Addicted To Greed (31 page)

“
Listen guys before our time runs out Benjamin’s got a few
hours spare from learning this afternoon as he’s done so well in
his school tests, he’s currently in his quarters reading awaiting
your visit, I may add he’s very excited on the prospect of
meeting with you all today and I must warn you that Benjamin
suffers with hyperactivity and hypertension so he may be up and
down a little while you visit.”

They couldn’t wait any longer
Dr Roth sensed this, he led them
to the fourth floor by elevator, they came to their brothers door
with his hand made name plaque hanging slanted on the door.
Dr Roth knocked and within seconds Benjamin answered
jumping up and down in excitement.

The first thing Ella noticed about Benjamin was his bright happy
smile and masses of jet black hair; he was a lot shorter than
Destiny Chase and herself.

“My names Benjamin and daddy told me one day you’d all
come and visit me, I’ve been waiting for this day to come.”

Benjamin began to hug each of them in excitement.
“I know who you all are, you’re Ella my oldest sister, you’re
Destiny my second oldest sister and you’re Chase my brother.”

Ella, Destiny and Chase all returned Benjamin’s hug and they all
embraced him with a warm smile and a further hug.
“Come inside, don’t just stand there, this is my room where I
live, the nurses brought extra chairs for you.”
Dr Roth politely excused himself and mentioned he would drop
back later.

Benjamin sat opposite them on his neatly made bed with his legs
crossed and his short broad hands at each side smiling while
looking at each one of them with curiosity.

“You all look so much bigger in real life, daddy didn’t tell me
this and you all look older than the picture I have.”

Benjamin pointed to a picture of Destiny, Chase and Ella on his
bed side table, it was taken over ten years ago when they had
visited daddy in the states for Christmas, they were all smiling
Chase and Ella at either side of Destiny making her look dwarf
like.

Chase broke the silence.

“Do you know Benjamin that picture was taken ten years ago
and I dare say I do look a lot younger on it but I am better
looking now don’t you think?”

With this they all started to giggle, thankful for the ice breaker.
“Wait, I’ve got more!”
Benjamin jumped off his bed and crawled underneath it
dragging a small shoe box.
Ella, Destiny, and Chase looked at one another for a few brief
moments with tears in their eyes.
Benjamin opened the box and scattered all the photos over his
bed.
“Come and have a look, don’t be shy.”
Chase picked up a photograph with Benjamin holding a giant
fish.
Benjamin jumped up and down in excitement, “It was my first
ever catch with daddy at the lakes.”

“My god he’s a big fish for your first catch, I wish I’d
have been
as lucky as you, mine fish wasn’t half the size, I love fishing as
well but I don’t think I’ll ever be as good as you, how about we
go one weekend and you can teach me how to fish properly?”

“I named him wriggler as he wouldn’t stay still. Daddy took
me
fishing every weekend you know, I really miss him a lot, but I
guess I could teach you, seem as you’re my brother, you even
look like daddy a little bit.”

Chase placed his hands on each
of Benjamin’s shoulders and
whispered in a broken voice, “I miss him too little man, but if
it’s any consolation you’ve got me now.”

“We went camping every weekend aswel, until daddy got sick,
look this was our tent.”
“Wow, it’s massive. Where did daddy take you to camp?”

“We went to the Lake District, somewhere near Cum
bria where
Uncle Anthony lived, it was awesome, we had a gas grill and
daddy would cook the best bangers with beans ever.”

Ella put two and two together and realised that uncle Anthony
was Wallace, daddy’s best friend and accountant.
Chased asked gently, “Would you like to go back there with
me?”

Benjamin once again jumped up and down in excitement and
replied breathlessly, “I’d love to! When can we go? I have next
weekend off from learning.”

“No problems how about I come over here pick you up and we
go to your favourite spot in the lakes?”
“Awesome, I´ll count the days down on my calendar, like I used
to do with daddy, here look!”
Chase glanced back to Ella and Destiny exchanging sad looks.
Benjamin turned around to face his sisters and asked curiously,
“Why do you both look so sad?”

