Page 16 of Rich and Rotten

All Malcolm Rich cared about was money. He would never approve of me and Nazir’s relationship which is why I kept things private. I would have thought he would have been accepting being that Nazir came from humble beginnings like he did. My father loved to remind me that he had to claw his way up the ladder of success because he was raised poor.

He almost always forgot about that humble lifestyle speech whenever he was around his rich friends. None of that mattered, as he tried to fit in like he had always belonged within their circle.

“What did I tell you, Nazir?”

“Not trying to be the reason you fall out with your family, Tata.”

“My family is already broken, Nazir. My mother and father’s marriage is nonexistent, we don’t take family vacations, and I barely visit home. My father would for sure cut me off, but I know my mother… she wouldn’t cut me off and that’s all I care about.”

“Your mouth says that now.”

“Why the fuck do you always try and tell me how I feel? I know exactly what I’m doing, Nazir, I’m not a stupid child.”

We hardly got into arguments, however, whenever we did, he was always so calm and reserved while I was the lunatic. Like now, we were standing on this boardwalk while my hands were flailing in the air, and he was staring down at me. To someone walking past, I looked like a lunatic.

Resentment doesn’t have a timeline. Right now, it seems cool to hate your father because he won’t allow you to have your way. Years later when he’s on his death bed, and you’re staring at him in his last moments, Tata, you won’t think of anything except the time you could have spent with him. You’ll think of me, the reason that you stepped away from him. Baby, I don’t want that for you.”

I turned and walked away because the tears were burning my eyes. Nazir always had to make sense, even when I wanted to be irrational. As much as I didn’t want to accept what he was saying, he wasn’t completely wrong.

Me and my father didn’t have the best relationship, but he was my father. There would come a time when I had to sit with my decisions and would I ate Nazir for them? Resent him because of decisions that I made?

With my arms folded I walked down the boardwalk, no longer concerned with the beach. I felt his hands wrap around me, and pull me towards him as I was mid-step.

“Let me talk to you real quick, Tata.” His was gentle as he continued to pull me towards him, and I allowed him.

He slowly turned me around so I could look at him. The thing about Nazir was that he was so tall all I was staring at her was his chest. Lifting my chin up, he peered down into my eyes.

“Not everyone wants us together, baby. I need you to understand that. If someway we end up apart, I need you to know that I would rather die before ever leaving you… okay?”

“What are you not telling me?” I finally peered deeper into his eyes.

Finally seeing the look of worry, concern and regret. The regret was lingering in his eyes, like it hadn’t happened yet, but he was already regretting it.

“I’m telling you the truth. I love you, Tata. I love you enough to tell you that.”

A tear fell down my face, and he quickly wiped it away. “We don’t need to worry about the future… let’s worry about now.”

“The future is important though. I want to be with you forever, Nazir… not just for now.”

He kissed my lips a few times, holding the side of my face. “And I want the same thing. A nigga didn’t spend all this money for us to be bickering.”

I giggled because this vacation wasn’t supposed to be about arguing. We needed to focus on us, and leave whatever we couldn’t control away.

“I know and I’m sorry… can we start over.”

“Don’t ever apologize to me for you feelings, Tata… I love you, baby. Never question that, okay?”

“Okay.”

Chapter Seven

Tatiana

It had been two days since I had gotten even an inch of sleep. Sleep didn’t come easy after finding out someone wanted to kill my father. My relationship with my father wasn’t the best, but I would never wish any harm on him. Malcolm Rich wasn’t the nicest or easiest person to deal with; however, nobody ever wanted him dead––at least not to my knowledge. Plus, he was always surrounded by security because of our family’s wealth. So, he wasn’t an easy target.

I wasn’t naive enough to believe Raphael and my father weren’t involved in many illegal activities. Karim followed in his father’s footsteps and kept me far removed from those things. He told me our marriage would only work if I didn’t know how our family made our money, and I agreed. For years, I watched my father make business deals and travel across the country, but I never knew what he did. I always assumed he was just a businessman like my friends’ fathers. All I knew was that I attended the best private schools, lived in the most expensive zip code, and always had money at my disposal. There was no limit to what I could ask for and receive.

It wasn’t until I got older and started paying attention that I noticed the shady men who would come by our house to visit my father. Once, I witnessed one choke my father out while he sat behind his prized desk. The man got close to my father’s face––their noses almost touching––and told him he wanted his money and wasn’t going to keep playing around. That’s when I started putting the pieces together and realized my family’s reputation wasn’t as clean as I thought. My father was involved in illegal things, and I had to keep my mouth shut about it. I was expected to always protect my father, and that’s what I did. Always protecting him when he’s never protected me a day in his life––pawning me off to another family for greed’s sake. No matter how much time went by, I would never forgive my father for what he forced me to do.