*THE HOLLEN SERIES 02*
????????????EPISODE 49????????????
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*?? PERSONAL as-sISTANT??*
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Zenia’s POV
I rode in the back of the ambulance and
listened to my sister gr0@nfrom the
excruciating pain. All I was thinking about was
the baby inside of her and how much it would
devastate her if something terrible was to
happen.
Jasmine had adapted to the pregnancy and the
motherhood she was about to face. Two days
ago, she had called me and told me she was
extremely grateful to have me as a sister and
everything was going smoothly with her
pregnancy, and how much she could picture
me being a bad as-s aunt to her child. I smiled
at that thought.
The ambulance c@m£ to a halt and the doors
flung open.
Jasmine was carried throu-gh an emergency
entrance and I tailed quic-kly right behind her. I
was st©pped by other doctors and medical
staff when I followed them into a room.
“You’ll have to wait out here, ma’am. No one is
allowed in this room.”
I was pushed outside the room before the
doors locked in my face.
I paced the floor back and forth until my
frantic mother c@m£ running up to me.
“Zen! Zen! What happened? How is she?” she
asked, frightened.
“Someone broke into the ap@rtment. I don’t
know her situation yet,” I answered as the
tears rolled down my face.
Mom pu-ll-ed me in for a hvg. “I’m so glad you
called me. I should’ve come home earlier. I
should’ve been there.”
I returned her embr@ce.
“Have you called Hollen Boy?”
“I did, but I wasn’t getting throu-gh to him, so I
left messages. He must be asleep,” I
answered.
I looked down at the phone in my hands. 2:54
a.m.
I held my forehead from the headache coming
on. I was worried about my sister and the
baby. I wouldn’t like it if something bad
happens to them. I let out a loud scream in
frustration and Mom f0rç£d me sit down in a
chair.
“Breathe, Zen. Breathe,” she said to calm me
down.
In another minute, two police officers c@m£ up
to us.
“I’m Detective St. Clair, and this is my p@rtner
Detective Charles.” They both flashed their
badges which they seemed to be proud of.
“We’d like to ask you a few questions about
what happened at the ap@rtment with your
sister.”
I nodded my head in approval.
“We’d like you to recall every detail you can
remember,” Detective Charles said.
I exhaled heavily.
“It’s okay. Go on and tell them.” Mom gestured
as she ru-bbe-d my back to comfort me.
“Jasmine was dropped off by her baby’s father
at the ap@rtment. We sat down on the couch
and looked at television while we ate popcorn.
At around close to midnight, I began feeling
sleepy, so I told her I was going to be-d. She
remained seated and watched her favorite
show, The Parkers.
“Somewhere throu-gh the night, I heard her
screaming and yelling out my name. I got out
of be-d and put on the room light in the living
room– where I heard her calling from. I saw a
figure standing over her and she was holding
onto her stomach. I gr@bb£d a knife in the
kitchen but the guy ran away.”
“Can you describe the person?” the other
detective asked.
“He was dressed in black and had a hoodie
on, so I couldn’t see his face clearly, but
I followed him outside and saw him get into a
black car.”
“Can you identify the car?”
“A black car. I couldn’t get a look at the
license plate. He drove out too quic-kly.”
“Do you know of anyone who’d want to hurt
your sister?”
I nodded before answering. “br@dley Pittsburg.”
“br@dley Pittsburg?”
“Yes sir.”
“Is that the baby’s father?”
“No. Evan Hollen is the baby’s father.”
“CEO of Hollen Tower?”
“Correct.”
“You said that he dropped off Jasmine at the
ap@rtment. Do you know where they were
before he dropped her off?”
“Jasmine was staying with him for a while.”
“They were living together?”
“Yes. Sort of.”
“So why did he drop her back?”
“I think they had a misun-derstanding.”
I didn’t want to throw Evan out to those two
wolves, but it was the truth. If they didn’t hear
it from me, they’d be hearing it from Jasmine.
Evan c@m£ running down the hall towards us.
“I got your messages. What’s going on here?
Where’s Jasmine?” he asked with a worried
look on his face, and he was p@n-ting.
“Are you Evan Hollen?” Detective St. Clair
asked, turning towards him.
“Yes.”
