“Wait a minute,” Alana sat up straight as she downed a shot of her drink. “You seduced Jake and had sex with him in this house.” I nodded and she scoffed. “How did I not notice this? I knew there was a boy but I didn’t think that Jake- he never let on that he paid any attention to you except- I always just thought he was annoyed by you.”“I am not annoying.”“Mija, you follow him around like a puppy. It was clear to anyone with eyes that you had a thing for him but he never paid attention to you. I would have never thought that this would happen. What were you thinking? Your father will have a heart attack.”“If he has a heart attack, it isn’t going to be my fault. What I do with Jake is none of his business.”“Jake is his best friend and you are his daughter, it is his business. This is the scandal of the century. Do you have any idea what will come from it?”“Yes, I am aware that I am a whore, you don’t have to tell me, my dad has made it abundantly clear,” my voice dripped with sar
I made it to the large gate guarding our estate when I heard a car pull up beside me. I knew it was my father but I didn’t care enough to stop. I wasn’t going back to him, not when he was going to treat me like this. I deserved better. I hadn’t stolen from anyone, I hadn’t done anything illegal. My only crime was daring to be with an older man and he was choosing to crucify me for it.“Get into the car, Hayley,” he said simply but I ignored him. “For fucks sake, you cannot walk the entire way to your grandparent’s house. You are being stubborn.”At that, I turned on him. “I am being stubborn? You took everything that I owned. You took my money, you took my car and you took everything that I worked my ass off for, including my salary. How dare you say that I am being stubborn?”“You clearly aren’t thinking straight if you cannot even see that you are being taken advantage of. In this state it is dangerous for you to-”“Would you stop?” I exclaimed. “I knew you were going to lose your m
I was barely able to sleep last night. I managed to shut my eyes around four but I was up by six. I couldn’t think, couldn’t focus because I had no idea what today was going to hold. For the first time in my life, I was confused and I didn’t know what to do. For the first time in my life, I had been bested.There was a knock on my door and I looked up as grandpa walked in. “Your dad sent a text, he said you don’t have to come in for work today.”I snorted. “Is that his way of trying to apologize? Or is that his way of trying to keep me away.”“Hayley-”“It doesn’t matter anyway, it gives me the chance to look for jobs.”“Hayley, I know how pissed off you are but today is a new day and I hoped you would have slept it off. I don’t like that you and your father are fighting this much. He is just trying to look after you.”“I don’t like his delivery,” I shrugged. “He has no right to treat me like an infant.”“And I agree with that-”He paused mid-sentence when we heard the doorbell. We lo
We stared at each other, neither one of us willing to back down. He was a proud man but I was nothing if not my father’s daughter. I was proud as hell and even more stubborn too. If he wanted to be an asshole about it, then I was going to be one too. I didn’t want to quit, far from it actually, it would have meant giving Charles the satisfaction of thinking he won but at the same time, I wasn’t going to let anyone walk all over me- not even my father.“Hayley,” he warned but I simply rolled my eyes. “Why are you being stubborn about this?”“Why are you being thick headed about this?” I shot back. “I can either be your child or someone you own, I cannot be both and I will not allow you to treat me like both. You cannot take away everything I own and have worked for at the slightest inconvenience. You don’t get to control me and call it a day. I am not a puppet on a string, I am not a dog that you lead with a bone. I am a person and you will treat me like one or you will never have acce
I didn’t call Jake to let him know I was coming and on hindsight, I probably should have. His car was in his driveway when I arrived and I already knew the code so I felt no need to call and let him know. I slowly made my way up the steps to his front door and hesitantly knocked on his door.At first, there was no response and I raised my fist to knock again when the door opened and a pretty strawberry blond girl opened up. My first thought was that surely I had gotten the wrong house but I knew I hadn’t. She seemed familiar and closer to my age than Jake’s. We stared at each other for a full minute before she smiled.“I’ve seen you before, you said your name was Hayley,” she said suddenly and my brows furrowed. “You probably don’t remember me but you helped me out at a coffee shop a while ago. The cashier gave me the wrong order and you kind of ripped him a new asshole. You said you were a lawyer and-”The hazy interaction came back to me and a made a sound of acknowledgment. I saw h
I woke up before Jake did and while it wasn’t any achievement, I found myself grinning about it. He seemed so peaceful when he was asleep, and he looked half his age. He didn’t have the kind of stress that he usually did on his shoulders when awake. I couldn’t stop myself from reaching out to brush a stray strand of hair from his face. He mumbled something incoherent under his breath before gently running his hands up my bare thighs. It was cuter that he didn’t even realize that he was doing it.After staring at him for what felt like an unusual amount of time, I forced myself to my feet and pulled on his shirt that was lying on the floor. It fell to the middle of my thighs and I figured that was good enough to go downstairs and start on breakfast. I had momentarily forgotten that Kate was around until I bumped into her in the kitchen.She had a glass of water in her hands and thankfully, she didn’t drop it. she just stared at me for a second and blinked. My cheeks burned when I reali
