EIGHT

LATER THAT evening, Jason stood at his in-house studio trying to compose the song for his next album, but his mind kept wavering, finding it difficult to get inspired. After a while, he gave up, placed his jotter down, and just sat down pondering about his day's ordeal.

    He couldn't believe he had actually at one point considered Evelyn's offer. That woman was bad news. He couldn't even spend an hour under the same roof with her without getting pissed out let alone six FREAKING months.

    Uh-uh! Not happening! Absolutely NOT! 

    If she ever lived with him, there won't be any moment of peace in his life. His serenity would be out of the window real quick. There was no way he was risking that.

    He was completely clueless about what to do. Both choices he has to get himself out of this mess were horrible and the thought disturbed him to his core.

    At that point, he had to make a choice that seemed like the hardest thing to do.

    How exactly did he get in this mess in the first place?

    Jason remembered vividly that he'd received a call from his manager on that day. He told him to meet at The Royal Hotel's lobby to speak with the director of the movie Marianne. 

    He'd gotten there in a flash. The director had told him about his expectation of making the second part of Marianne and he wanted him to star in it as the main male lead. He walked him through the summary of the script and he was supposed to act as Kelly Davis's character's secret celeb boyfriend.

    He was a little bit uncomfortable about the idea of having a relationship with a minor whether it was in real life or a movie. The director had gone on and on on how he fitted the role completely and how Kelly had refused to do a second part if he wasn't her partner. 

    He'd declined the offer despite his manager trying to convince him of how much they'd be losing if they missed that deal. 

    He'd stood up and walk away when Kelly Davis had run after him and tried persuading him to do the movie with her, but he'd still been adamant in his refusal to change his mind. Then all of a sudden, she slipped and fell to the ground. He'd helped her up and she smiled sweetly at him and thanked him. 

    All he did was return the smile and walk away, so how the heck it escalated to a dating-a-minor scandal was beyond his understanding.

    He'd made countless statements refuting the claim but to no avail. People just wanted to believe what they wanted to believe.

    Some things really didn't add up, though. Why wasn't Kelly Davis herself making any statement to decline the accusations? It was as if she was cool about everything going on.

    Strange. It seemed like she'd dropped off the face of the earth on every platform. She was nowhere to be found.

    The chime of his ringtone brought him back to the present. He stood up reluctantly, picked up his phone, and checked his phone. It was from Brad.

    "Hey, bro. How are you doing? How did it go with Evelyn?" Brad said loudly, full of spirit.

    Jason smiled as he could hear Brad's daughter squealing and giggling and some zippy music was playing in the background. At least, his friend was in a good mood which rarely happened. He shouldn't ruin his day with his awful ordeal.

    "Well—" Jason grinned. "—let's just say she's quite a handful. How's my princess?"

    "She quite hyper today... Nora honey, get off the... Don't jump off the table. You going to hurt yourself." 

    Jason chuckled at the rebellious three-year-old. Her ‘no’ was loud and clear. Brad excused himself as he sped off to go grab his daughter.

    After a moment, he was back on the phone. "Sorry about that. Nora's at it again. No one can curb her stubbornness." He chuckled and cleared his throat. "Okay, I have good news and bad news which one do you want to hear first?"

    Most people would go for the bad news first before the good news but not Jason Lyndon. He wanted to hear the bad news last so he could face it head-on without swaying. "You know me... Pitch me with the bad news last." He replied with a smile, rolling his shoulders backward as if he was trying to lose a knot in his muscles.

    "The good news is my private investigator located Kelly Davis. She'd been in Miami for quite a while now but just moved down here to LA yesterday." He paused then continued. "There's really something sus about her. She'd refused to meet up at first, but after a little persuasion she gave in. We're keeping an eye on her though. We don't want her fleeing the country without talking some sense into her."

    Jason frowned. "I also find it sketchy that she's nonchalant about this whole situation, one statement from her denying this BS who have made this less complicated." He growled. "When are we meeting up?"

    "Tomorrow. I've arranged a meeting spot for both of you to talk freely without reporters hassling you. I'll send you the location after this call."

    "Cool... So," Jason cleared his throat.  "What's the bad news?"

    "Get yourself ready for this, Jason." He coughed. "Your father had everything to do with leaking the news to the media. I'm hundred percent positive he's responsible for this scandal."

                         *        *        *

Jason stormed past the consternated butler who had come down to greet him as usual. He was so not in the mood for pleasantries. 

    His eyes bags were drooping with exhaustion. He couldn't sleep throughout the night all he thought about was confronting his father.

