All The Wrong Places episode 29

🌼ALL THE WRONG PLACES🌼
🌻EPISODE_TWENTY_NINE🌻

Jared was sleeping when Jin and Julianne left the Adams
Mansion. Julianne sent a text message to Adrienne,
apologizing for everything and then asked her to take care
of Jared for another day.
They drove the first ten minutes in complete silence.

She had a lot of questions she wanted to ask him. But she
didn’t know how or where to begin.
She felt him reach out for her hand and gave it a
gentle squeeze.
“Are you sure you’re alright, love?” he asked.
“No. I’m not sure,” she replied. Then she sighed and
asked, “You knew?”
He glanced at her and gave her a gentle smile.

“About Jared? Of course, I knew,” he replied. “I had
been waiting a long time for you to tell me yourself. But
today, I couldn’t hold it back anymore.”
“How long have you known?”
“That same night I met you again in Paris, at my
mother’s party,” he replied. “The minute Adrienne
introduced us and I saw your face again, my first thought
was, ‘Thank God, I finally found her!’ and my second
thought was… ‘Oh God, I have a son!’”
“But… how?”
He narrowed his eyes at her. “Have you taken a good
look at our son, ma belle? Even my mother had goosebumps
the first moment she saw him. He looks exactly like me.
Mom said I looked like that when I was his age. Even the
position of our dimples are identical. He has my eyes and I
always thought my eye color was quite rare.”

“You never asked about him. I thought… you didn’t
know, didn’t care.”
“Why do I need to ask you a question I already know
the answer to?” he asked her back. “You were a V-rgin that
night we went to bed together. I didn’t use protection. I
never asked if you were on the pill. I didn’t care. I was so in
love with you, I didn’t care if you got pregnant. I was gonna
ask you to marry me anyway.”
“And what if I slept with somebody else after you? You
knew of my engagement to Patrick McAllister.”
“Jared is too beautiful to be sired by that sc-mbag
McAllister,” he smirked. “I knew Jared’s birthday. Adrienne
once mentioned he was premature. I did the math. And I’m
very good with math and probabilities.” He squeezed her
hand. “Jared is mine, Arabella. I know it. Not just because he
looks exactly like me, acts like me. Not because he paints
like a prodigy—a talent he inherited from me. I know it in my
heart. I feel it. I feel that bond that only a father and a son
could share.”
Julianne wiped the tears that rolled down her cheeks
with her fingers.
“I was waiting for you to tell me,” he said.
“I was scared.”
“Scared of what?”
“I was scared that you might reject him. Or if you
accept him, I was scared that you will take him away from
me.”

“God, Arabella! Whatever gave you that impression?”
“You’re Jin Starck. Before I even met you as you, I was
almost scared of the stories I heard about you. I thought you
wouldn’t have a heart.”
“I have a heart,” he grunted. “You took it away with
you when you left. And even if I didn’t, I would never take
my son away from his mother. Haven’t you heard? I was a
Mama’s boy when I was growing up. And I was raised by a
queen. Why would I deprive my son the same privilege?”
A load seemed to have lifted in,side her. She felt
relieved to know that he wasn’t planning on separating her son from her. She’s not going to lose Jared.

“Jin…”
“Yes, ma belle?”
“You don’t have to buy my father’s factory,” she said.
“It’s losing out. The market is shifting and it’s difficult to get
new clients from the wine and alcohol industry. Sustainable
packaging alternatives are being developed and are
replacing the glass bottles because they are lighter, cheaper
and more resistant to breakages. As somebody who works
on Corporate Strategy, I strongly advise you not to go
through with this. It’s a bad decision to acquire Sanders
Glass Factory. Even worse to pay twenty-five million for it.”
He looked at her for a moment like she lost her mind
and then to her surprise, he laughed.
“Did I say something funny?” she asked raising a brow
at him.
He reached out for her hand and intertwined their
fingers as he pulled it towards his l-ips and gave it a k-ss.

