Caught on Camera Read Online Free PDF Page B

attention. He deserves to grow up normally.”
    “Right.” He nodded, not quite believing her story, but understanding the sentiment. “You just want enough money to raise him as if he were a Davenport. To put him through the best schools , you said.”
    Cold eyes stared back at him, but she didn’t reply. He wondered if she knew where he was headed with this line of questioning.
    “Yet my father already paid you over a million dollars, not the quarter million you previously claimed.”
    At her look of protest, he held up his hand. “Save it.” His voice was flat and hard. “I know it as fact because I had you investigated. Around the time you would have gotten pregnant, two large deposits hit your account. One for a quarter million. A couple weeks later for another million. What I can’t figure out is why that wasn’t enough to put your son through school. The kid is only seven. We’re talking elementary school, not an Ivy League private college.”
    She stuck her probably touched-up nose in the air. “It’s expensive raising Jackson’s son.”
    JP eyed her, hating even more than usual that he carried his father’s name. “I’d say it’s expensive raising you.”
    “How dare you,” she blustered, coming up off the couch.
    “How dare I?” His hands clenched at his sides as he fought the anger coursing through him, but he was unwilling to lose control for this leech. “I dare because you’ve shown up here, now wanting my money. And I’ll tell you, Ms. Doguard, I won’t spend my life being blackmailed for something my father did. He may have had no problem paying you off, but unfortunately for you, he died before you could come back for more.”
    Beverly entered before Lexi could form a response. The look on her face said it all. The kid was a Davenport.
    He took the paper and gave her a tight smile. “Thanks, Bev. When Ms. Doguard and I are finished, I’ll need some time with you, please.”
    With the thought of working out a way to pay for the boy’s education through a company-sponsored scholarship, he’d need his assistant’s help to make it happen. Setting it up through the business would be less traceable back to him in the event a nosy journalist was to get insight into his finances.
    “Certainly, Mr. Davenport,” Beverly muttered.
    Realizing that the disappointed look in her eyes said she assumed the kid was his, he gave a quick shake of his head and murmured, “Dad’s. Not mine.”
    A sigh and a nod came from Beverly. “I’ll be at my desk if you need anything more, sir.”
    The room once again fell silent as the door clicked softly behind her. He stood straight, head bent, and confirmed the results. His father—who’d been part of a supposed fairy-tale marriage—had cheated on his wife with a seventeen-year-old volunteer, and hadn’t been careful enough to keep from getting the girl pregnant. White-hot rage started at the soles of his feet and moved upward, gaining speed as it traveled his body until he wanted to dig up the man’s remains and shake him as if he hadn’t been dead and buried for the last six years. He needed to pay for the pain his mother would feel if JP didn’t successfully keep this from her.
    His mother may have her own faults, but she’d loved her husband with everything she had. So much so that she’d as much as turned her back on her own sons when they’d needed her the most, all for a man who wasn’t worth it in the end. She’d stood by him, supporting everything he did until the day he’d died. To find out now it had all been a lie would crush her.
    No matter how frustrated JP often was with her himself, he could not let that happen.
    Yet mixed in with the anger coursing through him was guilt. He lived his life as honestly and cleanly as he could, and he didn’t care to ever carry around guilt. This kid was his brother. Shouldn’t he do better than to write him off as easily as his father had?
    He locked his gaze on Lexi, at the