The Billion Dollar Girl

(Chapter 43)

That question was answered almost immediately.

My phone began ringing from the bedside table, where I’d left it the last night. I walked over to it, barefoot, frowning when I saw the caller name.

“Father, this isn’t a good time right now,” I said, not bothering with a greeting. I was pacing up and down the room, trying to figure out what to do. Why were the press here? Oh God, please don’t let it be pictures from Amsterdam. That’d been almost three months ago. I glanced at Ella. I didn’t think our new relationship would be able to handle a full-scale scandal. “There’s kind of a situation outside the penthouse –”

“I’m well aware of that,” he replied shortly. His tone made me stop my pacing. Something was wrong. Seriously wrong. Worse than strippers in Amsterdam wrong. “Have you seen the front of the New York Times today?”

The front page? Then it wasn’t some sleaze story. They wouldn’t slap a three-month old story about a Manhattan-socialite on the front page, not when there were wars and murders and senators who couldn’t keep it in their pants.

“Molly!” I called. Ella looked at me questioningly, but I just shook my head. When the maid came in, blushing at my state of undress, I snapped, “Molly, have we got a copy of today’s New York Times?”

“S-sir,” she stammered, an unflattering shade of maroon. “Let me – let me, check.” She quickly disappeared out of the room.

“It’s an exclusive,” Dad continued. The room was completely silent and all I could hear was the sound of Molly’s shoes against the marble flooring. I glanced at Ella, who was looking at me worriedly, stroking Eyelash, who had flitted into the room when Molly entered. She mewed gently as Ella’s hands ran over her soft fur, her eyes closed. “Someone did an interview with Theresa May yesterday. You know, the head reporter for the gossip section in the New York Times. And there’s something I have to know. Are you crazy, or just stupid?”

I frowned.

Molly rushed in, a copy of the New York Times in her hand.

“Here it is, sir,” she said triumphantly. “You didn’t have a copy, but your neighbor did, so –”

“Stealing,” I said, taking the paper from her. “I should fire you for that. But I’ll give you a raise instead. Get out of here.”

She left, just as I dropped the phone in shock. My eyes darted over the words, again and again, my brain unable to take them in. Oh my God. This couldn’t be happening.

Ella was by my side in an instant.

“Ash, what is it?” she said gently, tugging the paper out of my limp fingers. She understood as soon as she got the paper.

The Billion Dollar Girl

New York’s hottest couple, Ash and Gabriella Castillo, who tied the knot only a month or so ago, did not marry for love, as they would have the Manhattan social scene believe, but merely as a business deal.

 Ash Castillo, teen billionaire playboy who had recently been involved in a number of scandals, has been revealed to have “bought” the right to marry Gabriella Castillo, in a legal contract rumored to be worth approximately a billion US Dollars, who prior to the marriage had a job as a janitor of a school gym.

So how did this year’s most anticipated debutante, Mrs. Castillo, manage to win over both the purse strings and heart of Mr. Ash Castillo?

Gabriella, maiden name White, New York Times can exclusively reveal, coerced the young bachelor, future CEO to Castillo Corporations, into entering the marriage with her, claiming she was pregnant with his child. She then made the smitten heir sign the deal, stating that he first give her a sum of no less than a billion dollars before marriage. The contract also states that he would be unable to divorce her for at least three months – something he would undoubtedly attempt, after finding out the truth about her “pregnancy”.