AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You know that I can’t stay angry at you two. Even if you interfere where you shouldn’t.”
“Good! Cuz you’re stuck with us,” Jess says.
“There is one more thing, though,” Liz says. I hear the uncertainty in her voice. “We need to tell you something.”
“Nope, I don’t want to hear it. Whatever it is, we are good now. Let’s just move on.”
“No, you really need to hear it,” Liz continues. “I shouldn’t say anything, and I know Jake will kill me if he finds out I told you. But I don’t want to keep this secret anymore.”
“Lana, you need to hear this,” Jess pleads.
I look from one friend to the other. The serious looks on their faces make me realize the importance of what they have to say.
“Okay, if you think I need to know, spill it,” I agree reluctantly.
Jess and Liz look at each other with trepidation, as though unsure which one will tell me. They come to some sort of unspoken agreement, and Liz puts a comforting hand on my knee. She takes a deep breath before speaking.
“I was in Jake’s office a few days ago, alone. I had gone in there to collect some documents that he wanted me to work on. I wasn’t trying to be nosy, but as I was looking through the paperwork, I noticed a manilla folder that was sticking out from beneath his calendar. It was the label at the top that caught my eye. Hopeful Beginnings.”
“Wait, the folder said Hopeful Beginnings? The shelter where I work?”
“Yes.” Liz nods.
“Why would he have that. doesn’t have anything to do with the shelter?” I pause in confusion and look from Liz to Jess.
“Just think about it. I bet you can guess what was in the folder,” Jess suggests. “There’s only one reason why he’d have something like that in his office.”
I didn’t think that Jake even knew what shelter I work for. What could he possibly be doing that Jess and Liz are afraid to tell me?
Their stares tell me that I’m being incredibly dense.
My eyes widen in clarity as I suddenly realize what this means. The huge donation to the shelter promised recently. The shelter claimed to have no knowledge of who the donor was. They said the donor was adamant that they wished to remain anonymous.
Jake.
“Jake is the big, anonymous donor,” I whisper to them.
“Yes,” Liz confirms. “It was all in the paperwork. But I noticed something else. He did this just three days after he fired you.”
I shake my head in denial. “No, that doesn’t make any sense. He was so angry with me. Why would he have donated to the shelter like that right after finding out about my lying to him?”
Liz continues, “There was a stipulation noted. The stipulation said that he was donating the money in your name but that you were to never find out. If they told you, they would risk losing a portion of the money.”
Jess grabs my hand. “Lana, don’t you see? He did that donation because he loves you. Even when he thought you had deceived him, evenwhen he thought he’d never see you again, even then, he still loved you. He never wanted you to find out about the donation.”
I feel my heart pounding in my chest. There has to be an explanation for this. As angry as he was that day, I can’t believe that he would have donated millions to the shelter like that.
“I need to talk to Jake,” I say urgently. I look frantically at the clock on the wall and see it’s already ten o’clock at night. It’s too late to take the subway to his house, and I still haven’t replaced my car. “Can one of you drive me? Please?”
“No, but you can drive yourself,” Jess says slyly as she throws me a car fob. I look down at it and notice the emblem. Mercedes. It’s almost as though they knew I would need a ride. It’s almost as though they planned this out. I find it hard to believe that they just so happened to have the key to the car that Jake bought me.
“We took the liberty of picking it up for you. It’s parked at the curb out front,” Jess says innocently.
Though I’d love to confront them on their obvious meddling, yet again, my need to see Jake is greater. I feel it with an urgency that I can’t ignore.
If he wanted to get my attention, he now has it.
“Where did you get the key?” I ask, suspicion seeping from my voice.
