Chapter 41

Jadon wasn't sure what to make of his father's silence after their brief exchange outside the police station. Or the fact that he still had a job at the company as the CEO even though he had clearly pissed off his father by getting arrested because of Tapiwa.

He also couldn't even make sense of the absence of any calls from his mother. By now, he was certain that  Angela knew what he had done and with who. Jadon had expected his mother would track him down and scream at him for hurting her golden son.

Then again, he remembered that Angela hadn't particularly liked Tapiwa given her comments at his birthday dinner. So maybe the woman wasn't making a fuss because it served her purpose to keep her favorite son away from the girl she felt didn't deserve Asher. Who knew?

All the same, Jadon was uneasy with all the silence and lack of metaphorical bombs going off all around him. He hadn't even heard anything from the blackmailer. It was as though everyone had just taken a step back and decided to watch how badly Jadon could mess things up on his own.

Well, the joke was on them, Jadon thought. Other than a night at the club with his friends, Jadon had been laying low and waiting for the other shoe to drop. So when his secretary called him and told him that he had a meeting he couldn't miss this morning, Jadon almost thought it was a setup. A way to just get him to the office so he could be fired and then escorted out of the building officially while everyone watched.

Just to be certain he wasn't walking into an ambush, he'd asked if his father had set up the meeting. Mrs. Sitta couldn't have sounded more puzzled by his question if she tried. Of course, Lewis Paterson hadn't set up the meeting.

So, Jadon had shown up for the meeting wearing one of his best suits. But there was nothing he could do about his face. Random mugging was the story he was going with. Whether people bought the story or not was their business. Thankfully, Jadon was still the boss so no one questioned him. At least not to his face.

But now, two hours later, the meeting was over and he sat at his desk staring at the Sunset estate contract, pen hovering over the bottom of the papers where his signature was required. He had already gone over the contract again but still, his hand wouldn't move and close the small distance between the tip of the pen and the papers. After a moment, frustration bubbled up in him. Jadon groaned and threw the pen across the office.

Unfortunately, it just so happened that was the exact time his friend stepped through the door, without knocking of course.

Kaelo came to an abrupt halt as the pen bounced off the wall to his right, a distinct cracking sound filling the sudden silence. His wide eyes stared at the damaged pen now on the carpeted floor before turning to Jadon and narrowing. "Okay" he said carefully. "That wasn't aimed at my head, was it?"

Huffing, Jadon waved a dismissive hand in the air. "Just close the door. What are you doing entering my office without knocking anyway?"

For a beat, Kaelo didn't do as instructed. He studied the pen again as though he was really trying to figure out if Jadon had wanted to take his head off with the stationary. Then he released a breath and closed the door.

But instead of walking over to Jadon's desk and taking a seat like Jadon expected, his friend walked over to the pen and picked it up. "Any particular reason things are flying in here?" he asked, his eyes fixed on the damaged pen in his hand instead of Jadon.

"Isn't a man allowed to be frustrated?" Jadon clipped. Jadon thought he had more than earned the right actually. Not to mention, he was beyond frustrated.

"Hmm," Kaelo hummed thoughtfully. "I suppose." He then walked over to the small bin next to Jadon's desk and tossed the pen inside before he walked over to the window and stared out onto the city below.

Jadon's brows furrowed at his friend's odd behavior. "What's going on, Kaelo? Why did you rush in here like you were being chased?"

"I thought you might want to know what happened to Tapiwa."

That had Jadon sitting up in an instant. "Well?" he demanded impatiently. "Spit it out!"

Kaelo scoffed and shook his head. Thankfully, he didn't make Jadon ask again. Jadon wasn't sure he wasn't just going to squeeze the information out of the guy if he had.

"My cousin just happens to go to the same church as your Tapiwa and her family," Kaelo started.

Jadon ground his teeth and made a gesture that said 'Get on with it'. God, he didn't need the background story. He just wanted to know if she was okay. Jadon hadn't been able to shake the worry. Unfortunately, Ezra hadn't been able to find out anything and Jadon couldn't go back to her parent's house and find out for himself. The one time he had tried her phone, she had canceled the call and then he couldn't get through. He suspected she had blocked his number.

"Apparently," Kaelo continued but made a pained grimace like what he was about to say actually caused him physical discomfort. "Her father beat her up and threw her out of his house. She may be staying with a friend. My cousin wasn't sure about that part."

Jadon froze for a long minute, just absorbing the information even as rage like nothing he had ever felt before flooded his body until he felt the heat from the roots of his hair to the tip of his toes. He was shaking, he realized. Jadon clenched his hands into fists on his lap, trying to hold it all in.

Drawing a slow, deep breath, he asked through gritted teeth. "Her father beat her?" He was looking at Kaelo so Jadon saw the nerve twitch in his friend's jaw. It gave him a small comfort knowing he wasn't the only one having trouble swallowing the news.

It was nothing new, hearing that a father had beaten a child, but still, imagining Tapiwa on the receiving end of Allen Mvula's brute force made his gut twist. He should have gone after her as soon as he left the police station regardless of what his father had said. Jadon didn't want to imagine how bad it was, but he had to know.

"How bad?"

Kaelo shook his head. "No one knows. My cousin said she heard that a neighbor had seen Mr. Mvula with a leather belt. My guess-"

Jadon was out of his seat and headed for the door. He couldn't hear the rest of Kaelo's words or the man calling his name over the pounding heartbeat and rushing blood in his ears. A red haze fell over his vision and only one thing stood out in his mind. He had to find Tapiwa.