NINE

JASON WAS famished and exhausted for food and sleep. He hadn't had breakfast or lunch throughout the day and at that point, he was close to passing out from hypoglycemia.

    Dealing with this father had sapped what little energy he had left in him. Now, he has to deal with Kelly Davis before all this blows out of proportion.

    Finally, he arrived at the location Brad had sent to him the previous day. 

    It was a small eatery in a secluded part of the city with little or no people around.

    Jason packed his car gingerly at the parking space. He looked around scanning the vicinity in his car checking for any suspicious-looking person.

    Brad had notified him that he had absolutely nothing to worry the place was reporters free and he'd even reserved the entire eatery for the whole day.

    He put on a black face cap, a facemask, and sunshades that were constantly in his car before stepping out of the car. 

    Being in the middle of all those scandals and rumors had taught him a crucial lesson: To never let his guard down.

    He walked into the eatery and stopped midway as he spotted Kelly at one table, relaxed and soaking up what seems to be a smoothie.

    Why was she without strain when she was in this chaos too?

    Storm clouds gathered in his eyes, his jaw so tight he looked liable to crack a tooth.

    He wanted to smack the smile, she flashed him, out of her face when she finally noticed him striding towards her.

    CALM DOWN, JASON. SHE'S JUST A KID!

    "Hello." Kelly singsonged fluttering her fingers.

    Jason returned her smile with a close mouth smile. "Hey." 

    The waiter, who seemed to be the only one there, came over to their table handing the menu to him.

    With a wave of his hand, he told him not to bother and just leave them.

    Jason narrowed his eyes as Kelly sucked in her smoothie through her straw. "We're both busy people so I'm going to cut to the chase." He declared as she lifted her head from her drink. "What do you intend to gain from being quiet about this matter? Both of us know none of this is true. These rumors about us would cease if you at least make an effort to deny it."

    Kelly chuckled. "And what makes you think I want to deny it?"

    STAY CALM, JASON. KEEP YOUR COOL. SHE'S JUST A TEENAGER. ANY SLIGHT PROVOCATION MAY SPARK REBELLION.

    "So what exactly is in it for you?!"

    "A lot. Think about the publicity I'm receiving from this scandal." She chirpily. "Too bad you're getting the negative impact of it. But hey, any form of publicity is still publicity."

 Jason lost it. "Are you kidding me?!" He snapped. "This scandal is tarnishing my image and all you care about is publicity?"

    "This won't have happened if you had agreed to star in the movie with me!" She snapped back. "I wanted you in the movie with me because I've always been a huge fan. I begged you, which trust me, I rarely do. And you straight up ignored me like I was garbage. You see, I don't do well with people ignoring me."

    Jason had met a lot of difficult divas of the media world in his life as an artiste but he'd never met anyone as irritating as the little brat right in front of him.

    "Well—" Jason tried to keep his voice light and his temper from exploding. "—I hope you don't forget the fact that I've been in this show biz longer before you left preschool. With the pull of little strings here and there, I can blackball you throughout the entire entertainment industry." he scoffed and leaned back in his chair. Head high. Eyes narrow and all business. "You want publicity so bad even at expense of others? Let's see if you would get it without any casting." 

    Kelly scowled at him. "Is that a threat?"

    "I'm not trying to threaten you, kiddo. I'm just warning you." He smirked then added in the same tone she used earlier. "You see, I don't do well with people opposing me."

    Kelly exhaled. "Even though I wanted to do anything about it I can't." She confessed with a decent attitude. 

    "And why is that?" Jason asked.

    When he didn't receive any answer her leaned towards the table looming over her. "Do I have to repeat myself?"

    Kelly rolled her eyes. "Fine. You wanna know why?" She snapped. "Well, your father paid enormously to start this scandal. He guaranteed I'll get as much promotion and casting as I wanted. Why do you think the director was planning a second part of Marianne in a short period?"

    At this point, Jason wasn't surprised at all at how far his father would go to get his way. In someplace deep down, he'd had a feeling this was all part of his plan.

    "I'll give twice as much as whatever he promised you. Just make even a post refuting this whole thing." He urged on.

    "I'm sorry I can't do that." She replied flatly. "Your father is a quite scary man to defy and I have no intention of getting on the nasty side of him. You have to find some other way to fix this."

    She stood up gathered her stuff and with another muttered apology, she left the eatery. 

    Jason stared in the distance after she had left. He didn't blame her one bit. He'd lived with the man for seventeen years he knew just how dominating his father was and he knew how terrifying it was to defy him. 

    He had experienced it all. The pain, the misery, and the torment.

     He let his head drop back and just sat there, listening to the sound of his breathing and feeling sorry for himself.

    Pathetic!

    It wasn't his ordeal or the silence.

