Psycho Billionaire

Chapter Fourteen

Kiara

Jasper's eyes darted around the room, his hair was so dark, he kind of reminded me of a raven trying to spot its prey. He dug his hand into his pocket avoiding direct eye contact with my mother.

At that point I saw how young he looked. A handsome young man in his late twenties, twenty-six to be very accurate, dressed to impress. The cut that ran throw his eye-brow did not steal anything from his beauty.

If only anyone knew the kind of dark, sick mind that lay beneath the layers of pretense. If a soul could have a face, Jasper without a doubt would be the ugly devil with horns.

"Where is she, Mrs. Reeves?" Jasper asked my mother. I could hear his voice faintly, but it was loud enough for me to eavesdrop.

"I told you I don't know." Mom lied. "She didn't come here."

"Kiara and I were at a friend's party and she went missing during that time. Now, if she stopped by which I'm hundred and one percent sure she did, I want you to tell me the truth."

"I'm telling you the truth, Jasper." Mom insisted.

"If you're lying, you do know the consequences, don't you?" Jasper asked.

Mom nodded. Why did it seem like they knew each other?

"Here's what I'll tell you, Mrs. Reeves, my team will try their best to track her down, in the meantime, I want you to do the same. You're her mother, she is going to come looking for you, which is assuming you aren't lying right now and Kiara wasn't already here." Jasper looked at mom calmly. It was the calm before the storm. "If you can't manage to locate her, I will have to take action which means you are going back to that trashy place that you called home, and you will return me the money. Is that clear?"

Wait! What?

I'd frozen on the spot, I was practically brain dead.

My mother had taken money from Jasper? Why the hell would she do that?

I watched as Mom nodded her head.

"I need a verbal response." Jasper said.

"Yes, I understand."

"Good." Jasper smiled. His eyes moved towards the closet and for a second I thought he saw me. I was sure he had seen me when he took long strides towards the closet door.

I was so scared. I covered my mouth with my hands to stifle a sob. I shifted back deeper into the closet, covering myself with the clothes. He pulled open the closet and moved a few hangers to find nothing. Jasper sighed, gave up and backed away. Next he checked the attached bathroom only to come empty.

"I expect you to call me as soon as she contacts you."

That said Jasper strode out of the room and I heard the main door shut.

A few minutes later, mom walked inside the bedroom. "He is gone. You can come out now."

I stepped out of the closet cautiously and reached out for a small handbag. I searched through the hangers in the closet for my clothes to find none. All of my clothes were gone. The denims, the casuals; every damn garment.

"Where are my clothes?" I asked.

"I got rid of it." she said simply.

I nodded. Of course she would get rid of it which also meant that she didn't expect me to come home. I tried to appear not hurt by that thought and reached for some of her clothes and dumped it into the bag. She was only a size bigger. I could easily fit into hers.

"Sweetheart, I can explain..." she started saying.

I turned my glare towards my mother. "Explain?" I folded my arms across my chest. "Well, why don't we start with why you took the money from Jasper? I thought you said grandpa left the money in his will. It's all a lie, isn't it? Grandpa never left a dime."

She started rambling on about something, but at one point I'd tuned out her voice as the tears blurred my vision. I heard her whisper, "I did it for us."

I got hold of her shoulders and looked straight in her eyes. "What did you do, mom?"

I was scared to hear the truth. I was scared of what she might have in store. I realized that I needed to be stronger for this.

Mom swallowed, she was teary eyed and looked guilty for some reason and that wasn't a good sign. "I'm sorry, honey. I didn't have a choice."

"TELL ME THE TRUTH!" I almost screamed. I was losing my patience.

Mom flinched. "After your father's death, you were missing for two days. I couldn't even go to the police because they were after you. During your disappearance, I was at a bar drinking when I met Jasper..."

"What happened after that?"

"He asked me why I looked sad and..." mom started crying. "I told him everything. About the accidental death of your father, our situation and that you were on a run."

A pause later she said. "He offered to help."

I gave a dry laugh. He had taken advantage of our situation. That asshole.

"What kind of help?" I pressed.

"He told me he had connections that would help to prove in court that it was an accidental death, and I think he did keep his promise." She said, her eyes suddenly turned sad. "He pays for everything, he bought this house, Kiara."

"I'm sure he asked you something in return."

"He knew about you because I showed him your picture. He said...he said I could have all the money, a proper roof over my head, clothes and everything that we've ever wanted. He promised me that you would get all of that too but only if I let him keep you." She bit her lip. "And I didn't see the problem."

I laughed. I laughed so hard that I was back in tears again, hacking loud sobs when the horror of the situation hit me hard. My mother had sold me for money. All this luxury wasn't because she remarried or something we acquired due to grandpa's will. It was all because Jasper Lockhart had paid for it, in exchange for helping my mother.

Flashbacks began haunting me from when I met Jasper for the very first time.

"It's a little late for a beautiful woman like yourself to be prowling around in the middle of nowhere. Would you like me to drop you somewhere?"

I cried, this time silently wondering if it was all planned from the very beginning, if I had unknowingly walked into a trap laid out conveniently together by my mother and Jasper.

I wiped my tears. "Mom, listen. Whatever money you took from him, we will return it, and we don't need this house. We are returning that too. I will work over-time, I will do whatever it takes to..."

"Don't you understand, Kiara?" Mom cut me off, clearly frustrated. There was fury in her eyes. "We can't do that!"

"Why not?"

"Because we would go bankrupt! Your father left us in a debt which Jasper cleared up for us. Do you know what that means? We owe Jasper Lockhart."

I shook my head desperately. "What do I do, mom?"

"There's only one way." She took my hands in hers. "You go back to Jasper's house."

I pulled my hands away. "Do you understand what you are suggesting?" my hands shook. "You don't know him. Jasper will torture me. He wouldn't even hesitate to kill me."

"Listen, baby, please." Mom pleaded. She was pleading at me not because she cared for me, she just didn't want to be robbed off the luxuries. "This is not your home now. Your home is with Jasper. If you don't go to him, he will take everything back."

I felt disgusted. "You're not ashamed of yourself, are you?" I asked. "You practically sold your daughter to sleep in a king sized bed."

There was little to no guilt in her expressions.

I sneaked a bottle of shampoo and some soaps from the bathroom cabinet and dumped it inside the handbag. I opened the window of the bedroom and tossed the bag out. It landed on the soft grass.

"You will go back to Jasper, won't you?"

"You don't leave me a choice."

"Then why are you taking some of my clothes?"

Busted!

"I just need a day to clear my head. I will spend the night in a nearby motel and head back tomorrow morning." I lied, climbing out of the window.

I knew better than to tell my mother the truth. If I told her that I planned on going to grandpa's farm she would most definitely inform Jasper and that would be the day I lied down in a coffin.

The betrayal that I'd experienced with my mother was far worse than anything I imagined my situation would be.

Now I needed a plan. I knew nothing was going to work but I wanted to try. It was better than giving up and walking back in the lion's den.

"This is a last goodbye, mother. I won't see you ever again. Consider me dead." I said, swinging the bag over my shoulder and making my way towards Dale's car.