“You are a fascinating creature, Arabella. My days will
be filled with arguments, adventure and a lot of laughter.
I’m going to stay younger every day with you and Jared in
my life.”
“I don’t see that connection with you making a very
unwise acquisition of Sanders Glass Factory.”
He gave her hand a squeeze. “I’m not going to pay
your father for the Sanders Glass Factory. I’m paying him to
leave you and Jared alone.”
“That’s not necessary.”
“For me, it is,” he said soberly. “He cannot keep
coming back to your life to remind you of breaking your
engagement with McAllister. He cannot think about you and
keep blaming you for the bad decisions he made in his life.
I’m sorry, but you have to know. Your family business is
going down, ma belle. If Gian doesn’t pull the right strings,
Sanders Limited will soon find itself at the throes of bankruptcy. And I do not want your father to keep blaming
that on you!”
“How sure are you that he’s going bankrupt?”
“I told you. I’m good with numbers. I have been
studying your family’s profile for a couple of weeks now.”
“Why?”
“Because you wouldn’t tell me anything, ma belle,” he
replied. “Every time I opened up about your family, you
steered away from the subject. And something about you
being tight on cash, living in Adams Mansion and working
for Justin instead of your family didn’t add up to me. Apart
from that, I’ve been visiting that house frequently for the
last couple of months. I never once saw your father with
Jared. And during one of my phone conversations with our
son, I found out that he hasn’t even met them. Something
wasn’t right.”
“So, you had my father checked out?”
He nodded. “And today, I confirmed my suspicions.”
“Still… you didn’t have to pay all that money to him.”
“I want to,” he insisted. “I was the reason why all this
happened to you.”
Julianne closed her eyes and looked out the window. In
a way, it was true. He was a big part of why she lost her
family, her social status and her inheritance. She fell in love
with him… she chose him in spite of knowing she was no
longer free to choose. And now that she has Jared, she
would gladly make that same choice over and over again.

The only thing she would be sorry for, was that
because she left Jin years ago, she wouldn’t be able to give
Jared a complete family. She was reminded of her
conversation with Vanessa. The latter told her that her
engagement with Jin would be enforced. If Jin doesn’t go
through with it, the consequences would be dire, and the
price he would pay would be very high.
Jin parked in front of her house and the house next
door.

“Jin, this is not my parking space,” she said.
He ignored her, getting out of the car and opening the
car door for her. He took her hand in his and led her up the
stairs to her house. He took a key from his pocket and
unlocked the door.
“Where did you get a key?”
“You handed me all the keys to the house the last
time I was here, remember. I took a spare to open the door
for you. I forgot to return it.”
She remembered that day she gave him a bunch of
keys that Janis gave her.
Before he opened the door for her, he looked at her
wearily.

“What?”
“Just remember… I will always have the best
intentions for you… and our son. Surely, you cannot blame
me for wanting to ensure you live comfortably. You both
deserve the best, nothing less.”
She looked at him in confusion. “What are you talking
about?”
He took a deep breath and opened the door for her.
She stepped in,side and took her coat off. She was
wondering what Jin meant by what he said.

When she turned around, she noticed that something
was very different with her house. She had an open kitchen,
which was one of the very first things she sees when she
enters the door. Now, her kitchen is gone. And her living
room looked hyperextended. It was huge. There was a new
cream colored U-shaped sofa in the middle of the room, in
front of the fireplace, which also looked bigger than the last
time she saw it. There was a piano and a huge shelf on the
place where her staircase to the bedroom used to be.

She walked further into the house and she gasped
when she turned to the right and found that the house had
been three times bigger than it was before. She realized that this was the house next door. Janis was working on
merging the two houses together.
There was a big dining table made of white wood, with
matching white chairs with gold trimmings. There was a
glass door framed by white wood on the left side. She
opened it and saw a huge kitchen with a marble countertop,
built-in cooker, range and side by side fridge.

She turned to Jin. “What did you do?”
He walked over to her slowly, measuring her reaction.
“I know how much you love this place. So, I bought
the house and the house next door. Then… I commissioned
people to work twenty-four seven to merge the two units
into one.”
“How many bedrooms is this now?”
“Six.”
“What would I do with a six-bedroom house?”

