The Tycoon's Revenge(23)

“I’m not all cozy with him, Dad. I just need the job. I have a son to support,” she told him.

“You’re always just full of excuses, just like when you were a child. I’m done coddling you. If you can get that man to back the hell off me, then you can call me. Otherwise you can stay out of my life,” he shouted. The phone went dead. Jasmine stared at the beeping receiver not understanding what just happened.

She had no more tears left in her. She had to pull herself together for her son’s sake. She went to the bathroom and washed her face. She looked in the mirror and vowed she’d never get taken advantage of or be abused again.



Derek had all calls held and sat at his desk looking up information. He soon found that Jasmine had never been married. She didn’t even appear to have been in a serious relationship. It took him a while to find information on her son though, because he was thinking he’d be a toddler.

When he realized how old the boy was his world seemed to stop spinning. He was doing some major math in his head and no matter which way he looked at it, the date of his birth coincided with the time he’d been with her. He knew she’d been a virgin when they slept together and he couldn’t imagine she’d jumped from his bed into another man’s within a couple of weeks-time.

It was possible but very unlikely. He had no idea how many hours he sat there trying to figure everything out. If he was a father, why would she not tell him? Why wouldn’t she have come after him for child support? He was a very wealthy man and she could’ve tried to exploit that.

He’d been working with her for a week and she hadn’t said a word about her son. The only explanation seemed to be that he wasn’t the father. But he didn’t understand why she wouldn’t try to pass the kid off as his. She knew the time frame would work and she could’ve thought he wouldn’t demand a DNA test.

He needed to get some answers and there was no way in hell he was waiting until Monday morning. He decided he was going to her house right then. He looked up her address and was shocked by the neighborhood. It wasn’t the poorest district but certainly not what she was used to. Hell, her father still lived in a mansion; well he did until he was forced to place it on the market.

She lived in a lower middle class neighborhood and the house had about as much square footage as his bedroom. He didn’t get it. He glanced at the clock and was frustrated to realize it was close to midnight. He’d been sitting at his computer all day and night. He’d have to wait until the morning before going over there. It was going to be a long, sleepless night.

He walked out to his car and couldn’t help himself from driving in the direction of her place. He had to see if it was really in the type of neighborhood he’d looked up. It took him about thirty minutes to reach her neighborhood and it was exactly as he'd pictured.

He slowed his car, as he looked at the house numbers, until he spotted her place. It was a nice house. No one could say she lived in the slums but he was so used to luxury condos and high-rises, that he almost forgot what working class neighborhoods looked like.

The place was a pale blue color, with white trim. He glanced at the well maintained lawn, which was due to be mowed, and the many flowers planted around and the white picket fence. She lives in suburbia, he thought, with an almost hysterical laugh.

He’d dreamed of living in a place like that when he’d been growing up. He and his cousins would go walking through the neighborhoods, picking out which house they would own and exactly what cars would be parked in the driveway. His dreams had strayed a long way from that time.

He now lived on the top floor of a huge complex, with no yard in sight. He sat in his car, wistfully thinking it would be nice to have a yard. Her place was far too small for his tastes but the idea of a yard was greatly appealing. If the boy really did turn out to be his, he’d start looking for property to build a nice house on. Hell, even if the boy didn’t turn out to be his, he was going to start looking. It was time to have some land and maybe a few horses and other animals roaming around.

He kept fighting with himself. He wanted to pound on her door and demand answers from her. He wasn’t a patient man and he needed to know if he had a son. If it were true he’d already lost over nine years of the boy’s life and he wasn’t willing to lose one minute more.

He debated with himself for a few minutes and then decided there was no use causing a scene in the middle of the night. He moved to start the car, when there was a knock at his window. He normally wasn’t a jumpy person but his heart jumped, as he turned to see the bright end of a flashlight.