Jake tried to give me his undivided attention but sometime during breakfast, he got a business call that he had to attend to and I watched him disappear. Kate hadn’t said a single word since we sat down, in fact, she tried to avoid my gaze the entire time.“I’m sorry if we-” I began but she cut me off.“I would rather not think about what you were doing,” her cheeks tinged pink as she spoke. “He looks happy so I guess that is what matters the most to me, and you seem like a great person too, you stood up for me when you didn’t know me. It doesn’t count for much but you have my support.”“Yours would be the only one I have right now so it counts for a lot.”Her eyes softened considerably. “Let me guess, your parents didn’t take it well?”“My dad, yeah, he’s friends with Jake so I can understand.”She grimaced. “What about your mum?”“I don’t have one,” I shrugged. “The closest I have to one is Alana- our maid- and she hasn’t said anything yet. She doesn’t say much most times, she belie
I walked into the office with my head held high hoping that it would hide the raging storm inside of me. There were whispers as people stared at me and for a minute, I wanted to know what they were whispering about, I wanted to know why the stares but I couldn’t ask, I didn’t ask. I wouldn’t have done that a week ago and I wasn’t going to do that now. I kept my head facing forward as I headed straight for my office.I had barely gotten to the door when someone approached me. Sienna looked a bit hesitant as she stood awkwardly at my door. She had a plastic cup in her hands and from here, I could smell that it was coffee. She handed it over to me and I watched it carefully. I wasn’t trying to be rude, I just didn’t know if I could trust her.“It isn’t the shit one they serve in the cafeteria,” she assured me. “I got it from this really nice café on my way to work and it cost like twenty dollars so you kind of have to take it or else I would have wasted my-”I took it from her and took a
HAYLEY’S P.O.VJake and I had settled in a comforting routine and I had to admit that it was wonderful getting to wake up next to him every morning.He was the perfect partner even though we both had no idea what we were doing. A few night, I had woken up to find him reading a pregnancy book but I never commented on it. He doted on me, making sure I ate and rested all the time. It was cute and I secretly loved it but there was the elephant in the room.We were yet to do an ultrasound.It wasn’t due to lack of time. If it were up to Jake, we would have done it the minute he found out but I just couldn’t. I knew I was pregnant, I knew nothing would change that and yet, I didn’t want it to be real just yet. For the past week, I shut down every discussion surrounding the doctor’s appointment and avoided it as much as possible.It was Friday and I was already dreading the idea of being forced to interact with people I didn’t like and couldn’t stand. I was tired of the team building exercis
HAYLEY’S P.O.VThe moment I woke up, I knew I wasn’t alone.I was always able to tell when someone was watching me, even from a young age. The hair on my neck stood on edge and I just felt this sensation all over me. Dad always told me it was normal but some people found it weird. They said it was some kind of sixth spider sense or some shit like that.To an extent, I agreed, because not only was I able to tell when I was being watched, I was able to tell who was doing the watching. Each person felt different: with Jake, his gaze was always heated, it felt like someone was trying to brand my skin with their eyes. With my father, it was softer, more loving but that didn’t make it any less intense.“Hey dad,” I whispered as I sat up slowly.I looked around the dark room and found him seated in the couch facing the bed and I had never been so grateful for Jake dressing me before now. It would have been very uncomfortable if I was still naked in bed.Dad didn’t respond, he just stared at
JAKE’S P.O.VI blinked once then twice, staring at Hayley in front of me and wondering if I had misheard.“You what?”I wasn’t proud of my response but I was convinced that I had misheard. Hayley was nowhere near ready to have a child, she had all but said so herself, she wanted to live first, she wanted to grow first.She must have mistook my words for something else because her eyes grew dark and she stepped back from me. “You don’t have to be involved.”“Excuse me?”“If you don’t want this baby then I am more than capable of doing it on my own. I have my grandfather and my-”“Stop.”She either didn’t hear me or didn’t care. “I have the money and this will fulfill my grandmother’s inheritance clause. I have more than enough to take care of my child.”“Our,” I corrected and that was what caught her attention.“What?”“Our child,” I repeated stepping closer to her. “If you had let me finish earlier, you would have known that I want this baby.”“But you-”“I was surprised and I didn’t
