The O'Neal Girls Chapter 26

Just so you guys are aware, towards the end of the chapter, when Albert talks, it won't quite match up with what he tells the girls when he first comes home. I changed some things up while writing this chapter, so he didn't tell the girls everything when he first returns...hopefully that makes sense.

Enjoy!

More tension in this chapter but the siblings finally talk too :)

Chapter 26

            Paul left the cabin a few minutes later. He had been planning to go visit the Carters so he could explain what had happened and express his condolences. It was the proper thing to do. When he saw Caleb, he mentioned that he would stop by the Carter farm later that afternoon and Caleb said that would be a fine time.

            When he saw Caleb’s pinto was missing, Paul assumed Belle and Caleb had went riding together. What he didn’t bargain for was entering the barn and finding Belle a sobbing mess in the hayloft.

            “Belle! What happened? Are you hurt?” Paul bolted up the ladder when he heard the pitiful cries.

            “We broke off the engagement!” Belle sputtered through her sobs.

            Paul frowned; he knew Caleb and Belle were having problems but he didn’t think they would call off the wedding.

            “It’s all my fault!” Belle wailed.

            Paul shoved his hands in his pockets. “Well…uh…you wanna talk about it?”

            “I just want to die!”

            Paul stepped backwards, “C’mon, Belle, it can’t be that bad.”

            “Caleb doesn’t want to marry me!”

            “He’ll come around!”

            “No, he won’t!”

            Paul sighed and crawled down the ladder. He hurried inside the cabin and found Lillian with Oakley in the bedroom.

            “Lillian, you gotta go talk to Belle.”

            Lillian looked up from where she was changing Oakley. “Why’s that?”

            “I found her crying in the hayloft. She and Caleb called off the engagement.”

            “What!” Lillian spun around.

            “I was just as shocked. I tried to get her to talk about it but she can’t stop crying. I hate when girls cry, Lillian. I get more uncomfortable than a sinner in church.”

            Lillian smiled slightly. “You take care of Oakley and I’ll talk to Belle.” She gathered her skirts and made her way into the barn. She could hear Belle’s shameless tears as she stepped up the ladder. Her heart broke as she saw Belle leaning against a hay bale, shoulders shaking.

            “Belle…”

            Belle looked up and saw Lillian and her sobs only increased. “Lillian, I’ve ruined everything!”

            Lillian sat beside Belle and hugged the younger woman. “I’m sure that isn’t true.”

            “Caleb said I love my siblings too much and that’s why he broke off our engagement.  I promised Mama…I told her I would raise the girls for her. I tried so hard to raise the girls, but they hate me. Everything Mama did in raising the girls…I ruined it.”

            “No, Belle! Look at the girls. Cassandra is a strong, capable woman, Danielle has grown into a beautiful young lady, and the twins seek to help wherever they can. Lynn and Megan are doing well in school and Nadia is the sweetest little girl I’ve ever met. You did that. You took what your mama started and you have done a commendable job with the girls.

            “But now, you need to move on to a new chapter in life. You’ve done your duty raising the girls, and now I’m here to finish for you. You’re so concerned for your siblings and that can be a good thing, but it’s no way to live in constant worry! I know you love your siblings and Caleb, but the love you have for Caleb is much different than the love you have for your siblings and parents. You can have both kinds of love, but you need the right balance. Your husband needs your whole heart. You can still love you siblings, but Caleb needs all of you. You can’t split your heart two ways; you have to find that balance.”

            Belle sat up and dried her tears on the sleeve of her dress. “Yeah….I just don’t want to let go. I hate change.”

