Basketball season was coming, so I haven’t seen much of Keiran outside of school. He still used every opportunity to feel me up and violate me in school though. I was becoming pretty familiar with inappropriate places to do inappropriate acts.

Keiran’s possessiveness wasn’t the only contributor to my growing frustration. Time was ticking. My aunt was due back in a few weeks and I wasn’t any closer to finding answers about the girl in the picture. A few times I came close to just asking Keiran about it but knew that would be dangerous and stupid. We may be “friends” now but he could quickly become my enemy again if I wasn’t careful.

After many failed attempts to find anything on him, I gave in and called Jesse. He was a criminal mastermind with computers and finding things that weren't meant to be found. I even thought about asking him to find my parents but in the end decided I didn’t want to know. It would be too painful to learn they abandoned me. Maybe one day, I would have the courage to find the truth.

The doorbell rang and I rushed to answer it.  We didn’t have much time before Keiran’s practice was over and I couldn’t risk Keiran finding Jesse here or worse and find out what we were doing.

I opened the door to find an annoyed Jesse on the other side. “Tell me what this is about and it better be good. I did ninety all the way here.”

“Well you said you wanted to help me. This is it. Help me.”

“So how and why does it involve my computer?” he asked as he set up his computer in the kitchen.

“I need you to find everything you know about Keiran, especially who and where his parents are.”

“Ok…why?”

“I can’t explain it to you…not now.”

“Here we go. Why not, Lake?”

“Jesse, we don’t have a lot of time. Are you going to help me or not?”

“Fine.” He mumbled something about bossy girls and harebrained schemes while he booted up his computer. I kissed his cheek in thanks but he batted me away.

“When did you get so grouchy?” I teased.

“Right around the time you started keeping secrets.”

“Whatever, I’m going to do homework.”

“Great, you can do mine too,” he said good-naturedly as if he had just offered to do my homework instead.

“What?”

“I brought Calc and Chemistry,” he said without taking his eyes off the computer.

“You can’t be serious…”

“I don’t joke about getting out of homework.” He took out his books and shoved them across the table.

“This will take me all night!”

“Thanks, babe,” he grinned at me cheekily.

“Gosh, you can be such a bitch.” I folded my arms and glared at him across the table.

“My, my. When did you grow claws?”

“Sorry, Jesse. I’m just stressed.”

“The bags under your eyes tells it all and is that a hickey?” When I got home I changed into a tank top that I was just now realizing was a little revealing. The hickey, Keiran placed at the top of my breasts, this morning, was partially peeking out of my top. The flush I couldn’t hide heated my skin and I jumped up from the table.

“I’ll be back, scrub.” I ran upstairs to grab my homework. When I picked up my books from my desk, I saw the picture lying underneath it.  Who are you?

I rejoined Jesse downstairs and settled in for a long night of homework. Jesse had his ear buds in so I knew he was in the zone. After what felt like hours I finally finished Jesse’s homework because he really wasn’t kidding about that.

“Lake?” he called my name with a sense of urgency even though we were sitting at the same table. “You might want to see this.” I jumped up from my seat and practically ran around the table.

“Did you find something?” I peered down over his shoulder at the headlines he had pulled up.

A New Heir for the Masters Fortune?

The Masters family celebrates a new addition but it’s not the arrival of a newborn baby. Sources say John Masters, oldest son to Charles and Victoria Masters, now has care of an eight-year boy, by the name of Keiran Masters. But where did he come from? Who fathered this mysterious child?

Is Mitch Masters the Father?

Sources reveal that the mysterious eight-year old child is rumored to be the son of the youngest Masters heir, Mitch Masters. Could little Keiran Masters be the result of a secret love affair?

The articles were spaced months apart, which mean there had to be more so where were they? The articles he found held little to no information…maybe that was why they weren’t buried with the others.

“These were all I found and I had to do some heavy digging. Someone paid a lot of money to keep this a secret with little questioning,” he said, voicing my thoughts. “I can’t even find any medical records on Keiran. Or any information about the mother.”

“What about a marriage certificate for his father?”

“Nada. He was never married. Mitch was only twenty-five when Keiran was born.”

“All this publicity and no hint or word of his mother?”

“I’d thought the same so I searched court records for any history of a paternity suit or child support hearing but there was nothing at all. Without so much as a birth certificate for Keiran, his mother would be pretty hard to trace.”

“What about school records? He was eight when he came into John’s care so he must have been in school.”

“Blank, babe.”

“So he just appeared out of thin air?”

“The only way you can keep someone a secret is if they want to be kept a secret or if they aren’t alive to tell you otherwise.”

“You think the mother’s dead?”

“Why not? Ten years and no trace of her?”

“So there would be record of her death.”

“Without a name, how would we find it?”

“Someone has to know something about who Mitch was dating.”

“Not necessarily…”

‘What do you mean?”

“Rich guys like that change women more than they change their underwear. She could have been just another notch on his belt – used and invisible.”

“The only person who would know is John but I’ve never even seen the guy. He’s never around,” I thought long and hard before a thought occurred to me. “Where are they from? If they were from a place like Six Forks it wouldn’t be nearly impossible to figure out. People gossip.”

“Beauty and brains. My hero,” he chuckled.

“Some days I don’t feel so smart…”

“That’s because you let your vagina do the talking, babe.” He quickly tapped his keyboards and only after a few minutes he came across something. “He’s from Camden. That’s only a two hour drive.”

“So it’s close.”

“You aren’t seriously thinking about going there are you?”

“Why not?”

“Maybe because this whole family seems shady as fuck? You can’t just show up on someone’s doorstep and starting asking questions about something they obviously kept so hard to bury. Think about it, beautiful…Keiran was a child when he was found…he didn’t hide all this himself.”

I thought hard about what he said but knew I didn’t have a choice. This was becoming more than just a need for revenge. I wanted answers. I needed answers. “What else can I do?”

Instead of replying he went back to typing. “It looks like he had a housekeeper.”

“How do you know that?”

“Her resume was uploaded on this social website for professionals who use it to make connections.” He studied the resume and then turned to look up at me. “What month is Keiran’s birthday?”

“February, I think.” I shrugged nonchalantly when he grinned at me with a cheeky expression.

“You think?”

“Ok, I know.”

“Well it looks like Mrs. Jenkins was dismissed.”

“When?”

“Nine months before he was born,” he answered dryly.

“Shit! Well maybe we can find out where his father disappeared? No one just leaves all that wealth behind.”

“On it. But I got to head back. My parents are going to kill me if I stay for much longer,” he said as he packed up his computer.