The White Billionaire's Baby (BWWM Interracial Romance) (5 page)

When I arrived at the loft I searched for Kyle. He wasn’t on the first floor so I went upstairs to search for him on the balcony.  I resolved to start looking for him there first in the future because it was where he usually was, and the weather just didn’t matter to him. I saw him through the glass panels laughing with Bill. I was a little confused as I stepped out onto the balcony.

“
Hey what’s going on?”

“
It’s good news! The baby is 100% not mine…well 99.9%.”

I was stunned, especially since Kyle was in such great spirits about it.

“Are you sure it’s not yours?”

“
We’re absolutely sure. Hell, I had them run it twice,” Bill laughed, “I wanted to tell the both of you yesterday, but I had to respect your wishes.”

“
Please tell her the rest of the news,” Kyle said when he came over and kissed me on the cheek.

“
There’s more?” I asked.

“
Yes there’s a lot more. I spoke to my contacts at the police department and offered them cash to find out if there was a DNA match. We got a match, and we found the kid’s father. His father is a junkie that was convicted of robbery and he’s been in jail for the last year,” he said with a widespread grin.

I know that I was supposed to be overjoyed in that moment, but I kept seeing that cute angelic face in my head. He deserved two parents that loved and cared about him. I was a little saddened that he wouldn’t get that opportunity with Kyle.

“Do you think that she knew all of this beforehand?” I asked.

“
It’s hard to say,” Kyle said, “but she did know that she was sleeping with someone else around the same time. I’m thinking that’s probably why she didn’t come forward sooner. She was hoping like hell that it was mine, and it just didn’t turn out that way.”

“
I think that she was pulling an all-out scam,” Bill interjected. “Kyle this may not be the last time that a face from your past pops up wanting money. You’re in the media now more than ever and so we’re going to have to be a lot more careful. There are a lot of leeches out there.”

“
I just want to say thank you to the both of you for convincing me to do it. I would have hated to find out that he wasn’t my son later down the road after I got attached to him,” Kyle said.

“
I’m sorry that things turned out this way. It’s never fun being lied to or betrayed, but everything turned out the way that it’s supposed to,” I said.

“
You’re right. I had a feeling that she was lying to me, but I didn’t want to believe that about her. Bill, you can contact her tomorrow regarding our findings and let her know to never contact me again,” he said coldly.

“
That’s a task that I’ll gladly take.”

“
Let’s all go out to celebrate our averted close call,” Kyle suggested.

“
Unfortunately, I have to decline,” Bill said, “I have somewhere that I have to be. But I will catch up with the both of you later.”

I tried to temper my annoyance because we didn’t have the time to go out and celebrate. I almost wondered if there was any truth to what the media was saying about my future husband. If we went out to celebrate, we would be out for hours and it wasn’t something that we could afford at the moment. I decided to give him an alternative.

“How about we have a glass of champagne here and then get back work,” I said with a tight smile.

Kyle picked up on my cue, “Umm okay, that’s cool too. We’ll see you later Bill.”

“I’ll let myself out. Have a wonderful day.”

“
Bye Bill,” I said as I walked over to the mini bar and got a bottle of champagne and brought over two champagne flutes.

We sat on the balcony and enjoyed a glass of champagne in silence for a few moments. I needed to let it calm my nerves because I felt on edge, but I couldn’t put my finger on why. The alcohol had gotten into my system, and I poured the both of us another glass.

“I feel sorry for the boy for having to grow up with a mother like that,” I said.

Granted his mother didn’t seem as trifling as my own. I hoped that Jane would get her life together so that she could raise a healthy son because that’s what children deserved.

“I feel bad for him too; he’s a pretty great kid. But I’m relieved because I’m not ready to be a father right now. I’m happy that I don’t have to just yet.”

“
Oh yeah?” I asked, “Are you interested in ever being a father?”

I couldn’t believe that he and I hadn’t discussed something so crucial yet. Children were a huge sticking point in most relationships, and we completely glossed over it.

“Maybe in about 8 years,” he responded.

I damned near choked on my champagne when he said it. That was such a long time away, and I never saw myself as being an old mother. I didn’t want to start having children in my mid 30’s because that would put me in the high risk category. I had to remind myself that he and I grew up in entirely different cultures. Where I was from most people had their children when they were in their late teens and the pregnancies weren’t planned. I was considered an old maid already and people always wanted to know what was wrong with me and my friends because we hadn’t ‘popped any kids out’ yet. He grew up in an environment where kids were almost always planned, and everyone had them later in life. However, I wanted kids within our first year of marriage or at least in our first few years.

I drowned my disappointment with another glass of champagne.

“
Are you okay?” He asked.

“
Yes, why?”

“
I don’t know, you just feel a little different. If there’s something that you need to talk about just tell me and we can talk about it.”

“
No I’m fine. I just have a lot to get done. Next week is it for us,” I said in mock excitement.

“
Yes it is. I’m looking forward to celebrating that accomplishment.”

“
Oh, I bet you are.”

#Chapter6

“I’ll happily smack your ass anytime,”

Kyle

What a difference a few months make.

