“It will just be the two of you,” the butler replied.
“This is a lot of food,” Ari interjected. The delectable spread included roast chicken, baked tilapia, steamed vegetables, rice pilaf and assorted rolls.
Malcolm agreed. “Tell Chef Ricardo to come on out here. You two will eat with us. The best way to get to know a person is over a meal, I always say.”
Franklin looked shocked but managed to recover. “Sir…”
“Call me Malcolm. The first thing I want you to know about me is that I’m a simple man. Now, there’s no way that my son and I can eat up all of this food, so y’all come join us. We don’t believe in wasting food.”
Franklin swallowed hard and then gave a slight nod. “We’d be honored, sir.”
He left the room, walking quickly.
Ari looked at his father and grinned. “I thought the man was about to pass out when you asked him to eat with us.”
Malcolm chuckled as he sat down at the table.
Franklin returned with Chef Ricardo. Both men wore expressions of disbelief and waited for Ari to sit down before seating themselves.
Malcolm said the blessing.
Franklin didn’t pick up his fork until Malcolm and Ari sampled the food on their plates.
“Everything is delicious,” Malcolm said. He wiped his mouth on the end of his napkin.
Ari agreed.
Chef Ricardo smiled. “It was very nice of you to allow us to join you.” He glanced down at his plate. “Franklin and I usually take our meals in the kitchen.”
“You went through a lot of effort to cook this fancy meal,” Malcolm acknowledged, “so I figure you might as well enjoy some of it with us.”
“Forgive me for staring,” Franklin murmured. “You look so much like Mr. Robert. He was a very kind man, although sad at times. He spoke of your mother often.”
Malcolm gave a polite smile. “I regret that I will never have the chance to meet or get to know Robert DePaul. I have always admired his business acumen.”
“Franklin, how did you come to work for Robert?” Ari asked while cutting into the tender fish.
“I was living on the streets,” Franklin said. “One day when I was looking for food, I saw these thugs trying to rob Mr. Robert. I went to help him.” He stuck a forkful of vegetables into his mouth.
“Franklin is a black belt in karate,” Chef Ricardo interjected.
“I made sure Mr. Robert made it safely to his car. When he was inside, I was about to walk off, and he called me back. I thought he was going to offer me some money, but he offered me a job instead,” Franklin said. “That was almost eight years ago.”
Ari glanced over at Ricardo, who said, “I met Mr. Robert at the World Culinary Showcase in Dallas, Texas. He came up to me after my presentation and invited me to lunch. A faculty member from the school I attended told him about me. He flew me out here to cook a meal for him and his wife. They loved it and offered me a permanent position as their personal chef. I have been with them for five years now.”
“Mr. Robert was a good man,” Franklin said. “I am sorry you didn’t get the chance to meet him personally.”
“Me, too,” Malcolm responded.
For dessert, there was lemon pound cake with strawberries and whipped cream and a chocolate drizzle.
Later, Ari settled down to watch some television while his father was in the master bedroom on the telephone.
He’s talking to Mom, Ari thought silently. He hoped that his mother could convince his father to keep the inheritance. This was a once-in-a-lifetime chance for his parents to live out their dreams.
Ari’s thoughts centered on Natasha; he couldn’t understand how she evoked feelings he thought long dead. The way she looked at him, even when he felt the heat of her frustration…she affected him deeply, and it bothered him.
I don’t trust her.
She was loyal to Robert. Did that mean she was just as loyal to the rest of his family?
Natasha was glad to be home. She kicked off her shoes as soon as she entered the trendy three-bedroom condo. Natasha removed her jacket next.
A full-figured woman wearing a T-shirt and jeans came down the stairs carrying an empty glass.
Natasha smiled. “How did today go, Monica?”
“It was a good day,” she responded with a smile.
They talked for a few minutes before Natasha headed upstairs to a bedroom. She entered the room. “Hey, you,” she greeted.
A little boy sitting at a desk in front of a computer looked up and grinned. “Mommy, you’re home.”
“I sure am. Nurse Monica told me that you had a good day.” Joshua was her pride and joy. Natasha tickled his ears.
He giggled. “I did.”
“How was class today?” she asked. Her six-year-old son had leukemia, and for the moment he was in remission. He wasn’t able to go to school because his blood counts were low, putting him at risk for infection. Joshua was able to keep up with his friends and class work via satellite.
“Kinda boring,” Joshua responded. “I have homework to do.”
“Is that what you’re working on?”
Joshua nodded. “I have to write a story about a fish.”
She gave him a sidelong glance. “You love fish, don’t you?”
“But I don’t want to write about a fish,” Joshua stated. “I want to write a story about football.”
“Well, why don’t you email Mrs. Terry and ask if you can do that?” Natasha suggested.
He smiled. “Okay, I will.”
He had been looking forward to playing football this summer with a Pop Warner league. He was finally old enough for the flag football team that practiced at the park a block away from their building. But in a cruel twist of fate, Joshua was diagnosed with leukemia.
She hugged him. “I love you, Joshua.”
“I love you more.”
“You work on that email to your teacher while I change into something comfortable.”
“Can we have spaghetti for dinner?” Joshua asked.
“We sure can,” she responded with a grin. Joshua loved spaghetti and would eat it every night if she let him.
Natasha stood in the doorway of his room, gazing at him. When Joshua was diagnosed a few months ago, his doctor had informed her that he needed to be out of school for one to three years because the chemotherapy treatments would compromise his immune system. It didn’t take much for Joshua to get sick. Just last week, they had to run back and forth to the hospital because Joshua kept running a temperature.
She’d exhausted her savings just to hire Monica so that Joshua had a full-time nurse. Her insurance hadn’t made a dent in the mountain of medical bills sitting on her desk. Robert fell ill a month before she received Joshua’s diagnosis, so she hadn’t confided in him. She was grateful for the ten thousand he left for her, but that wouldn’t cover future treatments. When Harold approached her with the offer to pay the medical bills in full, she’d jumped at the opportunity. Nothing was more important to her than Joshua.
Chapter 4
“So, this is where Robert spent his final days,” Ari said when