Rhett
“Evan, we need to sit down and go over a few things. I’ve sent you an email. Please read up on it, so I don’t have to answer stupid questions,” I told the club manager when I got into the small stuffy little office in the country club that morning. I hadn’t slept well, and I was cranky as hell. I’d tossed and turned, thinking over the dilemma of Chloe, and only come to an answer in the small hours.
Now, I was jonesing for a glimpse of the object of my obsession like a junkie coming down from a high. I needed my next fix of her, and it was only eight am. There was another tortuous hour to go before she started work. I should go and pick her up, regardless of her request. She had no idea what I was willing to do to make this work between us. She had small, petty concerns like gossiping staff. She had no idea I’d burn this place to the ground if it displeased her.
“Sure, boss, I’ll just go and check,” Evan said and hurried away.
The man was a hard worker and a self-educated, dedicated family man with a second baby on the way. Last night, after I’d dropped Chloe off, I’d driven by his address, curious where the man responsible for the best parts of Hill Crest lived. The street was close to Chloe’s trailer park and looked far safer, though the houses were sagging one-story bungalows.
I’d sat in my sports car, only one of my ten car collection, ashamed for the first time in my life. I’d been born into money. That money had allowed me to become a billionaire, far richer than many wealthy people could dream of, but I wasn’t more deserving than someone like Evan. I was just lucky.
Time to pay it forward for once in my miserable life. Sure, I supported causes and gave a hefty chunk to charities in all sorts of places, but rarely had I changed a life. I had to be a better man to be worthy of Chloe, starting now.
I called my lawyer in New York, and he answered after a single ring.
“Well, to what do I owe this early call?” Elliot Winter was a close friend and a man I knew would understand my obsession with Chloe. He’d managed to capture his very own addiction, his wife Mia, a year before. “Don’t tell me you can’t wait to get the results of the request you made only hours ago? You do know I’m a real attorney, don’t you? Get a PI to stalk women for you,” Elliot grumbled.
“I don’t pay your firm what I do to employ my own PI, and like you’re running the checks yourself, Winter. Now, tell me everything.”
Elliot let out a long-suffering sigh. “Fine. Chloe Devereux, studying Marine Biology, in her second year. Her mother is chronically ill and is being cared for at Hill View Homes. No savings to her name, but no debt either. No father in the picture. That’s it. She lives within her very small means and has never been in trouble with the law.”
“That’s it?”
“That’s it. She doesn’t make waves. Works hard, good GPA. Not much else to report.”
“I want a trust formed to take care of her mother’s medical bills, and while we’re at it, let's see if we can get a specialist to go and see her. There have to be better care facilities than Hill View Homes.” My tone was decisive, and Elliot knew better than to argue with me. I’d decided in those small, lonely hours when my mind had been overrun with longing for Chloe that I would change her life, piece by piece. No one would stop me. “I want the trust to be completely independent of me and not dissolvable. I don’t want her to feel obligated to me or that it could be changed.”
Elliot let out another sigh. It was our usual dynamic. My friend was all logic and reason compared to my impulsive, emotional decision-making.
“Also, find out who owns that trailer park. I want to acquire it and add it to our property portfolio. It needs to be safer,” I muttered, more to myself than Elliot. After all, I didn’t plan on letting Chloe live there for long.
“Anything else?”
“Yes. Draw up papers to transfer the ownership of Hill Crest country club. I’m nearly done with this place,” I told Elliot. I could feel his surprise over the phone.
“Didn’t you just get there? Don’t get me wrong, it’s a waste of time for you, but I thought you’d at least play around there for a while.”
Not when it stood between Chloe and me. “I only needed to assess the situation. There’s someone here better suited to turning it around. Draw the papers up for transfer to the name of Evan Reid.”
“The sale price?”
“A dollar.”
After I’d finished going over the specifics with Evan, I hung up and heard a crash from the office next door. Evan, presumably, had read my email. I smiled to myself as I heard his disbelieving stuttering. I turned my eyes to the clock. Eight forty-five. Perfect. My body tightened with anticipation of seeing Chloe in exactly fifteen minutes.
A timid knock sounded at the door.
“Come in, Evan. Let’s talk. We have fifteen minutes.”