“Do you by any chance own a black car?”
“Yes,” Evan answered again. He looked
between the two detectives. “Wait wait wait!
What’s going on here? Am I a suspect?”
“Everyone is a suspect,” Detective Charles
answered and stepped closer to Evan. “Can
you tell us why you and Jasmine Blackman
were arguing before you dropped her off?”
Evan flashed me a look and I sunk into the
seat.
“Jasmine and I are no longer in a relationsh!p
but we have a child on the way. We were
discussing co -parenting methods, and
Jasmine thought it was best for her to return
back home. She was staying with me for a
while.”
“Why was she staying with you if the both of
you aren’t together?”
“Because she wanted an ab-ortion and I
wouldn’t let her get one. She only wanted an
ab-ortion because she thought I would want
nothing to do with the baby, so I had to prove
her wrong.”
“This doesn’t make any s-en-se to me,”
Detective St. Clair said.
“What, are you slow?”
“It’s quite strange how you dropped Jasmine
off and, a few hours later, she was attacked by
someone who broke into her ap@rtment. You
had a fight before dropping her off over the
baby. The same baby who’s alre-ady fighting
for his or her life in the ER.”
_____________
Evan’s POV
I raked my f!nger throu-gh my hair as I looked
at the two detectives, unbelievably. I would
never hurt Jasmine, or any woman for that
matter. I had never la-id hands to hurt any
woman in all my life on this earth.
“I know where you two are heading with this,
but I didn’t do anything to Jasmine and my
child. That’s my child! My child!” I yelled to
sink that fact into them.
“He didn’t do it,” Zenia said to defend me.
“You said you didn’t see any face or the
license plate on his car, so how you know it
wasn’t him?”
“And I also told you about br@dley Pittsburg,
but y’all seem to be more interested in Evan
Hollen. br@dley has a history of violence with
him. He’s a disgr-untled ex-b©yfri£ndof
Jasmine’s, and he’s very capable of doing
something like this. He abused her before,
physically and verbally.”
“We’ll look into it,” Stupid detective one
number said.
I felt my blood coming to a boil, and my veins
began to pop.
“Excuse me,” another voice interrupted.
A doctor c@m£ over to us and my heart began
to race.
“Susan Blackman, Zenia Blackman?”
“Yes,” they answered in sync.
“And I’m Evan Hollen, the baby’s father,” I
introduced.
“I’m Doctor Julien. I have some good news
and bad news on Jasmine’s condition.”
______
*THE HOLLEN SERIES 02*
????????????EPISODE 50????????????
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*?? PERSONAL as-sISTANT??*
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Evan’s POV
“The good news: Miss Blackman and the baby
are both okay. We’ve managed to st©p the
bleeding; but, the bad news is, she lost a great
deal of blood. The silver lining is, in time of
pregnancy, a woman’s b©dy produces enough
red blood cells for the growing and developing
fetus, so the b©dy is practically healing itself.
You’re very lucky,” the doctor said.
I exhaled heavily, as if I had been holding in
my breath forever.
Thank you Jesus.
“Is she awake?” I wanted to see her.
“Yes.”
He ushered us to room 207, where Jasmine
was wi-de awake and looking at the television.
“She’s one tough cookie,” the doctor
whispered, “but plea-se don’t make her upset or
say anything to her that would cause her to
become distressed. The baby’s condition is
still very fragile. We’d like her to remain here
for three days for further observation.”
“We un-derstand,” we replied and nodded.
“I’ll let the two of you go in first then I’ll go,” I
said to Zenia and Susan and stepped aside. I
wanted to give them their privacy with her, and
I nee-ded to pray some more.
After fifteen minutes, Susan and Zenia c@m£
over to get me.
“Here,” I said as I placed a key into Susan’s
hand.
“What’s this?”
“It’s a key to one of my penthouse. I wouldn’t
be comfortable if you returned back to the
ap@rtment and the culprit hasn’t been caught
as yet. My penthouse has one of the best
security systems, so I know you two would
definitely be safe there.”
“Thank you. Thank you so much,” Susan said
and pu-ll-ed me into one of the biggest hvgs I’d
ever had in my life.
“You’re welcome.”
I had Fisher come to pick them up and drop
them off at the penthouse while I stayed with
Jasmine.
