My grandmother’s passing crushed me. She was the woman whom I was really close to. The two of us would spend our summers in her beautiful duplex. The same duplex that was now left to me and and my sister Amanda.

Honestly, my grandma’s decision stunned me a bit. Amanda never wanted to spend any time in that house. We used to go there together when we were young, but during the past years, she avoided spending any time in the duplex or with our grandma.

I got the first floor, which came with a pool and a beautiful garden, and my sis got the second floor.

As expected, she wasn’t happy because she wanted the pool for herself.

“Ems, you know I should be the one having the pool. You don’t have the money to maintain it. By June, you’ll go bankrupt. Just sell me your part of the house,” Amanda said one day. Of course, I said no. I knew things were the best when it came to finances, but I would never sell my grandma’s inheritance to my greedy sister.

When Amanda realized I wouldn’t act upon her wishes, she and her kids tried to make my life a living hell. They would play football indoors, threw candy and stuff on my porch, and every morning would start with the thundering of what I could only assume was a herd of elephants.

The last straw came one peaceful afternoon. While I was enjoying mulled wine on my porch, looking at the dancing of the snowflakes, a muddy shoe landed in my pitcher. When I confronted Amanda about it, she just said, “Oh, Ems, kids will be kids,” and slammed the door right in front of my face.

The due date of my exhibition was approaching, but Amanda’s actions drained the last drop of my creativity.

One evening, in the middle of the night, I was woken by the sound of dripping. I thought it was raining heavily, but when I realized it wasn’t, I knew something was wrong.

In the middle of my living room was a pond of water. Droplets pattered onto the floor like crazy. I placed buckets under the leak, but the water started spreading even faster, laughing at my attempts to protect my floors and what was left of my grandma’s duplex.

I rushed upstairs and knocked on Amanda’s door. “What brings you here at this time, sis?” she asked with a huge grin on her face.

“You know exactly what,” I said, frustrated by her behavior. “My living room is flooded.”

“Oh, it must be the pipes,” Amanda said. “You know, this duplex is so old.”

Jack, Amanda’s husband, appeared at the door with a flashlight in his hand. “Don’t worry, Ems, I called Ryan, he’ll be here any minute.”

“Ryan!? Who’s Ryan?” I asked.

“He’s a plumber, he’ll get everything fixed.”

And, there came Ryan, a broad-shouldered man holding a huge tool box. He checked the pipes and said they were ancient. But what he said next made me question his professionalism. “You know, the pool is to be blamed,” he said.

I was confused. How could the pool have anything to do with the leak inside the duplex?

“The plumbing for the pool is poorly connected to the house’s main system. Over time, the pressure increased, straining the pipes, which eventually caused the upstairs burst,” Ryan explained.

Amanda’s grin on her face turned even bigger. “See, sis, you better sell your part to me before this place crumbles. You don’t want it to crumble, right?” she said.

But I was determined to keep my part of the duplex, no matter the cost.

Well, speaking of the cost, Ryan asked for a little fortune in order to fix the leaking issue.

I just went downstairs, contemplating my life. Then, I noticed a letter at the mail. It was from my dad. He invited me over for Christmas.

My relationship with him wasn’t the best. I had held grudges against him ever since he remarried, but feeling fed up with everything, I decided to go.

When I arrived at my dad’s place, Amanda, Jack, and their kids were already there. To my surprise, Ryan the plumber was also there.

“What are you doing here,” I asked him. My step-mother was quick to intervene, “Oh, I see you two met already. Ryan is my son.”

Well, of course he was. He and Amanda made a pact to get me out of my grandma’s house. She knew I didn’t have money for the repairs, and he asked for a sum I couldn’t possibly afford.

As we started arguing, my dad yelled, “Stop it already. Everyone take your seats and hear the truth.”

It turned out that my grandma left her duplex to my dad. He was planning on giving it to me and Amanda, but he wanted to see if we would get along living in the same house so he convinced us that grandma left the place to us.

Sadly, we failed him. Both him and our late grandma.

Amanda and I became aware of the trouble we had caused.

The rift between us had grown so wide that even grandma’s home, the one place that used to keep us together, couldn’t hold us anymore.

During the next couple of months, we started getting along. Her kids were welcomed to use the pool under supervision.

By the summer, the house was transformed both inside and out. It became our sanctuary and a reminder that family was the most important thing in the world.

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Bored Daddy

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