Woke Up Married

59

The Scandal Part 2

Fiona had never seen James with other women since she met him. She got closer to him and greeted him. James frowned upon seeing her.

"Please can I talk to you for a minute? Please," Fiona requested.

Before entering the club, Fiona put on her recorder. She was suspecting James and was hoping to confirm her suspicion. She is a reporter after all.

"If only you will give me your body," James said shamelessly.

"Please it's very important," Fiona pleaded.

James rolled his eyes and led her to one of the private rooms. He tried to kiss Fiona as soon as he closed the door to the private room behind them but Fiona stopped him putting both of her hands up and pushing him away by his chest. He chuckled at her reaction.

"You don't care about me anyone, do you?" Fiona asked staring into his eyes.

"Why do you think that?" James asked grabbing Fiona by the waist but she freed herself from his grip and walked away from him.

"You blocked my number," Fiona replied going straight to the point with her back turned to him.

"O that, is because I don't need you anymore," James replied sitting down on the sofa.

"What do you mean by that?" Fiona asked turning to face him.

Fiona was taking a hint from his statement, to mean he was always requesting sex from her and now that he had had his way with her, he doesn't need her anymore.

"It means, I am done with you. I don't want you anymore," James said and got up to leave but stopped at the entrance turning to face Fiona with one side of his lips curving upwards.

He closed the door, grabbed Fiona by her waist and pressed her against himself ignoring her protest. He pressed his lips against hers and forcibly kissed her. She struggled to free herself but he let go of her after he felt he was done.

"Conscious or unconscious, you still feel the same," James said with a smirk.

Fiona was so shocked she could not react for a long time as she watched him exit the room closing the door shut. James did not just exit the private room, he left the club entirely. The moment she recovered from her shock, she left the club and went straight to the police station to report the issue, using the recording as evidence. The officer to whom Fiona had reported the case went inside to see his superior. Fiona was reporting a rape case against a Haward family member. The Hawards are that powerful and hence this case is such a complicated one for the officer. They could only call Mrs Haward and inform her about it.

"Someone is doing what?" Mrs Haward questioned in anger.

"Filing a rape case involving your son, Mr James Haward," the officer repeated. "She came with some recording as evidence?" the officer added.

"A video?" asked Mrs Haward.

"No ma'am, an audio recording," replied the officer.

"Summarize the content of the audio to me," Mrs Haward requested.

"Er, the content is ambiguous. It was a conversation between her and a man. She said it was Mr James Haward. From the audio, I only gathered the man was breaking up with her," replied the officer.

"Ignore her and make sure this news does not come to the public," instructed Mrs Haward and the call ended.

The officer came out of his superior's office and found Fiona still waiting for him. He smiled and walked up to her.

"You can go home. We will investigate this and ensure justice is served," said the officer to Fiona.

"Thank you, officer," replied Fiona and she left the station for her house.

In Croydon, Jason was already in his office finalizing the plan to begin the housing project with the Borison brothers. He received an email from Tony, one of the Borison brothers. In the email were all the documents he needed to begin the project. They requested the project plan and designs based on the documents they shared. Jason quickly sent an email to the design department for them to draft a design for the project. He had a discussion with Mr Dickson on the project and after he scheduled a meeting to present to everyone the execution plan and who is doing what. The meeting happened that afternoon and it went well. Everyone was very clear on what they were supposed to do. Harry was in the meeting, and his departments equally had a role to play in the project but the fact that Jason was the lead, Harry was not happy. The meeting ended and all the departmental heads went back to their respective departments to get ready for the project. Harry sat behind his desk thinking of how to create a problem for Jason. After thinking for a while he called his friend.

"I am in on your deal, tell me what to do. I need this guy out of here too," Harry said after exchanging greetings.

Mr Dickson, filled with happiness, walked with Jason as they discussed other projects heading back to their offices after the meeting with the employees.

"There is another area south of Croydon we can develop. Have a look at the details and let me know what you think," requested Mr Dickson.

"Sure," replied Jason.

