His Mate: Prince Asher

Chapter twelve

The door pushed open and Naomi’s hand trembled but she was able to catch herself to avoid dropping the plate she was holding. She softly placed it on the dining table and gulped before looking up at the man that entered the house. “Good evening, dad. Dinner is ready,” she smiled softly.
The man ignored her and strode to the dining, he drew out a chair and plopped down on it, pulling the dish close to him. “Have you had something to eat?”
Naomi looked at him in surprise but she controlled her tone and not reveal the surprise in her voice. “I am about to, I wanted to set the table for you first.”
“Go get your plate and join me,” he said.
“Um…you don’t have to worry, I will prefer eating in the kitchen,” she said and slamming of a fist on the table reverberated in her chest.
“Are you my daughter or my house help?”
“I’m your daughter, sir,” she rushed to say, not wanting to get on his bad mood.
“Good, now go get your plate and join me.”
“Yes sir,” she replied and hurried to the kitchen to get her own plate of food. Getting back in the living room, she gulped and sat in the chair her father pulled her out for her which was right beside him. She gulped and licked her lips, placing the plate on the table and silently began eating.
Larry stared at her and sighed before he started eating his. After some minutes of silent eating, he cleared his throat, “your mother was the best cook I know, and I must say that you are living up to her reputation with your culinary skill.”
Naomi smiled and wondered if perhaps the sun rose at the west today and set at the east. Why is her father being so nice to her all of a sudden? “Thanks dad,” she replied.
Larry nodded once and continued eating. “You know, she had wanted to become a chef,” he said after some time, “we were working towards it and Grace was happy when we found a shop. I had worked my butts off for ten months to be able to afford the kind of shop for her. However, just after we have paid the money, the owner of the building sold it to the Roberts. When your mother found out, that was when she had her first heart attack. Your aunt and I had taken her to the hospital to discover that she was pregnant. The doctor told us that her body was weak and that she needs all the rest she could get and to do nothing to stress her or the baby.” He sighed and scooped a mouthful of rice into his mouth.
Naomi watched him, she had even forgotten about her food as this was the first time her father had taken the initiative to talk about her mother, the love of his life. She waited for him to finish chewing the food in his mouth and was like needles were pricking her butt, waiting for him to continue telling the story.
“When we got back home, I told your mother to your rest but she couldn’t, she wanted to get the shop she paid back in full for. So I took her to meet Harold Roberts, and we told him about the situation, hoping he would feel sorry for us and allow us to use the shop. Who would have expected that he would tell us he wanted to tear down the building because he wanted to build his company there,” he sighed. “He told us to meet the former owner of the house and that he would give us back our money, after all, he paid him in full. We did as was told but the man told us that he had already used all the money to pay for his debts and that he have nothing with him anymore. Your mother was angry, we couldn’t afford a good lawyer but the one we could arranged with the man to pay us the money in increment.”
“What? That is not fair,” Naomi couldn’t stop herself from saying.
Larry nodded, “it was either that, or we forget the money. We didn’t receive a penny from him till after four months and all he paid was the quarter of the amount. It was so little and your mother’s health was going down with her excess thinking. I tried to make her think less by working more but all our savings always go to her health. We couldn’t really treat her problem and before your birth, we already knew she wouldn’t make it, but it didn’t make it less painful.”
Naomi sighed and wiped away the lone tear that trailed down her cheek. She sniffled and asked, “what about the landlord, did he eventually pay up the money?”
Larry shook his head, “he died shortly after your mother, with no heir, there was no one to pass his debt to us so I could only forget it.”
“Thanks dad,” she sniffled, “thanks for telling me this story.”
“There is a reason I told you this story now. I wanted you to understand that the poor has no say. If we could afford a good lawyer, we would have gotten our money back and if we were respectable people, Harold would have fought with us to make sure we got what we want and to also be friends with us.” Larry said and his eyes went to her, “ever since that day, I have tried to stay away from those rich folks and never try to raise pity for myself. Naomi, I want you to do something for me.”
“What is it dad?”
“That boy, Justin, stay away from him.”
Naomi felt like something slammed into her chest and she stared at her father in shock.
“The Roberts are about collaborating with his family and should that succeed, he would become friends with their family and might even be their son in law because from what I can see, their daughter is interested in him. I cannot forget how Harold Roberts treated your mother and I and the last thing I want is their daughter treating my daughter just the same. Since she is interested in that Justin boy, leave him, they are many boys in school, find another one to crush on, do you understand?”
“Dad…”
“Do you understand?” Larry yelled and she stiffened.
“Yes father,” she nodded.
“Good,” and with that, Larry finished the rest of his food and left the dining area for his room. The slamming of his door reverberated in Naomi’s heart and she shivered. Back when she was still friends with Stacy, she never followed her home and her aunt that often pick her up from elementary that time didn’t like Stacy but she didn’t stop them from being friends. Now it all makes sense why her aunt never liked Stacy and never allowed her to come to their house, it was because of her father, because her father has never forgiven Stacy’s father for what he did and now she is no longer friends with Stacy and thinking about how she quickly dumped her when she first revealed her vision to the school, she could tell that Stacy never saw her as a friend.
She sat down there for a long time and finally got up and cleared the plates, she had already lost her appetite. She put her plate of food in the microwave and did the dishes before she left the house through the kitchen door. The moon was full and bright and her house was facing the woods. She constantly spends her time in there, especially when she was running from her father. Her spirit was dampened and she couldn’t think of a way to liven herself up. She has been crushing on Justin for as long as she could remember and why he always talk to her sometimes, this was first time he was showing interest in her, after all, he took her first kiss that night, didn’t he? And now her father wants her to stay away from him.
Not like that was the problem, Stacy was already stating her claim on him and Justin can’t say no to her, now she knows why. Justin family aren’t that rich, in fact, they are just a foot in the middle class and she can understand now why his father wouldn’t want anything to ruin his collaboration with the business tycoon, Harold Roberts, it’s just sad that Justin would be sacrificing his own happiness for the betterment of his family. She knows he doesn’t like Stacy, after all, despite the fact Stacy has had her handful of boyfriends, she had been pursuing Justin for as long as she could remember and he had never spared her a glance and all of a sudden, he would be interested in her?
She didn’t know when she entered the woods in her state of thoughts but she found herself sitting under a tree and resting her head on the trunk. She has only one picture of her mother and she knows she looks like her, same black hair and hazel eyes but only the fact that her mother was more beautiful than her. Naomi sighed and closed her eyes, trying not to think of what her father just told her and how it was affecting her teenage romance when she felt a presence and instantly snapped her eyes open, only to be met with burning red eyes.