Addicted To Greed (25 page)

Chase held her close to his chest stroking her hair trying to calm
her with his low whispers; he was really trying hard to hold it all
together and was absolutely grief stricken.

Destiny looked up in to Chases watery eyes, noticing the tears
rolling down her younger brothers cheeks, falling on to the
highly polished mahogany floor. She had never felt this
heartbroken, not in her entire life time.
Her baby brother broken
and her dear father dead and gone!

Chase
Chapter 11

“Why is d
addy never here? Is he ever coming back? The train
set he sent over doesn’t even work! I’ve tried everything. Can’t
you call him and ask him when he’s coming home? I really miss
him!”

Jeannie shuddered with panic, worrying what excuse she could
use this time, she hadn’t the faintest idea on how help her son,
silently cursing her husband for ever buying him a room sized
Hornsby train set.

“Chase
, sweetheart, daddy works very far away in another
country, he can’t just come home now, I am sorry sweetheart, I
am sure if I go and ask one of the boys next door they’ll be able
to help get it to work. Wait there let me go and see if they’re
home!”

“No Mummy, I don’t want the boy’s
next door helping they
make fun of me, I want my daddy, it’s not fair, he’s the only one
who knows about trains!”

Chase began to sob, he folded his arms tight around his small
body, and his pet lip came out.
Jeannie felt her heart sink, and went over to where Chase was
sitting and placed her arm around his shoulders slowly stroking
his masses of jet black curly hair.

“I know it’s hard for you to understand that daddy can’t be here
right now, but he will be home for Christmas, I miss him too
sweetheart, but try not to worry he will be home soon!”

“Christmas is so far away
. Why can’t he could come home
sooner, the boys at school are teasing me saying I don’t have a
dad and he doesn’t love me enough to come home.”

Jeanie’s heart sank even further in to her delicate stomach.

“Chase that’s
not true, your daddy loves you very much, he has
to work so far away so he can earn money for us all, if daddy
didn’t work we wouldn’t have any money and we wouldn’t be
able to afford nice presents for you and your sisters to open on
Christmas day.”

Jeannie struggled with her words, careful not to upset her dear
son more than he already was.
“Hey, how about we go downstairs and see if we have the
ingredients in for your favourite cookies?”
Chase jumped up in sudden excitement.
“Ok, mummy I’ll give you a race, after the count of three, start,
get ready and when I say go, GO. Are you ready?”

Jeannie nodded smiling.
Chase counted to three very slowly.
They both started to run; Chase took two steps at a time.
Jeannie purposely slowed down in order to let her son win.

Chase reached for a dining room chair to climb on the kitchen
counter breathlessly as he was too short to reach the upper
cupboards.

“Okay, I’ve found the chocolate chips, white and brown ones!”
Jeannie replied breathlessly, “But what about the flour and
butter? We need all the ingredients, don’t forget!”

Chase began fumbling through the cupboards clumsily knocking
and moving plates and saucers, struggling to reach the back of
the cupboards with his small hands.

“Hey, I’ve found the
flour!”
“Good boy, I’ve got the butter let’s get to work!”

Jeannie was thankful for the distraction and watched her son
mixing the ingredients together, hoping he would temporarily
forget about his father.

“We should surprise Ella and Destiny when they get home from
school; you know how much they like your cookies Chase?”
“Good idea mummy! Can I hide one of them in their rooms?”
“Course you can Chase, but this time don’t eat them all before
you hide them.”
Chase started to giggle.
“Ok, only if you don’t tell them, I wanna cut out some paper
traces and leave them clues like the last time.”
With another burst of energy Chase ran upstairs to his room.

Jeannie waited for a few moments to be sure Chase was in his
room out of ears way. She dialled her husband’s office over in
the states; once again on the second ring she heard the familiar
voice of Janice, her husband’s secretary. Both women
exchanged their usual pleasantries and Janice informed her that
Wilhelm was out of the office, as he was out with a new client
who was interested in a house been built in Washington.