Ella and Destiny couldn’t find the words to answer. They
couldn’t explain the pain they were both feeling for Benjamin
who had nobody left in this world as daddy was dead and his
mother didn’t want anything to do with him. Ella could feel the
lump come up to her throat and found it really hard to hold the
tears back; in fact they were all struggling. Destiny found the
courage to say, “Hey little man, do you think you could teach
me how to fish as well, I always wanted to learn?”

“
Yeah okay, why not, Daddy told me it’s not really for girls
though, but seen as it’s you I’ll make the exception, coz you’re
my sister.”

“My you’re so kind thanks Benjamin.”

“But you’ll have
to bring some warm clothes as its cold there
and rains all the time, me and daddy used to sit under a tree, one
time it rained for three hours. I really miss daddy, he was so
kind to me, do you think he’s gone to heaven? What if you all
get sick like daddy and I never see you again?”

Benjamin started to sob and put his head down trying not to look
at either one of them.

Chase sat down on the bed next to Benjamin and put his arms
around his shoulders, Ella and Destiny knelt in front of their
brother. Destiny grabbed her handkerchief and started to dab
Benjamin’s face lightly, in an attempt to erase the tears that were
free falling down his incredibly cute cheeks.

“Hey little man, it’s okay to cry you know, I do all the time, we
all miss daddy aswel, when we all cry we try and hug each
other, sometimes it helps to share our emotions with each other.
We are your family now Benjamin and we all have one another
now to share our sadness and we will all pull through this
together, stick together and always be there for each other. I
promise we will all be here for you now whenever you need us,
you’re our brother and until yesterday we didn’t even know we
had a great brother like you, but now we do we will never let
you go.”

Destiny spoke on behalf them all, Ella just didn’t have the guts
to say in so many words without breaking up with emotion, and
Destiny seemed to be holding it together much more than Chase
and herself.

“Daddy promised he would tell you all about me one day, I
wanted to meet you all so long ago, but daddy always said it
wasn’t the time but when the right time came along he promised
me he would tell you all, I have been waiting a long time for this
and hoped you won’t be scared of me because I look a little
different than you all.”

They all shed silent tears and started to rub their eyes and
Destiny once again talked on their behalf.

“We think daddy should of told us a long time ago as well and
we really wished he had but he didn’t, I’m sure he had his
reasons we just don’t understand them, all I know is now he has
eventually told us we are over the moon to discover we have a
new brother and nonsense about you looks you’re much better
looking than Chase.”

Through the tears came laughter, happy laughter they hadn’t
laughed like this for a long time and it felt good Benjamin was
laughing with them, he had the cutest little laugh Ella had ever
heard, he was simply amazing, she really hoped he could come
and meet the boys soon, she would have to clear this with the
clinic, but it would be strange explaining to Broody, Carter and
Anna that Benjamin was their uncle.
Benjamin brought out one last photo which was of his mother,
Felicity.

“This is my mummy, I don’t ever remember seeing her, daddy
told me she works away a lot that’s why she doesn’t come and
visit me, he told me that her work is very important, I think she
is the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen don’t you think?”

They were once again flawed so their father hadn’t told
Benjamin the truth about Felicity? Then that would have been
wicked if he had, how he could have explained to Benjamin that
his mother was too embarrassed of the way he looked and
simply disowned him and didn’t want any association with him.
Chases turned to answer, taking a deep breath, “She’s very
beautiful. Hey how about we kick a ball outside for a bit I hear
you’re quite a good player, maybe you can teach me a few of
your tricks what do you say?”

“Okay I’ll be David Beckham and you can be Wayne Rooney,
let me grab my boots.”
It was great to witness Chase bonding with Benjamin both Ella
and Destiny played their part in opposite goals, it was good fun.

Benjamin ended up scoring three goals and Chase scored only
one. When they were done on the pitch Dr Roth joined them
and asked how they all were, pointing out gently it was time for
Benjamin’s Dinner.

Ella looked at her watch and
couldn’t believe how time had
flown. They’d all been there for over four hours and it felt like
ten minutes.
The hardest part for all of them was saying goodbye, Benjamin
wouldn’t let go of Chase’s legs, “I don’t want you to leave yet,
please stay a little longer?”