            “Change can be difficult…but it is necessary if we want to move forward.” Lillian took Belle’s hand, “Things will work out.”

~~~

Danielle and the twins worked together to scrub the kitchen clean after lunch was finished. After staying quiet all morning, Danielle couldn’t hold it in any longer.

            “Why would you want to move to a city anyways?” Danielle inquired. “You love living out here in the country!”

            Elsie hastily brushed a piece of hair behind her hear. “It just seems like there would be more opportunities for us in Mapletown.”

            “Like what?”

            “Like better schools and a college.”

            “What in blue blazes would you do with a college?” Danielle shouted.

            “Danielle! Language!” Lillian reprimanded, walking into the kitchen at that moment.

            “Well, what’s so important about a college?”

            “Maybe I want to go to college and become a nurse!” Elsie announced.

            Danielle stared at Elsie in surprise. She never would’ve guessed her sister wanted to be a nurse.

            “If I stay here in the country or even Fairburn, I will never have the chance to pursue my dream! I’ll just end up marrying a farmer and raising a dozen children with no purpose!”

            “I didn’t know you wanted to be a nurse…” Danielle said quietly.

            “Because you’re so focused on yourself, Danni!” Faith joined the argument. “All you care about is what you want. Just because you love it here doesn’t mean the rest of us don’t have aspirations for other things!”

            “You may be happy to stay here for the rest of your life, but we aren’t,” Elsie said.

            “Cassandra wants to stay too,” Danielle defended.

            “Cassandra is only staying because she’s engaged to Joe!”
            Cassandra, hearing her name, entered the kitchen. “What about me?”

            “They think the only reason you don’t want to move to Mapletown is because you’re engaged to Joe,” Danielle clarified.

            “That’s not the only reason!”

            “Oh c’mon! Why else would you want to stay?” Faith rolled her eyes, “You’re a grown woman, you don’t need Paul or Lillian. You’re just using them so you don’t have to get a job.”

            Cassandra gasped. “So I’m just a freeloader? I don’t have a job because I’m here helping with taking care of you girls! Someone has to clean up after you while you’re at school and doing homework.”

            “It probably wasn’t even homework that Elsie is always doing. She’s probably just reading about nursing and using it to get out of housework.”

            Belle suddenly slipped in the back door.

            “Where have you been?” Cassandra asked.

            Belle shrugged her shoulders.

            “Probably planning when she’s moving us to Mapletown. Why do you want us to move so badly? You have Caleb now; why don’t you want to stay here?”

            “Well, I don’t have Caleb anymore!” Belle announced.

            The shock on the girls’ faces said it all. Lillian sank down to the nearest chair, knowing that she couldn’t stop this, she had to let it happen.

            “What?!” Cassandra squeaked. “When did this happen?”

            “This morning,” Belle sniffed. “Caleb and I had a fight and he broke off the engagement.”

            “You and Albert are ruining everything!” Danielle shouted. “Everything was fine until Albert came and started talking about moving and Belle just followed right after him!”

            “Danni,” Faith whispered.

            “No! They’re ruining this not just for us, but themselves. Why am I the only one who is seeing this? Our old life is over! We all have new lives now and we have to move on! We will never be the same family that we were three years ago. We have to let that go and move forward.”

            “It’s true,” Cassandra nodded. “Belle was moving forward when she got engaged to Caleb, but now all this happened and now look. Albert came back with Charles and messed up everything.”

            “It’s my fault too,” Belle protested, unable to let Albert take all the blame. “I just want what’s best for us. I promised Mama…I just don’t know what’s best for us.”

            “Well it is about high time you admitted you are wrong!” Danielle exclaimed.

            “You aren’t always right either,” Belle snapped. “Remember when you left Titus Corie in the woods and he died?”

            Danielle left like a knife had been thrust into her gut when she heard Titus Corie’s name.

            “You thought you were doing what was best, but you were wrong and he died!”

            “It was a mistake!” Danielle protested.

            “As were mine!” Belle returned. “We all make mistakes. I’m trying to do what’s right for everyone but I’m not perfect!”

