I really shouldn’t have said it. Never, ever have I been so careless with my cover. Usually, I become the person I impersonate, and everything about me disappears. But something about Lilian makes it impossible for me not to be me, and that fact should not only scare the hell out of me, but make me stay as far away as possible from her.
“No,” Lilian says. “It’s risk management.”
You really are a cold-blooded control freak,I tell her in my mind, something I rather enjoy in women. I like rationality, predictability, coldness, distance, and the arrogance that comes with it—and also the moment when I make them bend for me.
“Send the stuff,” I say, “I’ll let you know.”
6
LILIAN
PLAYLIST: SOMETHING JUST LIKE THIS – ANTHONY KEYROUZ, ROMY WAVE
Agrin appears on my face as she hangs up. I am very aware of my ability to get what I desire, and I can’t help but soak in the victory. Of all the things that are happening right now, I needed it. The proof of what I can do. It pushes me, exhilarates me. And it also distracts me from the fact that Mae has moved on.
My fingers search the blank contract I have as a standard. NDA. Rules of Engagement. Compliance. Secretly, I wonder if she’ll do it. From what I found about her, she seems to be a romantic through and through, but after meeting her and the call right now, it dawns on me that there is more to her than she lets on publicly. She is witty, a quick thinker who cuts through superficial bullshit, which makes her even more intriguing to me.
I don’t do romance. I never felt any inclination to have romance in my life. I can fake it to get what I want, but otherwise, I don’t give it a thought. And for most women, it is not enough—exactly the reason why it didn’t work out with Mae.
Romance is for the weak, the love-sick fools. People will do anything for love and romance, and I monetized that knowledge in my first business, becoming a billionaire in the process. Building the dating platform has taught me many things about human psychology, and since we’re building Zeus, I learn every day how careless people are with their emotions online—and how easily they can be steered or traced by them.
Just like Ella. The sweet girl, driven by morality, tries not to step on anyone's feet, but doesn’t know what to do with her life. Three things that make her influencable, formable, steerable.
My father once taught me the most important rule of success: to find the right people, you need to identify their drivers and weaknesses. And when you have done so, you exploit both of them.
I followed his advice, unlike my useless brother, who lives a hippie life on some island as a guru, constantly broke, while I became an influential person in society and am by now so obscenely wealthy that he doesn’t speak to me anymore—the best thing that could ever happen.
Thinking back to my father, I dial his number as I click to send the contract to Ella so I can switch into my business mindset.
“Hi Father,” I say when he answers the phone.
“Lilian,” he answers, “Rough patch?”
“Yes, but manageable. You know I am always prepared.”
“Of course, I taught you so.”
“Where are you right now? Are you in the country?” I ask.
My father generally resides in Monaco; “The climate is the best” for him, he tells us. The climate is nothing but a synonym for young flesh that gives him blowjobs.
Urgh.Just thinking of it makes me shudder.
My father is also the reason why I do contracts. His name floods the magazines any other week because he has been seen with yet another girl who’s a minimum of fifteen years younger than me. It is his weakness, and I learned to live with it.
On the other hand, he is one of the most successful businessmen on this planet. After me. Because I was crowned queen by the Time magazine last year, not him. Something that didn’t sit well with his ego and led to several headlines about him being seen with girls who were speculated to be younger than eighteen.
Something we all tried to reason with him, but our attempts got us shut down.
He is an extraordinary consultant for founders and has helped me get where I am today, which is also why I’m calling.
“Do you need me to be there?” he asks.
“Not necessarily. I was wondering if you have any advice on how to handle the pending approval. The FBI officially classifiedJared's death as an overdose, so we should be able to proceed now, shouldn’t we?”
“Depends. I’d bring in a high-profile interim CFO, someone like Ian Wincester or Les Lamont. I can put you in touch. Make an offer that’s above a million and offer shares, above five.”
“That’s a bit much, don’t you think?”
