SEDUCING THE BILLIONAIRE

Chapter 14

"Are you even hearing yourself?" Jerome couldn't believe the words coming out of his friend's mouth.

"Am I not allowed to have a preference?" he asked "the last thing I want is making her lose weight because that would be very offensive and I will not be stuck with a woman whose body am not comfortable with, it's not fair on both of us."

"She's not fat, she curvy."

"Call it whatever you want," he said dismissively and took a sip of his drink, this conversation was just annoying him.

"So, if she starts seeing another man it won't affect you?" he asked with a raised eyebrow "since you also want to start seeing Connie."

"Well maybe that'll make her stop trying to seduce me but if it gets out it'll affect our chances of having the adoption approved," he said.

"you're going to regret this DK"

"I know what I want with my life, stop trying to put me into a box and forcing me to accept what I don't want." He was now getting annoyed, and Jerome could see it, so he dropped the conversation and steered it back to the NDA

"I have prepared the NDA you requested for," he said, and they started talking about the contents of the NDA.

.

It was Saturday and instead of the chef being in the kitchen, Audrey had told him to take the day, in fact the weekend, off.

"Lindsey and I will cook today," he had told him, and Lindsey was all smiles because she had been watching a cooking show and wanted to try out some of the recipes, she had seen so this was her chance.

The two were cooking in the kitchen while Duke was in his office working on something when the social worker showed up at their house. She first spoke to the maid at the door, but she had nothing bad to say, even if there was it was unlikely that she would say it to a stranger when her very well-paying job would be on the line.

She ushered the middle-aged lady inside and told her to sit in the lounge while she went to fetch Audrey and Duke, but the lady followed to the kitchen, wanting to catch them off-guard.

"don't be quick to add spices sweetie, sometimes you may not even need it..." Audrey was saying when the maid and social worker walked in.

"Madam, we have a guest," the maid announced and when Audrey turned, she found a stranger standing by the entrance, which was very odd, what kind of guest follows to the kitchen?

"Hello," she tried not to frown at the woman.

Audrey grabbed a kitchen towel to wipe her hands before approaching her.

"Good morning," she removed her work ID and presented it to her.

"ohh, you're the social worker here to do a surprise visit, welcome, would you like to talk in the lounge?" she asked.

"Hi Lindsey, how are you doing?" the woman completely ignored Audrey and went over to the little girl.

"Am fine thank you," she responded with a smile "we're just preparing lunch."

"Are you not a little too young to be in the kitchen?"

"Nope, am turning thirteen. And am never here, the chef does the cooking but today Aunt Audrey excused them so that we could cook together," she explained.

.

Even though she really couldn't find much at the house, the social worker was coming off very negative, at first it was Lindsey is too young to be in the kitchen but after being told she's never in the kitchen she switched up to

"you'll raise a lazy spoiled woman because everything is being done for her by maids, this is not the proper way to raise a child."

As she was talking about everything, she thought they were doing wrong, Duke was seated across from her looking at his phone.

"Are you even paying attention Mr. Kaoma? Do you even care?" she frowned at him.

"Of course I care," he looked up with a smile "I care so much that I asked a friend to look into you. You don't place kids according to where you think they'll be safest, happiest.... You place them according to who has given you the bigger bribe," he spoke, and the woman opened her mouth to argue but he raised his hand stopping her "don't even, am sure if we dig deep enough, we will find the money aunt Brenda has paid you to make sure we fail these surprise visits..."

The woman was shaking inside but outwards she put up a calm face, sure Brenda had paid in cash and that cash was in her house at the back of the closet so she was certain they couldn't prove anything but what if they went as far as searching her house?

"That is a ridiculous and desperate accusation, I just do what is best for the child"

"Is that why you recommended that a five-year-old child be given to her uncle instead of her grandmother then two years later it was discovered that he had been molesting her since before he even got custody?" he asked and the woman winced, breaking eye contact "he's in jail now and am sure if we asked just how he got custody he would gladly say he paid you, he has nothing to lose"

"I will not sit here and be accused of such outlandish things!" she got up and walked out on them.

"Was it really wise to antagonize her?" Audrey asked with a sigh

"Yes, now she knows that I know her secrets, she won't risk her career by crossing me," he said with a small smile. Ever since he started going out there again, he felt more like his old self, no longer scared and fragile but ready to take risks and be ruthless in business dealings. The surgery reducing the scars significantly had also helped boost his confidence.

"I hope you're right" she said, "how did you even know all those things?"

"Jerome has private investigators and connections in the system... I gave him a name and they started digging up information on her old cases.".

.

"It's official." Jerome smiled and handed the envelope over "the title deeds of the house are legally in your name now."

"Thank you so much." Audrey gave him a grateful smile "are you sure I shouldn't be paying you for doing all this paperwork?"

"Duke pays me more than enough," he chuckled "so what's next?"

"I have been talking to a couple of interior designers so I'll make my final decision today then the works will start, it should be ready for occupation."

"And where will the rentals be going?"

"In my account of course..."

"Have you thought about registering a company? For real estate... open a corporate account and have the money from rentals start going there. That way you'll easily know how much you're making from the houses you're buying" he advised.

"It seems like such a long and tedious process," she complained. It seemed much easier to just have the money coming direct into her personal account.

"I can help you with everything," he offered.

"Are you sure? I mean you have a big firm, look at all those files on your desk. Am sure you have more important cases to work on." She really didn't want to inconvenience him.

"The beauty of being the boss is delegation... and it doesn't take that long to have a company registered, I can even do it while having my lunch."

"Thank you, Jerome, I guess if I want to be a millionaire, I have to start thinking bigger and a registered company is a good start., I really appreciate all your help."

"it's nothing." He glanced at his wristwatch "wow, it's 12:00hrs already. Do you wanna grab some lunch?" he asked her "my treat."

"No no, it'll be my treat, as a thank you for all your help." Audrey insisted.

Jerome picked the restaurant, but they took Audrey's car, she would later drop him off on her way home.

Focusing on her new business venture had really kept her so preoccupied that she spent less time pining for Duke. Which was perhaps a good thing because he was planning on having a conversation with her that evening, letting her know that he would be seeing Connie on the side.