Yep, I know what you’re thinking.
But Daphne, he told you to name your price for your silence.Tell him the price for your silence is lifetime funding for Beeslieve.
Here’s the thing about the uber-rich of the world: They don’t get uber-rich by not stepping on the little guy, and they don’t stay uber-rich by keeping their promises to the little guy.
That’s me now.
I’m the little guy.
If I tell Oliver what I want is for him to fund operations for Beeslieve for the next ten years so that we can continue doing the work of saving animal habitats instead of shifting to channel three-quarters of our efforts into fundraising to spend a quarter of the time making a difference, he’ll promise me he’ll do it, and the minute he drops me off and disappears to wherever he’s going, he’ll turn into a cartoon villain, rub his hands together,laugh while lightning flashes, and then withdraw support to show me who’s in charge.
Who has the power.
Who has the control.
Not because I’m continuing to annoy him now, but because I annoyed him in the first place by simply wanting five minutes of his time at the exact wrong moment in his life.
And make no mistake—yes, Oliver implemented all kinds of great initiatives and policies when he was in charge of Miles2Go. But every last change, every last donation, every last operation, gave Miles2Go great publicity in a time when the company was in crisis because of what his father did as CEO.
If there was real altruism in any of his actions, that goodwill was a side effect, not the underlying intention.
I grew up in his world. I know too many people in that world to believe anything differently.
I study his profile. “Must be nice having your old man out of the slammer.”
His entire face pinches.
Not merely his lips or his eyes, but his lips and his eyes and his nose and his chin and his forehead and his cheeks and his ears.
Huh.
Wonder if that’s about anyone referencing his old man being in the slammer, or if he’s not happy that his father’s out.
Oh, shit.
Are they forcing Oliver out? Are they firing him?
Is that why he’s here? Is he running away because he’s having his teenage rebellion fifteen years late after being given a toy that they’re now telling him he can’t have anymore?
My stomach drops.
Was he never going to continue being CEO once his dad was released?
I need more information. “Your mom seemed happy last night.”
Another grunt.
“Margot always gushed about how much she loved your parents and how lucky she was to be getting good in-laws.”
This time, the grunt upgrades to a grimace.
Also, I’m lying. Margot would always roll her eyes a little and say Oliver’s parents were a little annoying.
The whole reason his dad ended up in prison, after all, was because he used company funds to buy a ridiculous number of bottles of rare wines for his personal collection and bought into a fake business for locating more rare wines in an attempt to impress my father and his ridiculous cellar.
It turned out the vintage wines Oliver’s father bought—and the company he bought into—were phonies.
He used Miles2Go funds to buy the world’s largest collection ofnothing.
