Love, Lies and Billionaires

Maren froze for a few seconds before she slowly raised her head to meet her mom’s gaze.

“That’s impossible, mom. You’re talking shit,” Maren quickly blurted.

“Oh, don’t try to make me feel like I’m so. I do not have amnesia, young lady”

Maren suddenly closed her laptop with force. “Don’t you think it’s a little too late to be up, mom? Some of us have work to do in the morning” she stood up and headed for her laptop casing.

“Save me that bullshit, Maren. I know you know what exactly I’m talking about. Yours had a golden chain, and this is silver. And don’t give me a shit about not remembering cause your father reminded you about it every day”

“Maybe the gold just washed off with age. Maybe it was fake gold. I mean, dad was too self absorbed to buy real jewellery for any of us, anyway.” Her brows were now furrowed as she carried out her actions with a little aggression.

“This is pure silver, Maren. Gold doesn’t wash off that way,” her mom argued back in a slightly raised voice.

Maren abandoned what she was doing, stomped towards her mom and folded her arms. “So, what are you trying to say?”

“That this isn’t your locket, Maren.” Her voice was now a little calmer. “It definitely has a picture of all of us, but it’s not yours. It’s your father’s.”

“Well, maybe I took dad’s that day by mistake,” Maren insisted stubbornly.

“Why the hell are you playing dumb, Maren? I know you know exactly what I’m saying. You knew he never took it off. That was the only thing that reminded me that he still loved us both, Maren. I’m sure you can remember” her voice quivered a bit.

Maren looked away from her mom and blinked multiple times, trying to fight back her tears, which were triggered by so many emotions.

“He found it anyway,” she managed to whisper.

“You really aren’t seeing the picture, right?” Her mom stressed, trying to look her directly into her eyes. “Kendrick is a lair”

*****

Maren tried as much as she could to focus on the road as she drove to a destination unknown to her.

She’d been driving more often these days, and she liked it because she thought it helped her clear her head for sometime and allowed her to think of other things like how long it took for the traffic light to turn green and how fast she could overtake trucks.

But no matter how she tried to think of other things or occupied her mind with shit, her mind still drifted back to the original reason for her being behind the wheel.

“Kendrick is a lair!” Her mom’s voice echoed through her head.

What she’d feared all these while had finally caught up with her.

The moment she’d taken the locket from Kendrick and looked at it clearly, she knew that it was her dad’s but she’d kept it to herself as she was so absorbed in the moment after the reveal that he’d been the one she’d had the best sex of her life with five years ago.

She didn’t want to over think it and just let it go and maybe it’ll all pass away. Especially now that she was certain that Kendrick was the actual father of her child. Which, by the way, was another issue that bothered her.

She hit the steering wheel with so much force that it felt like it would break. “Fuck!” she screamed, trying not to go crazy.

Where the hell did she go wrong? She asked herself as she used her free hand to brush her hair out of her face.

If only her mom hadn’t walked into her room to do some scavenger haunting. Probably she’d still be leaving in her ignorance by now.

If she was being honest with herself, she really didn’t know why she felt so scared about the truth, but something deep down didn’t just want to know.

It was like something within kept whispering ‘what you don’t know can’t kill you’ and she’d come to accept those words and pushed every thought about the locket aside.

But now her mom was involved, and she knew that if she didn’t do anything to confront Kendrick, her mom would do it herself-yes, her mom was that ruthless.

The sound of a siren tore through her thoughts. She looked into the side mirror and saw a police car was on her tail.

“Shit!” she swore and gently brought the car to a halt at the side of the road and turned off the engine. She bit her lip as she watched the police car come to a halt behind hers and a uniformed officer stepped out.Exclusive content © by Nô(v)el/Dr/ama.Org.

He tapped on the glass as soon as he was near the vehicle and Maren brought down the glass.

“Good day, officer,” Maren greeted with a bright grin.

“Licence and registration please,” he ordered, ignoring her greeting.

“Having a rough day? That makes two of us,” she said, trying to light up the atmosphere a little as she fumbled with her purse. She succeeded in pulling out the two documents and handed them to the middle-aged man.

He took a glance at her licence and raised his eyebrows “Miss Sharppe!” He exclaimed “I could have sworn I could recognize you,” he said heartily.

“You caught me,” she chuckled dryly.

“What’re you doing riding on these rough roads at such a high speed?” He asked as he handed the documents back.

“You know, business. I’ve got a meeting I’ve got to attend to and you know what they say. If you want something done well, do it yourself.”

The man nodded approvingly. “That’s true, that’s true. But don’t you think it’s best you turn it down a little? You almost had me writing you a speeding ticket.”

“Well, I apologise officer. I’ll be sure to remember my training at driving school”

“That’s alright.” He returned her smile. “I’d hate to keep you and your meeting waiting. So have a nice day, ma’am” he tipped his cap and began walking away.

“Yeah, you too”

As soon as he was away from her car, she brought the windows back up and rested her head on the headrest.

She closed her eyes and released a sigh. She really had to get things right and if she wanted to do that, the best way to confront her fears.

The white angel whispered in her ear, ‘Next up, Kendrick fucking Harding!’