Ruin The Billionaire

Lilly.

I nervously clutched my bag as I walked through the white corridors of the station. I was led to a small, windowless room. I sat down at a table and waited, my heart pounding in my chest. After a few minutes, Jake was escorted in by a guard. He looked tired and pale but still fairly good.

“Hey,” I said, trying to sound casual.Ccontent © exclusive by Nô/vel(D)ra/ma.Org.

“Hey,” he replied, his voice barely above a whisper.

We sat in silence for a while.

“I didn’t do it,” he finally said. “I could never do that to my own mother. She was driving me crazy but not once did I think of killing her.”

“I’m sorry about what happened.”

“Do you believe me?”

“I don’t know. I find it hard to believe most of the things you say.”

“I’ve never lied to you.”

“You said you loved me.”

“I love you. I never stopped.”

“But when we broke up, you ran off with another woman. Anyway, that doesn’t matter. I just wanted to… I don’t even know why I’m here. Whether you killed your mother or not is not my business.”

“I did not kill her. I’m many things but not a murderer. And when we broke my mother forced me to go on that rip with heather so as to get rid of you.”

I chuckled, and stood up. “I don’t have time for this.”

“She was blackmailing me.”

“What did you do?”

He looked around. “I’ll tell you everything when I get out. This room might be bagged.”

“You have said too much already,” I said while sitting down. “What if they think you killed her because she was blackmailing you.”

“I’m desperate for you to believe me, and that’s why I took that risk. I need you to believe me. I’m happy that you decided to come. We have a lot of things to talk about. My attorney will be back in an hour and I think bail will be granted to me. Let’s meet up once I’m outside, okay. I’ll call you.”

I reached across the table and took his hand, squeezing it gently. “It’s okay,” I said, my voice breaking. “I hope everything will turn out well”

He looked up at me, tears in his own eyes. “I hope so too,”

We sat in silence for a few more minutes, holding hands across the table, before the guard came to take him back to his cell. I wiped away my tears and gathered my things, feeing a small glimmer of hope for the first time in a long while.

I believed Jake did not kill his mother and hoped for his release soon.

Jake was released later that day. I invited him to my house. He came and told me the whole truth, everything that had happened. He told me about his college misdemeanours that his mother used to blackmail him, his trip to Catalina Island and also the investigation he was doing on his mother.

After processing all the information in two days, I forgave him. I was there by his side on the day of his mother’s funeral. A few people shed tears at the funeral but I wasn’t sure whether those were real or fake. It was mostly Carrie’s friends. Jake didn’t cry, neither did his father. In a way, they were better off without her and I think they saw no point in pretending otherwise. They looked understandably sad, though.

At some points in their lives, they had loved the woman. Eventually, the charges against Jake were dropped because of lack of sufficient evidence. There was nothing that pointed directly to Jake. The police continued to investigate.

Jared the private investigator surrendered the evidence connecting Carrie to the late John Miller to the police. This helped a lot. John Miller’s body was found in her backyard.

The investigation was so thorough that they eventually found the culprit. Apparently, her son was not the only person Carrie Rylland had been blackmailing. She had been blackmailing her son’s college friend for money.

Apparently, Carrie Rylland only dated younger men after leaving her husband and that included James. Somehow she found his private files and discovered what he had been up to while in college. When she saw her son in them, she realised she could kill two birds with one stone.

James Milner quickly became the main suspect in the case and eventually confessed to have killed her. He had not only killed her but also two of the girls that had been present that night. The girls, whose names Jake had not known had been missing for over two years. It was only after James confessed that he checked the missing person lists and saw the pictures that he remembered them. Apparently, they had tried to blackmail James as well.

Jake had to confess his part in the murder of the innocent pets. It brought a lot of bad publicity for him and his businesses especially the hotels that were boycotted by animal rights groups and other people.

But then a video of the night surfaced online. Apparently, the girl who survived had always kept a copy. She lived in Europe but used to communicate with the others. When they disappeared after telling her they were planning to blackmail James, she changed her identity and moved from Russia to France.

The video shone light on that night’s events and proved that Jake was not a willing participant in the night’s activities. All the others were rounded up and arrested.

The world felt bad for Jake for everything he had to go through because he found himself in a sticky situation, and fell in love with him again. He could now start on a clean slate.

Amidst all the bad, I was with Jake. We did not even have to announce that we were dating because the world could see it. I was there for him and he was there for me.

We forgave each other for past mistakes and started living a beautiful life together. It was not easy to navigate through everything but love made it possible.

Johnny and I were able to talk and I forgave him. I was able to convince Katarina to forgive him as well and they got back together.