Secrets of a Billionaire

Chapter 4

Mark’s POV

I don’t understand why Corina would do this to me! Or my now ex best friend Robert, for that matter. Especially since both of them know that I want to be married by the end of this month! Not that I’ve told either of them the real reason. If I did that, then I’d have to tell them how much money I stand to lose if I’m not married before my 30th birthday. Which is incidentally next month. July 6th. I’m cutting it rather fine.

If Grandfather found out that I’ve told anyone that I’m the heir to well over a billion dollars, he will immediately disinherit me in favor of my cousin, and I’d be left with just the business I’m currently CEO of. A small-ish real estate investment company with a portfolio of 20-ish million dollars worth of assets in rental properties. So it’s not like I’d be left destitute. But I hate to leave well over a billion dollars on the table. And my cousin Elliot is a pain in my ass, so why should I let him inherit the lions share of the family wealth for lack of a wife?

So when I woke up this morning on an unknown couch, wearing yesterday’s clothes, and inside an apartment that I own… I was understandably confused. I couldn’t remember how I got here! But maybe I had decided to move back in? I knew this unit had been vacant since I moved in with Corina a month ago. There were a few boxes stacked around labeled kitchen, so I got busy looking for my coffee pot. Only I’m not finding it, and I don’t recall owning any of the items I’ve pulled out of the box. Since when do I own a lemon zester and a box grater?

I nearly s**t my pants when a lovely young woman comes out of the bedroom wearing a bathrobe, and asks if she can help me find something. I’m literally starting to freak out thinking that she’s going to think I broke into her apartment when she tells me that she only packed these boxes and moved in here yesterday! And the strangest thing of all, she doesn’t seem at all surprised to find me here in her kitchen. What the hell happened to me last night?

The woman, apparently named Amanda, says she doesn’t have any coffee supplies in the house, but if I give her a minute to get dressed we will go out for coffee. I’m too taken aback by this familiarity to say anything before she runs off.

“What the hell is going on?” I mutter under my breath. Then I hear a ding sound coming from my pocket. I see that I’ve got a text from my best friend Robert, as well as a few from my fiancée.

Robert: hey buddy, we need to talk about the wedding this afternoon.

Corina: Hey, sweetie! I hope you and the guys had a great night out!

Corina: I’ll see you at the church at 4 on the dot. I can’t wait to be Mrs. Mark Shipton!

Oh, s**t! I just cheated on my Fiancée on the night before our wedding! I am the lowest scumbag on earth. I need to go see Corina immediately and hope she will forgive me.

I go tap lightly on the bedroom door.

“Look, I’m sorry, but I really must go!” I tell Amanda through the door urgently. “I, umm, have an event this afternoon!”

She opens the door just a c***k.

“What, do you mean your wedding?” She asks, looking confused. I’m taken aback by the fact that she apparently knows all about it. “Surely you planned to cancel it after what happened! You really wouldn’t want a wife who would cheat on you with your best friend, would you?”

“Wait, what?” I stammer, confused. I try to remember what all happened yesterday, but everything is such a blur. “I didn’t dream all that?”

Although… I am starting to recall picking up my tuxedo from the dry cleaners and and then going back to the rental house Corina and I had just moved into. I needed to grab my shaving kit since I was staying the night at my old place. This was before I was supposed to get together with the guys for a sort of bachelor party. I remember seeing Robert’s car out front, which was weird since he said he’d meet me at the bar. And then I heard noises coming from the bedroom, and I remember quietly peeking inside. Holy s**t. Everything is ruined!

“You really did drink a lot last night, didn’t you?” The woman says, bring me out of my reverie. She seems sympathetic, and she’s actually kinda of easy on the eyes considering it’s early morning and she obviously hasn’t put any makeup on yet. Unlike Corina who has an uncanny resemblance to a raccoon in the morning because she doesn’t remove it before bed. It’s a real shame this woman isn’t my fiancée instead of Corina!

“Well, never mind,” she continues talking. “You’ve already got the tuxedo and I’ve got the white dress. You promised to come to my wedding today instead. Or have you forgotten that, too?”

WOW, I’m saved! I don’t remember this woman at all, but I must have told her something last night about my situation and gotten her to agree to marry me! Things are beginning to look up for me this morning, after all.

We go grab the caffeinated beverages of our choice and a quick breakfast, when she tells me that we need to be at the church in less than 2 hours! I have no idea how she managed to get an entire wedding planned so quickly. Perhaps she had fiancé issues like I had, and it had already been in the works for months now, just like mine. We really need to have a chat about that soon, but there is so much I need to do before 11:00, that we get our breakfast to go, grab my car, and then I “drop” her off at her apartment. Then I drive around to the side of the building where the parking garage is located, and then head up to my apartment on the 12th floor. The penthouse.

Corina has a small cheap engagement ring with tiny diamond chips, since she believes I’m poor. But I have a much larger and expensive one that I was planning to surprise her with once she was my wife. I don’t have the time to continue with the facade of being poor right now, so I’m just going to go ahead and give this one to Amanda. I call up the family chauffeur and ask him to pick me up in the limo at a quarter to 11 at Harrogate Towers.

Then I shower and dress in my freshly dry cleaned tuxedo. Not a rental, as I had told anyone who had bothered to ask. Even Corina was under the assumption that I had rented it. But the truth is that it’s one I actually owned. One from an exclusive designer. I look at myself in the mirror. Not too shabby! I hope I don’t disappoint my bride.

Then I go in to the rental office, which is currently unstaffed since I was taking a vacation for the first time in years. All calls to this office will be directed to the staff at the other building I own while I’m away on my honeymoon.

I get on the computer to find out who is leasing until 302. Amanda Langley. It says she’s self employed, but there are no particulars even though I would normally have put some note in her file. I might have to ask Charlene, since she obviously drew up the rental agreement. I pull up the photo that was taken of her ID. Apparently she’s 27 years old and born May 2nd, 5 foot 7 inches tall. Brown hair and blue eyes, although it’s hard to tell from the horrible little photo. Her prior listed address was in the apartment building Charlene runs. So Amanda seems to be legit. Charlene is an excellent judge of character. Even grandfather will have to agree that this woman is acceptable.

I call the airline and change the name on the reservation to Amanda Langley, and then head down to the ground floor to collect my blushing bride.

I’m practically giddy with happiness now at how great this day is going, having managed to turn a bad situation around so quickly! Until she tells me during the limo ride to the church that we are actually going to her brother’s wedding, and she has no intention of marrying a man just only just met! I’m sunk, unless I can get her to agree to marry me within the next three weeks!