The Undisclosed Union

Part 32

Published: Nov. 18, 2019---Sept. 30, 2020

Jared, why can you not allow it?"

'You know the reason you don't have to ask."

"It is all about the arranged marriage again? Does she know about it too?" When he didn't answer, Charlize laugh and said. "No wonder even after your attention, she can still go with her friends on a blind date."

"What do you mean?" He asked with furrowed eyebrows.

"I thought you had all your spies following every move of your current woman. How come you don't know about it? Remember the men who were with her in the restaurant?"

He nodded as memories of that night played back to him. The night he saw her with a guy beside her, and he was so angry he almost snatched her. It was his pride that made him stopped.

"David, that's the name of the guy Kelly and I had talked to before. He said the first time they saw each other, she and her friends were in disguise."

"Don't change the subject." He told her that he doesn't want her to notice his jealousy if she continues.

He knows her; she will worsen the situation if the result is to her advantage. "Now, tell me who the father of your child is? This time whoever he is, he has to take responsibility."

Charlize runs to his side and holds his hand. "It can be you."

"We both know, it's impossible."

They were lovers for six months; he cannot deny it. But since his wedding, he became celibate until he consummated his marriage.

"Jared, it was a mistake. I was drunk and depressed at that time."

"Don't tell me he is a married man." When she didn't answer, he removed her hand from his, stands up, and then walked away from his table.

Charlize followed him and told him. "I will sign every paper you want. This time I will behave." When he didn't answer, she added, "Okay, even if you can't marry me, just the child."

"It's preposterous!" He shouted while facing her. "You know if I publicly say it's my child, I will not let it be a bastard. Maybe it was my mistake to help you before; it has spoiled you."

What he meant was what had happened five years ago. Charlize was still new in her career and had an affair with a married businessman whose wife happened to be an actress. It had become controversial at that time.

It was her father who approached him, asking for help. At first, he wanted to refuse, but because he was his father's best friend and later became his professor at Harvard, he agreed to pose as her lover. If he had not intervened, it had destroyed her before it even bloomed.

"Jared..."

"If you cannot tell me who the father is, better for you to leave now. Come back when you can say it." He told her while pointing the door for her to go out. Without looking if she did it or not, he walked back to his table.

Still angry with Charlize's audacity to even suggest such ridiculous plans to salvage her reputation, he dialed Mark's extension number to tell him to come to his office.

He took the folder in front of him, opens it, and starts reviewing the paper.

Once Mark came inside and handed him some papers. It was then he noticed Charlize, still sitting on the couch but this time busy with retouching her makeup.

He then remembered his wife. "Mark, tell Mrs. Steele to go to Blake's office to get something." He told his PA in a voice not loud enough to be heard by Charlize.