[ Alright this might be the last update for a little bit, it's finals week for me, so bear with me! ]
They buried her father next to her mother a few days later. Alessio has helped her plan the funeral, sending information out to her family in North Carolina, as well as anyone from either one of her teams who wanted to come and pay their respects. Alex and Servando as well as Ashlyn and Ali had all come, along with several players from the Orlando Pride. They were going to be on a break for the next couple weeks before the victory tour, which she had full intentions on competing in, but for the next week or so she was not going anywhere near the Orlando Pride stadium. First her mother almost a year ago, and now her father. She needed a little time to recover, for her own good. She had reached out to Marc, and he told her to take as much time as she needed. She had to figure all the legal and financial ordeals out, and it was going to take a little time to get everything done. She also needed a mental break from it all, and although she was only planning on giving herself the next week off, it was going to be enough to refresh and restart.
The day after the ceremony, Casey and Alessio made the trip down to Tampa to her childhood home, a place where Alessio had only been a handful of times. Atlas was staying with Alex for the day while they went through the home, Casey deciding to pack up and donate, sell, or put things into storage. Anything she wanted to keep with her they would bring it back to their home. What she did not realize was that she was going to have to go through her mother's things as well, for her father had never gone through it all. They threw on some music, trying to make the best of it all, and started down where her room used to be. The bed was still there and there were some furniture pieces that she left behind, but a lot of it had either gone with her or was already in storage. He looked around the room as she started to pack what was left, deciding to just put it into storage with everything else. They went room by room, some rooms not having as much as the others. Around one in the afternoon they had a little more than half the house packed and ready to be moved to storage or donated. They took a short break from packing and hung around in the kitchen, Alessio finding an unfinished case of beer in the fridge.
"Your father had good taste." Alessio said as he handed her a can, and she smiled.
"Yeah, he did." She responded as she put the can to her lips, gulping down some of the alcohol and sighing. "How did you feel when your dad passed?" Casey asked him out of the blue.
"Honestly? When I first found out he had passed, it didn't hit at first. I felt numb, but no tears came. It had been coming, he had stage four lung cancer, and we were all kind of expecting it. But after it sunk in, I felt lost, like I was drowning and I couldn't come up for air. That was about four years ago now, and I miss him, but those feelings have faded. I promise it gets better, sunshine." He told her, and she gave him a small smile as he squeezed her knee. "Why don't you go grab more boxes from the truck and I'll start in the bedroom?" He suggested.
"Yeah, sure." She said, hopping off the countertop and setting her can on the counter to go grab more storage bins out of the bed of his truck. He took his beer with him as he made his way to one of the last rooms to be packed, which was Patrick's bedroom. He sighed as he stood in the doorway, looking around the master bedroom. He decided the closet would be a good place to start, so he set his beer down on the dresser and opened the sliding door. He found some woman's clothes, but not a lot compared to the amount of suits, dress pants, dress shirts, polos, jeans, and khakis he found. He chuckled, for he had always admired Patrick Radcliffe's sense of style. He pulled the clothes off the rack with the hangers, leaving the rail empty. He found a couple of empty storage boxes, but there was one box that was particularly heavy on the back of the shelf. He pulled the box down and opened the lid, finding the box that contained memories from Patrick and Kate Radcliffe's wedding some twenty years ago. He smiled as he set the box down on the bed, and he took the velvet box that sat on top of the pile in his hands, opening it. An unexpected note fell out, and he picked it up off the bed, reading it to himself.
'Make her happy and hold her heart close. With this ring I promise to cherish you forever.'
He took another look at the ring and smiled, assuming it had been her mother's engagement or wedding ring. He put the note back inside and put the box itself in his hoodie pocket as he heard Casey come down the hallway.
"Hey Case, look what I found!" He called over his shoulder as she entered the room. She set the bins down and walked over, smiling when she saw the box in front of him.
"That's an adventure of a box to go through." She chuckled as she picked up the photo album on top of it all, opening the front cover, the words he had just read on the note inside the jewelry box being quoted on the title page.
"What's that quote?" He asked curiously. She smiled, brushing her fingers over them.
"It's a saying from my great grandfather. When he gave my grandpa his blessing to marry my grandma on my moms side, he was very ill and could not speak, so he wrote those words on a note and gave it to him. They have been passed on from generation to generation now, kind of like a family saying." She explained to him as they flipped through the pages. Casey has been right - the entire box before them had crazy memories to be uncovered.
