Chapter Seven: The Dangling Dingleberries

Drake let out a sigh as the door opened unexpectedly, his eyes met with Maya’s and he could swear she was already in the knowing. They exchanged quick pleasantries and she urshered him in calmly.

As he had predicted,Amelia looked nothing like the lady that radiated confidence in front of the camera earlier that morning.Her swollen eyeballs gave her away instantly,Drake could help but feel terrible for being the cause of her misery.

“Take a seat Mr Harris”.

“Hi”.

Maya’s offer and Amelia’s shy greeting colluded,he took a seat on the sofa opposite hers but the right words eluded him. A well known demon in the business world who could seal any business deal within the hour couldn’t find his voice in front of a woman.

Strange! Isn’t it?

“Seeing you here proved her words right Mr Harris”.

Maya knew she had to step in or else those two grownup would spend the rest of the evening in awkward silence. Drake nodded his head in affirmation.

“What are you going to do about it?,” she questioned bluntly.

What was he going to do about it?

Drake hadn’t really given that difficult question much thought when he rushed out of his office. His focus was getting to see Amelia, the thought of listening to people’s misconception about the issue made him uneasy and he felt like protecting her from the backlash.

But now that he was with her;he was flaggerbasted.

“I will terminate it”

Amelia’s determined mind gave her voice some courage.

“It is not only your….decision to make,sister”.

Maya shot back at her, all the while her gaze was fixated on Drake,her long lashes sending him a cruel message.And he understood the unsaid message clearly.

“Don’t you dare bail out”.

Drake was thinking hard,he would admit he felt a sense of physical attraction towards Amelia on their first encounter but it wasn’t strong enough to get him hooked to her.

He didn’t need any baggage in his life and breaking his promise to his late wife would hurt him badly too,yet she carries his bloodline, something his parents were eager for and an opportunity to strengthen his inheritance.

“We will keep the baby”. He said authoritatively.

Amelia stood up abruptly,she hovered over him and he knew trouble was setting in,the dangerous glint in her eyes.

That look! he had seen it before!

The exact one she had when she decided to dumb her fiancé’s ass at the altar.

“You do not get to make that decision!”

“Then what? I became a single mother?”

Drake didn’t need to be told, he knew he had said it wrongly.

Having a baby is a whole lot to handle and to worsen it, he wasn’t going to marry her.

His phone rang loudly and he excused himself to pick it up. His brother shouted his shriek ear deafening.

“Switch on a damn TV wherever you are Drake”.

He dropped the call and politely requested Maya switch the television on. To his horror, his voice echoed through back to him.

“We will keep the baby”.

The three of them got worked up,someone had been eavesdropping on them, the audio recording was cut short to selected parts of their dialogue.

Maya held her breath for a split second, who could have done this?

The anonymous blogger kept dropping mockery comments, urging the audience to guess who the male speaker could be but obviously he was out to mock Amelia because it was obvious it definitely wasn’t Leonard’s voice in the broadcast.

Amelia felt the rest of her courage slip away, Maya’s phone kept blaring endlessly. She knew it was going to be none other than their parent. She was certain if her number wasn’t off,hers wouldn’t be any different.

The three of them kept exchanging nervous glances, Maya stood up and kept rummaging through the house in search of the concealed voice recorder but it was no where in sight.

Drake cursed inwardly as his phone kept ringing too, he knew he had hit a rock button now that his father must have found out about the mess he had gotten himself into.

Amelia picked up a pen and wrote in a paper for Drake to leave while they try to figure it all out.He didn’t argue but immediately left after a quick promise to return.

Drake zoomed off the premise with one heavy thought in his mind, heavier than getting a naive lady pregnant out of wedlock. It was soiling his family’s reputation.Mr Dinkins is not going to let him off either.

Whichever way; he was trapped!

Maya picked up the car keys, thankfully their safe house has a discreet enough location so the reporters hadn’t found them yet,except the unknown whistleblower and perhaps Drake Harris himself.

Which begs the question.

How the hell did he find them?

Amelia cleaned her face and dabbed on some sun screen.Splashed some tantalizing fragrance of cologne on.Maya scoffed loudly at her sister’s delusional act, within a split second,she felt nauseated and rushed to throw up.After cleaning up,she returned looking exhausted and Maya gave her a devilish smile.

They made for the door when a familiar white car zoomed into the driveway. They both stopped on their track and allowed the driver to alight.He removed his sunglasses and gave them a disdainful look.

“Congratulations on soiling my integrity the second time ,girls”.

“Dad!”

“Get in my car”now!

Amelia and Maya exchanged knowing looks,their loving father has a very ugly side once he is provoked and right now!

He is at the peak of it.

“Where are we…going dad?” Maya asked carefully, avoiding his piercing gaze.

Amelia could tell it was going to be the least place she would want to be.The ugly wrinkles around her father’s jawline when he is about to do something crazy already gave him off.All she had to do was wait for it.

“We are meeting with the Harris”.

“OMG!!”