Page 10 of Dragon in Denial
No way. Antoinette had a kid? And his parents obviously knew, since Antoinette and her offspring were here eating dinner. It was a little annoying that his mother hadn’t mentioned anything when he stopped by earlier, although he supposed they hadn’t spoken of Antoinette at all at the time.
“Here, let me help you into your chair,mijo,” Antoinette said.Mijo. “My son.”
“I can do it,” the kid said stubbornly, sounding exactly like Antoinette. And then he climbed into the booster seat and snagged a fritter, which, thankfully, had cooled enough that he didn’t burn his fingers like his mother had.
His mother.
“He’s yours?” Ketu blurted.
Antoinette’s lips thinned.
“Don’t fill up on those fritters,”Mamásaid, adding a platter of grilled jerk chicken pieces to the table. “Dinner’s ready.” A bowl of rice came next, followed by a salad. His parents sat, Dad at the head andMamáto his right. The kid was seated next to her, and Antoinette sat at the other end, to the child’s left.
Ketu dropped into the remaining chair, directly across from the curly-headed child, and watched as Antoinette fixed a plate for him, insisting he had to eat a couple bites of lettuce before he could have any more fritters. The little boy thrust out his bottom lip and glanced up at Ketu, who was just about to bite down on one of the delicious appetizers.
He hesitated and then, while chewing, piled salad onto his plate. After swallowing and chasing it with a sip of beer, he stabbed at the salad and shoved a giant bite into his mouth.
The kid glanced from his plate to Ketu’s, picked up a piece of lettuce, and ate it before reaching for a fritter.
Antoinette’s mouth thinned even more. Given how full her lips were normally, that was no small feat.
“So,” Ketu said after devouring the salad—and a few more fritters—“you have a kid.”
“Yes.”
He waited.
“That’s it? That’s all you’re going to give me?”
“I’m not going to talk about this at the dinner table.”
Ketu looked at his mother, but, for once, she didn’t seem inclined to get involved, and Dad appeared wholly focused on devouring his meal. Fine. But just as soon as the dishes were cleared…
“Manman, who is that man?” the little boy asked.
Before Antoinette could respond, Ketu’s mother said, “That’s mymijo. His name is Ketu.”
The kid cocked his head and studied Ketu for a few moments and then said, “Does that mean he’s Auntie Eulalie’s brother?”
Auntie Eulalie? Antoinette told her son about her deceased best friend?
“Yes,” Ketu’s mother said, clapping her hands, a great big smile on her face. “You are the smartest littlepitit pititI’ve ever known.”
“I’m your onlypitit pitit,” the kid grumbled, and everyone except Ketu laughed.
Pitit pititmeant grandson in Haitian Creole. Did his mother see this kid as her grandson? Ketu supposed that wasn’t surprising. Antoinette used to say she was closer to this family than her blood relatives. Apparently that hadn’t changed after Ketu left.
Except Antoinette was a godsdamned drug dealer. His parents clearly didn’t know. He couldn’t imagine they would open their home to her if they did. Not after what happened to their biological daughter.
“What do you say?” Antoinette said quietly, encouraging the kid.
His eyes widened as he studied Ketu, until he finally said, “Hello, sir. My name is Henri. Pleased to meet you.”
Ketu cleared his throat. “Uh, nice to meet you, too, Henri.”
“Manman’stold me lots of funny stories about you.”
Ketu’s gaze flew to Antoinette’s face, but she was focused on moving the food around on her plate and refused to look him in the eye. He damn near opened his mouth to make a scathing remark, but it wasn’t the kid’s fault his mother had made a poor career choice. “Oh yeah? I may need you to tell me a few of these stories. I gotta make sure she didn’t leave anything out. Like anything that might be embarrassing to her.”
