Page 44 of Interview with the Billionaire

Bridge: It matters if you use those connections to overpower others. To push them out and put your own people in.

[He cocks his head. He has that dangerous look I’ve seen before.]

Damien: I don’t know what you’ve heard, but that’s not me.

Bridge: No? Didn’t you create Stark Security to solve your problem?

Damien: By the time Stark Security was created, we had Anne back. That organization was formed to hopefully prevent others from going through what Nikki and I did.

[His knuckles are white; he must be close to crushing the bones in Nikkis’ hand. Gently, she releases his fingers. He grimaces. She stands.]

Nikki: Magdalena, it’s time for you to leave. No need to file your article. Evelyn’s going to pursue different avenues for publicity.

Bridge: So that’s it.

Nikki: Yes. That’s it.

Bridge: Fine.

[I walk away, but I turn back at the door. Damien is standing now, and he’s pulling Nikki into his arms.]

Interview End

Damien’s Journal

Truth Does Nothing

Jeremiah was gone for two entire days, and it was heaven.

I’m not supposed to call him that. Makes me call him dad. But he’s not my dad. Biologically, sure. No escaping that. But if he’s my dad then I’m a — I don’t know. Anything other than me. Because I can’t be me and have come from that man.

I told him what Coach does. With me. With Sofia. What he makes us do.

I told him, and he pretended not to understand. He said we need Coach, and that means we do what he says.

That I do what he says.

I hate it, but I’d do whatever that Coach Asshole says if he’d just keep Sofia out of it. I don’t know how to describe it, but she’s breakable. And Coach doesn’t care. Her own damn father, and he doesn’t care.

I want to tell Alaine—but how do you tell your friend something like that. Especially since it’s a secret. It must be because I’m ashamed, and so is Sofia. And if the truth comes out, I might not be able to play tennis anymore. And if I can’t play, they’ll just send me back to California with him.

Honestly, I’m not sure which is worse. What Coach does or the thought of living with my dad.

I can’t believe I even wrote that, but I’m not going to scratch it out because it’s true.

I know what my dad and Richter are.

But what does thinking like that make me?

Mom, if you’re there, I miss you.

I wonder what my life would be like if you’d lived.

And most of all I wonder what it would be like if I just had the balls to say no.

I need to make this happen. Stark Security. I need it to be more than just another entity under the Stark umbrella. I need it to be formidable. Hell, I need it to be dangerous. I need it to be the line in the sand between the kind of world that should exist, and a world filled with monsters disguised as humans.

- Indulge Me