CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Jordan sat stiffly trying to maintain a straight face while the tiny girl draw him, he knew it was a recipe for disaster the moment he suggested it but there's nothing wrong with letting her get the joy of drawing her famous director daddy. He was trying hard not to smile as she scrunched up her face and two colors were sticking out of her mouth, she was sketching furiously on the large sketch pad that has housed over hundred caricature drawings of both him, Amelia, and other nursing staff. Sometimes, the plants make it there or the lovely animals she met on her way back from a walk. It was June's Guinness book of painted treasures and she and Amelia spent days trying to come up with the name before they ended up choosing Guinness's book of painted treasures.
The sketch pad brought his daughter extreme joy and he would be sure to put it in a museum when she dies because they held too many memories of the rare gem his daughter was. He smiled at himself and the way he was planning things for when his daughter passed away. It was pathetic but he had come with agreement with his condition, the earlier he accepted it, the better for him to move on after she leaves him.
He was so lost in thoughts and he suddenly noticed his daughter had stopped painting instead, her eyes were fixed at the door, more like fixed on the person that just walked in through the door and when the expensive baccarat rouge perfume hit his nose, he didn't need a reminder about who it was and he sighed. That same perfume had brought her to his notice at the times square that year and that same smell was his weakness for years before she agreed to be his. He had no idea what she was doing here and he doubted if he would hash it out here with here in the same room with their daughter. He would never the look on her face when she declared her own child, her blood was slowing her down in her career and she would rather not be associated with them any more. He thought she was being goofy around but that day she walked out and never looked back till this moment.
He knew he had to act now so he stood up from his position and he turned to look at the door where she was standing at. He took his time to drink in her appearance. One thing that would always amaze him about her was her fashion sense, she surely knew how to pieced the colors together to create a great combo. Today she had on a green dress, which complemetned her long legs. He doubted if she dressed up from home to come here to see a sick child or if she knew he would be here and she wanted to see him instead. The slit in front of the dress went all the way up to her thighs and her snatched waist was extremely onvious through the dress. The soft swell of her breasts molded perfectly with the fabrics and he did a mental calculations of how much the dress would cost. He knew exoensive when he saw it and he knew it would cost her a fortune. Her face was astounding and she had a smug look on her face as she made her way into the room.
'Jordan Wilder, didn't your mama teach you it's fucking rude to eye fuck people in public?" She announced when his eyes met hers before she made her way properly into the room. That seemed to snap him out of whatever illusion he was having in his head. He was over Belle and the last thing he should be caught doing was sulking over her. He scoffed before sizing her up for the second time and this time, he let the disgust very obvious in his eyes. The last thing he would allow was let himself be enthralled in the Belle charm again. It worked six years ago and it won;t work anymore. June looked at her and teared up, a mumble escaping her mouth which Jordan was unclear of. But he did know one thing, the woman in the room wasn't supposed to be here.
'What are you doing here, Belle?" Jordan asked ignoring her previous statements about his mama and him not having manners, he wasn't going to grant her rubbish PR tonight. He walked away from the bunk he was leaning on and he moved towards the door to confront Belle.
She smiled and walked towards the hospital bed. 'I'm here to see my daughter, of course." She slyly responded. Anger coursed through his veins at the mention of June and the last thing he wanted to do was lose his temper in front if his baby. He took deep breaths and he turned to June before flashing her a reassuring smile, he was going to take care of this pest right now and they would return to their painting.
Belle ignored whatever it was that Jordan was doing and she walked closer to the bed to see her own daughter, in as much as she hated the fact that her little girl looked more like his director ather, those eyes. Those damn Hashim eyes that had been passed down from generations of Hashim girls up to her and now June, It was special gift that grandma Hadiza passed on to all f them. Belle wondered what her conservative grandmother would think of her now if she heard she abandoned a sick child and her husband for her career. Even if the old woman once advised her that nothing deserved to be placed on the scale of preference with her dreams, she knew the woman was quite big on family. The Asian breakthrough was exactly what she needed and she took advantage of it, she wasn't to be blamed for going after her own dreams.
Belle is a highly successful woman both in the media and in real life. She was extraordinary in her job and had laid down a legacy for the youngsters to follow. Belle Hashim, the mixed Arabian model, and Asian drama star wasn't a name Holywood would forget in a hurry.
When she got togetehr with Jordan, she was just a young budding guy and she had no idea what dangers of the life, she had to take life by it's horn and she knew she couldn't afford to forfiet her dreams for the sake of love. When she walked out on them years ago, she knew a sick child would be too uch for them to handle as they were both trying to find balance in ther live and Jordan was the one who insisted on them not getting rid of it.
When she heard that her daughter was sick, she didn't think it was that bad. But now that she saw for herself..
She raised a finger to touch June's face and Jordan grasped it, preventing her from touching June.
She looked up to him with a smothering gaze. 'What are you doing?!" She asked as quietly as possible.
'Let us talk outside," Jordan said and Belle scoffed before snatching her hand from his. 'I'll be right back honey," she said sweetly to June before skidding past him and out of the hospital. When they were at a safe distance from June's room, Belle said, 'From now on, I am going to take care of my daughter!"
Jordan let out a spiteful smile, 'Just go back to your job like you've been doing all these years and don't go anywhere near June!"
