Breathless 3: In Love With an Alpha Billionaire (Breathless 3)

“Goodbye, sweetheart. I’ll be there later today,” I said before hanging up the phone.

I looked at the empty space John left in the bed as I listened to the shower flowing. I thought about the consequences of our actions so many years ago. Those consequences had brought about every situation we were facing at that moment.

Chapter 15

Jacob

From Salty to Sweet

“Yes,” Mom answered her phone sounding salty before I even had an opportunity to address her.

“Hey, Mom, it’s Jacob.”

“I know who this is. The year is 2015 and everyone has caller ID on their phone.”

“Well, I’ll get straight to the point. Is there a particular reason why you were disrespecting my wife yesterday?” I asked cutting to the chase.

“Oh, you called to confront me?” she asked on a gasp. “I thought you were calling to apologize for that out of control woman you intend to marry.”

“She’s not out of control,” I began to argue but then digressed. “You know what, fuck all these games you’re playing. I’m done. You are too old for me to tell you what to do and how to act. This is how this is going to go down. You have until five p.m. today to trot down to the police department and drop any and all charges you put on Destiny.”

“Aha!” Mom’s laugh was so loud and vicious that I held the phone away from my ear and looked at it. “You’ve been hanging around that harlot for so long you’re starting to sound like her. Did you just curse your mother, Jacob?”

“I did and it’s nothing close to the curse you’ve been executing over my relationship with Destiny. I’m tired of dealing with you on this, Mom. If you know what’s good for you, you will go to the station and drop the charges. Then, stop playing games.”

“Well, my darling son, since your respect is at an all-time low, you can forget my number and never dial it again.”

“I know you paid off that judge off in Atlanta.”

“You know no such thing!”

“I found the paper trail going from one of your offshore accounts directly into one of his fundraising accounts for his political campaign right around the time of that mockery of a trial.”

“So what? I donate money to hundreds of people. You have nothing.”

“We’ll see how much of nothing it is once I buzz the ear of a higher judge that’s interested in a discount on his construction site. Then, maybe I’ll just call up the media and see how they will spin the story. Do you want to take that chance?”

“Your threats mean nothing to me. I raised you, Jacob. I’m not afraid of you,” Mom said firmly.

“I don’t want you to be afraid of me. The one thing you are afraid of though is having your reputation tarnished. It would kill you to have your face flashing in a news story about embezzling money from Turner Enterprises to pay off a judge, so your best friend’s daughter could walk after almost killing a black woman.” Mom remained quiet and I was sure she was envisioning the headlines with her name in them. “So I’ll say it again, if you don’t clear Destiny’s name and I mean by the close of business today everyone from Miami to Atlanta will be talking about your bigoted, criminal behavior.”

“If all you have on me is making a donation to a judge, then goodbye, Jacob. Have a nice life,” Mom said, just as she was about to hang up again.

“I know it was you that was having an affair with the VP of finance, and not Justine. You were willing to let them both go down for you. Justine agreed to say it was her having an affair with him and helping him cook our financial books in exchange for your help in getting her off during the trial.”

“Jacob, these are all lies!” Mom said.

“See, I wondered how it was that my mother, the woman who raised me could be so cold to someone I loved, so I did a little digging. What I found was enough to blow the lid off your high and mighty front. You’ve been covering your own ass – self-preservation at its finest.”

“Get to the point, Jacob.”

“You were willing to throw Destiny, me, Justine and anyone else under the bus, just so long as your affair with Tom remained off the radar. And all the money you had Tom stealing for you went into offshore accounts. Dad thinks the money came from your joint accounts. He has no clue that you were also stealing from the company.”

“You have no proof I have done anything of the sort,” Mom said, sounding like she was out of breath.

“Tom admitted it, Mom. Actually, he admitted the entire scheme to me just this morning when we met. Dad gave you anything you could ever want, more than most will see in a lifetime over. Why did you do it, Mom?”

“I didn’t steal from Turner Enterprises. I don’t know why Tom would make up such a horrible lie about me,” Mom said sounding distraught.