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Chapter One
ISAAC
Isaacspokeasthoughthis was the most important business deal of his life. The truth was, every deal that Isaac Righton made was the most important deal of his life.
As he paced around his large home office, he saw himself reflected in the glass doors that ran all the way along one side of the room. The guy reflected back at him looked confident and assertive. He wore a smart business suit and thick black spectacles. Although he was over forty, he clearly looked after himself. It didn’t quite compute sometimes that the guy in the reflection was actually him.
Isaac’s taste for money had brought him a lot of good things in life. A Miami compound with not one but four mansions on the land. All the designer clothes he could ever want. Gadgets. Free passes to some of the most exclusive clubs across the United States. Secret handshakes and hot women.
But making money came at a cost. For years of his life, Isaac hadn’t taken a single day off. He ate, slept, and breathed money. Always thinking up ways to use what he had, to make more. It was an exhausting way to live, and it could be a lonely one too. For if he stopped and looked too hard at his own reflection, he saw other things too. The gray hairs at the temples, brought about by too much stress. The wrinkles around his tired eyes. The fact that there was no-one standing there beside him.
Still, none of that mattered. Not when there were business deals to be done, and banknotes to change hands. Isaac had spent so long around money that he’d gotten to know the smell, the touch, thetasteof it. He was never able to feel bad for long when there was money around the corner. The salve that made everything feel better.
“When should we get started on the paperwork?” he asked the guy on the other end of the phone line. The guy hadn’t even agreed to the deal yet, but that was a classic business move. Speak as though the deal is already done. Make it seem as though the customer would be crazy not to commit.
Of course, the deal he was offering was a good one for both him and the client. Isaac never offered bad deals. That wasn’t the way to make money long-term. The way to get rich was not to simply sell a product, but avision. You didn’t sell a service, but an entire fucking fantasy.
Right now, he was trying to get a customer to invest in his company’s newest venture: a theme park. It was kind of a wild idea, dreamed up by his colleague Montague. His other colleague, Bastion, was generally the one that sweet-talked the new potential clients. He was a pro when it came to selling fantasies. Normally more likeable than Isaac too. Isaac often came across as a little… moody. Not on purpose. He was just impatient. Always wanting to close the deal. To get to the exciting part: the cold, hard figures — which always glittered at him like diamonds in a lump of rock.
“I’m not sure…” said the guy on the phone, wavering. “I just don’t know if there are enough Littles in the world to keep an entire theme park afloat. Like I told your colleague, Bastion—“
Pah.
Isaac could clinch this deal without Bastion. Bastion had grown sloppy lately. Drinking, jerking off in his office, going to strip bars. Ever since his wife had left him, he’d turned into a bit of an asshole. At least the bastard hadbeenmarried. And no doubt he’d marry again. Even Montague was due to marry soon, to his PA, Daisy, of all people.
Well, screw those guys. Isaac Righton had never had a woman say she wanted to be with him forever, but so what? Who needed commitment when you had a hand-built Italian bed that cost over three million dollars?Andit was one of only two pieces like that in the world? The other, as it happened, belonged to a famous rapper. It wasn’t hard to guess which bed had seen more action over the past ten years. Isaac hadn’t brought a girl back to his compound once.
He looked again at his reflection, reminding himself that he could do this. Running his finger through his thick, dark hair, he took a deep breath. “Anthony, my man,” he said, oozing confidence. “I’m not offering you the chance to invest in a theme park. I’m offering you the chance to invest in a dream. A dream so powerful that—“
Miaow.
What the hell?
Isaac stopped pacing, looking around for the source of that strange feline noise. There was nothing in his office as far as he could tell. The windows and doors were all closed anyway, so how was a creature meant to have gotten in here? He looked toward the glass doors, but it was so dark outside that the ocean looked black. All he could see, as ever, was his own reflection.
He rubbed his eyes. It was late. He was tired. Probably imagining things.
“A dream so powerful,” he began again, “that it won’t just be for Littles. It’ll make people into Litt—“
Miaow.
There it was again.
A scratchy, whiny noise. Definitely not pleasant. And definitely messing with his concentration.
“Is something the matter?” asked the investor, a note of impatience in his voice.
“No,” said Isaac, removing his glasses and setting them down on the table. He rubbed his eyes again. “Everything’s great. As I was sayin—“
Miaoooooooow.
Seriously, this was getting beyond a joke. He was so close to clinching this deal. Now there was some idiot fucking animal hiding in his room, threatening to ruin the whole thing?
“Listen, Anthony,” said Isaac. “There’s a problem with the line. Can’t hear you too well.” Didn’t feel good to lie, but the truth was just too bizarre. Didn’t want a potential investor thinking he was a total crackpot. “I’m gonna have to call you back, man. Speak in ten?”
The investor gave his reluctant agreement, and Isaac knew that he’d probably already messed up. You only get one chance with these people. And to think that a mewing cat—
There was a bang at the glass door.
