1: Maddie and Madz
MADDISON’S POV
It was raining heavily as I stood in front of the fresh grave. The ground was still damp and soft under my cheap flats, and the dirt was darker than the rest of the cemetery.
Maddox stood right beside me, and for the first time in his entire life, he was actually silent. He had his hands shoved deep into the pockets of his black suit jacket. The thing was way too big for him, a hand-me-down from a neighbor, and it made him look like a little kid playing dress-up.
We were fifteen, but standing there, we felt about a hundred years old.
We didn’t say much that day. Honestly, there wasn’t anything left to say. Grandma Juliette Rose Davis was our entire world, the only person who actually gave a damn about us, and now she was just... gone.
“Maddy,” my brother croaked, his voice cracking as he tilted the umbrella more over my head than his own. “We need to go. The relatives will be here to pick us up soon.”
I bit the sides of my jaw so hard I thought I’d draw blood. I wanted to scream. I wanted to curse. Where were these relatives when we went to bed hungry because Grandma didn’t have enough money to buy food? Where were they when our parents died in that crash when we were six?
They were ghosts for all our lives, and now they were showing up like they were our saviors.
“Come on, sis,” Maddox said, gently pulling my arm to lead me away from the mound of dirt. “This is what Grandma wanted. She’s the one who made the preparations before she died. She said we’d be safe with them.”
I hesitated, then put two fingers to my lips, kissed them, and touched the cold concrete of the headstone. “Goodbye, Grandma,” I whispered.
******
A few hours later, a massive black limousine pulled up in front of our tiny, rented house. It looked like a shiny, black alien spaceship parked on our cracked, weed-infested driveway. Our neighbors were all peeking through their blinds, probably wondering if we were being arrested or if we’d finally won the lottery.
“That can’t be them, can it?” I wondered, stepping outside with Maddox by my side. I kept waiting for the driver to realize he had the wrong address and keep going. But then the door opened, and a guy stepped out in a suit that probably cost more than our house. He asked for Maddison and Maddox Davis, and my stomach dropped through the floor.
“This feels illegal,” Maddox whispered under his breath as we stood on the sidewalk clutching our two battered suitcases. “Like we’re about to be trafficked or recruited into some high-end billionaire cult.”
I shot him a look, my nerves on edge. “Would you cut it out? If this is a cult at least try and make it through initiation.”
Maddox let out a small laugh, but I could see the way his fingers were twitching. He was the artsy one, the one who always had a sketchbook in his hand and acted like the world was just one big joke, but I knew him. He was terrified.
The driver opened the door for us. He didn’t smile, and he didn’t offer to carry our bags. “Your family has been expecting you,” he said simply.
“Family,” Maddox repeated, stepping into the limo like he was testing a theory about whether the floor would swallow him whole. “That’s wild. I didn’t think we had any of those left until Grandma mentioned them on her deathbed.”
I followed him in, and the sheer luxury of the interior made my chest feel tight. I was still so heavy with grief that I didn’t want to talk, but Maddox was already poking at things.
“I can’t believe we had family this whole time,” Maddox said as the heavy door thudded shut and the car pulled away. “And not just regular family, but loaded family. Look at the carpet in here, Maddie! It’s nicer than our bedsheets. I feel like I should take my shoes off just to sit here.”
I leaned my head against the cool window and watched our neighborhood disappear. I saw the chipped paint on the houses and the corner store where we used to buy cheap bread with gathered nickels. This was the only home I knew. Even if we were poor, Grandma made it feel like we were enough.
“How rich do you think they are?” Maddox asked, his eyes wide. “Do you think they’re nice?”
I scoffed quietly. “They’re trillionaires according to Google, Madz. Of course they aren’t nice. People with that much money don’t care about kids who grew up in a house with a leaky roof.”
Maddox laughed and leaned back into the expensive leather. “Maybe. But hey, at least they have air conditioning that actually works. That’s a start, right?”
He pulled his phone out, the screen was cracked in three places, and started scrolling through articles like he was obsessed.
“Dude, Maddie, listen to this,” he said, his excitement finally bubbling over. “These people own a maple syrup empire. Like, the real stuff. International exports. They’ve got estates in three different countries!”
“Good for them,” I said, staring at a cow in a field as we left the city limits.
“And apparently they have private jets!”
“Thrilling.”
“And a mansion with like fifty rooms! I could literally get lost and not see you for a week. Think of the peace and quiet!”
I finally turned to look at him. “You’re enjoying this way too much, Madz. We are moving into a stranger’s house because our only real family died three days ago. Have some respect.”
“But they are our family too, Maddy.”
“They are blood. That doesn’t make them family,” I snapped.
Maddox’s grin faltered for a second, and I saw the sadness in his eyes that he was trying so hard to hide with his jokes. “I’m just saying, Maddie. Worst case scenario is they hate us and kick us out. Best case scenario? I get my own room and a studio to paint in where the ceiling doesn’t leak on my canvases.”
I rolled my eyes, but my heart ached. I didn’t want a mansion. I just wanted Grandma back.
