Page 35 of Chosen By a Billionaire (Rags to Romance #24)

But whereas Harrison seemed shocked, Felix and Kitty were grinning from ear to ear. “Gweneth,” Felix said happily, “how wonderful to see you again! I had no idea you would come!”

Harrison’s jaw tightened. He had made it clear to Carter and the others who his choice was. And it was never Gweneth.

But Gweneth smiled and sauntered her way into the room as if she owned that space.

Except for Harrison, they all rose and gave her a hug.

Jayda was about to rise too, simply out of common courtesy, but Harrison wouldn’t let her.

She looked at him with that why not look on her face.

But he merely kept her hand in his hand and wouldn’t allow her to stand up for Gweneth.

Gweneth saw it too. She had been dying to see the bitch up close and person and this was her chance.

Still smiling, still playing the role of the carefree vixen, although Harrison, who knew her too well, could tell she was pissed, she turned to him.

“And hello to you too, love,” she said. “Is she supposed to be your Mrs. Right? Or, as usual, your Mrs. Right Now?”

Felix and Kitty and many of the other couples laughed. But Harrison ignored her putdown. “Hello Gweneth. Funny you should show up.”

“Funny? Not on my end. No, darling, who you showed up with is what’s funny. I think that joke’s on you.”

Felix and Kitty and the couples that were in their camp laughed. Dalton and Archie looked nervously at Carter. They knew how badly this could go.

“Gweneth,” Carter said shakily, “I thought I told you that your services were no longer needed.”

“What services?” Jayda blurted out before she could stop herself.

Gweneth looked at her. Carter had said she was okay looking, but when Gweneth saw her for herself she was hugely disappointed.

That woman was far from okay looking. She was no bombshell the way Gweneth was when she was her age, but she was far prettier than Gweneth would admit she ever was, and she had that special it factor Gweneth never had.

Carter had lied to her to appease her. And now she was out for blood.

But not Carter’s. She didn’t give a damn about him.

She wanted Jayda’s blood. She wanted to suck the life out of that bitch.

“She’s younger than your usual type,” she said to Harrison. “Much younger.”

Harrison didn’t respond. Gweneth was like Felix in a lot of ways. She, too, loved to push buttons.

“What’s the matter, Darling? That Viagra no longer working?”

Felix and his clone-of-a-wife Kitty laughed out loud.

Harrison wouldn’t dignify that question with a response. “What are you doing here?” he asked her.

“I’m here to wish HB a happy retirement. He loves me, you know.”

“That’s because he doesn’t know you.”

When he said those words, he and Gweneth shared a hard look.

It seemed to throw her for a second. “You live in the past,” she said. “Take this child, for instance,” she said of Jayda. “She’s young, which keeps you in the past. But we all know what she wants. And it ain’t in your bed.”

“At least I’m in only one bed,” Jayda shot back. “But you, on the other hand,” she said, and Harrison was surprised. How did she know?

Gweneth was enraged. “How dare you tell that low-life hussy our business!”

He hadn’t told her a thing, but Jayda wasn’t about to tell that heifer that.

“What happened is between us!” she added. “That’s our business.”

“We don’t have any business, Gweneth. You cheated on me, I left your ass, and that was the end of us. There is no us.”

But Gweneth was just as firm. “There will always be us. Nobody will ever love you like I did, Harrison. Nobody! And you will never love anybody the way you loved me.”

Jayda’s heart dropped. Did he love her that deeply?

But Harrison was frowning. “Since when did I love you, bitch? I never loved you and you know it. I never even believed in love, and you knew that too. You was a good roll in the hay for me, and I was a good roll in the hay for you. And that was the sum and substance of our relationship let’s face it. ”

But that made no sense to Jayda. “Then why did it bother you when she cheated on you?” she asked Harrison.

Carter and Archie glanced at each other. This woman was sharp, and nobody’s fool, they thought.

“It bothered me,” said Harrison, “because of who she cheated with.”

Jayda, being Jayda, had an inquiring mind and she had to know. “Who she cheated with?” she asked him.

“Nobody,” Gweneth said quickly. Even Jayda could tell she didn’t want that secret coming out. “He’s just upset that his father won’t give him the time of day. And why would he is what I say.”

“I say the same thing, Gwennie,” said Felix.

