Edit: this song wasn't supposed to be published with the chapter 😭😭 I only listen to it to write part of the story. Anyways...
Song: Billie Eilish - Everything I Wanted.
It was about 11pm when I sat in silence inside of my car, steering wheel in hand and eyes glancing at the rear view mirror.
As pleasant as it was to see Dakota, this was not something I enjoyed seeing. Her in this state broke my heart, her eyes were swollen from crying, red and leaking with tears as she held Asher, who was fast asleep, in her arms.
My mother has made this woman life hell and for what? Despite what happened, Dakota's soul was still so pure. I sighed softly.
This was all my fault and I was willing to do everything in my power to make things right.
According to Arthur, Social Services was supposed to pay Dakota a visit tomorrow morning at 9 which meant that I'd only have 1hr to make things right.
"Hey." I hear Dakota say as she steps into my home office. I was busy writing down numbers and putting arguments together for when I made these calls. "Hey, are you alright?" I giver her my full attention and she comes all the way around my desk to sit in my lap.
"I'm trying to be." She rest her head on my shoulder as she wraps her arms around me. "I hope your plan works because Asher has always been all I have in this world until I met you and if I lose him, I'll lose you because I'll lose me." I held her tight, the cracking of her voice ignited anger and sadness, loss and grieve, they boiled in me and I rest my head above hers.
"As long as I'm here Dakota, no one can and will ever hurt you, I'll work on it."
"Thank you." She looks up at me. "I'm sleeping with Asher tonight."
"Okay." I understood how close she would want to be knowing that in a few hours he's probably be gone. She kisses me slowly and then she leaves. I've dreamt about kissing her lips again and feeling much delight, except I felt her sadness and pain. But soon, everything's going to be alright.
I spent the rest of the night in my office, everything needed to make sense, everything needed to add up, it needed to be flawless.
One wrong move could ruin everything and I was running through it again. The first call would be to a lawyer explaining the details of the arrangements my mother made.
Arthur found out that my mother was just asking favors from her friends telling them stories and that no real background was done.
If they had, Child Services wouldn't be arranging to meet. Her plan was set in stone, no matter how much proof Dakota has to show that she was capable, she would lose him anyways.
The head of Child Services would be next and once they've received a call from me with a detail description of the crime about to be committed, they will have no choice but back down. The persons involved with taking away Asher would obviously lose their jobs and a threat to take the matter to court would be left on the table.
I'd call my mother last to tell her how her plan failed and that she should dismantle any plans to remove Dakota from my life or else she'll be arrested for slander and falsifying of documents.
The plan was made and was to be executed there was no going off the rails with this but, if it were to fail there was a plan B.
That would including leaving with her to an island where I have shares in two businesses; Tourism and Petroleum. This has been a secret I've hid from everyone I've known for years, not even my sister knows. We could start life there and be on our way. Of course I'd have to find out if she'd be okay with leaving her life here and moving to the Caribbean.
A smile spread across my face as I watch them both curled up in bed. I thought they both were asleep until I saw Dakota put her hand on her forehead then turning her head. It was about 3am by now.
"Can't sleep?" I whisper as I sit behind her and she looks over at me. "That and I have a raging headache." She holds my hand.
"Aren't you going to get some rest?"
"I'm heading to bed soon although, I probably won't sleep. I just need to ask you something." She props her head up as she looks at me.
"Sure." She seems invested in what I have to say. "If this doesn't work out, would you want to start life in the Caribbean with me? Just the three of us, I have shares in two businesses so we'll be able to more tha-." She puts her finger on her lips and I look at Asher if he moved because I was whispering too loudly.
"You don't have to explain yourself." I look back at her as she speaks. "If it's the only way for us to all be together, I'd do it in a heart beat." I smile at her and she smiles at me.
"Okay." I say before getting off the bed to kiss her head. "Goodnight." I whisper and she mouths, "goodnight."
It was 8:50am and I was wrapping up the call with the head of Social Services. Dakota sat dressed in a sweater, skinny jeans and some lacy heels, her hair in a tight ponytail and her fingers locked with each other as Asher was with my housekeeper outside my office.
We were all dressed with one bag each containing every important document we'd need if we were to leave because my mother wouldn't stop.
"Thank you for letting us know about the corruption Mr. Jones. We apologize for the inconvenience caused and the matter will be dealt with as soon as we are off the phone. Please send this mother our warmest regards and let her know that she no longer has to worry about the fate of her child. Enjoy your morning."
"Thank you and same to you." I hand up and she sighs walking over to me. "That's it right, we are in the clear?" She holds her hands up to her chin as she looks at me.
"It appears as if we are."
"It seemed too easy."
"I know." I walk up to her and place my hands on her shoulders. "We'll just wait a few minutes and see if the cops are searching for you to arrest you." I laugh and she slaps my arm. "Isaiah, don't joke." She chuckles a bit but, that smile on her face soothes me.
"Mr. Jones." My house keeper stands at my office doorway and we both turn our attention to her. My hands now to my sides.
"What's wrong?" I feel my heart thud. "Miss- ahem- Simone is here to see you." Shit. "Tell her I'm coming."
"Simone?... I thought you said you guys weren't involved."
"We aren't in that way, it's just business. I wonder why she's here though, everything was settled when she left my office yesterday."
"I'll be right back, don't leave this room."
"Okay." I hear her say as I walk out.
"Hey." I greet and she air kisses me. "Why is this child here, isn't he supposed to be in a Foster Home by now?" I look at her with anger and confusion and her eyes widen at me and she folds her lips.
"You knew about this?"
