Page 54 of Claimed
“The ceremony?” Marie asked.
His eyes seemed to turn down at the corners as he looked at Jasper. “I’m a retired scientist. At the time of Doris’sdisappearance, I was working for United Alliance Laboratories Chemicals.”
“That’s our company,” Jasper said.
Harold shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “Randolph Christmas owns it.” It sounded as if Harold had to make it clear that he was mentally severing any connection Jasper may have had with Randolph. “Then you know how it works?”
Jasper nodded. “Our scientists engineerwhat we need, but they’re also free to create whatever they wish, as long as we are named on the patent and paid fifteen percent of all financial gain.”
Harold eyed Jasper and then told him the name of the chemical agent he had created and what it was used for. “We had a ceremony for my achievement. I brought my family. My daughter and your father were both there.” Harold turned to hiswife. “I mentioned how I didn’t like the way he looked at her. Do you remember that, Marie?”
“I remember it,” Marie said sadly. “I didn’t take you seriously. I called you crazy, but you were right.”
“The next week, she went missing,” Harold said.
Jasper cocked his head. “He returned that patent to you in full.”
Harold nodded thoughtfully. “I never knew why. It didn’tmake sense. If only I had…” He pressed his lips together. “I just didn’t expect a man like him to do something like that.”
Jasper took my hand under the table. “I have to tell you about my father and the sort of man he was. You’re going to hear about it in the news, and I want you to hear it from me first.”
Marie sat very stillas tears rolled out of her eyes. She cried similarly to how Katie had cried earlier. At that moment, I realized how much sadness they felt about the loss of their daughter. But Doris’s parents didn’t say a word after hearing about how Randolph Christmas had preferred girls of a certain age and, because of his massive wealth, could affordto not only feed his sickness but also keep it secret. Jasper told them his mother was fifteen years old when she birthed him. He shared with them how their daughter stayed with his father in an effort to keep him, her only son, from falling into Randolph’s darkness.
“My father was a master manipulator. I’m positive he convinced my mother that you let him have her.”
Then Jasper letthem know that his childhood had not been easy, and Doris was probably depressed every day of her life, but she’d been tough and had loved him a lot.
Harold cleared his throat. “We never moved because we hoped one day she would return.”
Marie shook her head emphatically. “I never believed she was dead. I knew someone had her. I would stare at men, wishing they would see somethingin my face to tip me off that they had my daughter. I waited for one of them to run scared—I would chase him and eventually find Doris.” She gazed off into space.
“But you said she was tough?” Harold asked, his watery eyes begging to hear that his daughter figured out a way to fight back.
“Very much so,” Jasper replied.
Harold almost smiled, but his mouth couldn’t quite makethe commitment.
I helped Marie serve the coffee. They had invited us to stay with them for the night, and Jasper and I had accepted their invitation. Marie and Harold showed us tons of photos of Doris when she was a little girl and of their other children. They wanted us to meet them soon. Jasper was hesitant but eventually said he would like to do that. I wanted to explain to them thattheir grandson was not a sunny kind of guy and didn’t know what a normal family life looked like. Spencer, Asher, and Bryn were his norm, and they were all so damaged, and it was Jasper’s job to take care of them without question.
Jasper was able to tell them that his mother was a pretty good photographer and liked taking pictures. He said he had her photos framed on his walls in all hishomes. Marie excused herself and returned with a tiny camera that her daughter used to keep on her most of the time.
“She’d always be out taking pictures. I have her photo album somewhere around here.”
Unable to restrain myself, I yawned, and Harold asked his wife if we could save that part for the morning.
They showedJasper and me to a guest room, which had a queen-sized bed and antique furniture and smelled of potpourri. We stripped out of our clothes and cuddled under the clean sheets and thick quilt. Of course, Jasper had an erection the size of Jupiter, and he ground it against my ass.
“Do you really think we should, with Ward and June down the hall?”I whispered.
“Who the fuck are Ward and June?” he asked.
I chuckled. “You know, the Cleavers—Leave It to Beaver.”
“Is that a book?” His breath tickled the back of my neck.
“No, it’s a television show.”
He grunted thoughtfully. “I don’t know about those two Cleavers, but…” The tip of his penis poked the outside of my pussy. I opened my legs a little wider andlet him thrust himself inside me.
