Life of Fame (JAELE)

The Blackmail

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"I honestly don't understand why she's doing this to my family. First she tried to sabotage my marriage and now she's trying to ruin my sister's life" Jace ran a hand through his hair, frustratedly.

"What did we ever do to her, Mr. Downs?" Jace demanded, his voice filled with hurt and ire.

Having heard everything from his daughter and son-in-law, Idris stumbled backwards and collapsed into the chair baffled out of his mind.

Idris shook his head, feeling extremely remorseful. "This is all my fault" He said gravely.

Beyoncé sat down beside her husband and rubbed his back soothingly. "Oh honey, please don't blame yourself. We didn't know she would do something like this" She said causing Jace and Riele to exchange confused looks.

"No, sweetheart, I should've tried harder" Idris disagreed with her.

"Daddy, what are you talking about? This isn't your fault. Shelby is a psychotic bitch who is hell bent on....." Riele was interrupted by her father.

"No, princess, Shelby was a sweet, innocent girl. If only I had been able to protect her from that monster...." Idris choked up remembering the past.

Jace put his hand on Idris' arm gently. "What happened, Mr. Downs?" He asked softly.

Taking a deep breath, Idris turned to look at his wife, who gave him a reassuring smile, before reciting the story. "A long time ago, Shelby's father used to work for me. He was a greedy man and one time I caught him stealing money from my house, and when I questioned him about it, he said that it was to buy stuff for his daughter. I warned him not to repeat it and raised his salary but a few weeks later when I was on a business trip, he got drunk and tried to force himself on my wife. Luckily, the security guard saved her and called the cops on him. His wife pleaded me not to send him to jail. I pulled some strings and sent him to a Rehabilitation centre instead"

Beyoncé gave his hand a gentle squeeze prompting him to continue.

"When he came back from rehab, we failed to notice that his addiction had gone worse. He started doing drugs and gambled away the money his wife used to earn for the family. At one point, he went too far and tried to sell his own wife and daughter. His wife called me, begging me to come and save her daughter but before the cops could reach there, he had already killed his wife and Shelby was laying on the couch naked and unconscious" Idris' voice faltered as he felt guilty for not being able to protect the innocent little girl and her mother.

"It's okay, honey, it's okay" Beyoncé said, trying to calm him down before turning to the young couple.

"After he was sent to jail, Idris and I decided to take Shelby to our home because we didn't want her to grow up in some orphanage. My husband was apprehensive at first because we were already taking care of Bonnie and Riele was just a baby. But I convinced him and said that Shelby can be Riele's sister. We were even talking to our lawyers about legally adopting her. But two days later, she ran away from the mansion. We searched high and low for her but couldn't find her. We were both heartbroken when we heard on the news, a few years later, that the police had caught her selling drugs in the bad part of the town. We personally went down to the station and bailed her out. We even sent her to rehab for a while but when she got released from there, she insisted that she won't stay with us. She said she hated us and blamed us for her parents' deaths. We tried to explain to her that it wasn't our fault but she wouldn't listen. When Riele was in high school, she came to us asking for our help getting a role in a tv show and Idris got her the role and also bought her a new house in the hopes that she would forgive us, and maybe even come live with us again. Eventually, she and Riele became good friends and so we thought that she had forgiven us but didn't think she would do something like this" Beyoncé said, anger lacing her tone.