Twenty-Six - Broken(.003)

"I'm sorry for your lost Shirley, if there is anything you need, Francis and I are just five minutes away you hear?" Madeline pulled Shirley into her arms and rubbed her back. Her and her husband said their goodbye and walked over to another conversation already in progress. Overall, Shirley was getting tired of the 'I'm sorry's' and the 'If there's anything you need's'. She wanted nothing more than to return to her bed and lay there with Micah's musical voice echoing in the background.

The woman looked around at the guests in her house and sighed. To her relief Faven was nowhere to be found. Shirley knew how Faven was when it came to protecting her, even though Faven was the youngest and it should have been the other way around, it was almost expected of her to take charge in the time of a crisis. This crisis was indeed different. In this crisis, Shirley preferred to suffer in silence and be left alone. Faven didn't take that too well.

She floated into the kitchen to make sure the food was doing well, along with the guests within it. Everybody was busy soaked up in their own conversations to notice her arrival, so she slipped into the kitchen, and snagged her a piece of bread. Shirley made her way pass the dining room and into the living room near the front door. No one was paying attention, so she slipped upstairs.

It was quieter up here compared to the yelling people downstairs. She took in a heavy breath and walked towards the sliding door that led to the balcony, which was already slightly cracked open. Peeping through the clear glass, she saw a pile of hair the same texture and color has hers blowing in the chilled wind. Quietly, she pushed the door open, just enough for her to slide in and not startle her son.

The rain had subsided for the afternoon and the sun was beginning to peep through the off-white clouds, but the cold still lingered. She rubbed her hands together and approached the bench Isaac was sitting on.

"Hey, what you doing up here?"

"Thinking."

Shirley sighed and took a seat next to him. "It's hard. I know, but we're gonna pull through. We all have to help each other."

He shook his head, rose from the bench and looked down at the grass below.

He was silent before he spoke. "I should have gone with you all. Why do I have to be so stubborn all the time? I could have just put it all to the side just to breathe the same air as him one last time—"

His voice broke at the last word and was interrupted by a series of sobs. As he began to break down, Shirley ran to his aid, and pulled the crumbled boy into her arms. It was only a matter of time before they were both weeping away in the privacy of the balcony.

"You just cry now." Shirley said between her own sobs. "You just let it out, you hear? He loved you. So much Isaac. I need you to know that." She pulled his face to look at her. "He loved you more than anything Isaac. You were his youngest and he'll always have a special place for you. So don't let what he did make you think he loved us any less because he in fact grew to love us more. He did it all for us." Suddenly, she realized not only, was she telling him this, but she felt as if, she were talking to herself as well. She pulled him back into her arms and rocked him as if he were still the seven year old boy she rocked to sleep the night Micah left.

Their sobs had settled enough to hear the squealing of tires coming to a stop on the yard. They both looked up, but only Shirley rose her head from her son's shoulder to see who was arriving.

A black car had come to a stop in a spot alongside the other cars parked in front of the house. A man appeared from the driver side door in a black suit and a briefcase in his hand. He shut the door, fixed his suit and began to approach the front entrance.

"Who is it mom?" Isaac asked as he rose from the floor.

"Not sure." Shirley pushed though the door, with Isaac trailing, and rushed down stairs to beat the man to the door.

As soon as she opened it, the man stood there looking down on the woman before him.

"Um, hello, I'm Keenan Weber. Is this the Brenton residence?"

Shirley looked around at her guests, who were still deep into their conversations before she spoke. "Uh, yes. May I help you?" She asked wryly.

"Oh yes, I have a matters to discuss with the family of Micah Fisher Brenton. You may be—?"

"His widower."

"Oh well, I am sorry for your lost—"

"What's going on?" Faven approached from behind. 

"Says he has something to discuss with us or something?" Isaac answered.

"Yes, I'm here to discuss the contents of his will. I'm Mr. Brenton's lawyer." Everyone in the doorframe grew silent. "If you wouldn't mind I would like to discuss this in a more private setting?"