            “Enough!” a male voice sliced through the female voices.

            The girls turned and saw Albert.

            “Ever since I came back, all you girls have done is fight and argue. I’m sick of it. We need to sit down and discuss things now.”

            Lillian sighed in relief. This is what they need to do. Albert and Belle need to work things out, everyone needs to apologize, and move forward. She rose to leave but Danielle gripped Lillian’s arm.

            “Stay, Ma,” Danielle said, fear in her eyes about how this sibling meeting would end.

            Lillian shook her head as she unlatched Danielle’s hand. “Sorry, darling. You all need to work thing out among yourselves. It might not be pretty, but it needs to be done. This is your business, not mine.” She offered Danielle a wry smile and reassuringly stroked her back.

            Belle, Albert, the twins, Cassandra, and Danielle sat down at the kitchen table and stared at each other in solemn silence. None of them had enjoyed the past few days. The family had always been close to each other, not at each other’s throats.

            Albert coughed and looked down at his boots. “I’ve been avoiding this…because I didn’t want to talk about it, but I need to come clean and be honest.

            “It was wrong of me to come back here and ask you to leave. I know that we can never have the life we used to have together, but I hoped that if you came to Mapletown with me…that you girls could fix things for me. I didn’t leave on good terms…I didn’t quit my job. I was fired because I got drunk and cussed out my boss. I was tired of the guilt I felt for leaving you girls, I was tired of the responsibility of watching out for the boys, I was just mad so I got drunk to forget it all. I decided I was done worrying about anyone but myself. I only did things that made me happy—that’s how I got in with the wrong crowd. I went off the deep end. My girl, Judy Tye, refused to see me again and she convinced her parents to keep Isaac and Kenny long-term. They forbid me to come see the boys anymore. I wasted my time and money in the saloon for a few weeks until Charles came to down and offered me and my friends a job. Our reputations in town prevented us receiving any local jobs so we agreed to do whatever Charles wanted us to do.

            “I thought that maybe if you came back with me, people would give me a job. I thought maybe you could smooth things over for me. But that was wrong of me to want that from you. I’ve done wrong…a lot of wrong…but now I gotta make it right. I want to ask your forgiveness for helping Charles and killing Davy. I apologize for trying to make you girls come back to Mapletown.”

            Belle and the twins whispered that they forgave him. Cassandra nodded her head slowly. Danielle crossed her arms and stared her brother down.

            “I’ll forgive you, Albert. But you better change and never do anything like this again.”

            The other sisters nodded emphatically.

            “I will. And that’s what I need to talk to Belle about.”

            Belle turned to Albert and waited expectantly.

            “Belle…we don’t have a say in the kids’ lives anymore. We raised them for Mama and Papa and that’s all we were to do. Cassandra, Danni, the twins, and Gideon, they’re all old enough to make their own decisions. Lynn, Megan, and Nadia have the O’Neals as their parents now and Isaac and Kenny have the Tyes.

            “When we were up in the Black Hills, we had no one else and it was okay for us to run the family like we did. But our roles have changed. We have to move on to our own lives—separate from our siblings. I know you love us Belle and we all love each other and we have great memories together. But we’re your siblings, not your own family. You and Caleb need to go start your own family and you can care for them and love on them with all that love you have to offer. I know you don’t like change but, Belle, we have to change.”

            Belle wiped her eyes. “I know…Lillian told me the same thing. I just have a hard time letting go.”

            “We can take care of ourselves, Belle,” Cassandra said gently. “You taught us and raised us so that we could and now the time has come to let us go pursue our own lives. I want to start a life with Joe, Elsie is thinking about being a nurse, and Faith and Danni have their own lives to start too.”

            “If you don’t let go now, Belle, you’ll never get Caleb back,” Albert said.

            “You’re right; but even if I do let go, Caleb still doesn’t want to be related to you.”

            “You let me handle that, alright? If you promise to let go and move forward, I’ll make things right with Caleb.”

            Belle didn’t know how Albert would do that, but she nodded her head anyways. “Alright, I promise.”