"Why don't we take this box home and look through it there? We can get wine drunk in the comfort of our own home and not have to worry about driving anywhere." Alessio suggested, getting a small chuckle out of her before she nodded. She put the lid back on it and they continued to go through the bedroom, packing everything up to be moved. There was not a lot they were bringing home with them, but there were some things she just could not stand parting with. Another few hours went by, and they had everything packed, half of the boxes in his truck to go to the storage facility, the other half in her jeep to either head home with them or get donated. She wanted to have an estate sale, but she did not want to attract unwanted visitors. She had gotten in contact with a realtor, who had set up a date with her later in the week to discuss financials and putting the home on the market.
"Do you still have your meeting with the bank?" Alessio asked her, and she nodded. She had already met with their family attorney to discuss the will her parents had left behind, and she was the sole heir in all their assets.
"Yeah, I'm going to head over now and then I'll see you at home. You've got to get to work." She responded as she locked the door behind them. He gave her a tight hug, kissing the top of her head.
"Alright, be safe, I love you. Call me if you need anything." He told her, and she pecked him on the lips.
"I love you too, I'll see you later." She said before getting into her Jeep. Their bank was located in downtown Tampa, which was only about a ten minute drive from where her parents lived. She had long since moved to another branch in Orlando, but she needed to go to the Tampa branch to discuss things with them. She signed in when she got there and was called back to one of the offices instantly, for it was not that busy with it being so close to closing.
"Hello Ms. Radcliffe. I wish we were meeting under better circumstances, I am sorry for your losses." The woman in front of her said to her as they sat down. She read the name on the desk, finding her name was Wendy.
"Thank you." She answered with a small smile.
"So let's get right into it. Since you are the named beneficiary of both your mother's and father's accounts, I won't have any problems just transfering all the money to you. Your father came in a few weeks ago to change some things around, he named you the sole beneficiary on all his accounts, so I will make sure that money all gets transfered." Wendy explained to her as she showed her some screens. Her jaw dropped when she saw some of the amounts, for her father had been holding out on her.
"With the house, I'll be talking to a realtor this week. Is there anything I need to do?" She asked.
"I'm sure your realtor will guide you through that process, but you'll be working with us a little bit as well. I'm assuming you're just selling the house, so there shouldn't be too much legal and bank work." She responded, and Casey nodded. "Alright, the amounts are being transferred. Since there's a lot of assets being transferred, it might take a while for the full amounts to appear in your account."
"That's fine, I'm not worried about it." She answered with a small sigh. "Is there anything else?"
"There's not a safety deposit box on file, I'm assuming you've already met with an attorney to probate the will, so no, I don't think so." Wendy sighed, and she nodded, both of them standing up. Casey extended her hand to shake hers, and Wendy grabbed it, resting her other hand over hers.
"Thank you for your help." Casey said.
"You're welcome, and again I'm sorry for your loss. If there's anything else I can do for you, don't hesitate to call or meet with our Orlando branch." She responded, and she nodded in response. Casey left a few moments later, the next thing on her list was to go by the thrift store to donate the boxes labeled to be donated, then she would head back to Orlando. There were only a few boxes to be donated, the other few heading back to their home. After she dropped the boxes off in the back of the thrift store, she started her almost two hour drive back to Lake Nona. She hoped they could just bring the boxes that were staying with them inside and just be done for the evening, for they had been going since about seven morning. It was now twelve hours later when she finally pulled into their driveway, Alessio's truck already there and empty. She gave a small smile as she parked and shut her car off. The hard parts were all done, except for selling her childhood home, which was going to be the hardest part of all of this.
"Alessio?" She called into the house when she walked inside, and he was just coming down the stairs, dressed to head to the bar.
"Hey, I didn't think I'd see you before I left." He said as he came down the stairs.
"What happened to all the boxes in the trunk?" She asked as she hung her keys up.
"Oh, I went ahead and put them in the storage facility, that way you had one less thing to worry about." He told her, and she smiled, pecking him on the lips.
"Thank you." She answered as he grabbed his keys. "I'm gonna bring those boxes in then drive up to Alex's to go get Atlas."
"Should I worry if you don't make it home?" He asked her, getting a chuckle out of her.
"I'll keep in touch if I don't end up making it home." She told him. "Have a good night, I love you."
"I love you too." He said in return, kissing her once more before he headed out to work. She followed him outside to start putting boxes in their garage for now, then she grabbed her keys and texted Alex to let her know she was on her way to come get her dog.
She also asked if she had wine.