    He knew quite well his father would go to any length to get whatever it is he wanted but he went too far this time around. 

    And he wasn't going to let this one slide. NOT TODAY!

    He wasn't that little kid who was always at his mercy and would cower in fear instead of protesting.

    He was an adult with enough money and power to fight his father in whichever way he wanted to take it.

    Jason swung open the door of his father's study and barged in. "How could you be so vile?!" He spat, enraged. Disregarding his father's secretary who looked at him perplexedly as much as his father did.

    Case Lyndon turned his head toward the other man. "Leave us," he muttered under his breath and with a little bow to both men his secretary left.  "Isn't it quite unmannerly to barge in on me like that and raise your voice at me with my employee are around?"

    Jason's eyes narrowed. His jaw tightened. "Unmannerly? Do you want to lecture me on manners now? Really?" He spat out. "What you've done is beyond the bounds of acceptable behavior and you want to talk about how unmannerly I am? How about we talk about how ‘inhumane’ you are?"

    "What is this about, son?" Case demanded sedately.

    "Drop the act! I know you're responsible for spreading the rumors circulating about me! How could you? Do you even have any conscience?"

    Case shrugged, his expression impassive. "Things wouldn't have gone this far if only you had listened to me. You should have known by now that losing is one of my least favorite things. Whatever it is I want, I get. And there's no stopping me."

    Jason folded his fingers into clenched fists. He could feel his bitterness and frustration bubbling up his spine.

    Over the years, in some foolish, illogical nook of his brain, he had entertained the hope that he and his father might mend fences. Despite all the wrong his father had done to him, he was still his father and he had— at one point— thought about being the bigger person and forgiving him.

    But the feeling, all of it, was a lie. He was a bloody idiot. He and his father was never going to be okay. His father has a stone in his chest instead of a heart.

    Surely he didn't expect him to summit at his feet like a drenched puppy dog begging for shelter like he did when he was six.

     A flash of memory surged through his brain. Raging and hot.

    It had been pouring heavily that night. He had been bored out of his mind from watching the TV show his father never stopped watching and had gone into his father's workshop, playing with his work tools.

     He'd tripped on a floor mat while jumping around and mistakenly push down a robot lawnmower that his father had been working on off the table.

    It had fallen right by his side, shattering. Some of the glass pieces from the broken gadget slit through almost every part of his body. Still, his father had hit him—in his bloody state— and locked him outside the house under the pouring rain till the next day.

    He'd neglected every cry of plea from both him and his mother. Not even the most coldhearted of bastards would leave an animal in that condition, under the rain. Not to mention, a six-year-old kid. 

    HIS FATHER IS A MONSTER!

    That was why on that day, sixteen years ago, when he had walked out of the house he made up his mind to fight his father with his might if he ever came at him. 

    Though, Jason had tried avoiding any form of confrontation with his father. He'd given him space and made sure the rarely cross part. 

    But that was the last straw for him. He was not going to let this one slide.

    "You know what I'm done playing nice with you. You have no right to tell me what to do. You don't own me." He placed both hands on the table, leaning towards his father. "You're only my father because we share the same blood but deep down I have never considered you my father." He stood straight when his father chuckled nonchalantly. "Now I get why mom left you. You don't deserve to be happy. You deserve to rot."

    The last word must have hit Case like a slap across the face. The smug smile on his face was gone in a flash and was replaced with rage. 

    One thing that makes his father lose his cool was his mother. And Jason knew that quite well.

    Case stood up from his chair. "She didn't just leave me, you know. She left you too. If she'd cared the slightest bit about you, she would have stayed at least left with you. But she didn't. She left you. Her little precious son. So you're no better than me."

    Jason stood in silence for a moment. His father was right to a degree but he wasn't about to give him the satisfaction of winning that round. "At least she is safe, wherever she is, from a brute like you. Look around you—" he waved his hand. "—you have no one that gives the slightest shit about you. And that's how I'm better than you."

     Suddenly it all became too much. Lack of sleep and the harshness of this man all combined in one mighty wave which washed over him. At last, sheer exhaustion trumped his fury. He broke into a strange and slightly scary raucous laughter.

    Jason stopped laughing abruptly. "You know what, I'm done playing this silly game with you. Stay clear out of my life. 'Cause from now onwards, I'm ready to fight you with everything I've got."

    Case smirked at him. "You're welcome to try, son," he said as he sat back down at his seat, regarding him with contempt.

    Jason walked away slamming the door behind him.

   Does he want to wage war? This is so on!