He couldn’t quite help the way the corner of his lips quirked, the little scene that unfolded before him tempting him to smile and laugh but he stopped himself. Smiles and laughter are two things he’d never shared in his brother’s presence, saved perhaps for forced and fake ones that served to annoy the other. “I guess so, sure. I doubt any of my neighbors would let you in if I turned you away.” he said, shoulders shrugging almost instinctively and opening the door wider as he turned to walk back into the house.
Confused, of course, was the foremost feeling in him right now. It wasn’t only years that had gone by between them but distance, circumstances, experiences, and it showed in both of their faces. Right now Angus had no doubt that his resembled one of absolute resignation - he’d never been good with confrontation, dealing with problems, figuring out the best course of action forward without letting his emotions get the best of him which was why at the moment he was stumped. Family had always been first for him, perhaps to an unhealthy point (considering that even then his wife was one that his father had sent his way), and he couldn’t simply let things fall apart with his wife just as much as he couldn’t tell his brother that he wasn’t exactly the first person he wanted to see right now. It wasn’t so much that he had forgiven and forgotten any and all the transgressions he felt the elder had done to him but that it wasn’t a priority to him now. For so long all he’d done was forge his own path, making sure that it deviated further and further away from his brother’s that it became easier now to hear what he had to say without thinking that it was some sort of power play again or a demand that he “do his part for the family” as though that wasn’t what he’d been doing for most of his life.
Leading the way to the living room, Angus waved a hand in the direction of an armchair, sitting himself on the one opposite it. “If you had to go all this way just to ask me something, then it must be a huge favor or a really big something… so I’ll hear you out.” he said, trying not to focus on how odd it was to see his brother in his family’s home, not quite remembering if it had happened before. “For the effort.” he added, just to make sure that as calm as he was now, he wouldn’t give in so easily to whatever it was he knew his brother would be offering him. That’s all he ever had anyway: offers. Not random visits to see how he was doing, no house calls or invitations, just meetings and offers.
Bradley followed his brother into his Home with a smile. He hadn’t been turned away at the door, and he considered what next he would say as they approached the dim-lit living room. The Living Room was homely, decorated humbly, and Bradley noticed the framed photos that hung upon the wall. He noticed the eldest; Silas. He noticed the twin boys; Ace and Ade. He had heard much about them, but none of what he heard came from their father. Bradley took a seat, lifting his irises to meet Angus’, and realized that he wanted to talk about the boys more than what he was there to Offer. “How are the boys? Jonathan tells me Silas is quite the athlete. Swimming...I think he said. I can’t remember a time when an athlete of this family wasn’t on the field.”
His shoulders hunched back, and he offered a blue manila folder to Angus. It was weighty and leaden as he offered it, he thought his arm would give out any second, but he remembered the reason behind the offer and it strengthened his resolve. A stretch of time separated Bradley from the rest of the family for a number of decades, as it had separated Angus; a time decorated with circumstance and experience and hard-learned lessons, death and sacrifice. To an ordinary family it would have been easy, too easy, to rekindle what time eroded. In their family, however, it would take time and proof, hard-work, and a man to drive them together. Bradley resigned himself, thereupon the time he returned to Rosewood, to tie his family together again. Because they were what mattered.
“Thank you for hearing me out.” A precipice had risen, then. Between bringing Angus back into the fold or losing him to the wreckage of time, arranged marriages, and fatherhood. He needed to say what he had never said. But felt. “You knew there would always be a place for you at the Company, and I’m here to ask you to take what’s been yours from the start. Starting tomorrow, you could be President of Chadwell Enterprises.” Bradley had been careful, but he was neither a fool nor too cautious. He was trying to meld their paths together, again; Tinsley, Bunny, Angus, and himself. Not twenty-four hours before he approached Angus’ doorstep, Brad offered Tinsley one-hundred million dollars for the purchase of her company by Chadwell Enterprises. Because Bradley wanted them under the same umbrella. Because he wanted to have accomplished it before it was too late.
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