The Billionaire and the Assistant (The Billionaires 3)

th running dry.

“You’re not coming to LA with me, are you?” I stated.

“No. I was going to spend some time on my own, using my savings, but while you’re gone, I’ll take care of business.”

“You’re my wife.” I told her. “If you want to run our business, then do so. If you want a vacation go on vacation. Whatever you want, it’s yours.”

“I want the annulment.” She said, my heart breaking into a thousand pieces.

Chapter 11

Brianna

This is real life, not a fairytale, so if you were expecting me to say we sorted out our problems and became one big happy family then you couldn’t be more wrong. There’d been two weeks of slanging matches between my parents, guided by our therapist, where they blamed each other for how I’d turned out. I think our individual sessions were what worked best. Not looking at the past anymore, but trying to work on a future. I realized I definitely needed to move out though I was going to do my damnedest to get a budget larger than three million bucks. Hopefully, they’d be feeling so fucking guilty right now I could get a zero added onto it. I kept in touch with Alex and to be honest she was better than any therapist, with just a simple, “You can’t do that Brianna, it’s not okay,” when I’d suggest playing one of my parents off against the other. All in all, I had changed a little, but you couldn’t expect miracles after years of them fucking me up. That was the other thing Alex kept saying. That I couldn’t use my parents as an excuse for every single thing. She could be a total buzz kill that woman.

Anyway, today was the day of Mom and Roger’s wedding. I had had my final fitting and was now looking pretty in my pink bridesmaid dress. Mom looked beautiful in her Givenchy gown and I walked behind her as we made our way to the altar. They were getting married in the grounds of the country club and as Roger’s face settled on my mom’s a look of sheer love passed between them. Go figure. Multi-billionaire or not my mom really did love this one.

I turned to look at my dad who was sitting in one of the pews at the side. She’d told him he didn’t have to attend, after they’d discovered I’d sent him his invite behind my mom’s back, but he’d said in the interests of building relationships he wanted to be there. My dad looked tired and as if he was ill. He was, I realized. He was lovesick. I hoped he and Alex figured things out. Then my mind realized it needed to focus on the ceremony and I faced straight ahead and watched my mum become Mrs Degeneres.

Dad stayed in LA for a few months and one morning I visited to find him staring out of the window, a pile of papers on the table in front of him.

“What is it?” I asked him.

“It’s the papers for the annulment.” He said. “I sign that and my marriage to Alex never happened.”

“Look, I think we’ve done enough therapy for now.” I told him. “I appreciated that you put me first this time. But go get her now, Dad.” I told him. It was the first time I’d called him dad to his face since the argument at New Year.

He visibly brightened, “It means a lot, you calling me that. I promise things will be better.”

“Yeah, I know.” I told him. “We’ll get there. But part of that is you being with Alex. She’s an amazing woman, so stop being a dick and get on a plane.”

“We need to work on your manners still,” he quipped. Then he sighed. “She thinks we rushed things. What if she doesn’t want me back?”

“What if you start listening and give her a compromise?” I told him, then I made a suggestion.

“That could work.” He told me.

“I know, that’s why I suggested it,” I said, raising an eyebrow. “Well, let me know if you need my help. I have lots of experience with parties.”

“I’ll bear that in mind.” He tilted his head and looked at me. “You could do that you know?”

“Do what?”

“Plan parties. The most decadent parties ever known. Only for the elite. We need to talk soon. It might be a new thing we could launch as part of PlayKing’s.”

I smiled. Get paid to organize parties and hang around with the rich and famous? It was definitely something to consider.

“I’ll give it some thought.”

My dad arranged a flight back to Newark and by that afternoon he was gone.

My mom and Roger had gone on honeymoon leaving me to rattle around the enormous mansion by myself. It was nice to have peace and quiet for the first few days after all the family drama of the last few months, but I was getting bored. So when the text on my cell came through it couldn’t have been better timed.

Unknown number: Brianna ‘Brat’ King. No one has told me to go screw myself in a long time. Everyone likes to say yes to me. In fact, it’s amazing what people will do for a movie star. Except you. I have a feeling you’d make me work for it. You’ve been on my mind since we met. So what do you say, want to play?

TL

Tobias! Well, it looked like Brianna the Brat still had a role after all!