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“I assure you I did not build an empire without an ability to read people.”
“But you are going about this emotionlessly.”
“Which should make me even more capable of making the best decision for Franca and Angilu.” And why was he having this discussion with a stranger standing uninvited in his office?
“Not when that decision is about the emotion you are hoping to provide for them.”
“A woman does not have to love them to be loving toward them.”
“That you believe that only shows how little you know.”
“Excuse me?” Ice laced his tone.
She closed her eyes, as if gathering her thoughts. When she opened them he read frustration, even disappointment, but that determination he’d seen there at first hadn’t dimmed. “May I sit down?”
What the hell? “You have fifteen minutes.”
Something like anger washed over her features, but she crossed the room and sat in one of the sleek leather armchairs facing his modern, oversized executive desk.
When she didn’t speak immediately, he found himself demanding impatiently, “Well?”
“You are looking for someone who will make your children the priority in her life, is that right?”
“You keep calling them my children, but you do realize I have custody of them only because their parents are dead?”
“I know, but your desire to give them a loving mother has made me believe you want to fulfill the role of dedicated father. I guess I shouldn’t have assumed.” She said the last as if she was talking to herself.
“You are not wrong.” He would be a better father than Pinu, who had been borderline indifferent to his two offspring.
“Then they are your children?”
“Sì.”
She nodded, as if in approval of his admission. He should not care, but he found himself pleased by that.
“So back to my question: you want a woman who will put Franca and Angilu first?”
“Yes.”
“And you do not think she has to love them to do that?”
“Financial compensation will ensure it.”
“Will it?”
“Of course.” He understood money and how to wield it.
“And if something comes into her life that is more important than the money you are paying her to pretend the children are a priority?”
He did not like her description of the job. “She will not be pretending.”
“If it is for the sake of the money, how can it be anything but pretense?”
“Regardless, I doubt very much that something will come up that would make someone lose sight of ten million dollars.”
“Really? What about a husband who is worth thirty million?”
“I am a billionaire.”
“Presuming you are married to this woman, there would be an ironclad prenuptial agreement that only provides her with a yearly stipend and a ten-million-dollar payout nearly two decades down the road.”
“You are so certain there would be a prenup?” He hadn’t mentioned it to Gloria.
“It only makes sense. A man like you isn’t going to offer a woman half of your empire under any circumstances, but particularly if she comes into your life as part of a business proposal, no matter how personal the terms might seem.”
He inclined his head in acknowledgment of her insight. “There aren’t that many marriage-minded multimillionaires out there.”
“But moving in your circles will increase her chances of meeting them exponentially.”
“I’m not going to get hoodwinked by a gold digger.”
“Maybe. But even if you don’t, you must realize that while money can be a very compelling motivator, it isn’t always the most important one.”
There was something about her tone that made him think she not only believed this, but had personal experience. “Few things trump it.”
“You’d be surprised.”
Audrey—he found it difficult to think of her as Miss Miller—sighed with the kind of weariness that came from a lot more than a single conversation.
“Tell me, do you think Johana Tomasi married your brother primarily for the lifestyle she could enjoy as his wife?”
Enzu shocked himself by saying honestly, “Yes.”
“And yet, by all accounts, she was not a loving mother.”
“You investigated my family?” he asked dangerously.
“Are you kidding?” she asked, with a genuine laugh he found altogether too charming. “I’m a senior specialist in your customer service department; I’m hardly in a financial position to hire a private detective. Johana’s exploits were tabloid fodder as much after she became a mother as before.”
He could not deny that. “What is your point?”
“She had to know that you would pay her handsomely to be a more involved parent.”
Both his brother and sister-in-law had known that, but they’d refused his offers of increases in their allowance in exchange for a quieter lifestyle. “She and Pinu saw no point in having access to money if they couldn’t spend it on the lifestyle they enjoyed.”
“Exactly.”
“Whatever you may think of me, I am not an idiot. I have no intention of bringing a woman like that into the children’s lives.”
“I do not think you’re an idiot at all, just maybe naïve.”
“I am far from naïve.”
“Oh, you are very worldly and brilliant about money and business…”
“But?” he prompted, knowing that was not all to her assessment of him and inexplicably unable to let it lie.
“But you don’t understand emotion.”
“Emotion is a weakness I cannot afford.”
“That might be true, but do you really want to withhold it from Franca and Angilu?”
“I will give them everything they need.”
“You will try. But if you hire them a mother, you are almost guaranteeing the best they will ever know is kindness born of duty to the job.”
“You came here to apply for that job you are so disparaging of. Are you trying to convince me you wouldn’t be doing it for the money?”
“No.”
“Exactly,” he said, with much less satisfaction than he should have felt at her admission.
“But I am also offering to love your children, not just treat them lovingly out of duty.”
“You cannot promise to love them.”
“Of course I can. They are innocent children, left without their parents. How could I not love them?”
He stared at her, incomprehension washing over him. She believed what she was saying, and yet… “You claim another woman would not do the same?”
“I am not other women. I am me. Sure, there are women out there that would love them, too, but would they be the women your PAA finds to offer as candidates?” There could be no question that Audrey didn’t believe it.
“Why?”
Audrey’s head went back, an impatient sound coming from her. “I’ve tried to explain it. You and Gloria, you’re approaching this whole thing without any emotion. That’s almost a guarantee that the women she puts forward and the one you eventually choose will be every bit as emotionless.”
“I still do not see the problem with that.” Emotion was volatile, impossible to predict with consistent accuracy.
“No, I don’t suppose you do.” She stood. “I shouldn’t have come here.”
“On that at least we can agree.”
This time Audrey’s shoulders slumped and the wince was more pronounced. Without another word she turned toward the door and crossed his office, an air of defeat surrounding her as she made the long trek.
She stopped with her hand on the door handle. “Do I need to start looking for another job?”
“No.”
She turned the handle.
“Audrey.”
“Yes?” She didn’t turn.
“I assume you had more reasons for believing you were an appropriate
fit for the position than your self-proclaimed affinity for emotion?”
She tensed, but nodded. “I meet the requirements.”
“Tell me how you know what those requirements are.”
She just shook her head, and he got the impression that even if he threatened the job she clearly wanted to keep she wouldn’t give in.
Gloria had to have shared her assignment with Audrey in a moment of indiscretion, but the younger woman wasn’t about to throw his PAA under a bus. He had to appreciate the loyalty.