    No, it was the crushing feeling of loneliness that propelled him to feel sorry for himself. He hadn't truly gotten used to being lonely. His father was the only family he had left and he was constantly coming up with different plots to ruin his life. 

    A fragile part of him wanted to give in to his father's pressure and just be the submissive son he wanted so badly but he wasn't going to let that happen. NEVER!

    Nobody was prouder than Jason.

    What had he promised his father? He was going to fight him with all he's got. And that is what he was going to do.

    First, he has to get himself out of this mess.

    He pulled himself to his feet and strode with poise towards his car.

    This wasn't the time to throw a pity party. It was time to take action.

   

Evelyn glanced at her phone for the hundredth time. She had been waiting for Jason's call since the dawn of that day.

    She was determined to get what she wanted even if she had to blackmail him. 

    She had to get closer to him and she can only do that by living with him.

    "Still no call?" Doris queried entering her room with the titanium crutches. She placed the crutches by the side of the bed and plopped down on the bed with extreme delicacy.

    "Nope," Evelyn replied her eyes still glued to her phone. "Not even one." She sighed softly. "So how's it going with Brad?"

    When she didn't get any reply, she turned around to face Doris but her gaze was focused on her phone oblivious to her and what she had been asking. Then slowly she broke into a somewhat menacing grin.

    "Doris...?" She called slowly. "What exactly are you up to now?"

    Doris giggled and ran her finger over the screen of her phone before flipping it towards the camera to show Evelyn a photo of herself with her cast and crutches. "Livvie took this pic of me this morning." 

    "And...?"

    Doris grinned shamelessly. "And I'm about to add fuel to fire."

    With that, she post the photo on all her social media handles with the caption: Got hit by a car and broke my leg on my B-day. I shouldn't have drunk yesterday but my heart couldn't take it.

    Then she added hashtags ‘Worst Bday Ever’ and ‘Pray For Me’ to compliment the post.

    Evelyn shook her head. "Remind me never to get on your wrong side."

    Immediately after it was posted, reactions and comments came flooding in a frenzy. 80 percent of the comments were praying for her quick recovery and clapper clawing Jeff Blake while the rest were calling her a liar, a drama queen, and other malicious names.

    That seized Doris' attention. "Liar? Drama queen? Attention seeker? What the hell are they talking about?" 

Suddenly, she realized she hadn't looked at Jeff's I*******m. She had been too preoccupied since yesterday she'd totally forgotten to check her opponent's whereabouts.

She tapped into Jeff's I*******m account.

    A long silence ensued.

    "Jeff! You asshole!" She yelled springing up abruptly, totally forgetting her injured foot. "Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!" She winced in pain sitting back down on the bed.

    Evelyn turned to her friend alarmed. "What? What is it?" 

    Doris passed the phone to Evelyn.

    Apparently, Jeff had made a counterattack post on his page addressing his relationship issues with Doris accusing her of being a bitter ex and trying to wreck his BEAUTIFUL relationship with his fiancee. He'd further claimed that they'd broken up a long time ago but Doris had begged him to continue to pose as her boyfriend due to the power of publicity their relationship wielded and he had merely complied because she'd seemed pitiful and now he wanted nothing but to move on with his life with the woman who actually cares about him. 

    "Wow!" Evelyn said in a husky voice. "He wasn't kidding when he said he was going to smear your image. Scum bag!"

    Doris took back her phone. "I can't believe I was once in love with this lying prick." She spat out furiously.

    "Who exactly is his fiancee?"

    "Ashley Shawn."

    "Ashley Shawn? Billionaire hotelier Ted Shawn's daughter?"

    "One and only."

    "Well, that explains why he's so desperate to get you out of the way. He's such a golddigger."

    Doris grimaced. "He can get me out of his way as much as he can but he can't smear my image like that and get away with it. He just started a battle he is going to regret. This is far from over."

    "Whatever it is you're planning to kick his ass with, let me know. It's been long overdue." Evelyn said with grit, driving a clenched fist into her palm.

    Doris brightened up. "Thanks, Evy." Her eyes widened as if she just remembered something. "Oh! I almost forgot why I came here. "Your Grams wants to know if you're down for cheesecake?"

    "Of course."

    Evelyn rolled her shoulders back and was just about to pull herself to her feet and assist her friend who was struggling to steady herself with the crutches when her cell phone rang from her bed.

    Jason! She snatched the phone terrified that it would ring off. She flicked it open and it really was him.

    That outrageous man!

    After a thought, she decide to let it ring for a while so as not to be discerned as desperate.

    One ring. Two. Three.

    At last, on the fourth ring, she picked up the phone. "Hello?" She could hear him breathing heavily on the other end of the phone. 

    "Evelyn?"

    "Yeah."

    He seemed to hesitate for a bit as if searching for the right words.

    "Let's do this," he let out finally.