Page 10 of Fierce-Matt

Both her father and brother were hotheads. It made growing up in the house a horrible place to be. She escaped to Phoebe’s as much as she could to just be part of a normal household.

One where they sat down for a family dinner and had caring and humorous family talks. No one yelled at the other and they sure the heck didn’t upend plates of food on the floor or throw them against the wall. EJ was famous for temper tantrums since the day Anya was born three years after him, often destroying his room or other objects in the house in a fit of rage.

When she needed calm the most in her life, she often got treated to Matt’s jokes and pranks.

At first they were funny. She liked the attention, but then he pushed the limit and only added more to her stressful life.

“What’s going on?” EJ asked. “Did they find out how much that bitch took and are we getting it back?”

She hated how he said “we.” The money would go to her mother and father.

That was EJ’s problem. He thought he’d get everything. Entitlement should have been branded on her brother’s forehead because it was the mantra he lived by.

“Not yet,” her mother said. “The police are still working on the amount and Shelly is cooperating.”

“She should be in jail,” EJ said. “Instead she gets to stay at her house and spend the money she stole from us to pay for legal fees.”

That was one thing she agreed with her brother on.

“It’s not up to us to make that call,” Anya said.

“Who is the person on the case?” EJ asked. “I’ll call and get some answers.”

There was no way she was letting her brother throw some weight around he didn’t possess and make matters worse.

“Don’t worry about those things,” her mother said. Amber Emerson thought the same way she did. “This is more about your father and what to do with the business. I told Anya that I think we have to put it up for sale. Maybe someone will want to buy it with the building, but otherwise, we need to close the doors within a few months. I don’t want to file bankruptcy.”

“This is a joke,” EJ said. “Dad ran it all into the ground on us.”

“EJ,” Anya said as patiently as she could muster when all she wanted to do was hang up. Her mother was crying. Her brother couldn’t see it, but even if he did, he wouldn’t care. “It doesn’t matter. We have to figure out the future. I’m going to list the business first and I think if we don’t get any offers in a month, then we liquidate supplies and assets, then sell the building.”

“That should go in mine and Anya’s name,” EJ said. “That way if Dad ends up in a home they don’t take it from you, Mom.”

She rolled her eyes and shook her head at her mother so fast she was getting dizzy.

“It won’t matter,” her mother said. “I’m not positive of the number of years, but it’s around three or five it’d have to not be in our name for that to happen.”

Anya didn’t want to think of what her mother was saying.

That her father didn’t have that much time.

“It stays in Mom and Dad’s name,” she said. “One step at a time. Are we in agreement on the business?”

“I don’t give a shit,” EJ said. “It’s not like I’m getting anything by the sounds of it, so do whatever the hell you want.”

She took a deep breath and then another so she didn’t pick the phone up, drop it to the floor, then stomp on it.

She wasn’t one to lose her temper, but her brother could knock the patience out of a sloth.

“That’s taken care of. Mom, can you give us an update on Dad’s appointment this week?”

“Your father is in the middle stages of dementia. It’s worse than I thought. He seems to have declined rapidly in the past several months.”

“The stress of the business that he let run into the ground hasn’t helped,” EJ said.

“EJ! Keep your comments to yourself. They aren’t helping,” she said.

“Whatever,” her brother said. She could see him waving his hand in her mind as if swatting the conversation away. “What’s the next stage, Mom? You’re home caring for him, isn’t that all he needs?”