Page 36 of Chosen By a Billionaire (Rags to Romance #24)

Jayda’s naturally curly hair was easy to put back in place, although her scalp was still burning. But after Harrison had calmed her back down, they sat down. And as they were sitting, HB entered the drawing room, and all attention suddenly shifted to him.

For the next several minutes everybody in that room, except for Harrison and Jayda, were bending over backwards in the hellos and adulations and other ass-kissing gestures toward the only man they all knew was far more powerful than Harrison.

And once HB settled into one of the chairs that flanked the sofas, Felix decided it was a great time to reveal his trump card against Jayda.

“You know this girl, don’t you, Father?”

“No, I don’t actually.”

“Father,” said Harrison, “this is my fiancée, Jayda Robinson. Jayda, this is my father, Harrison Arthur Bainbridge the Third.”

“Nice to meet you, sir,” Jayda said with a smile.

Although Jayda couldn’t see it with Felix, she could see where Harrison got his good looks from when she laid eyes on his father.

They favored mightily. And although his father didn’t return her smile, she didn’t see that same nastiness in him that she saw in Felix.

And Felix, she would soon realize, was just beginning. “So when did she become your fiancée, Harrison?” he asked his brother. “Wasn’t it a few weeks ago just before you had to face Father?”

HB looked at Harrison with that curious look on his face. Carter, Archie, and Dalton all glanced at each other. How did Felix know about any of that? Then they all realized individually: Gweneth told him.

“I mean correct me if I’m wrong,” Felix said as if he was genuinely interested in correction. “Didn’t you propose to this woman only a few weeks ago?”

“Actually a few hours ago,” Harrison responded.

Everybody was shocked that Harrison told the truth.

But Felix was elated. He smiled a grand smile as his shifty eyes kept shifting from his brother over to his father.

“So you’re admitting that she’s a fake fiancée you dredged up just so you could achieve favor with Father and take over his company? She’s a fake fiancée, right?”

“She was going to be exactly that,” Harrison said. Carter, Dalton, and Archie looked at Harrison as if he’d lost his mind. Why was he admitting it? And then they looked at HB. But HB was staring at his oldest son.

Jayda was nervous as nervous could be. His father might throw her out on her rear, and Harrison right with her. What was he doing?

But Felix was happy beyond measure. “So this tart you brought with you was going to be your whore for a day and pretend to be your fiancée after all? Just to take over Father’s company? Shame, shame, shame.”

Harrison ignored his putdowns. “Jayda had agreed to accompany me here, as my fake fiancée, yes.”

Now Jayda was glancing over at HB. What was that man going to think of her after an admission like that?

“But something happened since I asked her to help me out,” Harrison added.

“What could have possibly happened? She wanted more money?”

“I fell in love with her,” Harrison admitted.

And his admission drew silence from Felix and stunned looks from everybody else. Including his father.

“I fell madly in love with this lady, and I formally asked her to be my wife. Not my fake fiancée. My wife. And to my everlasting pleasure,” he said, squeezing her hand, “she agreed.”

“She’ll agree to anything,” Felix said, although Jayda could see how deflated he was. He thought he had his big brother on the ropes. He thought he had uncovered the smoking gun. But he lost again to Harrison.

Carter, Archie, and Dalton all began glancing at each other. They weren’t at all sure if Harrison was telling the truth, or if he was such a master manipulator of his father that he decided to admit to the obvious and pretend it was now a love match. But it would all be pretend?

The problem with their assessment was that, as they watched Harrison, it didn’t look pretend at all. His love for Jayda Robinson looked real.

Felix knew it too. He was still smiling, but Jayda could see nothing but hatred in those eyes.

“You’re going to bring that tar baby into our family?

Are you out of your cotton-picking mind?

How can you expect Father to allow you to do something that backwards?

The Bainbridge brand has never before nor will it ever include chocolate. ”

Jayda could feel Harrison’s body tense, although he outwardly maintain his composure.

She wanted to slap the shit out of Felix, too, and she wanted Harrison to say something, but she outwardly maintained her composure as well.

Harrison, she had to believe, knew what he was doing.

Like at his own dinner party when Phyllis and the others came for her, he put them in their place in the end. But getting to that end was painful.

Especially since Felix was unrelenting. “Who is this tar baby anyway?” he asked. “Who is this black bitch masquerading as the African Queen?”

Harrison looked at his brother. “Watch your mouth,” he warned him firmly.

But Felix kept talking. “Because guess what, Father? I ran a background on this Tar Baby Harrison has brought in our fold.”

This interested HB. “A background?”

“Oh yes sir. That’s what an heir does. He looks out for his father. He doesn’t bring the riffraff in. He does everything in his power to keep the riffraff out.”

“What did you find?” Kitty asked Felix.

“Shut up,” Felix said to his wife. “I’m not talking to you.”

Jayda expected Harrison to at least defend his sister-in-law even if he wasn’t defending her except for that weak watch your mouth line, but nobody defended Kitty either.

It was as if the Bainbridge family lived by the each man for himself creed.

Jayda started to say something, but she remembered what Harrison said: He loves pushing buttons.

He loves getting you to lower yourself to his level .

“What did you uncover?” HB asked his youngest son.

“She’s originally from Kentucky. And if there was ever anything as a black redneck, her family’s it. Every single member from her mother on down have been to prison.”

There were audible gasps in the room.

“And I’m not talking petty shit either. I’m talking robberies.

Assaults with deadly weapons. They fight every single weekend and some of them always end up in jail.

