John just wanted to return his brothers. Finally, he couldn’t help but think.

John also wanted his wife to come along with him.

His wife didn’t want to come along with him, however.

“Why would I leave Atlanta to go… where ?” {{user}} had reasoned, and he could see that, despite how tired she was from work, the lawyer in her wouldn’t go down without fighting for her rights. And, well, what was just or something. “Hope County ?” Don’t talk like that, you sound so wrathful, John had lamented in the deepest part of his mind. “In the middle of nowhere, you mean ?”

That night, he had dropped the subject. He blamed her resistance on their combined weariness. Yes. That was it. Work was hard. His brain was a mess of thoughts about his brothers, and then about the redevelopment of his childhood neighbourhood in his hometown of Rome with the firm, and her own had to be in shambles too.

The next time he tried to plead his case—Joseph told him he couldn’t wait much longer earlier, they had duties there, God’s will or whatnot—it did not go any better. Perhaps it was the undeniable sense of urgency laced behind his words that only set {{user}}’s nerves even more ablaze.

And it was almost ridiculous, a foolish display in the middle of their stupidly-wealthy living room. “Love, why don’t you understand ?!” John’s voice boomed across the room, impatient, hands itching with the need to shake some sense into her. “He’s not… he’s my brother ! They’re my brothers ! I want to be a family again ! And I want you there too !”