Total pages in book: 61
Estimated words: 55093 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 275(@200wpm)___ 220(@250wpm)___ 184(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 55093 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 275(@200wpm)___ 220(@250wpm)___ 184(@300wpm)
Had I not been so selfish I would’ve noticed the change in the man I loved more than life itself. I did notice that he’d lost a little weight, but had put it off to another one of his intense business ventures. He always got like that when he was going after some deal. Gaunt, restless and hyper, almost jittery. So when I did notice those things this last time I made no note of it.
After he’d taken his own life and it came about that he’d sold the company, my future, I had no choice but to get to the bottom of it. I may not have delved too deeply into the machinations of the company that would one day be mine, but I had some working knowledge of the particulars. I knew enough to know the financial worth of the business, and if it was so that daddy had sold it for whatever reason, there should be more money than was left once the dust settled.
At the back of my mind I suspect that there was more to it than what the accountant had shared. There’s no way that a man as fastidious as Timothy Bronson had let things get so bad that he’d sold his company for pennies on the dollar, leaving his wife and child without support.
It was with that premise that I had first approached the formidable Jason Storm. I was sure that there was some shady dealings on his part, that in fact he had swindled my dad and that was what had led to his death at his own hand. I had no evidence of this, and going through daddy’s papers hadn’t pointed to any such thing, but I still could not fathom that things had been as cut and dried as they’d been relayed to me.
It was I think, after the third or fourth meeting that I realized a change in me towards him. Suddenly I would get butterflies in my stomach right before it was time for me to go face him down, and not the nervous sort. I found myself looking forward to sparring with him as serious as the situation was. And every evening after that, I left feeling like I’d lost something vital once out of his sight.
I’d brushed it off as nothing more than nerves and the events of the last few weeks finally catching up to me. But I secretly knew that there was more to it than that. Especially when he started following me into my dreams. Now that there was no need to see him again, that feeling of listlessness prevailed even now in the midst of my new venture.
I got started on the latest orders while shunning thoughts of him. I had to grudgingly admit that he was not the thief I first thought him to be, and that only made way for the attraction I’d been keeping at bay. I could no longer kill any thought of him with the idea that he was a thief, that he’d robbed me and my mother of what was rightfully ours. And with that barrier, that last line of defense gone, it seems I was now wide open to let the thoughts flood in.
As I closed and labeled the last box for shipping I gave up the fight not to go snooping into his life. Until now my only interest had been in his business practices. I had no need to go searching through his personal life. But now in the early morning hour before mother awoke with her constant needs to keep me occupied, the temptation proved to be too much.
All it took was adding his name to the search engine and there was his life story for all the world to see. I still bore some slight resentment against him, unfair as it may be. But how could I not when he had taken over my dad’s office, and had already begun implementing changes from what I could see? I chose to go to him at end of day when I was sure that certain of the past employees he’d kept on would be gone. It will be a long time before I overcome the embarrassment of my fall from grace.
I’d once walked through those doors to smiles and warm welcomes, but the first time I’d gone to face him down, the looks bordered more on self-pity, and even some had held glee at my demise. There’s nothing worse, it seems, than losing one’s fortune in the eyes of some people. I’d even heard a few whispers, which I’m sure were intended to be overheard, about my poor state.
Apparently I was seen as nothing more than a useless blonde headed bimbo who would now set her sights on some rich older man to get me out of the predicament I find myself in. Some of my so-called friends were even beginning to distance themselves, though how they knew that we were that desolate was beyond me.