Page 30 of Date The Billionaire

“I want you. I want you to choose me for the show, I want you to marry me, and sign a prenuptial agreement, and then I want you to give me babies, just to make sure you’re tied to me for the rest of your life.” Her words came out like they should be the most delightful thing I could ever hear, but instead, they made me want to vomit. On her.

I stared at her, wondering if she was greedy or insane. Or both perhaps?

“You know I’m just a computer nerd, right? I design things that you’d never be able to comprehend. I spend hours and days doing it. I’m really not that interesting.” Not to a woman like her that would want to use me as her arm candy and personal bank account. Carol must have told her I was the rich one. “I’m the poor one, you know.”

It was a gamble, to see what she’d give away.

“Oh, come off it, Mallory. You’re one of the richest men in the world. I want in. Or I make sure the show takes it all away.”

“Alright,” I said simply, going to the door and opening it. “Have a nice life.”

“Pardon me?” She stood there blinking like her batteries were malfunctioning and her eyelids were on overdrive.

“I said, get out.” I waved my hand at the floor to show her the way.

“But, you’re not really going to give up billions for that little nobody, are you?”

“I will and am. It means nothing to me now. You people have shown me exactly how much it’s worth. Laney showed me what really matters in this world.”

“So, you don’t really want to help kids in some dustbowl of a country get an education?” Her eyes narrowed at me and I have to admit, that thought did sting a bit.

“I made that money once, I can make it again if I have to.” The thought put the steel back in my backbone.

“Fine. But you haven’t heard the end of this! Believe me, Carol is going to be pissed!”

“Not as pissed as you, I imagine.” I looked at the woman, wondering how she could really be seen as beautiful when everything about her was fake.

She’d taken what had once been a beautiful canvas, and nipped, cut, and stitched herself into a parody of what beauty really was. It screamed insecurity to me, and lack of faith in herself. She had to be perfect, and that meant she had to be perfect for someone else, not herself, and that’s who she should always do her best for. Herself first, then maybe, somebody else.

Watching her go actually made me sad. Laney had felt she needed to deny herself to be perfect, she had to get the best grades, had to excel in her work, and had to prove she was worthy of life because that’s the atmosphere she grew up in. Her parents had always been supportive, from what she said, but she knew what society expected of a girl whose mother was a leading cardiologist; absolute perfection.

Then there was Arabella. She’d had it all given to her on a platter, but it was never enough. She felt as though she was never good enough, judging by her appearance. She had to fit society’s standard of beauty to find a man to support her, but if she’d put half of her energy into educating herself that she put into ‘correcting her faults’, she could have been supporting herself by now.

I would make more money, I decided, just to help young girls get the educations they deserved so they never had to feel like Laney or Arabella had. I know, sympathy for the devil in Arabella’s case, but she was merely a product of her society. She could not be blamed for that. Even if she was a bitch.

“Hey, it’s Jackson. Let me speak to my attorney, please.” Damage control was high on my agenda right now. My attorney was a savvy kind of guy, and he already had a team ready for just this instance.

Publicity was our weapon right now, and my guy was going to tear these producers and the show to smithereens if they so much as peeped out a sound that sounded like sue. I was done playing. I was going to meet my contractual obligation, then this shit was done. No more hiding, no more worries.

I’d spent a lot of time talking with the man while I was stuck in this hotel and we’d formulated our defense against Carol and her cronies. They could try to take my money, but they would not win. They would never see a dime from me. I’d destroy them with their own weapon first. I clicked on the file I’d received earlier that morning, full of images that could destroy every one of those producers, directors, and whatever else might crawl out to try and sue me. It was going to blow right up in their face if they tried.

I called room service again, promising to be awake to answer the door this time, and settled back to wait for my food. This little snit with Arabella had made me hungry and I was going to enjoy every bite of it. I wasn’t playing with any of them anymore. Laney and my grandmother were too important to jeopardize over people that would waste my money on diet pills and hair extensions. Not when I had plans for building schools and raising a family of my own with a children’s advocate by my side.

Chapter Fifteen

Laney

I stared at the picture on my phone screen and wanted to smash the glass into dust.

It was an email from Carol. The subject line was full of hearts and happy smiles, that should have been my first clue that something was wrong. I opened it thinking it might be important.

Now, all I could do was sit with tears pouring down my face and wait for Tony to come back with black cherry ice cream and a big bottle of rum. Yes, I was about to get stupidly drunk for the first time in my life.

“It can’t be real, honey,” Tony said as he came back in the house, bags in hand. He’d bought freshly baked chocolate chip cookies too, I could smell them as I followed him.

“You mean they just made it look like Arabella was wrapped around Jake’s head with the magic of software?” I was being sarcastic but I couldn’t help it. I was breaking apart inside.

“Maybe. Even if it is real, it doesn’t mean anything. That man loves you, Laney. Even I could sense that and Tony’s a hardened kind of guy, you know?” He gave me that ‘and that’s that’ look he’d perfected long before I came along and started taking out bowls. He turned back to look at me as he put the bowls down. “Never mind, we don’t need these bowls. Come on.”