Page 138 of The Protection Agreement

He nods. If he’s surprised, he doesn’t show it.

“Come with me,” I say and he follows me to the basement where his mom is seated and handcuffed to a metal table.

We walk in, and she looks up and smiles when she sees him, probably thinking he came to save her.

“Mom, what the fuck were you thinking?” Jonah yells. I bet he still can’t believe it, but deep down he knows everything is true, that his mom was behind all the attacks and probably killed his father.

“Why? Mom, why?” His fist hits the table hard. She shudders and avoids his eyes. I’m watching them. Little does she know that Jonah is the one saving her from a bullet. I’m so ready to take her out, but she’s Jonah’s mother whether I like it or not. He’s also very close to my wife, who happens to love her brother. He needs to end this, or I will.

“Why?! You had better start talking before I leave you alone with Bruce here and believe me, it won’t end well for you. You tried to kill his wife, my sister.” He growls at her and she flinches.

“I hate her,” she says through gritted teeth.

I lean forward, my mind made up about ending her. It’s clear she’s never going to stop attacking Jola.

“Why?” Jonah asks through clenched teeth.

“She’s the reason Andrew did not give you A J Lloyd. He knew how important the name was, and he wouldn’t give it to my child, but he gave it to her.”

“You never loved him, Mom. You only married him for the name and money, he knew that,” Jonah yells. “Never mind the possibility that you killed him, though it can’t be proven. But I know all about you giving him stuff when he was sick.”

She looks away for a split second. I thought she was remorseful, but the witch came back.

“That’s a lie, I loved him,” she shouts.

“You didn’t love him, mom! I’ve always known, and dad told me everything.” He pauses. “When you insisted on marrying him despite him telling you he didn’t love you, but you forced it because you knew his parents would side with you. He begged Eni to wait for him. After I was born, he told me at some point he thought about making it work with you. He’d planned to call Eni and apologize but then he came home early one day in a taxi because he wasn’t feeling well.

He got home in time to see you driving off with a guy in your car, you were all over the guy and left me with the nanny. He got an investigator, it turns out it was Nick’s dad and you had been seeing him all along. At no point did you ever stop seeing him. He didn’t understand why you insisted on marrying him when you were seeing Nick’s dad.” She shrugs, like why is that a big deal.

“Nick was born shortly after he separated and divorced you. He knew you would have tried to say Nick was his son.” He pauses as she scoffs like all he’d said meant nothing in her scheme. Dad was right, she really is a piece of work. “And I’m okay and happy not to be A J Lloyd. I don’t want the burden of the name.”

She scoffs and rolls her eyes.

“I know you harassed Eni and even tried to have her kidnapped. The fact remains that she loved dad, and he loved her till he died. Her name was his last word as he gazed at Lexi. It was clear all he saw was Eni.” Jonah snickers.

She rolls her eyes.

“She was a thief, stole my man.” She snaps

“You mean the man that never loved you and begged Eni to wait for him. The man that cried each time Eni miscarried, or the man that was over the moon when my sister was born. Tell me which man she stole, because as I said before, he never loved you and you didn’t love him either. You just wanted the name and money, not the man. He was still kind to you and helped Nick, though several times you acted like Nick was his responsibility when the whole freaking world knew he wasn’t.”

“Nick should have been a Lloyd.” She shouts.

“Reality and fact is he’s not a Lloyd, and he would never be, no matter how you try to influence and change that. Fact remains Lexi is the next A J Lloyd.” He yells.

She shrugs.

“I also know that the clause where Nick gets everything if Lexi dies was your doing. Dad would never do that; he loved his daughter too much. I noticed the date; you must have colluded with one of the lawyers and snuck that in without him knowing. He was sick and probably trusted his lawyers, so he didn’t read the entire thing. But when he got better, he decided to toss that old will out and rewrite it, putting me in charge with A J Lloyd, his daughter.”

Her scowl is immediate at the reality of Jola’s initials. “More power and more money,” Jonah says.

“Don’t you see? Andrew sidelined you, his first born and only son. He then gives everything to that thing he calls a daughter.”

Jonah’s fist hits the table, startling her.

“He did not sideline me. I told him to do it that way, mom,” he snaps, her face a mix of anger and shock.

“Why would you do such a foolish thing? Now she gets to take all the money and leave you with nothing,” she shouts, stunned that he would act so foolishly, but she has always lived a cunning life. The idea of someone being genuine and acting out of love is unfathomable to her.