Much to Jeannie’s disappointment she ended the call,
recently it
was becoming more and more difficult to reach her husband and
she was beginning to feel frustrated. On the other hand she was
immensely proud of her husband’s work and achievements;
however she couldn’t help but think that her dear children were
beginning to suffer as a result of his career.
If she could only
reach him and persuade him to come home sooner than
Christmas and surprise the children they would be made up.

In the meantime she would have to stay strong and in good
spirits so the children wouldn’t suspect her disappointment.
♣

Chase was only nine years old, but he heard his mother trying to
contact his daddy again, he knew something was wrong but
couldn’t quite work out what it was, he feared his daddy wasn’t
coming home even for Christmas. He would often confide with
his elder sister Destiny, as she was at home most evenings in her
room listening to her loud music. He couldn’t approach Ella as
she was never home. Ella often treat him like a baby, like he
was still five years old, although he loved his eldest sister, he
became a lot closer to Destiny, she treated him like a teenager
like herself. It was Destiny who helped him with his train set,
she never once showed the least bit of frustration, her patience
was long and often when he was supposed to be asleep in his
room he would secretly spy on her in his train room trying to
figure how all the trains worked. Chase admired his sister for
this as she was the only one who generally displayed any
interest in his hobby, he often wished Destiny was a boy a big
brother, how he longed to have a brother, he would often
imagine he had with Destiny and she didn’t seem to mind
behaving like a boy, as she dressed like a tomboy aswel.

Chase remembered from a very young age he felt alone in this
world, there seemed to be something missing in his life, but he
didn’t know what that something was it was, only something he
sensed at times. He missed his father deeply and often
associated it with this. In adolescence Chase got mixed up with
the wrong crowd at school, a group of older boys who were in to
skate board, he got in to all kinds of trouble, stealing bikes,
smoking cannabis, stealing money from his mothers dresser,
shop lifting and often fighting with rival skaters. All this gave
him the popularity he was secretly seeking from his absent
father. He became popular with the boys as he always had
money to buy cannabis, beers, and designer skate label clothing,
he had many friends he could hang with at any given time. He
was also popular with the girls as he was tall, well dressed and
extremely hansom with his masses of shiny black curly hair and
big baby blue eyes. But he showed little or no interest in them.

♣

Jeannie pleaded with her son to stop and come to his senses as
he had a great future ahead of him, as he was exceptionally
intelligent, always scoring straight “A´s”

Wilhelm had already put the money to one side for Chase’s
university education, little to Chase’s knowledge.

Chase was unaware he was breaking his mother heart, as all he
wanted to do was rebel against his father more than anything,
hoping his rebellion would bring his father home sooner or later.
The money his father sent him each month he would blow on
whatever he could, usually booze and cigarettes to please his
crowd of followers. He remembered the day the divorce papers
came through from his father who wanted to divorce his mum
and couldn’t understand why! He was far too young to
understand, but it didn’t stop him listening in to Ella and his
mothers hushed and private conversations when he was younger,
he wished he hadn’t. He also remembered when his mother met
Charles five years later and witnessed his mothers smile return,
the way it was on all the photographs she shared with his father.
He thought it strange to have a new step-father moving in and
taking his father’s chair at the end of the table that no one had
ever sat in before, except his father. He also noticed his mother
stopped asking him to lock the doors at night as he had always
done beforehand. He wondered if Charles would take over his
role as being the man of the house and felt quite jealous at first.
Surely nobody could share his deep sense of protectiveness over
his mother and sisters?
But soon his worries and concerns about
being the man of the house diminished as in time he befriended
Charles, sharing a bond together he never thought possible.

Charles happily took the burden off Chase’s shoulders, letting
Chase focus on other things such as his future.