HAYLEY’S P.O.VI wanted to take the test as soon as possible but I couldn’t.I had to wait until the morning because I needed accurate results.It felt like torture to just wait. I hid the tests in my bag but it was an ever present worry at the back of my mind. I could barely go a minute without thinking about it to the point that even Jake realized that something was bothering me.“Are you alright?” he asked and I nodded slowly. “You don’t look okay.”I just shrugged and turned away from him. He sighed and made his way over to me. He was still in his outfit from work but he had ditched the tie and the jacket. I was slacking off on my work terribly, I knew that for a fact and it was my day to plan the team building exercise tomorrow. I still had no idea what to do.“Hayley,” he crouched down in front of me, both hands on my thighs as he stroked my knee gently. “Talk to me, baby. Did something happen to Kate?”“No, Kate is fine. She’s having fun in school. She’s good, this isn’t about
HAYLEY’S P.O.VShe looked around in a panic, as if to ensure no one was watching outside before shutting the door behind her.“So,” I implored. “Who is he?”“He’s older, like Jake’s age.”I hummed. “Where did you meet him?”“At a club,” that had my brows rising. The club was not the ideal place to meet a guy. She must have seen the look on my face because she quickly added, “he’s not a typical club goer.”“I’m not judging.”“I know,” she ran her hands through her hair. “I know I should stop seeing her and I want to but,” she sighed deeply. “I know it is pathetic.”“There is nothing pathetic about being in love with someone.”“I’m not in love with him. I don’t think I am. He’s fun and nice but I don’t think he wants anything serious.”“Do you?”She went silent and turned away. “Can I get cleaned for a second then I’ll be back out.”I waved her off. I knew that pushing for an answer wouldn’t yield any positive results so I watched her leave instead. I sat cross legged on her couch waiti
HAYLEY’S P.O.VThe smell of breakfast was what woke me but it was the light streaming through the windows that had me sitting up in a flash- I was late.“Relax,” I felt a hand on my shoulders as Jake gently guided me back into the bed. “You don’t have to rush anywhere.”“But I’m late-”“Your dad gave you the day off, rest, Hayley, you’re not a machine, you are not a robot, you need a break once in a while.”I wanted to protest but he just shot me a look that clearly told me he wasn’t taking no for an answer no matter what so I reluctantly found myself resting against the pillows. It was only once I was back in bed that I took the opportunity to look at Jake.He was shirtless showing off his toned chest, he had a tray of food in his hands that he placed in my lap. It smelled delicious and my stomach rumbled, reminding me that I didn’t have a chance to eat last night.I mumbled a thank you under my breath before shoving a forkful into my mouth while Jake excused himself from the room. I
HAYLEY’S P.O.VI stared at her for a moment.If anything, I was actually proud of the fact that she came all this way to ask that her mother’s charges be dropped. It was a ballsy thing to do, especially for a fourteen year old and that was the only thing that kept me listening to her.“You don’t understand how these things work,” dad began but she shot him a bored look.“I’m fourteen, I know how things work. I heard what she did, I know she assaulted someone but I don’t know who.”“Don’t you want to know?” I asked and she groaned.“Look, I’m not going to defend her because I know what she did was wrong. It’s clear you didn’t want to see her, I saw how you reacted at the funeral. I know my mother and she can be a bit much sometimes but she has issues, okay? I found out she went off her meds-”“What meds?” she fell silent immediately. “Look, Kayla, if you want me to help you then I need to know why.”“I can’t tell you her business. All I will say is that she is a good mother. She has ne
HAYLEY’S P.O.VI registered the slap before I even knew what was happening. I was on my feet in an instant and rushed over to the door.I couldn’t think of anyone that would dare hit Jake and yet, Andrea stood there. She looked furious, her chest rising and falling rapidly as if she had thrown everything she had into that hit. I glanced over at Jake and a gasp left my lips. His cheek was red and angry but he didn’t seem upset, he looked more shocked than anything.“Did you get all your anger out?” he asked and she lifted her hand again but he stopped her with his words. “I would choose my next actions wisely. If you hit me again, you will go to jail for assault and I will make sure you stay there for as long as possible.”She was smart enough to drop her hand but the anger didn’t leave her face. If anything, it got even worse.“You little bastard,” she spat. “You’re the one poisoning my daughter’s mind. Aren’t you ashamed of yourself? You are closer to my age than to hers. You’re a fu
JAKE’S P.O.VThe last thing I wanted to do was talk to Marie again after everything.As soon as I got the news that the child wasn’t mine, I blocked her number and didn’t bother to seek her out again. I had no intentions of ever talking to her again, she was a part of my past and I intended to leave her there but I should have known that she wouldn’t be willing to step down so easily. Marie had never been the kind of person to accept defeat.With a sigh, I dialed her number. It didn’t take long before she picked up, her nasally voice filling the room.“I was wondering when you would call,” she drawled. I could hear her nails tapping against something and could almost see the smirk on her face. “Have you gotten tired of her yet? Is that why you are coming back to me? I knew that sooner or later, you would tire of her problems.”“Why don’t we cut the bullshit for a second,” I hissed and she clicked her tongue.“That’s no way to treat the woman that you spent most of your life with, Jake