Love’n’Lust

When Ben was still a young boy, he remembered he used to live with his biological mother. They were poor and she had to sell her body for money. He was so young but he could remember everything, he was a smart child and could put pieces together as they happened.

His biological mother; Ann was a stripper before she ever got pregnant for his father, Benard Larkson. It was while she worked as a stripper that she met Ben’s father. He liked her pole dance the first time he saw her performing and wanted her to give him a private striptease, that was how Ann got to meet him in person.

Repeatedly dancing for this billionaire in little or no clothing at the private locations he picked, he paid her handsomely. After one of her performance for him, he asked her not to leave but rather stay the night with him and she agreed, she had nothing to lose, Benard Larkson was a handsome billionaire, she didn’t mind spending a night with him so she agreed.

From one night filled with pleasure, it turned to many. Benard Larkson, Ben’s father, kept wanting more of her and she gave herself to him, willingly. He liked her cooperation to fulfil his every sexual desire and blessed her with money whenever she requested it. At that point, she was more than a stripper to him, she had become his mistress but to her it was more than that, she had fallen in love with this man.

Their relationship continued till she got pregnant. Ann got pregnant for Benard Larkson, she didn’t want to tell him at first and avoided meeting with him but he showed up one day to the strip club where she worked. She had no choice than to tell him about the pregnancy.Belonging © NôvelDram/a.Org.

She knew he was married and was scared of his reaction but to her surprise he wanted her to keep the baby. He was going to take care of her and the baby; he said.

Ann decided to do like he asked, believing him and putting all her trust in the man she had come to love. She carried the child for nine months and gave birth to a healthy child for Benard Larkson. A month after her son was born, she couldn’t contact Benard Larkson. He had stopped coming to see her and the baby, he forgot about her and the child he promised to take care of.

He even stopped paying for the apartment she lived in, she had gotten so used to depending on him and didn’t have any other source of income than the money she had saved.

She went back to being poor, poorer than she was before she met Benard Larkson. Training her infant till he was able to walk, she decided to return to what she knew how to do best; she went back to stripping.

It didn’t bring her enough means to take care of herself and the child so she started to sleep with some of the men she stripped for.

She prostituted for five years, doing her best to make ends meet, she raised her son with what she could afford. She often had to bring him with her to where she worked because she couldn’t pay for someone to babysit, she rarely had enough to take care of his schooling.

When Ben turned six, his father Benard Larkson returned into their lives. He wanted the six year old Ben, he wanted to adopt him. Ann initially planned to fight against it, she had raised her son all alone and now Benard Larkson wanted to take it from her.

She didn’t want to leave her son but after long thoughts and consideration, she realized she didn’t stand a chance against her son’s father, she didn’t have a chance against Benard Larkson. Aside that, she also considered her son’s future, she knew he had a better chance at life with his father’s influence than with her and so she agreed.

Benard Larkson took her son away from her. She was given a contract by Benard Larkson’s lawyers, she had to sign and agree not to ever contact her son, she had to agree that from that day onwards, she no longer had a child, she had to forget that Ben existed.

Years past and she often watched his interviews on television shows or news, she wanted to tell people that the man on the screen was her son but she couldn’t, they would either assume she was crazy or not believe her.

She thought she would never see him again, she thought he must have forgotten about her now that he was a grown man but he didn’t.

He came back to where he had spent his early childhood to look for her when he turned eighteen.

As Ben sat at the dining table, he remembered everything his father had done; cheating on his adopted mother, neglecting the promise he made to his biological mother, making his childhood miserable.

He couldn’t forgive his father, for the damages caused and the ones yet to occur when his adopted mother ever got to find out that he(Ben) was actually his biological son from another woman and not really from an orphanage.

It was this reason he treated her with care, he knew she didn’t deserve what her husband did to her and that none of the things that had happened was her fault. He had always loved her since he was younger, she had been kind since the first day his father brought him back to the Larkson mansion and treated him like she would, her biological child.

His adopted mother had repeatedly reached out to Jenna to ask her for help in resolving his resentment towards his father after seeing how close he was to her.