The Russian Billionaire’s Secret(20)

Sports and music were her own hobbies and she longed for a child who shared some of her interests and dreamed of how amazing it would be if he or she had a stand-out talent.

“Hey, Jada, what’s up?”

Jada jumped in her seat. She was so deep in thought, she hadn’t heard her brother approach her.

“Tony,” she slapped him with her paper, “you startled me.”

Tony laughed. “You always were a jumper. Haven’t seen you since, you know… well, I mean I heard about you and Frank.”

Jada blew air and rolled her eyes. “Yeah, I know you always told me he wasn’t good enough for me. You were right.”

“’Course I was. But that don’t mean nothin’ now. You okay? You need a place to crash?”

“Nah. I moved back in with Ma for a while.”

Tony snickered. “A-ight then, when you’ve had enough, you know you can come stay with me and Sondra.”

“That’s sweet, but you don’t have no room in your tiny apartment and your three month old baby. Ma’s house is fine.”

Tony nodded and smiled. “You want me to go rough Frank up for ya?”

Jada laughed. “Again, that’s sweet, but no, I’m fine. I’m better offer off without him. In fact, Tony, I haven’t told anyone else this yet, but…” her voice trailed off. Suddenly she wasn’t sure if she should tell her older brother what she had planned.

“But… what? Come on now, what you got going on?”

“It ain’t for sure yet.”

“What ain’t for sure yet?”

Jada took a deep breath. “I’m gonna be a mommy.” She smiled wide.

Tony’s eyes grew wide. “What?! Frank is the daddy?” he yelled.

“No!” She stood and put her hand on her brother’s shoulder. “Hush! Frank is no Daddy.” She looked around and then whispered. “There ain’t gonna be a daddy at all. I’m gonna be artificially inseminated.”

Tony looked at her with no expression.

She showed him her spread sheet from the sperm bank. “See? Here are my choices. I think I’m gonna go with the athlete. Papa was a great athlete, and so are you and Ty. It already runs in the family, see?

“Woman, you are crazy.” Tony backed up.

Jada felt her heart sink. “Tony, I’m not crazy, I’m just ready. I’ve been saving up my money. I’m gonna try to buy a little house. It’s gonna be great. You’re gonna be an uncle, and your little baby Syrus will have a cousin.”

Tony looked at the floor and shook his head.

“Come on, Tony. I could use your support.”

Tony lifted his eyes and looked at her. He stared. Jada pleaded with her eyes for him to soften.

“A-ight. If this is what you want, of course I’ll support you. You’re my little sister.”

Jada hugged Tony just as the buzzer screamed for them to get back to work.

“No word about this to Ma until it’s certain, okay?” Jada confirmed.

Tony nodded. “I got ya covered.” He walked back to the finishing room where he ran the sanding machine.

Jada turned the saw back on and continued her daily job.

Chapter 3

Mix-Up

Dallas spent two months choosing an egg donor that matched all of his criteria – Caucasian of German and Swedish decent, blonde, five feet ten inches tall, one-hundred and twenty pounds, blue eyes, and a graduate degree in the field of science. He was sure the blend of his DNA with this donor was going to make a beautiful, intelligent and ambitious person suitable to carry on his role as CEO of Moody Games and Moody Investment Company.

His second task was to find a surrogate whom he could trust to deliver the baby and walk away. He understood that carrying a child just to give him or her to someone else would be very difficult and that many women would not be able to do it. But when he found Janie Poole, he knew she was perfect for the job. She was a Russian woman in her early twenties. She came to America when she was sixteen to attend high school through a foreign exchange program. She applied for citizenship at age eighteen and was now eager to get the rest of her family to America.

Dallas knew her dedication to her Russian family and her need for money was great motivation for her to follow through with placing the child with him. He also felt good about using his influence to get her family to America quickly, easily and legally. It was a strong partnership that he was certain would work.

Dallas arranged for Janie to go to a clinic in Minneapolis for the insemination. He carefully and methodically made all the plans so it would go smoothly. On the morning of Janie’s scheduled insemination, Dallas went for his morning run and thought of how his life was going to change.

His phone vibrated in his pocket. He stopped running and answered.

“Janie?” Dallas said into the phone.

“Yes, it is Janie. There has been a mix-up, Mr. Moody.”

“What do you mean? What happened?”

“I gave the receptionist the paper you gave me with the two numbers of the egg donor and the sperm. She said she had the eggs, but apparently your sperm was accidentally used already three months ago.”

Dallas was stunned. He spoke slowly, clearly and loudly. “Excuse me, did you say my sperm was accidentally used already?”