"Oh yes no problem. This way." Shirley motioned the man towards her bedroom as he followed.

"Gather the rest of the family." Faven whispered to Isaac who nodded in approval and dashed off.

"Hello. As some of you may know, my name is Keenan Weber, I am Micah Fisher Brenton's lawyer, and I am here to discuss the contents of Mr. Brenton's testament or will. First I would like to begin with the video will that Mr. Brenton made shortly after discovering he was ill." The lawyer turned to the TV, but suddenly stopped and looked back at the family. "I ensure that this is for the eyes of his family and employer only, and this video will be played once, so please pay attention and keep your comments till the end." Everyone nodded and the lawyer turned to the screen and clicked play on the video.

"Hello everyone. As you may know, if you are watching this video, then my illness has run its course and I am no longer on this earth anymore. First off, I would like to say to my family, that I am the utmost sorry for what I did and out you all through for eleven years. Hopefully you all responded to my note and we had the opportunity to see each other one last time before my death. If not, then in my statement to each one of you I will tell you what I would have said to you all. So, let us begin.

"To Isaiah Brenton. My oldest son. You have such an amazing gift. Please do not throw it away on account of my mistakes. I know I can't make up for eleven years, and now that I'm gone, it will be impossible, but I can try my damnedest to pave the way to you becoming the best musician you can be. The world deserves to hear the magic you can make with your voice and what your fingers can do to a keyboard. Don't let them wait. So I leave you 30% of my estate, my property in Chicago and also my manager, Devon, and assistant, Zoe. They will take care of you and give you all the connections you need. I know the hatred you have for me maybe too much for you forgive me, but don't let your gift suffer. I love you son. I hope you change the world."

"Gabriel Brenton," Micah signed. "You cannot hear the love in my voice, but it is there. You may not be able to hear voices, but that doesn't mean the world should see yours. I've never seen someone with such a strong heart and a creative mind like yours. Use your paintings and your photographs to put a mark on the world, because they mean something. Don’t let them go to waste. I leave you 20% of my estate, along with my property in Houston. Utilize it. It may just be your next gallery. I love you."

"Isaac Brenton. This was the difficult to do, because I missed the chance to see you grow into a man that you are today. I know that if your mother had anything to do with it, you turned out into someone I know I would be proud of. You're soul is so kind and loving, but inside you're a rebel. Isaac, you're someone who goes out on their own to find the answers and make sense of the world yourself rather than taking other people opinions and settling for them. You remind me of how I was when I was a kind. Never let go of that. It will get you far. I leave you 10% of my estate and all the love I can give."

"Shirley Mae Brenton." As soon as he breathed her name his eyes began to water and hurt consumed his eyes. "God, I don't even know how to put into words how much I love you. I've missed you more than the body could miss food or air, more than a plant could miss water. You mean so much to me it hurts. I know when I left, you stopped believing in the love music brings and you turned your back on singing, but I'm asking that you continue for the sake of who you were. Music was a part of you before I came into your life and should remain there after I'm long gone. I've never seen someone fall so helplessly in love with music while you sing. It makes my heart liquefy. You can still break hearts Shirley, because you still break mine." Micah sighed and temporality looked away from the camera." I leave you 40% of my estate, along with the remainder of my properties. I will always love you Shirley. Hopefully we meet again.

"Oh, and Faven? Take care of her for me."

The room fell into a painful silence. Ellyn turned to look at Gabriel who was at a loss for words. She examined the rest of the room who were suffering from the same case dilemma.

Screaming thoughts and hushed lips.

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Told y'all I would get it out by August!

I hope yall enjoyed it! I wanted to show yall how Issac was handling this since we haven't seen much of him lately!

Now, about the second chapter. 

Seeing as my 18th birthday is TOMORROW, *dances* and I leave for college Sunday, I have no clue when the next chapter will be out. At the latest, it will be around Thanksgiving, but I'm going to try my hardest to do it before then, but I will be putting it on hold while I focus on my studies! 

Well, comment, lemme know how you liked it! 

Ps. I love you guys! Bare with me!