FOUR

By noon, the fiery ball in the sky was sending a heatwave to all who dwelled below. Jane had to shield her eyes from the scorching sun as she tried in vain to find a job.

As a child, she suffered from Meniere's Disease and was often in and out of the hospital for treatments. Because of this, she was set back by two years in school and only managed to enter university when most of her peers were already graduating.  At first, things went well for Jane; perhaps a wee bit too smoothly. Her ethereal looks of lustrous chestnut locks and ocean blue eyes caught the attention of many, as well as the campus’ most popular fraternity. But alas, on her first night at the fraternity’s party, she was drugged only to wake up the next day in bed with a bunch of strangers, none of whom dared to confess what had transpired during the night. And just like that, her dream as an interior designer burnt to the ground, never to be seen again.

She had wanted to abort the fetus at first, but as her child grew in her womb, she realized that she had only love for the innocent being and swore to give her baby a good life.

It’s all my fault, she thought as she stepped out from a records store facing yet another rejection. Above her, the beams from the sun continued to scorch the pavement beneath where she stood.

None of this would have happened if I had not gone back home.

People alienated her when her pregnancy came to light and avoided her like a plague. Whispers of contempt and spiteful rumours spread like a wildfire.

“She’s a whore,” they would say.

“She went around begging to sleep with men,” others would laugh.

But her father had always stood by her side. And now, in this hour of need, she could only pray that he would once again help her by keeping her child safe and sound.

Jane shook her head, trying hard to push away the dizziness that was creeping up on her. She had not eaten since yesterday and to make matters worse, she suddenly felt something warm trickling down her leg.

Jesus! She was bleeding!

As fast as she could, she turned around and bolted towards the nearest entrance of a dark grey building, pushing past a bald but bearded muscle man. In her haste, Jane failed to see the large signboard that was proudly displayed above the grand double glass door. It spelt ‘Las Duex Club.’

“Hey!” the man yelled as she zipped past him.

“I need to use your bathroom sir, I’m bleeding,” she explained awkwardly. Her dark blue sandals had already turned blood red.

She expected to be thrown out of the building but the man was surprisingly kind enough to point her towards the nearest bathroom, which was luckily just a few feet away from the entrance. She thanked him profusely and ran as fast as her feet could take her, slamming the full length mirrored bathroom door shut before tearing a handful of tissue paper from one of the toilet cubicles in an attempt to clean herself up.

“Wow, wild night huh?” an exotic looking brunette with bangs eyed her as she stepped out from the next cubicle, pausing to pass some more toilet paper to Jane.

“I just delivered my baby yesterday,“ Jane gave the lanky beauty an embarrassed smile. The brunette’s doe eyes went wide with surprise and a little ‘O’ formed on her painted red lips, “Seriously? Could have fooled me, darling.”

Sheepishly, Jane entered her cubicle and closed the door before she started to clean herself up more thoroughly.

The brunette proceeded to wash her hands in the sink before pulling out a little mascara stick from her vanity pouch. “You new here?” She was a chatty one.

“No, no. I was just–“

“We’re looking for a new hostess. The old one hooked up with one of our VIPs, she’s probably living the lifestyle of the rich and famous now. We pay by the hour you know, and the tips are freaking good. It got me my Gucci bag right here.” She patted at a diamond-encrusted handbag that housed her vanity pouch.

Oh...

Jane had only been paying minimal attention to what the brunette had been saying up to this point when suddenly, a light bulb lit in her head.

‘We pay by the hour’ and ‘the tips are freaking good’ particularly stood out to Jane. Her heart skipped a beat and a surge of hope began to swell in her. This was exactly what she needed, cold hard cash and fast!

Little Timmy, wait for me. Mummy will come and get you soon. I swear with my life, she sent a prayer to her little one. Quickly she flushed the bloodied rolls down the toilet and popped her head out of the cubicle, giving her most charming smile to the brunette, “How much is the pay? Can we get an advance?”

***

Daniel Winters was having a headache. His company was giving him a headache. His ex-wife was giving him a headache. Even his stepmother was giving him a headache.

He cupped his head with his hands, rubbing at his temple with his index fingers and sighed as the phone on his black office desk rang suddenly rang. The incessant ringing from the phone only aggravated the pain in his head. It felt like his brain was about to explode.

“Answer the goddamn phone!” he yelled into the intercom. Outside his office, his mousy haired secretary jumped from her seat and quickly intercepted the call from her desk, finally giving him a much needed respite. He shook his head and ran a hand through his textured crop, his thick eyebrows furrowing as his jet black eyes shot daggers at his secretary. He would have to fire this new secretary, she was just too slow at work.   

Swiftly, he pulled out a drawer from under his desk to grab a bottle of Tylenol. Out came a little white pill which he popped into his mouth and swallowed dry. Daniel Winters should have been to the doctor’s, but he wasn’t. Instead, here he was, pouring over an endless pile of work that seemingly saw no end. He was working so much premature grey streaks were starting to sprout, making him look slightly older and sexier than his twenty eight years of age.

“Mr Winters?” his secretary’s squeaky voice stammered through the intercom.

“What?” he growled.

“Uh…your mother called.”

“STEP-mother,” he corrected her, rubbing at his temple again. His stepmother, a thirty-year-old actress wannabe was a gold-digging whore who only married his father for the sake of money. And she was close to making her dream come true. His father went senile a year after they got married and she’d somehow manipulated his old man to change his will. If he didn’t act sooner, his family legacy and Winters Architecture, the country’s biggest and most influential architectural firm would fall into the hands of an airhead.

“Uh..yes..sorry..stepmother. She called to ask when you’ll be signing the papers.”

SLAM! The files on his desks shook as his fists came into contact with his desk.

“Fuck!” he yelled, the veins on his neck throbbing as rage coursed through his body. He tugged at his silken grey tie as if they suffocated him and his secretary started to sob, apologizing over and over again for something that was out of her control.

“Tell her she won’t get a cent from the Winters family!”

“B..but your father’s will stipulates that everything goes to her unless you have an heir…” his secretary croaked out. He could see her rubbing off the sweat from her forehead through the half-opened blinds in his office.

Daniel Winters closed his eyes and exhaled; his lips pursed into a straight line as he racked his brain for a possible solution.

To keep the family inheritance from falling into his stepmother’s hands, he chose to marry the state’s hottest model, even going as far as to gift her with an eight million dollar jewellery set as a wedding present. And to ensure she would get pregnant, he even fucked the woman day and night only to find out that she was on the pill. She was jerking off her driver too. He caught them in the act when he tried to surprise her on their third month anniversary. He filed for divorce that very day and the rest was history. Save for the fact that she kept begging for him to take her back.

Time was running out and he needed a quick fix. Where was he going to find a wife and have a baby with such short notice?

“Mr Winters?” his secretary’s voice pulled him out of his thoughts and his eyes snapped open. A frown formed on his chiselled jaw as he rubbed at it.

“I can’t just pick any woman from the street and –“ a sudden thought entered his mind and his lips slowly curled up into a smile.

“Ms Potts?”

“Y-yes, sir?”

Daniel smirked, his eyes twinkling with mischievousness, “ Tell that whore she’s a grandmother now.”

“Oh…uh..okay.”

There. He told a lie. A big fat lie. Now all he had to do was to find a pretend wife and a baby and then everything would be solved. Then EVERYTHING would be alright.