Chapter 7: Ice Cream Shop

Blood rushed to Kaia’s ear as she felt her heart thump wildly in her chest. Her eyes automatically darted between Keith and Aly. The woman beside her lifted her hands in the air, a gesture of surrender. Tears prickle Aly’s eyes and Therese looked behind her to meet the strangers’ eyes.

There were two men. One was muscular while the other was lean and quite taller than the average guy. They were both wearing a black parka jacket and a cap to hide their faces. Only the muscular man was wearing a mask. Most importantly, he was pointing a gun towards Therese’s right rib.

“Who are you?” She gathered enough courage to ask.

“Hand over the kind and you won’t have to know.”

“No!”

One man chuckled ominously, sending shivers down Therese’s spine. “Are you his mother?”

Her heart beat wild at the thought. She wasn’t sure if it was because of fear or for a completely different reason at all. “N-no.”

“Then how about you pay what the Desmonds owe us instead?” Therese was trying her best to calm herself down. When she looked to the right, Aly was already bawling her eyes out in fear. Keith is almost done choosing an ice cream and she would be damned if the kid–

“$800,000…plus the interest. Now leave the girls alone.”

All four of them turned to the origin of the voice, finding Jayce standing tall a few steps away from the door. “Jayce!” Therese said his name when she saw him hand over a check towards the two men.

“W-what’s going on?” Keith creeped up behind them and. Aly’s eyes widened in panic. She cleared her throat and excused the both of them before covering the poor kid’s eyes so he could see none of it.

Therese let out a sigh of relief when finally, the two were out of the shop.

“So, you already got what you want.”

The two men whispered to each other before turning towards Jayce. The three exchanged glares and Therese could tell that Jayce was holding himself back from attacking the men who tried to take Keith away. “The next time this happens, we wouldn’t go easy on the Desmonds. You got it?”

“Fuck you! What makes you think we couldn’t take you down, huh? The Desmonds could kill you in a snap of–”

“JAYCE!”

Instantly, he was on the ground. Jayce’s lower lip was busted and bleeding, causing Therese to rush to his side and tend to him in panic. But Jayce didn’t go down without a fight. He was up on his feet in no time as he countered a solid punch towards the taller man.

“You motherfucker!”

“Fight me!”

Chaos erupted inside the ice cream shop. In the middle of it all, Therese’s body acted on its own. She was desperate to stop a bloodbath. She pushed herself between the two men and everything that happens after, happened in slow motion.

The next thing she knew, there was blood on the floor and it was coming from her.

–

“I told you, I’m fine.”

“I told you…stay still.”

“Have you watched Keith’s performance? I sent you the video.”

“Later.”

Later that night, Therese found herself in Raven’s bed for a reason aside from sex. He was kneeling before her, tending to the cut on her palm that she got from the incident in the ice cream shop.

“Ouch.” Therese flinched a little when Raven put a cool ointment over the open wound. He quickly searched for her eye and reassured her that it would be fine. She sighed in defeat as silence enveloped the air between them.

Eventually, Raven was the first to speak. “I’m sorry, that happened to you. I promise you won’t find yourself in danger again.”

“Who exactly are those men?”

“They were just jerks I met from the Casino last week. No big deal.”

“No big deal?! Raven, your son was almost kidnapped!” Therese stood up as she couldn’t contain her anger. She knew she was just here to do her job but she couldn’t help but to worry about the kid’s safety outside the house.

“Well…he wasn’t, was he?! Jayce was there just in time!” Raven stood up and matched the tone of her voice. Therese’s chest heaved aggressively. Oh, she wasn’t going to back down from this.

“That wasn’t the point! Stop doing things that put Keith in danger. You’re a grownass man with a lot of money and time! Learn to be a good father too!”

Her words were like arrows to his heart. Raven wore an expressionless face but Therese covered her mouth when she realized that maybe, she went a little overboard this time. She watched as Raven clenched his fists to his side, turning his knuckles white. He stomped closer to her and gritted his teeth in anger.

“You don’t get to tell me what to do. You don’t know anything!”

Therese stepped back. She opened her mouth to retort only to close it again as Raven let angry words spill from his mouth without a filter. “I only allowed you to work for me because of your body. I could find a replacement for you anytime I want.”

And there it was. The ugly truth that she should’ve known to be true by now. She knew that from the start. Yet, a heavy lump still formed at the back of his throat that was too hard to swallow. Hot tears started to form at the corner of her eyes and she blinked it away before turning her back to Raven. Just how low could she allow this man to treat her?

She can’t do this anymore.

He seemed to read her reaction and quickly reached out for her. “Wait. Therese, I–”

“I’ll be packing my bags tomorrow, then.” Therese walked out of the room, leaving a regretful and speechless Raven to despair alone.