Chase soon accepted Charles in to his family, he considered
Charles to be a good solid man, who managed to make his
mother laugh and smile again and wished Charles could have
been his biological father as he had all the traits of a good,
honest, and reliable man, everything he was struggling, yet
striving to become. He just didn’t feel the need to be the
attention seeking fool he had once been with his dodgy crew and
felt he needed to move on, so he cut all ties and decided to take
his promising future in to his own hands with the encouragement
from his mother and Charles.

♣
Jeannie encouraged her son all she could, she knew he had a
natural intelligence and he would get in to Oxford. However
what was bothering her most was that he would often confide in
her about his feelings of loneliness and she wondered if it was
time she told him the truth or her theory as to why he became to
feel like this. After dinner she would take him to one side and
gently explain, she hoped she was doing the right thing.

“Chase there’s
something I’d like you to see, come and take a
look, but before you do I want to explain, I think I know why
you’re having those feelings of loneliness!”

She handed him a small, old worn envelope.
“Inside this envelope I think you’ll find your answers my son!”
Chase looked at his mother with a confused expression.

“Mum
, I don’t understand, you’re beginning to scare me. Why
don’t you just tell me what’s inside? What’s with all the sudden
secrecy?”

“Just open it sweetheart and you’ll see!”

Chase could feel his heart race, his adrenaline pumping through
his body, making him a shaky, he suddenly felt unsteady on his
feet, and sat down. Preceding with caution he slowly opened the
envelope, the first photograph looked like a pregnancy scan
photo black and white, however upon further inspection he
could see the outline of two nearly developed babies and he
looked at the date and asked, “Who are they?”
Jeannie took hold of his free hand and gently whispered,
“You’re brother and you, sweetheart!”

Chase could feel his whole body tremble while trying to fight
back the onset of tears that were trying to force themselves out,
he couldn’t find any words, he was in complete shock.

A few moments of disturbing silence followed.
“He was your twin, his names Chad!”

The tears came rolling down his cheeks; he sat and looked at the
photo for several minutes before he could find his words again.
“I had a twin brother? Why did you never tell me? What the hell
happened to him mum?”
Jennie sat up straight trying to compose herself, bracing herself
once and for all for her heartbreaking revelation.

"He died when you were one and a half years old sweetheart, he
had a hole in his heart, the doctors did all they could to save
him, but he was too young to undergo another operation!”

“Jesus, mum, I had no idea, I can’t believe it!”

“There are other photos of
you both if you can bring yourself to
look, you were both identical twins. I feel you’re old enough to
know the truth now and I hope this helps you, it’s the hardest
thing I have ever had to endure in my life, I lost a son and you
lost a brother. Chad was a real little fighter, even until the end,
he proved all the doctors wrong and out lived all their
predictions of only lasting until the age of six months. You both
share the same eyes, ears, nose, mouth and hair, it was very
difficult to identify who was who, sometimes you’re father and I
would have to take a guess as there were no clues to differentiate
the pair of you. The only thing you didn’t share was Chad’s
weak heart sweetheart, thanks to God, he spared you. You boys
were inseparable and the most beautiful boys in the whole of
this world, it broke mine and your father’s heart when Chad
died, however we were eternally grateful to still have you and
you were extremely healthy, never showing any signs of your
brother’s illness.”

They both began to cry together, tears of sadness at their deep
loss, Jeannie cradled Chases head on her chest the way she did
when he was young and waited patiently for his tears to stop,
while stroking his masses of curly black hair to try and calm and
reassure him that she would be always there for him. The last
thing she wanted to do was hurt her son, she hoped it would give
him some answers and would help with his fears of loneliness.
She silently hoped she had done the right thing
.

Chase reached for his mothers trembling hand and squeezed it
tightly and whispered, “Thanks for confiding in me mum, it
explains why I have been feeling so alone and lost!”

Chase finally had some clarity and asked curiously, “Did Ella
and Destiny get to meet him?”
“Yes they did but they were so young and I don’t think they
remember him in any other way than been in hospital, they’ve
never spoken about him!”