“And I told him so,” said Gweneth. “I told him maybe the man doesn’t want to have anything more to do with the person that killed his wife. That’s what I told him.”

“What are you talking about? He wasn’t driving. What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about Harrison and me,” said Gweneth. “We love each other I don’t care what he’s saying in front of you. He loves me.”

Since Gweneth wanted to throw accusations out against us but refused to deal with her own, Jayda decided to do the same. “Who did she cheat with?” she asked Harrison again.

When Harrison didn’t answer, Jayda assumed it was Felix. And that was only reinforced when she saw Gweneth glance over at Felix and Felix immediately speak up. “Can I see you for a moment, Harrison?” he asked as he began walking toward the exit.

Harrison didn’t want to have anything to do with his brother, but he got up and followed him out of the drawing room.

But as soon as they stepped out, Gweneth turned her sights to Jayda. And walked over to her. “You think you’ve got it made, don’t you? You think you’re going to replace me, don’t you?”

Then she shook her head. “That will never happen. You hear me? That will never, ever happen.”

When she didn’t get a rise out of Jayda, her voice rose in anger. “I hate you!” she yelled. “I hate girls just like you! And I will pull all that weave out of your hair and show you for the bald bitch you black girls truly are if you try to fuck with me!”

Jayda, seeing that hatred in Gweneth’s small eyes, tried to stand up but Gweneth had already grabbed her by the hair and was slinging on her head.

“Gweneth stop!” Carter said. “Stop it at once!”

In the hall outside of the drawing room, Harrison was arguing with Felix about Gweneth’s presence as Felix was claiming he had nothing to do with her showing up.

Felix wanted to know if the rumors of Jayda being a “fake fiancée” were true.

But when Harrison heard the yells, and thought about Jayda, he hurried back into that drawing room.

And that was when he saw Gweneth snatching on Jayda’s hair and Jayda trying to stop her and get up from that settee at the same time.

But because all of Jayda’s hair was real, Gweneth, shocked because she thought all black girls were bald, was snatching out nothingness.

But Jayda, who had grabbed Gweneth’s hair even as she was still sitting down and trying to stand up, was snatching out piles and piles of weave from Gweneth’s super-long hair.

“Okay, that’s it!” Harrison said angrily as he hurried over to the women and grabbed Gweneth violently away from Jayda, throwing her away from his fiancée. Then he grabbed Gweneth by her own hair, the little she had left, and began dragging her out of that drawing room.

And although she was kicking and screaming and begging the others to stop Harrison, nobody came to her rescue. Even Felix, who had made it back into the drawing room, didn’t intervene either.

And not even when Harrison Bainbridge the Third, whom many called simply HB, had come downstairs sooner than he had planned after hearing the commotion and he saw Harrison drag Gweneth out of the drawing room and into the hall.

“HB, look what he’s doing to me!” Gweneth cried when she saw the old man. “Stop him, HB, stop him!”

But HB was frowning. “What happened to your hair?” he asked her.

Harrison didn’t stop dragging Gweneth until he had tossed her toward his father’s house manager as he was hurrying up the hall. “Get her out of this house and away from this property now!” he ordered. “Get her out of here!”

But the manager was new and hadn’t seen Harrison before that day. He wasn’t quite sure if he should take orders from him. He looked at HB.

“You heard my son. Get her out of my house and then come and get all of this hair up too.” He was looking at the weave that was still shedding from her hair. “My word. How many horses did you scalp woman?” he asked Gweneth.

“Kiss my ass!” Gweneth cried to him as the house manager and the butler together stood her up and began to get her out of that house.

And then father and son were face to face for the first time in four years. For the first time since the accident.

But instead of Harrison greeting the father he had longed to make amends with for four long years, he thought about Jayda and hurried back into the drawing room.

Which confused HB. He looked into the drawing room and saw Harrison hurry to some black girl, ask if she was okay, and then pull her into his arms as if she was the most precious thing in the world to him.

Was that his son?

HB was so amazed that he simply had to find out who this woman was, and even more importantly, what had become of the son he hadn’t seen in four years.

Because this caring person, who seemed genuinely concerned for that young lady, could not possibly be the cold-hearted bastard of a son that he remembered.

He was too intrigued to go back upstairs and finish dressing for his retirement party. He went into the drawing room instead.