as he saw her speed down the street.

-

a slightly filler ish chapter before we once again get into the good stuff, guys. i finished with twenty minutes to spare. then i'm going to work out because i'm trying to lose weight for health reasons and also because i just want to feel better about myself and my body and i just want to look pretty. i know it sound absurd, but i just have never felt pretty. and then it just kind of sucked last week i went out with my friends.

and one of them told me that when he first met me, he thought i was really ugly because i was fat and have no ass. when i tell yall i almost cried, i really did because he said it in front of all our friends. but i contained myself bc i hate seeming weak in front of others and i just pretended to laugh it off. and just bc he added, "but now that i know you, i think youre cool." doesnt make it any better.

i felt fat shamed and ugly. de por si, i have never felt pretty to begin with. i have oily skin, huge pores, im overweight. i literally have no curves. im flat as a board. and hearing that from someone else just pushed me to start eating better and working out. so it doesnt seem like alot. but i started out at 205lb and now weigh 199lb after a week and a half. so that's some progress. my goal is to reach 130lb though. and i believe i can do it. i mean, my biggest weight a couple of years back was 240 and i made it down to 205. so i think i can make it the rest of the way.

sorry for the depressing a/n guys. i just had to vent. have a wonderful day. 

-clary