Family

So my husband informs me last night that his brother called and is considering selling the family house to the church across the street. A year ago when we sold our half of the house to his brother, I thought it was with the understand that he not sell it and had to keep it in the family. I had wrongly assumed his brother was a man of his word. I've found out since that he may be nothing more than a shyster and it really hurts me on behalf of my husband.

When they were dividing up their parents estate a year ago, his brother brought out their father's 32nd degree Mason's ring. It was in pristine condition and R had taken it to get appraised. The diamond in the ring was worth $8K. R told my husband that instead of selling the ring to divide the value, he'd like to hold onto it for 'sentimental' reasons since both their father and grandfather were so involved in the Masons. My husband agreed without a 2nd thought. He felt that it was only right that the ring stay in the house. At Christmas, I found out from R's oldest son that when R had fallen quickly in love with a local woman a few months before, he'd taken the Mason's ring to a jeweler, had the diamond removed and mounted into an engagement ring. He took their father's ring and turned it into an engagement ring for a woman he barely knew. Now, months later, the engagement is off and she still has the diamond. My nephew only let the news slip because he was so mad at his father for ruining the ring and then not having the guts to get it back from his ex fiancee. I don't think he realized he was spilling any beans. I was so furious the rest of the visit that I could barely speak to R. I didn't tell my husband until we were on our way home and the kids were asleep. I wasn't sure what his reaction would be. Well, he was hurt. Hurt that his only sibling would deceive him. Hurt that his brother didn't have the guts to tell him himself. I felt so bad that someone he'd put so much trust in the last year had outright betrayed him. It also made us wonder what other valuables were in that house that we were not made aware of and what happened to them? We never did find their mother's wedding ring - what did he do with it after we'd asked where it could be??

Now he's going back on his promise to keep the house in the family. It's not about the fact that he probably low balled us on the fair market value when he bought us out. It's not about whether or not my husband wants to live in that house. It's about another promise that his brother is breaking when their father has only been gone a year. The two brothers had become very close this year and now R has driven a wedge between them that might never be repaired. It's about the hurt in my husband's eyes when I look into them.

I wrote my brother in law a short note this morning letting him know what I thought of his decision to sell the house and what I thought about the ring. People told us in the beginning not to trust him but how do you not trust your own sibling? Lesson learned.