Dr Roth knelt down and explained gently to Benjamin that it
was time for dinner and choc chip ice cream was for dessert.
Benjamin slowly let go of Chase’s leg and asked, “Do you
promise we can go fishing next week?”

Chase placed his hand to his chest and replied, “I promise, I
swear on my heart I’ll come over next weekend to pick you up.
I can’t wait to go fishing with you.”

Benjamin gave Ella and Destiny a huge hug and asked, “Can
you both come fishing aswel?”

Chase turned away wondering why he was finding it so hard to
say goodbye, his heart was silently breaking and all he wanted to
do was just pick Benjamin up and take him home.

Benjamin walked slowly off hand in hand with Doctor Roth
looking back smiling and waving.
Ella and Destiny waved back through their tears of joy and
sadness making their way back to Chase’s pickup truck.
Ella broke the silence first, “Well my lovely siblings that went
better than I expected, he’s just fantastic don’t you think?”

“Absolu
tely awesome, did you see the way he scored his first
goal?, I thought I may have to give him a chance but I dare say it
was him who was giving me the chances, he’s incredibly fast for
his age, I think I going to need some training to be able to catch
up with him.”

“I love him to bits he’s adorable, did you see how beautiful his
little smile is, it’s like nothing I have ever seen before, I just
want to take him home and keep him forever.”

“So do I, I’d
love to bring him up, teach him all he need to know
about fishing and football, he is the brother I always wanted, so
cute, so intelligent, I find it really hard leaving him there when I
could give him the one to one attention he needs, he wouldn’t
want for nothing.”

Both Ella and Destiny knew Chase would be an excellent big
brother and encouraged him to look into, they would support
him in any way they could, and maybe it was something
Wallace could advise them on.

Ella knew Destiny was also keen to have shared access and she
was.

“I tell you what why don’t w
e book an appointment with
Wallace, I’m sure he will be able to advise us on how we can go
about it, let’s not get ahead of ourselves until we’ve spoken with
him, we all want to avoid further disappointment, besides we
also need to know if Felicity still has any rights first.”

They all agreed, it certainly gave them more to think about, they
all knew one thing though if they had to fight for Benjamin they
were willing to do so with all they had, their little brother
belonged with them and nobody else.
On their way home Ella picked Anna up from nursery, she was
all cranky and tired, Ella was so glad to see her, she missed her
so much. It was Anna’s third time in nursery and Ella was
reluctant to leave her the first few times, and this was the first
time on her own. The nursery staff seemed friendly enough; one
of the ladies Ella already knew from Pensborough, she worked
in the nursery that Carter had attended in his early years, so she
knew she could trust them. Still there was no one better than the
good old Mrs Walsh, how Ella was missing her; she couldn’t
wait to see her after her holiday, as she had an offer for her she
hoped she wouldn’t refuse!

“Right next stop the boys. By the way how do they like their
new school?”

“No complaints yet, Broody’s
made several new friends all of
whom I approve, I am a little worried about Carter though, I
don’t think he’s as popular as his brother, however I’ve
managed to cheer him up a little as I invited Dylan over for the
weekend.”

Chase shuffled in his seat. “Cool, how’s the little guy holding up
after James death?”
“It’s a long story Chase, but I’ll tell you later when we manage
to get some adult time.”
Chase didn’t push it any further; he knew Ella was still screwed
up after James suicide.

“
Hey how about I take the boys out for dinner?
That’ll be great, the boys have missed their old uncle so much
and I know there’ll be tears when you have to go back to Hong
Kong in a few days time.”

“Hey enough of the old if you don’t mind, I’m
not receding yet
and there’s no sign of grey any hairs. Besides who mentioned
anything about going back to Hong Kong now I have just found
out about Benjamin?”

Ella and Destiny looked at each other in excitement for a few
brief moments and Ella teased Chase further mentioning that
he’s no spring chicken and he’s going to need all the energy he
has to keep up with the boys and little Benjamin.

Destiny remained rather pensive, deep in thought; it wasn’t like
her to be quiet only when she was thinking and Ella couldn’t
blame her for that, there was certainly a lot for them all to think
about.