CHAPTER 2, I LIKE HER

"You know your boy is a smart kid," the butler, an elderly looking man with so many wrinkles you would think he would collapse in the next minute, spoke.

"Smarter than all of you?" Jake turned to him and asked. The butler scoffed.

"Let's face it, Andy is smarter than all of us combined together and you know it. Even you can't stop him when he really wants to do something," the butler said and Jake just glared at him.

Just then a young man in a tuxedo, who seemed to be in his late twenties, stepped in.

"So?" Jake immediately walked towards him.

"There is a CCTV camera that captured him being abducted by a brunette, here it is," the man spoke in a hoarse voice as he handed a tablet to Jake. A video was playing on the tablet. A video of a brunette carrying his son and walking away with him into a narrow street.

"Why the hell are you still here Steve?" Jake turned to the man and asked as he was done watching the video.

"Umm, I," Steve stuttered.

"Find out where the lady took my boy and go get my son for heaven's sake!" he yelled.

"Well the police are already on their way there," the man said in a voice that shook.

Jake let out a soft sigh as he turned to the butler. "I want all the current staff in this household fired, understand? I want it done before I get back! Get a new staff hired and they better be competent this time" 

Turning to Steve, Jake said, "Let's go," and together, the both of them made their way out of the house, which was literally a mansion.

***

Maddie couldn't stop smiling as she watched the blonde kid eating from the bowl of cereals she had made for him. It was all she had in the house and thankfully he had not seemed to mind eating it.

It was a good thing that she still had Mathew's old clothes from when he was a kid. That was what she had helped the blonde kid put on after giving him a warm bath. He was no longer shivering. She was now finally breathing.

"Sweetie, what were you doing out in the rain?" she asked as she reached out to ruffle his blonde curls. She just couldn't resist the temptation. The boy didn't seem to mind her messing with his hair so she kept at it.

He had been looking at her before but he lowered his gaze to his bowl on hearing her question. That had been the reaction he gave each time she asked him that question or about his parents. She smiled. Maybe he didn't want to talk about it at the moment. She should at least let him eat in peace.

"So, do you want something to drink, Sweetie? Milk? Juice? Water?" she asked, taking her hand off his hair after patting it twice. On hearing her question he raised his head to look at her.

"Water would do just fine," he said, his tone slightly commanding yet his voice so soft.

"Alright mister, water coming right up!" she said, adding a dramatic tone to the miz and his soft chuckle sounded. She almost missed his chuckle. It was so soft. Like his voice. Almost inaudible. She smiled, and then left the dinning room to get him the glass of water. 

It was just as she stepped back into the dining room with the glass of water that she heard the police siren, preceded by loud knocks on her door. 

"Open up Miss Stewart, it is the police," was what she heard in the next second. She halted in her tracks, and then turned to look at the blonde kid who was now right behind her giving her an expression she couldn't quite explain.

***

*A few minutes later*

"I am telling you, I didn't kidnap the child. I saw a child out in the rain and all I did was help!" Maddie defended but it seemed like the man in front of her wasn't even listening to her.

"Do you know that the boy you kidnapped is Andrew Conat the son of the billionaire Jake Conat. You really messed with the wrong person this time, Miss!" the uniformed policeman went on.

"Conat?" the words echoed in Maddie's head. The boy she had taken to her home was Andrew Conat? How could that even be? 

Everyone knew the Conats. They were by far the richest family in the entire country and even among the top five in the whole globe. So the boy she had helped out was Andrew Conat, the only son of Jake Conat? Maddie suddenly started to have a hard time breathing.

The door of the Investigation Room suddenly opened and closed, jerking her out of her thoughts. She turned her head to the door to see the blonde kid stepping in. She looked at him. No wonder the kid's eyes had looked familiar. Of course she knew those eyes. Jake Conat's eyes were far too familiar. Especially as she had been crushing on him since the earth cooled. Well, that was until a year ago. Before she met Lucas Jacob, her current boyfriend whom she no doubt loved.

"You can let her go now! How dare you do this to the lady that literally saved my life!" Andrew spoke in a voice that was too commanding for his age.

The policeman immediately stood up and bowed apologetically to Maddie just as the door opened again and Jake Conat stepped in. 

Maddie stood up, stunned by Jake's presence. It was the first time ever that she was seeing him in person. She instantly knew that she had been so wrong about not having a crush on him anymore. Standing there in his expensive tuxedo that highlighted his perfect masculine features with his hair held back and his eyes locked in hers, Maddie forgot how to breathe as she just gaped at him.

Jake Conat was a foot taller than most men she knew, even taller than her younger brother who was quite tall. He was blonde, like his son, with ocean-blue eyes that were so transparent it made one feel like he was looking right into their soul when those eyes stared at them.

"Miss…" he paused, waiting for her to say her name.

"She is Miss Maddie Stewart," Andrew said and Maddie jerked out of her thoughts in surprise. Her eyes moved from father to son. Andrew knew her name? She didn't remember telling him her name though.

"Don't even ask how he knows," Jake said with a sheepish smile. His rich baritone voice caressing her ears.

"About the misunderstanding, it was all a mistake. I didn't know," Jake added. She nodded although she had so much to say but she figured the police station was not the right place for that conversation.

"Dad, I like her. Let's all have dinner together," Andrew blurted out in the next minute and the duo turned to look at him.