BIOLOGICAL FATHER

SCENE FROM THE DAY WHEN THE DNA TEST RESULTS CAME OUT

Travis failed to sleep. It was already during the wee hours of the morning, and he started to think hard on ways of getting the money. He checked his bank accounts, but the money was not enough. He still needed more. He scratched his head and sat on the closed toilet seat.

Money, money…oh how does one get quick money? He told himself that there was no way he was going to let the opportunity miss him; he needed to get that money and pay Dave. His greatest wish was for Kiara to marry into the Pinkerton family. The fact that there was a chance of Vincent being Vine's child was an opportunity that Travis dared not miss. He needed that filthy rich son in law. He told himself that he was going to do anything and everything within his power to get Kiara married to Vine.

Travis looked at the figure written on the message, and he multiplied it by three.

"Who has this kind of money just lying around?" he shouted angrily; before he realised that his voice was too loud. What if he woke Aletha up?

"What should I do? From where do I get this kind of money?" The man continued to talk to himself.

He walked towards the bathroom window and looked outside. There was nothing to see, he just needed that break. The man walked back to the toilet seat and decided to search for "ways of making fast money". When he scrolled on his phone, he saw an advert flashing,

"Are you selling your house? Forget about mortgage! We pay cash for good houses…."

He read through it all and immediately knew that his answer was right in front of him. The first thing that Travis did on the next day was to call in sick at his job, and rush to go and meet the real estate people. The deal did not take too long to finalise, sine he had the title deeds and the house was in perfect condition.

Travis ran to update Dave, showing him a few signed papers as the proof. Of course the deal was not yet completed, but one could tell that it was a maturing deal.

Dave produced the papers, one proving Vine as the father of the child, and another one proving that Jeremy was not the biological father of the child.

"Do you need this? We might as well destroy it." Dave said, waving Jeremy's results in Travis' face.

"I need it. If I go and show it to the young man, he will know to stay out of my daughter's life." Travis said.

When he left the hospital, everyone was celebrating the results; the ones which showed that Vincent Lisandro was a Pinkerton.

At night, Travis called Jeremy to come over; and he pretended to sympathize with him as he showed him the DNA results.

"He is not my child," Jeremy whispered painfully, re-reading the paper over and over again.

Travis hugged him, pretending to be very sorry for the young man. Jeremy just stood up and left. Alone in his room, he cried like he had never cried before. He lacked the strength to share with anyone the news, not even Jacob. He just picked a lighter and destroyed the piece of paper. What use was it; when it bore such bad news? He had really hoped and prayed for the child to be his. He had counted down the days until the baby's birth, hoping with his entire heart that on the day of birth, his Kiara was finally going to come back to him. Jeremy had always envisioned his little family; himself, Kiara and little Ethan Anesu.

***

On the following day, Travis found himself knocking on Dave's door again,

"You shouldn't visit me this often. I thought there was nothing more?" Dave sounded annoyed.

"Sorry," Travis looked around, as if checking to see that no one was looking at him.

"Come inside," Dave opened the door and shut it as soon as Travis had entered.

"I'm sorry but, I really need to know; just for my own knowledge as the father to the girl, and the grandfather to the little one. Who is his real father?" he asked eagerly.

"Jeremy Richard Rain is his father." Dave stated.

"You are sure??" Travis asked.

Dave let out a low chuckle and then said, "I am more than one hundred percent sure. If you go and run a thousand more tests now; all of them with different doctors; then all of them will show you that Jeremy Richard Rain is the father of that newborn boy."