They not only do drugs, but some have been convicted of selling drugs as well.

One of her brothers even went to prison for murder. ”

More audible gasps.

“And that’s the bloodline Harrison wants to introduce into our family.”

HB looked at his son and fiancée with shock on his face. “Is this true, Harrison?”

Harrison looked at Jayda. “Is any of that true, Jayda?”

HB frowned. “Why are you asking her? Did you not do a background on the woman you asked to marry?”

“Did you do a background on any of the women you married?”

HB didn’t expect that comeback. “Why no.”

“Then why would I background the woman I’m going to marry? I’m not marrying her family. I’m marrying her.”

HB stared at his son. Then he looked at Jayda. “But is it true?” he asked her. “Is any of what my son just said about your family is true?”

“Most of it is true, yes sir,” Jayda said without hesitation.

“They’re alcoholics who work hard and party hard.

And some do drugs and rob and do whatever is necessary to satisfy their bad habits.

That’s true. But that murder charge is not true.

My brother was imprisoned for a murder, but DNA exonerated him.

He didn’t do it. But that doesn’t take away from the fact that everything else Felix said is true. ”

HB didn’t expect her to be so honest and direct with him. “And you were raised in such an environment as that?”

“Yes, sir, I was.” Only until she was ten, but she wasn’t going to try to elevate herself at the expense of her own family. Not in front of a racist asshole like Felix.

“See Father,” Felix said with satisfaction that she confessed. “Can you imagine turning over Bainbridge Oil to a man like Harrison? A man with that level of poor judgement. And not to mention what he did to your wife.”

Harrison’s jaw tightened, but he remained silent. He was determined to not go down to Felix’s level.

“And you,” Felix said to Jayda. “Didn’t you use to be a model? No, not a model. What am I thinking? You would never make it as a model. You were a dancer, right? A stripper?”

More audible gasps as Jayda looked at Felix. “I have never stripped in my life, and you know it. But that’s what you do, don’t you? You put mostly true out there so that they will believe the lies when you start dropping those too.”

HB knew that was Felix’s way too. He was impressed that Jayda caught on to it that quickly.

“Had I been a stripper,” Jayda continued, “I would own it.”

“No you wouldn’t,” Felix shot back. “You’re a liar.”

“Fuck you, you’re the liar!” Harrison interjected. “She would own it if she had done it. But she never did, and you know it. You’re a lying pile of shit.”

Jayda smiled. Finally he spoke up! But Felix seemed lost.

“Nobody will pay to see her strip anyway,” Kitty said and as soon as she said it, Felix backhanded her so hard with a slap to her mouth that it caused her to stumble backwards.

But to Jayda’s shock, nobody did anything.

Not even any of the audible gasps they gave just from the recitation of her family’s background.

Not even HB corrected his son. Not even Harrison corrected his brother.

Not even any of the others in that drawing room.

They all were behaving as if it was no big deal.

Jayda leaned against Harrison to ask him why, but he whispered to her. “That’s their business,” he said firmly, which made no sense to Jayda. But she knew there would be a lot in this new world that she would never understand.

But Felix caught her discomfort and decided, as was his way, to pounce. “Didn’t like that, did you?” He moved in front of Jayda.

“Step back, Felix,” Harrison warned him.

But Felix was singularly focused on Jayda. “That was beneath your dignity, wasn’t it? Wasn’t it, Tar Baby, wasn’t it? Wasn’t it?” he yelled at her and slapped her across her face.

Before his hand could move from her face, and before his father and every couple in that room could even digest the slap, Harrison had jumped up, grabbed his kid brother and ran with him until he had slammed his back against the wall.

“You ever touch her again and I’ll kill you!

” he yelled and the fight was on. They fell over tables and chairs as they fought.

Kitty was the only person in the room that tried to pull Harrison off of Felix, but she was knocked down by her own husband.

Jayda jumped up and grabbed the fire poker rod by the fireplace, but HB noticed how she didn’t intervene but watched the fight closely.

She would use that rod, he was certain, if Harrison needed her to use it.

But as it was, Harrison didn’t need any such help. He was beating Felix’s ass.

“Aren’t you going to do something?” Kitty anxiously ask her. “Make Harrison stop!”

“That’s their business,” Jayda said as she, like everybody else in the room, watched the two brothers fight.

But the fire poker she held tightly in her hand wasn’t necessary. Harrison was beating Felix so completely that Felix was crying for help. He was punching him and punching him until he was bleeding from the nose.

When Carter saw the blood, he jumped up, along with Archie and Dalton, and pulled Harrison away from Felix. Harrison snatched away from them angrily, and jumped back onto his brother. And continued beating him.

Until Felix cried, “ You’re going to kill me ,” and Harrison finally stopped the beat down.

“Apologize to my wife!” he said angrily to Felix. “Apologize to her!”

“I’m sorry,” Felix cried out. “I’m so sorry, Miss Jayda! It’ll never happen again. And I mean never!”

That was enough for Harrison. He finally released his battered brother.

But everybody in that room who knew Harrison for years were astonished.

He was defending a woman? A woman ? What was this all about?

Did he actually love this woman the way he claimed?

They all had witnessed Felix be far more brutal with other women in Harrison’s life, including Gweneth.

But he never once defended any of them. But he was willing to beat his own brother’s butt in defense of this woman? They all were astounded.

But none more so that HB. He’d never seen Harrison defend anybody in his life – not even himself. But he was defending this woman? It made HB look even closer, not at Harrison, but at Jayda.