Billionaire’s Secret Baby

7:28 PM Elliot Brand: A driver will arrive at nine to assist you with anything you would like to bring to the new apartment.

8:02 PM Elliot Brand: Ms. Johnson, I would like to confirm that you will be available at nine in the morning tomorrow.

8:47 PM Elliot Brand: Is something amiss? Have you decided not to take the job? Might I remind you, Ms. Johnson, that you signed paperwork this afternoon and are already a Brand Employee?

9:13 PM Elliot Brand: If I cannot reach you, I will come and speak to you face to face.

Elliot was fuming by the time he pulled into the rundown neighborhood that could only be described as the slums. Sirens wailed in the night air, far louder than any crickets had hoped to achieve.

The home looked to be held together with chicken wire and clapboard. Crumbling brick littered the front porch along with hundreds of cigarette butts.

Elliot knocked firmly on the door. There was a rustle behind the curtains and then the lights went off.

Did she think she could hide from him? He knocked louder, “We both know that you’re in there, Ms. Johnson.”

The door cracked open and the unmistakable sound of the gun being cocked ripped through his ears.

“Amanda?” Elliot’s hands tightened into fists. How dare she pull a gun on him?

The door opened a little further and he saw a woman in her fifties with a light between her yellowed teeth wearing a dirty housecoat.

“What you want with Mandy? You the fucker that put that baby there?”

Elliot could only stare.

The woman raised the gun to be level with his chest, “Better start talking fancy man.”

“What’s going on out there?” A man’s voice bellowed from somewhere inside. “Can’t a man get some sleep, damn it all to hell!”

“I’m her new employer,” Elliot stumbled over the words just as he heard a rustling behind the woman. He looked up and saw Mandy.

Her eyes were wide with disbelief, “Mr. Brand? What are you doing here?”

scooted around her mother and unlatched the door. But rather than showing him inside, she went out onto the porch.

seen better days. The thin material left little to the imagination and he

high alert and tried to look elsewhere. But the tiny shorts she’d on weren’t helping. Her legs seemed to go on

“Fuck,” he breathed, “I’m so sorry for

head to the side, causing her honey blonde curls to wrap around one of her

be sorry, Mr. Brand. I apologize for my mother, she probably thought you were

Heat filled Mandy’s cheeks. “What can

Elliot couldn’t tear his eyes away from this beautiful woman that was apologizing for things that she’d no control over. A wave

services right away,” he stumbled over the words.

shop, and I stayed late to help. I just

“Can I convince you

squeaked and covered her

a few minutes to pack.”

come in?” Elliot surprised himself with the request. But he didn’t want to lose sight

that this man had no

“I will need to carry the boxes,” Elliot added with a smile.

holding, “All right, Mr. Brand. But

that the moment the revolver was pointed through the crack in

Mandy was mortified, “I truly am very sorry.”

a hand and placed a long finger against her

be,” he whispered, “I’m glad that you’ve had someone

well, something like that. Please come

smoke hit them both. Mandy tried to ignore the way her mother was yelling at

the bedroom that

“Where are the boxes that you

room and returned with three beat-up liquor boxes. Elliot

much. Please just have a

a chair to offer him. He looked huge sitting on the edge of her tiny twin bed.

one of the drawers of the dresser, Elliot stopped her.

in a box if you want.”