Chapter 1

Eunice is lost in thought while expertly preparing the ingredients for the meal she is planning to make. She is most at home in her restaurant’s kitchen. She has an exquisite kitchen at home but it doesn’t really compare to the state-of-the-art kitchen she has created for herself over many years at the place where she spends the most time.

The ache deep in her heart threatens to overwhelm her as she methodically goes about her preparations.  Just as her thoughts almost completely consume her reality, she notices movement coming from the back door to the restaurant. The kitchen leads out into a little ally that they share with another restaurant next to hers. The door is always open, but no one ever comes in through it.

She watches the little girl sneaking into her kitchen from the corner of her eye, pretending not to see her as she goes about her business. The little girl walks quietly towards her. She takes slow, careful steps until she is close enough to Eunice to see what she is preparing in front of her. The little girl hooks her fingers over the edge of the stainless-steel counter and pulls herself up on the tips of her toes.

Eunice tries not to pay too much attention to the girl. She is afraid if she focuses on her that she would scare her off. The little girl lets go of the counter and looks around. She finds a little stepping stool Eunice would usually use to stand on if she needed to take things off high shelves. It gives the little girl enough height to comfortably stand by the stainless-steel counter.

Eunice places her knife on her chopping board and turns to look at the young girl. She cannot be more than six years old. She has big inquisitive eyes and she looks very interested in what Eunice is doing. She must be one of the orphans from the orphanage across the street. The girl looks at Eunice with her big bright eyes and Eunice instantly feel connected to the girl. She turns and takes another chopping block from her shelf and set it in front of the girl.

She then places a few carrots in front of her as well as her oldest knife, knowing that it is not her sharpest knife, on the side of the chopping block.

The little girl takes the knife carefully and holds the carrot at one end. She places the knife gently on the other edge of the carrot and pushes down, cutting the carrot neatly into its first wheel. Eunice cannot help but feel a little impressed with the little girl. She keeps an eye on the girl while she gets back to what she was doing.

Just as a smile is about to start tugging at the corners of Eunice’s lips, a young man enters the same door the little girl came through. He has a brisk, confident walk as he takes the walkway on the other side of the counter where Eunice is busy working.  When Eunice lifts her gaze to look at her son, the smile disappears from her delicate mouth. She tries to look at him without any emotion even though he is the reason her heart is breaking.

“Hey Ma.” Eric greets Eunice, flashing that million dollar smile he uses to dazzle the entire female species. Her heart twists painfully. Eunice does not greet Eric in return. Eric sees that his mother is not going to soften up today either, she has been cold and distant towards him for weeks now.

“C’mon Ma. Do you want to know what happened in court today?” Eric asks his mother. He gives Eunice an expectant look that then turns into disappointment as she lowers her gaze and busies herself with her preparations again.

The young girl is resting the knife in her hand on the carrot she was about to chop. She looks at Eric with her big bright eyes. Eric shifts his gaze from Eunice to the girl and back again.

“Ma?” Eric tries again. Eunice does not pay him any attention. Truth is, she finds it hard to look at him. There is a thin scar on his forehead that screams at her every time she looks at her son. Eric stands a while looking at his mother before shifting his gaze back to the girl.

“What’s your name, little one?” Eric asks the girl. He smiles as her eyes grow even wider. He didn’t think they could be bigger than they already were.

“Alicia” The little girl says in a clear voice. Eric smiles at her.

“Hi, Alicia. Is my mother talking to you?” Eric asks her with a big smile, trying to convince the young girl that he is kind and friendly.

Alicia looks at Eunice. She did not speak a word to her. She looks back at Eric and shakes her head.

Eric raises his eyebrows and watches his mother with more interest. She must then be ignoring everyone around her today. He will leave her be. Eric smiles at Alicia and walks away. As he exits the kitchen at the other side, Eunice heaves a deep heavy sigh, as though she was holding her breath the whole time Eric was standing here.

She looks at Alicia and smiles.

“Hello Alicia. My name is Eunice. That was my son, Eric.” Eunice tells Alicia in a soft sweet voice.

“Everyone calls me Ally.” The young girl tells Eunice. She smiles at her.

“Well, then, Ally. Are you enjoying yourself?” Eunice asks her.

“Yes, thank you.” Ally busies herself with chopping her carrot into neat little wheels. “Your son is really beautiful.” Ally says while chopping.

Eunice heaves another burdened sigh.

“That he is. You should be weary of beautiful men. They often know they are beautiful and they use it to their advantage.” Eunice looks at Ally and bends down to speak closer to her, “They will break your heart, whether it is your friend, husband or son. Beautiful men are dangerous.” Eunice tries to soften the bitter tone in her voice with a smile but she knows that she has failed.

She straightens up and continues her preparations.

“That child of mine has no sense of responsibility and he shows no remorse. Breaks my heart.” Eunice says in a bitter tone.

The two of them continue to chop and prepare without saying another word. As the day grew to a close and the restaurant started to get busy, Ally put her knife down and excused herself. She made her way back to the orphanage, leaving Eunice to think about how the day turned out to be something quite different than she expected. She hopes the young girl will come again; she enjoyed having her company even though they did not really speak.

A few days later Ally sneaks into the kitchen again. She finds Eunice and pulls up her little stepping stool. Eunice gives her something more useful to do and watches as the young girl learns by watching what Eunice does. She does not need to explain or teach her. She copies Eunice perfectly. Only when Eunice does something that takes some practice to get right, will Ally attempt to do it but fail all the same. She does not give up though. Eunice is in awe of the little girl and how determined she is to get things right.

It is far easier to teach this girl than it ever was to teach Eric. The thought of Eric leaves a stab of pain in Eunice’s heart. She raised her son well and gave him all the attention she could, with a husband like hers. Claude was a ruthless man. He believed himself to be a better Chef than Eunice, even though Eunice has earned a lot more awards for the work she has done. She is a world-renowned Chef. She built this restaurant on reputation alone. She did not make use of her husband’s vast amounts of money to fund her dreams.

Thinking of Claude turns her heart bitter again. She didn’t want to take his money because she was very sure that he made his money in an unsavoury way. The last thing Eunice wanted, was for her reputation and restaurant to be tarnished by the crimes of her husband.

Now she feels like she lost anyway. Claude has had a lot more influence on Eric than she expected. Her beautiful little boy grew up to be a young man who shows no remorse for the things he caused to happen.

Eunice closes her eyes tightly to keep the tears from rolling over her cheeks. Her son will be the end of her.

“Do you think we could add cream to this sauce?” Ally asks Eunice. Although the girl is standing next to her, she sounded a few feet away. Eunice forces herself back to reality. She looks at Ally and then at the sauce.

“Yes, I think that would add not only great flavour but it would add some body to it also. Good call.” Eunice is impressed by the young girl’s natural talent in the kitchen.