"I- I... uhm. Your father asked me to drop these off." She's talking fast as she digs in her purse frantically and I watch in disappointment.
"You weren't in your office-."
"Stop it Simone!" She jumps and steps back. "All that crap about being sorry and begging for forgiveness just to come here to fuck me over?!" I step closer to her and she drops her bag. "How could you?!" She's on the floor taking stuff up that fell from her purse then holds up her hands.
"I'm sorry." She says shakily. "You're mom offered me something I couldn't refuse." She looks up at me as if she's some peasant. Her hands together as if she's begging me something.
"I couldn't refuse because I'd get to see you, because I'd have a life again despite everything."
"Save it. Get the fuck out of here." Asher sat with his hands covering his ears and his back turned, I sighed and held my head back as I forgot he was out here.
"Wait a minute." I say as I take something off the floor, a small vile. "What is this?" She snuggles and wipes back tears. "It's nothing."She tries to take it but I pull it away and she can't look at me. It was obviously something.
"Are you out of your God damn mind? Cocaine Simone? Don't you have cancer?" She doesn't look at me and I sigh frustratingly.
"Of course you don't." How dare she joke about cancer and shaving her head to that. I'm beyond disgusted and I can't stand to look at her. I wanted her out of my sight. "Please leave and never speak to me again and I'll be keeping this." I shake the vile in front of her and she tries to take it but again unsuccessful.
"Get out." She leaves.
I go back into my office quickly and Dakota walks toward me with speed holding up my hanging head. "Are you alright, what happened?" I look at her and the anger growing inside me starts to shrink.
"I'll explain later. I need to pay my parents a visit." I hold on to her hands and look into her eyes. "I'll be back soon." I leave before she could say anything else.
I arrived at my parents house and asked the house keeper for my mother. She informed me that she was in a meeting but, nobody ever comes to the house for meetings, they used the company's conference room for meetings.
"I'm sorry, I just blurted it out and I couldn't take it back."
"You're and imbecile. All those years in college to come out such a waste. A crackhead who can't keep her mouth shut." My mother hissed at Simone. "I should have known how pathetic you really were from the moment I realized you couldn't get him to fall in love with you." She hands her a paper I presume is a check.
"This should be enough for you to kill yourself because I know all this is going to go right into that stupid head of yours when you finished college, you should have finished drugs."
"This is not what we agreed on, you're missing 3 more zeros." She laughs bitterly. "You think I'd actually give a crackhead millions of dollars to buy that distasteful drug. Get out of here and crawl back into the crack pit I found you shooting and sniffing with your crackhead friends."
"You let me shave my head, you promised me so much. A job everything I spent my life trying to get, you ruined it."
"Please, you can't ruin something that has already been ruined, you did that on your own now get out before I have you thrown out." She rushes out so fast she didn't even notice me hiding behind the door.
"Your home can't hide that child from the law." She says as she dials something on the phone and I fold my hands looking at her.
"If you're calling to tell them he's at my house your little friends have called off taking him away from his mother."
"Oh, I heard that the moment my friend got he call."
"Then what are you doing."
"You'll see son, you'll realize the lives you've ruined for nothing, all you had to do was listen to your mother." She smiles villainously.
"Blue bird." She says into the phone and then the line goes dead. "All this for an image?"
"It's not just an image Isaiah, do you see how Felix now suffers because of her? If you were to get involved we would have lost everything just like him all our money, everything gone over one woman."
"Felix did that on his own, he was bound to fail because of his ways."
"Dakota's ex husband is the reason he failed. He was never over her and he was the one that caused all the shareholders to leave Felix grasping at straws."
"I tried to protect you. She is pleasant and I wouldn't want to have to do the things I do but, you've left me no choice." The phone rings. "Fire fox." The man on the other end says and she hangs up.
"You see I know you'd come here to talk to me not because of Simone but, because of your loyalty to them and doing what's right."
"I'd like to see you get out of this one and I think it's time for you to get a section in the help wanted part of the news paper and you could even try a dating app. Or not. Whatever you want." I look at her with much confusion.
"What are you talking about, what are you saying?"
"You should go home and find out." She grins and my eyes widen. She must have sent someone to hurt Dakota. I ran out of her office without another word and I was in my car.
My foot never left the gas pedal as I sped on home only to get caught in traffic. I tried calling Dakota several times. I tried calling the security office but no answer from anyone. My heart was leaving my chest, I hyperventilated and there was nothing I could do stuck in traffic.
I was too far away to run. I looked around, not a single biker, no way of cutting through. I was a sitting duck. I sighed heavily and sat back in my car, my throat burn I felt numb.
Eventually I made it home and police were swarming the building I lived in I pushed my way through. "What's going on here?" I asked a police officer. "Sir, please step back."
"I live here, what's going on?"
"Sir a crime has been committed here."
"A crime, what type of crime?!" As soon as I asked I saw a stretcher with a body bag on top. The people gasp while others cried and I pushed my way pass everyone to run over.
I felt the blood leave my body, I felt the tears in my eyes. Could I have let her die, did I really just leave a boy without his mother. I was held by cops. I couldn't even make it to her lifeless body.
"Wait, who is that?" I question as they pull me. "Sir if you don't calm down we have to arrest you." As they said the words, Dakota came out with handcuffs behind her back. I stood still watching, her hair now lose and disheveled, blood on her clothes, ripped sweater and a scratch on her face.
"Isaiah, please don't let them take Asher, I didn't do anything!" She yells as she tries to come toward me but I watch her in shock.
"I didn't do it! I didn't!" She yells and I fall to my knees.
Who was in the bag?