Chapter 27: Ferrari III
After all the commotion, Phil finally drove the Ferrari. He was incredibly careful, almost too cautious, but still managed to enjoy it.
"Best day ever, J-Money!" he gave me a high five.
"Glad you like it, P-Money," I smacked his hand back.
I dropped him off at his house, and this time it was Haley's turn.
"Why did you let Dad drive, but not me?" Haley lightly pouted.
"You're on a Learner's Permit, Haley," I began. "Besides, you don't exactly scream 'safe driver.'" I mocked, making her gasp.
"Burn!" Luke looked at her.
"Shut up, Luke," she retorted, moving to sit in the passenger seat.
Claire looked at me and started lecturing about all the precautions I should take and how careful I had to be.
"Don't worry, Aunt Claire, I'll use protection," I said.
"What??" Her eyes widened.
"I mean, safe driving," I quickly corrected, closing the door and reversing out.
"What did you say to Mom to make her so angry?" Haley asked, laughing. "Even after all those presents you gave her."
"Nothing," I played innocent. "Let's go to Cam and Mitchell's, I still have to give them their gift."
"What did you buy for them?" Haley asked curiously.
"A Montblanc watch for Mitchell and a Roland piano for Cam," I replied.
"Wow, nice ones," Haley said, probably only recognizing the watch. "And what about giving me more presents?" she teased, trying to catch what I had whispered to her.
"Huh, is to keep it at least equal to Alex's (in value), and a little extra to pay for your services. I want your help to buy clothes, I need new ones - and you can get some for yourself too," I proposed.
Haley jumped with excitement. "Oh my God, we're going shopping - with guaranteed purchases!"
After stopping by Mitchell's house - and after Cam made a whole scene over the gifts and the car - Haley and I headed to the mall.
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That night, I returned to Jay's house.
"Wow, it's always so exhausting shopping with a teenage girl," I muttered, though I had to admit Haley had a really good sense of style and picked out great clothes.
"How do I look?" Manny asked.
"Pretty good. Seems like you like my present, Manny," I replied, noticing he was wearing the Ralph Lauren Kids blazer I had bought for him.
"Liked it? He's been wearing it all day," Jay approached with a drink in his hand.
"Thank you, Jake," Manny finally said and hugged me.
"You're welcome, buddy," I patted his back.
"Did you eat enough? There's still some of the meat Gloria made," Jay gestured toward the kitchen.
"Nah, I ate plenty at the mall," I replied and went upstairs to rest a bit.
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After a while, I went downstairs and saw that Manny and Gloria weren't in the living room - only Jay was sitting in the armchair.
"Hey, Uncle Jay, still awake?" I approached him.
"I was rewatching a western movie. Gloria got bored and already went to bed," he replied.
I nodded and looked at him seriously, "Can we talk in you office? There is something I want to tell you"
He looked at me attentively for a moment and nodded.
We climbed the stairs and entered his office, each of us taking a seat in an armchair facing the other.
"So, what do you want to talk about?" He poured some whiskey into a glass.
"I know you're disappointed with me because of all the money I've spent," I began, getting straight to the point.
He snorted. "Jake, I see you pick things up very quickly. You're way smarter than you let on."
"Brenda once told me you were much smarter than her - and she's a Yale girl. And aside from a few teenage impulses, I've always seen you as much more mature than most kids of your age.
You didn't throw a single tantrum here, nor have any outbursts. At first, I thought it was because you were afraid I might kick you out, but then I realized it's just your nature.
Either you accept things, or somehow you manage to make them go your way," Jay said.
"Now I'm trying to understand why someone like you would spend forty percent of all your money on gifts and a car," he looked at me firmly.
"I didn't," I revealed, handing him an envelope.
"What's this?" He unfolded a sheet of paper.
"My LLC. You can see my name at the top and its balance at the bottom," I explained.
"One hundred twenty-four million dollars?!" Jay almost popped his eyes. "Where the hell did you get that much money?"
I handed him more papers, including a small framed display with the Delaware lottery numbers - the winning ticket I had kept.
Then I started listing them: "My mom's birthday, our house number, part of her phone number, my age..." I gave meaning to each Powerball number - it's easier to believe when it sounds like it makes sense, even if it doesn't.
"Irony of fate, I won the Powerball that day, Jay. A two-hundred-fifty-four-million-dollar prize, which turned into this after taxes and the lump-sum payout," I finally said.
"I was already a future millionaire from the moment I agreed to live with you," I said, looking at him.
"The emancipation…" he murmured.
"Part of the plan. After realizing I had won, I waited until the emancipation to claim the prize - exactly so that no one, except the proper authorities, would know about it. I even opened an LLC for the money to go into. The funds came in three weeks ago," I revealed one by one.
"I only spent what was necessary, without drawing attention. Now, with the Ferrari and all the gifts, everyone thinks I'm being irresponsible, that I blew most of the insurance money. You're the only one who knows I actually have more than enough to afford a Ferrari."
"It's only been two and a half months, but I trust you completely with this kind of information. In these months, I've seen the kind of man you are."
I noticed Jay looked a bit emotional.
"I trust Gloria too, but she can be a bit of a loudmouth."
We both laughed.
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