'Why?" Belle sneered, 'I trusted you to take good care of our daughter and this happened! What did you feed her, huh? Fast food? Is that why she's laying there on the hospital bed in pain?!"
Jordan ran a finger through his hair in irritation, he was running low on patience and he wouldn't like to react with anger. Belle was getting on hisnnerves too fucking well.
'Did you let her have ice cream for dinner while you fuck your so-called best friend?!" Belle ased with a roll of her eyes, She had never liked Amelia for anything and it was ver obvious the bitch was obsessed with fucking Jordan if only he could come out of his body and watch how she acted with him. It was either he saw it and pretended not to or he was blind, no wonder he couldn't have a stable relationship after all these while.
Jordan's breath hitched in his throat, his patience was running thin. Not that he had a lot saved for his ex-wife. If he didn't know better, he would have thought his ex wife was jealous but he know Belle knew about how he and Amelia were no longer talking. News spread horribly fast amongst other celebrites and that was the only explanation he had for her showing up at the hospital cladded in a dress made or the runway or even a gala or an awards night.
'SHUT YOUR MOUTH!" He barked without control. He had no idea his voice would come out that loud. He only hoped June didn't hear it and his ex wife saw how dead serious he was. He didn't come out here to allow her talk shgit about him and his best friend.
'What? Why do you sound so tense?" Belle rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. 'I know you fucked her, you don't have to deny it!" Belle's voice was loud this time, attracting wandering eyes.
'About time the sex happened." Belle added, 'The slut has always been into you even before we got married. I've never seen a woman as consistent as that whore."
Jordan couldn't take it anymore.
He grabbed Belle by the elbow and slammed her against the wall. 'You don't know when to shut up, do you? If you know what is good for you, you'd shut the hell up except you want to be wiped out from the surface of earth!"
Belle let out a smirk, 'Is that a threat? Right," She said as though she were recalling something, 'you've always been like this, impatient. Were you impatient when she offered her pussy to you too?"
'I didn't sleep with her!" Jordan denied.
'Sure sure, keep lying to yourself." Belle pushed him away from her.
'Also don't talk about her like that or else I'll ruin you—"
Jordan phone beeped and he backed away from Belle to check the shared messages he'd received from a few juniors.
He read the headline and his world felt like it was crashing.
SCANDAL: HAVE JORDAN WILDER AND HIS 'BESTFRIEND, AMELIA FURTHER THEIR RELATIONSHIP TO BEST FRIEND WITH BENEFITS?
He clicked on the link and from the distance, Belle smirked before heading to June's room.
The whole news was uploaded on Viki blogger's website.
That was what he took note of first as he scrolled past the annoying ads to read the article.
World winning director Jordan willer was spotted being all touchy with his best friend, Amelia in front of her house.
Beneath the article were some pictures of when he carried a drunk Amelia inside with her arms wrapped around his neck.
He did not have the patience to continue reading it. He immediately went to his call log and clicked on a person's profile before hitting the call button.
'Hello?" The person from the other line responded.
'Check with Viki blogger's website and pull down the recent article with me and Amelia in it. If I see the article in the next ten minutes I'll make sure you don't find a job anywhere in the country!"
Without waiting for a response, he ended the call and dialed another number.
It was unreachable but then an important text message entered his phone.
It was from an unknown number.
It reads, 'Do you want the article taken down? If yes, please respond to this text.'
Jordan knew he had a lot of fans but he didn't expect someone to offer to bring down the article. From what he knew, many people wanted to soil his name. Even some of his fans wanted to see him do something imperfectly. He reread the message and he came to the concluson thast he wasn't going to act desperate and give someoe a chance to dnagle over him later on. He would fix this in his own way.
But if this person knew his number, he or she had to be in the industry. People of this kind would try to get him to do them favors relentlessly so he decided to ignore the message.
He called a few more people and threatened their jobs. Now, he had to wait. Wait for them to do their motherfukcing jobs or else he would render them jobless just luke he had promised. They knew him better than to mess with him, he could do and undo. He was
Uncomfortably, he paced up and down the hallway while trying to calm himself. He hated when he had zero control over situations like this and the last thing he wanted to do was to get involved in a dirty scandal that would pull Amelia down with him, he had done enough damage in her perfect life to allow this to happen. He wasn't a child and je knew his ex-wife had a lot to do with it but he would deal with her later.
He didn't know how long he did this but when he became tired, he sat on his butt on the floor and refreshed the article on the site. It still wasn't taken down. He blew air through his mouth in exasperation and he had no idea how many people had saved those pictures and would keep it as a reference in the future. If the main source didn't take it down, he had no idea how many people he would file a law suit against, and soon, they would reduce him to a laughing stock and he would no longer have a firm stand in Hollywood and he would become a total pushover. He couldn't afford it not when he had
He took a few more tries and was relieved when he saw the page was no longer accessible. He didn't know who took care of it between his workers or the strange person that sent him a message but what really mattered was that the article has been taken down and no popular blog would reblog them even if they had them saved, he would file a suit that would claim an entire year's worth profit from them since he tried it with Arise Gossips, nobody dared him anymore.
Finally, he could let out a sigh of relief. Next time they would learn a hard lesson on why someone like him shouldn't be tampered with. He was Jordan Wilder for a fucking reason.