Our businesses were going really well, and I’ve been so amazed at watching Camille grow into an amazing business woman. In many aspects she’s put me to complete shame in this arena. She’s taken to it like a fish to water, and it’s definitely her element. The first month put a huge strain on our relationship because it always seemed that she was upset with me about something. I wasn’t sure what I was doing wrong and so I had to eventually just put my food down and demand that she speak to me about what was peeving her.

She revealed to me that she was frustrated with my lack of work ethic. Initially, I wanted to bite her head off because I’ve been working since I was 15 years old, and hard work is something that I’m very used to. But she pointed out that I’m used to having to answer to someone and that maybe I’d gotten too comfortable because I didn’t have an official “boss” anymore. After I got finished nursing my bruised ego for about a week I realized that she was correct. I was spending way too much time celebrating and not enough time working and learning. It’s true that I can delegate a lot of my tasks but in the beginning phases of my projects I need to be a lot more hands on with what’s happening in my businesses.

I had a lot riding on their success, and I was leaving it in the hands of others,
 and that was unacceptable. Not many people would have told me the truth that way. Actually only my father would have told me that and it wouldn’t have been as nice. She was swallowing a lot of frustration, and I felt lucky to have a woman like her. She was 100% invested in making our businesses worked and not just on spending money, and that says a lot about her as a woman. Technically neither of us has to work again, and my children would never have to work either but I want to build them a legacy that they can be proud of. I knew that I’d chosen the right woman for me; she was my partner in every sense of the word. It was amazing to see how much she had grown from that shy and awkward girl who walked into my office for an interview all that time ago.

I’d gotten some bad news, and I wasn’t sure how to break it to Camille because of her excitement about the wedding but I knew it had to be done and neither of us was going to like what would happen next.

“Hey so what did you want to talk about?” Camille asked as she took a bite out of the apple she grabbed from the kitchen table.

“
The date for the trial has been set, and it’s the week before the wedding,” I told her.

“
Oh no,” she said as a look of sadness crept across her face, “Does he have to ruin everything? I’ll be so happy when I don’t have to think about Marcus ever again. What do you suggest that we do?”

“
I think that we should push the wedding back because it could completely ruin our plans. I want you to be stress free, and we don’t know how this is going to play out,” I said.

She gave a labored sigh, “You’re right, I just want the trial to be over so that this chapter can be closed. I want to start another book,” she laughed.

“We’re already in another book; we just have some loose strings to tie up. It doesn’t matter what happens because we’re going to be together and we did the right thing,” I said.

“
Yeah,” she said dispassionately. “I just hope our next book does not have quite so much drama.”

***

The next 3 months went by faster than the previous 3 months.

The businesses were booming, and we were already thinking about opening another restaurant just like it the southern suburbs within the next year. People were interested in franchising the bar, and we were seriously entertaining the thought.  I sat in my new office and looked out at the lake. I was proud of myself for building something new and separate from my father. I was also back on speaking terms with my family and my sisters were coming around a lot more.

Camille stormed into my office, and she looked pretty shaken up.

“Kyle,” she said with a quiver in her voice.

I was immediately alarmed, and I stood to my feet. She rushed to me and wrapped her arms around my neck and started crying. I instinctively pulled her closed to me and kissed the top of her head.

“Tell me what’s going on sweetie,” I said.

She continued to sob for a few more seconds before she started pulling herself together. I waited patiently as I rocked her back and forth. I hoped that she was just frustrated about something petty instead of it being a major issue. But she rarely got that upset about something minor, which meant that it was a huge deal.

“I got a horrible email,” she said as she sniffled. I pulled myself away from her and went to my bathroom to get her some tissue.

“
What did it say?” I asked as I handed her the tissue.

“
It was an anonymous email saying that I wasn’t to testify against Marcus, or I was going to die,” she said.

My blood began to boil at the thought of someone threatening her. No one was going to do any harm to her as long as I had something to do with it. I considered calling the police, but I knew that may have delayed the trial further if we went that route and she was ready to get it over with. I didn’t want to take that choice away from her either.

“So what do you want to do?” I asked.

“
I just want to get through this. I can’t live my life in fear, and I can’t let Marcus get away with everything that he did to me. He probably had someone send me threats as well. If he goes free, then I’m never going to get from under his thumb.”

My chest swelled with pride because she was able to push through her fear and be rational even when she was emotional. Camille didn’t need me to tell her what to do or to save her from anything because she was strong enough to do it herself, but she was going to get my help anyway.

“We’re not going to let them get away with this bullshit,” I said, “I’ll have the IT guys come in and we’ll trace down the IP addresses and figure out exactly where that email came from. Everything is traceable, so that won’t be a problem.”

“
That would make me feel a lot better. I need to know where it’s coming from, and that would give me a better idea of what I’m dealing with,” she said.

“
I’m also going to up your security in the meantime until the trial is over.”

She nodded her head in agreement, “I think that’s a good idea even though I don’t like the idea of being followed around all the time. But if that will keep me safe, then I’ll do it.”

“We may also need to seriously consider moving after this blows over. I personally wouldn’t mind getting a fresh start.”

“
What about everything that we’re building here,” she said quickly.

“
We have a very capable staff and it will free us to start building in another city. We can come back whenever we want to check on things, but we may be better being away from all of this.”