My brother is a greedy turd.
A few years after my dad passed away, my family decided to sell our small family house. It sold for a little more than four thousand. The money was used to cover my dad's funeral costs and the remainder was split between my grandmother, my siblings and myself (1K each). My dad's family didn't' like my mother. They were scared that my mother would take my little sister's cut and use it for herself. So, they decided to give my sister the money and tell my mother they were keeping it in the bank for her to take out once she turned 18. She was 16 at the time. I recall my ex husband and I taking my little sister to my aunt's bank to take out her money. We handed my sister the money in an envelope and I specifically told her not to waste it on small shit. It was the last remnants of what was left of our childhood. A few years later, my older cousin Roxy builds an enormous house on top of my dad's land. Animosity ensues and everyone is pissed and goes their own way, etc. etc....fast forward to now.
My older brother calls me yesterday saying that my aunt Emma can help us to fix this by swapping land with us since technically the land wasn't under my dad's name but under my grandmothers name. She told my brother that she would also buy that land from us if we didn't want to build on it. She asked him how much he needed, to which he replied 4K.
He asks me to call her and see how much we can get for it. My aunt says she can try and give us a reasonable amount but if it's too much, she will need to ask my grandmother for help (she is 85). I didn't want to put her though anything like that so I call my brother and tell him that if we can get 4K like he asked we can split it 3 ways and each get about 1,333 each. He laughs at this and insists that he get his cut of 4 or 5 thousand to build his small house on the ranch. When I tell him that the land may not be worth more than what he's asking, he suggests: that if my aunt can give us 5K, that HE be taken care of first. He would keep 3K and my sister and I can keep 1K, because after all... I just needed 1K to get a small car, right?.
When I accused him of being greedy and unfair. He said I was stupid and that going lower than that and my aunt could be technically "stealing from us". I said... "stealing? are you crazy?"
1. That is not technically our land.
2. If my aunt didn't swap lands with us, our land would be under my cousins big ass house.
3. She doesn't HAVE TO BUY it. The land is rendered useless since there is no way of getting to the land via driveway. So, there are no others in line waiting to buy this.
4. She is doing it to help us out. Money out of HER pocket.
5. The land that she's buying from us, which is actually her land.... if it value's as my dad's land... would be fair to equally split between all three of his children. Not 60/20/20.
Then he accuses me of stealing my sister's 1K from my dad's house money because nobody remembers my sister receiving 1K dollars. OMFG! I yelled at him for roughly 5 minutes and then I realized that he hung up on me. How dare he accuse me of taking money from my sister. Had I not needed that measly 1K, I'd give it to both of them equally. Fuck this. I'm tired of my brother being a greedy piece of shit. The world doesn't owe you shit, Joel. That is why people work for a fucking living.
I had to call my aunt late at night and explain the situation. I am glad that she was amused at my brother wanting the 5K for himself. She said No Way! No one gets more than the other. She said not to worry. She will have the land appraised and whatever the value is what we split or no deal.
As much as it felt good to know I wasn't the only one that saw this as crazy, it made me so angry. Maybe it was the fact that he could accuse me of doing something like that to my sister. Or maybe it was the fact that I tried believing he was more than what he seemed to be. I thought he could change and put his family first. That he would tell us, "Don't worry sis. This money will help us all in some way." Maybe it was seeing that he could easily let money consume him to the point that he puts himself before his sisters. I think I hated him for a very long time. I knew we had our differences but tonight when I tore open on the phone... I felt that it killed whatever last shred of respect and hope I had for him. Whatever happens to that money... I hope he gets his fix... because I seriously doubt that from now till the day I die, will I give a fuck about what happens to him. He may be my family by blood, but he isn't by heart.
But knowing my brother, it's to be expected. So I need to relax and let this roll off.
[ I have nothing to quote that can ease my mind from this mess. Confucius, if you are out there, bring me a good proverb of calm and peace. ]