"Thank you, Jason. It's only been a couple of weeks and we have closed four deals already. Especially the deal with the Borison brothers, well done," Mr Dickson praised, offering him a handshake.

Jason accepted the handshake and they both parted ways entering their office.

Back in Harry's office, he was still on the call with his friend.

"Let's meet and talk more about it over the weekend," Harry said and his friend acknowledged before he ended the call.

Harry was sitting behind his desk angry as he placed his phone back on the table. Jason was just a couple of weeks old in the company and he was giving instructions to him, Harry, an employee who had been with the company for five years, rising from the position of salesperson to his current position as operations manager. He slammed his hand on his desk in anger.

Jason closed work an hour later than his usual closing time and went home with Peter as usual. Once in the bedroom, Jason decided to find out what Julia thought of his idea.

"How do you feel about working on some designs for my company," Jason asked his voice deep but gently.

"That will be amazing. Something to keep me busy. I would love it," Julia replied excitedly.

"Great, I will need you to work on some building plan designs. You will be modifying some designs for me," Jason said.

"Thanks," Julia replied and kissed Jason's cheeks before nestling back in his arms.

In Florida, days had passed after Fiona reported the rape case involving James and nothing had been done about it. She was always told the case was under investigation. It quickly dawns on her, that the Hawards are using their power to manipulate the investigation. Fiona decided to use her contacts to seek justice. Contacting a few friends of hers, the issue was posted on social media and the news picked up quickly going viral sparking an uproar.

Mrs Haward was sitting in the living room reading a magazine and drinking coffee. She picked up her phone and frowned seeing the news alert. She opened it and was shocked to read the content.

The content of the post read:

It was not long ago, when Jason Haward, who was announced heir to the Haward's fortune was said to be a false heir, a fraudster who schemed his way up to land that position. James Haward was announced as the next heir and now reports are going around mentioning him in a sex scandal. What is happening in the Haward family? Could it be there is no one to handle the family's fortune after Mr Johan Haward's passing?

Mrs Haward opened her browser for the latest news and her face turned crimson. She was expecting to read news about Jason and not one about her son.

"Fiona?" Mrs Haward muttered her name squeezing the phone in her hand. "This girl is playing with fire," she thought. "I will make sure she is unable to show her face anywhere," she thought and went to knock on James's door. Mirenda entered the house holding a newspaper with the same headlines.

"Mum, there is a rape scandal involving James," Mirenda announced and Mrs Haward grabbed the newspaper from Mirenda's hand.

Just then James opened the door and saw his mum's angry face and Mirenda's surprised face. He raised his eyebrow and slanted his body a little and managed to see what was in the newspaper.

'New Haward heir in a rape scandal'

"Fiona," James thought.

Mrs Haward went to the table dropping the paper to the floor, picked up her phone and dialled a number.

"You see what I warned you against? Now you are trending," Mrs Haward said angrily to James bringing the phone to her ears.

"Do you see what is going around? Find the one who posted it and make this news vanish," Mrs Haward said sternly as soon as the call connected still with her gaze locked on James.

"Mum," Mirenda called out to her but she ignored her and pulled James by his ears into his room after ending the call.

"What is wrong with you? Rape, seriously?" questioned Mrs Haward angrily as soon as she shut the door behind her.

"I wouldn't call it rape exactly because she didn't reject me," James said in his defence.

"Wait, you mean she agreed to sleep with you?" Mrs Haward asked for confirmation.

"More like she was asleep," James said honestly.

"What do you mean by she was a...." Mrs Haward didn't complete her statement and figure out what James meant by his statement. "You drugged her?" she questioned.

"Kinda," James replied like is a normal thing to do.

"James, what is wrong with you? Do you know what that means?" Mrs Haward asked in frustration.

"It was a mistake. I didn't plan it like that," James lied.

Mrs Haward inhaled deeply and exhaled exasperated.

"James this has to stop. First thing tomorrow morning, you will leave town and I will hold a press conference to address this. Once you return, one more visit to any of the clubs and I will have you removed as heir and all your accounts blocked," Mrs Haward warned and left the room.