He shrugged. “Anything you want.”
“Jin, I cannot afford this.”
“I’m not asking you for anything. The wh0le estate is
yours. Gatwick had all the papers drawn up, waiting for your
signature.”
Tears rolled down her cheeks. She was confronted with
all sorts of her emotions in,side. She shook her head. “I
can’t… I can’t accept this!” She turned away from him.
“Give me a week. I’m moving out…”
Immediately, he was behind her, pulling her into a
hug.

“God, Arabella! Why? Why won’t you accept anything
from me?” his voice was low, guttural. He sounded like he
was crying.
She shook her head. “You don’t owe me anything. I
don’t deserve it!”
“Yes, you do!” he spun her around. She saw
frustration written all over his face. “You deserve the world
and I want to give it to you! But you keep pushing me away.
Every single time, Arabella. Why?”
She bit her lip. She wanted to answer but she couldn’t
find her voice.

“Why did you let me think that you cheated on
McAllister with me? Why did you let me think I was just a
game to you? That you were even capable of cheating?” he
asked. The tone of his voice was desperate. “You were
engaged to McAllister by an arranged marriage! You were
never even in a relationsh¡p with him. There were plenty of
chances for you to tell me that, but you didn’t. You allowed
me to think that this was all just a game to you. Why didn’t
you tell me that your father disinherited you? That you’re no
longer the sheltered, privileged heiress you once were?”
“Would you have pursued me if you found out I was
poor and had nothing on my name?”
“It wouldn’t even matter to me, Arabella! I didn’t know
you were an heiress when I met you. But while I was
planning on proposing to you, you were planning on
escaping me! You ran. And you didn’t give me a chance to
help you… to save you. And I would have saved you,
Arabella. Years ago. I would have saved you from your
father and from McAllister.”
She shook her head. “I didn’t know that. I was scared
that if I stayed with you, they would make sure you suffer
for it. And I couldn’t do that to you!”
She saw the tears in his eyes. He took a deep, labored
breath. “And yet, you allowed me to think over and over that
you chose another man over me.”
“I chose you,” she breathed.
He pulled her into his arms. “I know that now. You
chose to protect me. And you suffered a lot in return. Now, I
regret the days I spent being mad at you for leaving me. I
realized that I should have looked h-rder for you! Those
times I was nursing my broken heart, were the times you
needed me the most! I wish I could have been there when
you were pregnant with Jared. I wish I could have helped
you when your father kicked you out.
“You were alone, scared and pregnant. God, Arabella! I
should have known. You should have looked for me. If you
mentioned the name I gave you to Justin, Adrienne, maybe
even Mason or Gian, they would have known it was me. Jas
Mathieu wasn’t a made-up name I gave you to protect my
real identity. It’s my alias, my pseudonym. And almost
everyone in our families knew that. If you told any of them,
they would tell me. And I would have come for you!”
“I didn’t want them to know your name,” she sobbed.

“Because they would hunt you down and beat the hell out of
you. I didn’t want you to get hurt.”
“And yet you made me believe you didn’t choose me
—over and over. Please, Arabella. Stop rejecting me. Let me
right all the wrongs that happened to us in the past. Allow
me to make up for the times you needed me and I wasn’t
there for you.”
She shook her head. “And then what? We still don’t
have a future together, Jin. And I deserve better than that.”
He pulled away from her. She could see anger flaring
in his eyes. “We have a future together. You just don’t want
it!”
She shook her head. “I’m not going to be your
mistress!”
He blinked back at her. When before he looked angry,
now he looked confused. “Wait… what?”
“I can’t be your mistress,” she repeated.
“And who told you you were going to be?”
“Vanessa,” she replied. “She came here last week.
She talked to me. She told me that you’ve enforced your
engagement. She said you were going to announce it soon.”
His eyes w¡dened. He looked like he had no idea what
she was talking about.

“She even spoke about the heirloom engagement
ring, which you got from your grandmother,” Julianne said.
“And you said to me last week that you wanted to talk to me
about us, our arrangement. The next day, Vanessa came to tell me that she accepts our future arrangement. She would
be your wife, and I would be the mistress. She said she
didn’t mind as long as she’s the legitimate wife. But I should
think about my future with you.” Julianne shook her head. “I
did think about it. And I decided I can’t be your mistress, Jin.
I’d rather be the wife of a poor man, than a mistress of the
king of the world.”
“Is that why you haven’t been answering my calls for
days?”
She bit her lip but didn’t answer.
“Damn it!” he cursed and snatched her into his arms.

