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THE BILLIONAIRE'S AFFAIR 233
There were two bedrooms in the cabin. One had been turned into a makeshift office, with a laptop and printer.Koffitz brought up a document on his laptop and printed out a copy. “The only problem, of course, was that he didn’t get to sign the papers. So it’s worthless in court. BUT… he fully intended to sign it the following day.”I looked through the papers. I didn’t understand some of the legalese, but even to me it seemed clear that Mrs. Templeton and Vincent split every physical asset and bank account, but Connor got control over the company itself.“This makes no sense,” I said. “Mr. Templeton had dinner with us once. That was it. He wasn’t going to sign over everything he’d worked decades for just because of that one dinner. Even if he was trying to mend the relationship, he wouldn’t have done that.”“You’re thinking Augustus wouldn’t have given Connor control because of whatever bad blood existed between them. But the truth was, he immensely respected Connor. Connor was the one
THE BILLIONAIRE'S AFFAIR 234
From the moment the judge denied me bail, two thoughts kept me going: holding Lily in my arms again… and getting revenge on Miranda. Both were excellent ways to keep my mind off the nightmare my life had become.My reference points for prison were Hollywood movies, so I can’t say that I was totally prepared for what came next – but there were a bunch of moments that felt vaguely familiar. First there was the transfer from the jail in Manhattan to Rikers. They put me in an armored van for the trip.Let that sink in for a second.An armored van. Like a Brinks truck, the kind they transport millions of dollars in.Why? In case I’d hired a bunch of mercenaries with rocket launchers to break me out?I think the New York judicial system had seen one too many bad action flicks.There was the check-in, where my belongings were inventoried in front of me and put into storage. Then there was the shower and de-lousing powder. (That was an unpleasant first for me.) Then a new orange jumpsuit, s
THE BILLIONAIRE'S AFFAIR 235
Our car sped away from Sylvan Beach through the tree-lined country roads of upstate New York. Johnny drove, and I sat next to him in the front seat.“So how much of that did you hear?” I asked Eve over the phone.All of it.“Do you think you can find anything on Miranda?”Already on it. By the way, Bert’s about to call.“What?” I asked, and then suddenly the phone rang.I checked the screen: it was Bert.“Weird,” I muttered, and answered the call. “Hey Bert.”“Anything turn up with your field trip?”“Yeah, a lot – but Eve probably doesn’t want me discussing it over the phone.”There was a ping! in my ear, and I held it out to see a text message from Eve:Definitely NOT. Do it in person.“Do you have to listen in on my phone calls, too?” I asked, annoyed.Yes, came the immediate text.“What?” Bert asked.“Nevermind. Just thinking out loud.”“If you can’t tell me the details, then tell me this: good news or bad news?” Bert asked.“Good news, but not the smoking gun we were hoping for. W
THE BILLIONAIRE'S AFFAIR 236
Bert said goodbye to us in the prison parking lot. “Don’t do anything stupid,” he cautioned me. “Give it 48 hours. The system will work.”“Right,” I said sarcastically. “Because it’s worked so well so far.”Bert gave me a scolding look, then nodded at Sebastian and Johnny. “Gentlemen, I’ll be in touch,” he said, then got in his Mercedes and drove off.“What do we do now?” I asked Sebastian and Johnny in despair.“Apparently, we go home and wait,” Sebastian said, sounding almost as hopeless as I felt.As we all got in the car, I heard my cell phone chime. Eve had sent me a new text message:Screw waiting. Want to do something crazy?An hour later, Sebastian, Johnny, and I sat around my phone in the penthouse, staring at the screen.I used your document on Miranda as a starting point. I thought you were exaggerating how secretive she was.“I wasn’t,” Sebastian said.I figured that out pretty quickly. She’s good – I’ll give her that. I searched high and low, and I finally found several
THE BILLIONAIRE'S AFFAIR 237
“I cannot fucking believe I am going to fucking Tanzania,” Sebastian groused.It was almost midnight as we stood on the tarmac at the airport. Two private jets owned by Connor were fueled and on the runway. Johnny stood there with an overnight bag; Sebastian had a decidedly larger one.“There’s no fashion show in Tanzania, Sebastian,” I teased him.“Do not say a thing to me,” he sniffed, then muttered to himself, “I could be going to Venice…”“Be careful, okay guys?”“We’ll be fine,” Johnny said.A head popped out of the open door of the Africa-bound plane: Stan, one of Connor’s four bodyguards. “You ready to go, Sebastian?”“I’ll be right there,” Sebastian called, then turned back to me. “Do NOT do anything stupid while we’re gone, Lily. I mean it. Johnny and I are doing this as part of a deal. Your end of the deal is that you’re going to lay low and be there for Connor and not do anything crazy.”“I know, I know,” I muttered.“Do I have your word?”“I already told you yes!”“I want
THE BILLIONAIRE'S AFFAIR Connor
After the skinheads tried to kill me, things actually got worse.I got tossed in solitary confinement, right after my hospital visit with Lily, Sebastian, Johnny, and Bert. Apparently in prison, even if you try to defend yourself against a murder attempt, you get thrown in solitary.Maybe they would have been more forgiving if I’d let the skinheads kill me.I didn’t complain, though. The longer I spent in SHU – the ‘security housing unit’ – the fewer chances Miranda had to have me shivved in the back. Despite my relative safety, the next two days were not fun. No word from Bert, no word from Lily, just 40-plus hours in an 8x10 concrete cell with a toilet that stank of sewage. The ‘food’ they shoved through the feeding slot three times a day tasted only marginally better than the toilet smelled – but I wouldn’t let them get to me. I shut my mind and ate the food, did hundreds of push-ups and crunches, and plotted like the Count of Monte Cristo for whenever I got out of prison.Miranda
THE BILLIONAIRE'S AFFAIR 239
I sat there in stunned horror.Miranda’s involved in sex trafficking, Connor. She’s shipping slaves across the globe, and she’s using your family’s planes to do it.It made sense now.Why would my father sign away his entire empire to me?Because his daughter-in-law – the one who would be the power behind the throne, the one who would manipulate my mother and brother – was evil beyond reckoning.A multi-millionaire, someone richer than 0.01% of all humanity, was trafficking in human misery, just to make a few dollars more.I wanted to vomit.I wanted to scream.But I couldn’t.I had to stay clear-headed.I had to act.I reached in my pocket for my phone and turned it on.As soon as it booted up, hundreds of texts and voicemails showed up. Friends, maybe? Reporters?Within seconds, a new message appeared:Eve.I hit the button for the text app.Connor – thank God.I started to tap out a response, but Johnny said, “Just talk to her. She can hear you.”I looked at him, startled, then spo
THE BILLIONAIRE'S AFFAIR LILY
I stared at my mother in shock.“Augustus!” she cried out, and reached out to me with her thin arms. “Augustus, where have you been?”I knelt down beside her and took her hands in mine. “Mother, it’s me… it’s Connor.”She was shaking now. Tears were rolling down her cheeks from behind her sunglasses. “Augustus, I’ve been waiting for you… why did you leave me?”“Mother, I’m not Dad – it’s Connor.”She looked at me in confusion, then pulled back in fear, like she had just realized I wasn’t who she thought I was.“Who are you?” she wailed. “What have you done with my husband?”I looked up at Johnny, who stared back at me helplessly.I had no idea what to do, so I tried repeating it once more: “Mother – I’m Connor… your son.”“I don’t…” She looked around in distress, as though searching a crowded room for someone, even though we were by the edge of the pond and there was no one else around. “Augustus! Augustus, where are you? Where are you?!”The woman in black pushed me aside. She grabbe
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