“Forget taste.”
Andre pushed Caleb’s old plate beside Nia’s.
“If those were the only two choices, which would you choose?”
Caleb pointed toward his.
Andre nodded.
“Why?”
“More food.”
“Right.”
Caleb looked away.
Andre continued.
“Mom loves you.”
Caleb’s lip trembled.
“She loves Ava.”
“Yes.”
“And she may love Nia too.”
Caleb looked skeptical.
Andre almost did too.
“But loving somebody does not make everything you do to them okay.”
“Mom did something very wrong.”
Caleb’s face tightened.
“Are you going to put her in jail?”
“No.”
“That decision isn’t mine.”
“Are you divorcing her?”
“Probably.”
Caleb began crying.
Andre moved toward him.
Caleb pushed him away.
“I hate Nia.”
Andre froze.
Ava gasped.
Caleb cried harder.
“If she didn’t have that stupid money, Mom wouldn’t have done it.”
There it was.
The poison had traveled.
Not because Caleb was cruel.
Because he was nine.
He needed a cause small enough to understand.
Andre knelt.
“Listen to me carefully.”
Caleb looked away.
“Nia did not choose her mother dying.”
“Nia did not choose the trust.”
“She did not choose what Mom did.”
“You can be angry.”
“But you do not get to make your sister responsible for an adult decision.”
Caleb sobbed.
“I want Mom.”
“I know.”
Andre hugged him despite the boy’s resistance.
Eventually Caleb stopped pushing.
Ava joined.
Nia stood unnoticed in the doorway.
Andre saw her.
So did Caleb.
Shame crossed his face.
“I’m sorry.”
Nia’s eyes filled.
She whispered:
“I’d give you the money if Mom came back.”
Andre’s heart broke all over again.
Caleb ran toward her.
They hugged.
That morning Andre canceled every business trip for the next three months.
His chief operating officer objected.
Andre answered:
“Then fire me.”
The man laughed.
Andre did not.
By ten, he had notified the board that he would attend remotely unless an emergency required travel.
At eleven, his attorney arrived.
David Lawson had managed Andre’s personal legal affairs for twelve years and had also known Aisha.
He sat at the dining table where the photographs had been taken.
Andre placed Ava’s phone beside him.
David reviewed the images slowly.
The guardianship draft concerned him.
The school form concerned him more.
The financial records became something else entirely.
“Have you checked Nia’s trust statements lately?”
Andre stared.
“The bank trustee manages them.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
Andre felt dread.
He opened the online portal.
The trust had been established primarily through Aisha’s family wealth, a life-insurance benefit, and shares her father transferred to Nia after Aisha died.
Andre was not trustee.
That decision had been deliberate.
Aisha wanted Andre to remain Nia’s father, not become the person approving every dollar.
A professional fiduciary company managed principal assets.
Andre received quarterly informational statements.
He had stopped reading every line years ago.
Another mistake.
David pointed.
“What is Carter Family Nutrition Services?”
Andre frowned.
“I don’t know.”
There were monthly reimbursements.
Three thousand two hundred.