His l-ips descended towards her and he took her l-ips in a
ravishing—punishing k-ss. Julianne put her hands on his
chest and pushed him away.
“Jin, I can’t…”
He gave her a rueful smile and pulled her back into his
arms. She pushed him again.
“Jin, I’m serious.”
“So am I,” he said. “Have I ever given you any
indication that I was going to make you my mistress?”
“Jin, if you do not honor your engagement, you will be
taken out of Round Ten.”
“So?” he asked. He really looked like it doesn’t bother
him. “Then I start my own Round. I’ll call it Round Eleven or
Twelve. Pick a number.”

“Jin!”
He laughed. “I was never engaged to Vanessa. Her
father proposed an alliance through marriage. I agreed and I
gave my word that that agreement would be finalized
through an engagement. During that supposed proposal
party, you came back into my life.” He shook his head. “The
minute I saw you again, I changed my mind. I couldn’t
propose to her.”

“Why?”
“Because seven years ago, I already made up my
mind about what kind of life I was going to have. I decided on having the kind of marriage that my father has with my
mother. The same kind that Justin has with Adrienne. I
wasn’t settling for anything less. When you left me, I lost
hope that I would still have that blissful married life. So, I
made bad decisions without taking my heart into
consideration.

“Then… all that changed that night. When you
appeared in that party, I was reminded of the kind of
marriage I wanted to have. And I saw a chance for me to
have that again. From that moment on, I had no intention of
marrying Vanessa Bernard anymore. I can’t. I won’t. I’m not
gonna settle for anyone less than the woman I’ve chained
my heart to seven years ago.”
Tears rolled down Julianne’s cheeks as she listened to
him. If he wasn’t holding her, she was positive she would
have fallen to the floor already.
“Jin… I can’t give you the business advantage that she
could. I have nothing to offer you at all.”
He smiled. “I’m smart, and I already have more
money than I could care to count. I don’t need any more
business advantages than what I already have.”
“But her family will retaliate. You will lose a lot of
money.”
He leaned forward and k-ssed her l-ips gently. “And in
return I get you and Jared—I get the world.”
“Are you sure I’m worth it?”
He wiped the tears rolling down her cheeks. “You’re
worth the wh0le universe, and I don’t think I deserve even a
single star on it.”
He leaned forward and k-ssed her l-ips thoroughly. After
the k-ss, he leaned his head against hers and s-cked in a
deep breath.
“Are you… sure?” she asked between tears.

He chuckled and k-ssed her forehead. “I’m pretty
damn sure, ma belle.”
Suddenly, his phone beeped. He pulled away from her
to check it. He smiled as he read the message on the
screen. Then he put his phone back in his pocket and turned
back to her. “I told you last time that I have something to
tell you but I didn’t want to tell you on the phone.”
“Yeah, I thought you were going to tell me that you
were going to marry Vanessa but you still wanted to keep
me as your mistress.”
He shook his head. “Quite far from your theory, love.”
“What is it then?”
“I’m not sure what your reaction was going to be, but
I’ll try anyway,” he said.
He took her hand and pulled her towards the backdoor
to her garden. She realized that it was already sunset and
the skies were slowly getting dark. But what took her breath
away was the wh0le backyard itself.
It still had the vertical garden that they made
together. But the rest of it was totally different. Her
backyard was at least five times bigger than it used to be. It
was combined with the backyard of the house next door,
plus, Jin also purchased the vacant lot behind them.
It was covered in grass and landscaped beautifully.
There was a pool covered in floating candles and a beautiful
gazebo with a dining table and chairs. The table was set for
two and there were lighted candles and roses in the middle.
Near the pool, was a trampoline. Julianne had no doubt,
Jared mentioned this to Jin.
There was a landscaped walkway after the gazebo.

“Where does this lead to?” she asked.
“Why don’t you see for yourself?” he asked back.
Julianne slowly walked the pathway and what she saw
almost made her fall to her feet. She gasped and suddenly,
tears started rolling down her cheeks once again.
“Oh my God, Jin…” was all she could say.