For the first time since the pregnancy, she had
been talking and laughing with me on a friendly
level. I didn’t know if it was the painkillers or
medication that had that effect on her, but she
was in the best of moods I had ever seen. I
almost missed having her in my life everyday.
___________
Zenia’s POV
Evan’s personal driver pu-ll-ed the car into a
parking lot of a big h0tel.
“He also wanted me to tell you that it’s free of
cost, so you don’t have to worry about
anything. You can stay as long as you’d like.
And, also, it’s only twenty minutes away from
his mansion,” the driver, whom I believed was
called Fisher, said to us, and we followed him
upstairs.
Mom opened the door.
“plea-se place your hand over this monitor,”
Fisher said.
Mom did as she was told.
“Now you,” he said and looked at me.
I placed my hand over the monitor.
A blue light flashed and my palm was scanned
for the security system.
“Good. Enjoy your stay,” he said before leaving.
I looked around in amazement and, for the first
time in my life, “talkative Zenia” was
speechless. This place took my breath and
words away.
Expensive furniture decorated the living and
sitting rooms.
My feet carried me throu-gh doors and more
doors, and I lost it when I saw a swimming
pool.
“Mom! There’s a fv¢king swimming pool in
here!”
“Language Zen!” Mom scolded me as she
looked around too, a big smile on her face
and excitement in her eyes.
I roamed the entire penthouse as if I were a
child on the pla-yground. Everything was so
well kept, new and modern.
I found myself a big be-droom and crashed
down onto the be-d. The comfort and softness
of the sheets, and the mattress un-derneath,
aided me as I fell into a de-ep sleep.
________________
Evan’s POV
“br@dley Pittsburg is currently out of the
country. He’s in Paris, to be exact, and he has
been there since last weekend. He’s with his
fiancee, child, and unborn child,” Detective
Charles said.
It has been two days since Jasmine was
attacked and there still weren’t any leads on
who the attacker was. Jasmine couldn’t identify
the intruder but she knew it was a male/man
and his voice was familiar to her. She just
couldn’t place it to the person immediately.
“Isn’t there any possible way that Pittsburg
could have come back and did this? He does
have his own pri-vate plane. He could’ve easily
flown out here, committed the crime, and went
back to Paris like nothing happened,” I said to
them.
He and his p@rtner, Detective St. Clair, had
come over to my house to inform me that the
main suspect was no longer a suspect, but I
couldn’t be bought that easily.
“His plane never entered U.S. airspace. Believe
me, we’ve tried looking for any possible way.
So the person who actually did the crime is
still out there. In the meantime, I think you
should keep Jasmine safe. We’ll try to find out
more as we continue to investigate.”
“Thank you, detectives,” I said as I walked
them out.
_____________
“Hi baby, how are you?” Aria asked me as she
c@m£ throu-gh the door an hour later.
I was on my way out to see Jasmine at the
hospital.
“I’m going out,” I answered.
“Where?”
“The hospital.”
“You’re going to see her again, Evan? You’ve
been there over one hundred times since she’s
been admitted to the hospital! So, you’re not
going to spend time with me today; you’d
rather go to see her instead?”
“Look, don’t start this all over again, plea-se.
I’m going to see her and be there for my kid.”
“A kid that just might not be yours?!”
My blood bec@m£ h0t. Just leave it to Aria to
spoil my mood and throw that detail back into
my face.
Without another word I took my car keys and
left. I wasn’t in the mood for the argument with
her but I couldn’t shake the thought from my
head.
What if she was right and he wasn’t even my
son? How would I take that?
I got to the hospital and went towards a
smiling Jasmine.
“You’re back so soon?” she asked.
“Yes. I told you I’d be back, and I brou-ght you
this. Your favorite, chicken soup,” I said and
handed her the bowl of steaming soup.
“Thank you,” she said and began eating. “Oh,
Evan, I’ve been thinking that we should start
choosing baby names, although we don’t know
the S-x of the baby. It could still be fun to
choose a boy’s name or a girl’s name. Don’t
you think?”
“Wow. That hadn’t even crossed my mind yet.
I don’t know where to begin,” I said with a
small laugh, and she laughed along with me.
___________
*TO BE CONTINUED*