All the Aches in the World

Chapter 2 : His Responsibility

Emma was watching from the doorway as her brother rustled through their mother's desk in her office. Papers had been strewn everywhere, not touched since the day she died. It didn't matter now, not when his sister's whole future was on the line. He had to find something, documents, letters that confirmed what was written in the one that was given him, signed contracts, anything. But after ten minutes of searching, looking over everything twice, he still found nothing. Either his mother hid everything from him, or they could be in her office at the company building. It was difficult to make sure of anything now with the view of his mother becoming misconstrued with this new truth falling down upon him.

My mother sold my sister for her company.

Elliot's company now.

His responsibility.

It was his job to fix this.

He glanced up at his sister then, her eyes still tracking his movements. She had tried to get him to calm down and explain what was going on, what was prompting his rushed and aggravated state. But he was in too much of a silent rage to do more than acknowledge her presence. She took up a post in the doorway instead, waving off anyone else who tried to enter and speak with her brother.

I can't let this marriage happen. Not to my little sister, he thought, teeth grinding hard in his skull.

He marched out of the office, Emma making sure to give a wide berth as she followed after him through the house. When he arrived at the garage, snatching his keys from the collection on the hooks by the door, Russell appeared in front of him like a ghost. The family butler, always there to see to whatever needs any of the Charles family had. As if he could smell an ability of being needed from a mile away.

When Elliot was younger, he used to think Russell has a crush on his mother because of the endless lists of anything he would do for her. He was even able to anticipate her needs. She had later explained it as Russell doing his job, to serve her and her family. Which always included his siblings and himself. And Luna, too, once she had married into the family.

Marsha said Russell was her best friend.

Looking at him now, Elliot could see the grief clinging to his face. To the deep wrinkles along his his cheeks, across his forehead. The darkness rounding under his red limned eyes. Impossibly so, his gray hair graying even further. Russell was always a master at hiding his true emotions, and seeing him like this...Elliot wanted to hit himself. He had never even asked after him to see how the old butler was doing with the loss. Did he ask about anyone else his mother employed? Did he even ask if Katherine was okay?

He let out a deep and shaky sigh.

"Mr. Charles," Russell started, voice neutral and deep. "Do you wish me to drive you somewhere, sir?"

Elliot shook his head, grabbing a coat from the little closet to his left. "Thank you, Russell. But I won't be long."

There was no room to argue as he pushed past and out into the garage. The fluorescent lights blinked awake at his entry, enough to make him squint at the five cars lined up in the garage, each just as expensive as the last. One of the many legacies his mother expected him to keep up after she's gone, no doubt.

He moved past Emma and Ethan's car, rounding to his own he had bought just a year ago, his first major purchase as an adult...even though it was with the money he earned from working at his mother's company at the time–

His company.

He supposed he should call it his own. And with that, there was no worry about who the money came from.