Total pages in book: 173
Estimated words: 163802 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 819(@200wpm)___ 655(@250wpm)___ 546(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 163802 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 819(@200wpm)___ 655(@250wpm)___ 546(@300wpm)
I fell quiet.
We both did. For a long time.
“Anyway,” he breathed, shaking himself. “You asked why all of this means we have to throw an eye-wateringly expensive celebration for our failed marriage. Well, after we were bought out and I had to watch them destroy GloryBoi, their money felt dirty to me. I didn’t want to spend a cent of it, so I gave it away.”
I blinked. “I beg your pardon? Did you just say you gave away almost seven billion dollars?”
“That’s right.”
“I see,” I repeated, tone calm. “And have you always been stupid?”
Rhodes started, body jerking as a surprise laugh ripped from his lips, and then kept coming. He howled, eyes watering and head falling on my shoulder. “Ouch, baby. No sugarcoating or nothing. Would it help if I told you I spread the money out among various addiction support groups, rehabs, and charities?”
“That just pisses me off more,” I snapped. “Because now all I’m thinking is how sweet and generous you are when I’m trying to be pissed.”
A lopsided grin teased the dimple from his left cheek. Eyes shining with mirth, I heated up to be on the receiving end of it.
Gods, Rhodes is sinfully gorgeous when he smiles.
“It was the right thing to do,” he affirmed, taking my hands in his. “But then, I ended up being another business graduate with no app, no money, and no one who wanted anything from me other than my next billion-dollar idea.
“And, I mean, the three of us did try,” he said, expelling a deep sigh. “We tried for years to come up with something in the same spirit of helping people, but part of the terms of the buyout was that we couldn’t launch another competing gambling, games, or sport-related app or business so...”
“And so, there wasn’t anything else you were passionate about,” I finished. “Not in the way that you were passionate about helping people like your dad.”
He just nodded. “Starting the investment firm was a last-ditch effort to do something worthwhile with my life while still making enough to support my new wife and the baby we had on the way. I refused to let Micah or Alex invest their buyout money into the business, and my grandparents were done investing in me after my last idea outed that Grandpa had a whole second family he was hiding in Long Island—”
“What?!”
“Oh yeah,” he drew out. “Apparently, he’d been with this woman as long as he’s been with Grandma. We’re talking two other adult children and six other grandchildren out in the burbs that no one in the family knew about.” He whistled. “You ever seen a sixty-nine-year-old woman beat a seventy-one-year-old man half to death? It’s not pretty. Funny,” Rhodes admitted. “But not pretty.”
“Wow. And I thought my family drama was explosive.”
He snorted. “Yep. But like I said, no money was coming from that source, so I had to shop around for investors, and that’s how I ended up in business with the her you heard us speaking about last night.”
“What’s wrong with her?” I asked. “Why do you need to get rid of your investor?”
“You always want to be the one in the strong position when you’re negotiating, and unfortunately, I wasn’t. I had to give her controlling interest and a say in every business decision—no matter how small. For the first few years, I held free financial literacy classes online and in-person all over New York. I even managed investment accounts free of charge for clients who made less than one hundred thousand dollars a year. It wasn’t much,” he said, “but it felt good to help people and families in some small way.
“But when the firm hit a pandemic-sized speed bump, she shut down the classes and kicked out every free client who didn’t agree to pay a minimum of five hundred a month to stay on.”
“Well, she sounds fucking awful.”
“She’s ruthless,” he gritted. “If our yearly earnings slip even a dollar below her mandated minimum, there’s a clause in the contract that says she can fire me and demand her investment back. Doing that would not only leave me without a job, but destroy my business and leave my employees with nothing. What I need to do is buy her out completely, but the firm is in bad shape after paying to settle someone’s lawsuits.” He crooked a brow at me, making me once again wish I didn’t share a face with that shit-peddling fraud. “Say what I would about you, you throw an A-list party, Sue.
“In two weeks, I’m going to be in a room with dozens of potential high-value clients. The kind of clients that can drag our bottom line above the minimum—”
“—before the yearly financial report comes out,” I finished. “And maybe even inject you with enough capital so you can finally get rid of her.”