Page 22 of Bullied Pregnant Mate

Careful. Nothing excuses cruelty.

“Poor guy,” Lucy says, shaking her head. “Does he know who his father is?”

Gina shrugs and doesn’t say anything. I want to ask a billion questions. I never had a single clue about Jenks’s upbringing, but I’m starting to feel like I’m invading his privacy.

Gina has admitted she only knows what she heard from her parents, and rumors. None of that is trustworthy information. If I want the truth, I’ll have to ask Jenks.

“Hey, girls,” Jenks’s voice carries across the deck from the back doors. I jump in my seat a little.

Did he hear us?

“Hey, Jenks,” Gina greets, smiling at him. “How was the meeting?”

“Good,” he answers, smiling. “No problems. I was just wondering if Alisa wanted to go out shopping. But if you girls are busy, it can wait.”

“No, I think we’re done,” Lucy says. “What do you think, Alisa? Do you want us to hang around a bit longer?”

“No, it’s okay,” I answer, feeling conflicted despite my words. “I’d like to go shopping with Jenks.”

I’m not exactly ready to be alone with him, but I can’t keep the girls here for the rest of our lives.

We say our goodbyes and go our separate ways, the girls piling into Gina’s little car and waving as they pull out of the driveway. After they’ve gone, Jenks opens the door of his black Mercedes for me,

“M’lady,” he says, bowing.

I smile in spite of myself. “You’re too kind,” I answer in a faux-lofty tone.

He chuckles as he shuts the door and goes over to the driver’s side.

I knew he was rich, but I didn’t realize he was fucking loaded!

“Where would you like to go?” he asks, starting the car. “It’s totally up to you.”

“We’ll just start at the supermarket,” I reply. “I don’t need anything fancy.”

He nods and pulls out onto the road. The silence stretches out, and even though I try to keep the question in, eventually it just bursts out of me.

“Jenks, how are you so rich?”

He chuckles. “Well, for a start, the whole family is. From Grandma. You know who built the house, right?”

“Yeah… but doesn’t Bae work at the sporting goods store? Why would he need to do that?”

Jenks laughs. “He owns it. Built it from the ground up with his share of family money.”

“Oh,” I say. “I understand. But you still seem to have more than the others.”

Jenks doesn’t answer for a moment and stays quiet for so long that I think he isn’t going to answer. When he finally speaks, it startles me.

“My mom,” he almost whispers. “She’s a musician, a singer and songwriter. She played in town a little when she was young, but she was really self-conscious about performing publicly. She recorded albums and music videos at home—there’s a whole studio set up next to the ballroom. She sold her songs, and albums, for ridiculous amounts of money.”

“Wow, okay. I never knew you were so interesting, Jenks.”

“I’m not,” he chuckles. “I haven’t done a damn thing with my life.”

I want to say something reassuring, but words fail me. Luckily, we pull into the parking lot, and I can change the subject without being too awkward.

As we grab a shopping cart and go through the front doors, we immediately see Lena, Jack, and their son, Gray. “Hi, newlyweds!” Lena chirps, hugging me. “Great to see you. Everything’s going good so far, I hope?”

---