Billionaire Love Story

The Billionaire's Secret-1

The Billionaire's Secret

Amelia Randolph was fuming. Her grandmother was sick again, and it had to be the water. She paced the room in the hospital where she watched her grandmother sleeping. Nothing had been right in a long time, not since that cocky billionaire, Jacob Montgomery installed that new water filtration equipment.

She had her suspicions for a long time, but then they tested it, and she knew she had to be right. She called, prodded, and attacked everyone she could. It wasn’t that she couldn’t be a lady, she could. Her grandmother was the most important person to her, and there was no way she could just stand by and wait for things to get worse.

Friday, she would get her chance, but until then, she was doing her best to keep calm. If she went too crazy beforehand, she may not be able to state her case, and she had to. She looked over at the woman nestled into the bed that seemed to swallow her up in its massive size

“ I'll, fix it Nana, I will.” She whispered the words to herself. Her grandmother had been asleep for an hour now and a sounder sleeper you would never meet.

She caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror near the doorway. Her normally tamed head of hair was a jumbled mess. She was an average-looking, at least she thought so. At 5’7 she was taller than many girls, she had dark green eyes, and was in pretty good shape. She wasn’t perfect by any means. She filled out her clothes nicely and was curvy. She was far from the model stick thin types most men preferred. Her hair was naturally curly and hung down past her shoulders.

There must have been 4 different shades of red mixed in there. Today, what she needed most was some conditioner and a pony tail. She glanced over at the table where lunch had been placed and noticed a rubber band, it would have to do. With a shrug, she wrapped her hair in a tight bun, and at least managed to contain the wild mess.

She took a seat by the large window in the room and opened a book. Reading calmed her and had always been a favorite pastime. There was something magical about being swept away into someone else’s fantasy world. It made things easier, especially when times got dark. She gave her Nana another look over. She had saved her life, literally. She owed her everything, and wouldn’t stop short of giving her as much back. She would fix this mess, or die trying.

It had been twelve years since her life changed for the better. At 26, there wasn’t a day that went by that she didn’t remember, and take time to appreciate the life she had now. Her mother was an angry, bitter woman. That’s pretty much all she could remember about her. She had Amelia young, and they could have been sisters really. Her life was hard and full of everything negative. Amelia could remember being hungry and cold, more often than not.

Her mother was always entertaining one man or another. Whatever money she made prostituting, she would spend on drugs, throwing her son and daughter a crumb or two from time to time. When Amelia turned 10, things got even worse.

She felt the sadness well up in her, even now. Her brother’s name was Evan. He was always a sweet boy, and often sick. He was younger by five years and Amelia tried her best to protect him. He never hurt anyone in his whole life and he could have been something wonderful. The day he disappeared was the longest day of her life.

Her mother was running late as usual, and they were starving. She was only 10 years old, and she knew they could go to the neighbor’s house and Miss Sinclair would help them. She was always giving them bread and candy. She had specifically told Evan to stay at the house. She tucked him into the cot in their corner of the room and told him to wait, and she would get them some food.

He smiled up at her and she hugged him before going. It was the last time she would ever see him. Miss Sinclair wasn’t home, but on her way back to their house, someone had seen her, had followed her. He was a big man, he smelled of whiskey and smoke.

He grabbed her by the arm and refused to let go despite her kicking and screaming. With a kick to the groin, she finally broke free and she ran, probably faster than she ever would again in her life. She made it home, and Evan was gone. She frantically looked for him, but there was no sign of him.

When her mother finally made it home, she told her, but was ignored. Her mother just told her he was probably off playing somewhere. She felt helpless and lost, and she never wanted to feel like that again. Her thoughts were always with Evan, even now. Not long after, the county came and took her away. Amelia couldn’t save Evan, but she could do something about her Nana.

There was something special in the air the day Lenora Randolph came to Bakerstown Girls Home. It may have been because her birthday was the day before or it may have been the way it was supposed to snow that week, which rarely happened in South Carolina. Whatever it was, you could almost feel it. Amelia had lived there for 2 years, and in her mind it was wonderful.

She had her very own bed and clothes and they always had food. When the people put her here she was scared, but over time, she realized that it was wonderful. She didn’t sleep at night for a long time, but gradually, she stopped having nightmares, and now she felt more like everyone else.

There were always people coming there, looking to adopt a girl to love as their very own, but she never thought much about it. Babies and young girls were always the ones chosen. That was something she was fine with. Out there, you never know who will come around, or who will hurt you. Here, she was safe. She knew everyone who worked there and she also knew they locked the doors every night. Inside the girls home, she didn’t have to worry. It was a shock to her when a nice lady came around to greet all of the older girls in her wing.

It was a rare occurrence, and while everyone was putting on their best clothes, she just went about her normal routine. Eventually, the lady asked her what her name was, and the conversation they had that day changed her life forever.

“ What is your name young lady?” The lady smiled at her as she sat down on the bed beside her.

“ Me? My name is Amelia. How do you do?” she had thrust her hand out like she saw them do on television and the lady shook it in return.

“ How are you doing today? I hear there is snow in the forecast.” The lady had leaned over and smiled at her as they talked. Amelia smiled back, she was nice and she smelled like cookies.

“ I’m okay. I guess. Sure is getting colder, that’s for sure, but I like it. I used to hate it when I lived out there and I didn’t have heat. Now, I hope to see some snow soon.” She went back to making her bed.

“ It sounds like you've done a lot of things in your life, Amelia.”

“ I guess so, you see how everyone is running around and trying so hard to be their best? I just don’t understand that at all. I just want to be me all the time, so I don’t make anyone sad when they find out who I really am. That’s why I ain’t dressed up in my Sunday clothes. I hate to be a pest Ma'am, but could you stand up? I just have to get this bed made so I can get to breakfast. I'm always hungry and I sure like to eat.” Amelia gave her a grin as the lady jumped up quickly. She made her bed and gave the lady a hug before she headed down to the lunch hall.

“ You sure smell nice, lady.” Amelia skipped her way out of the room and thought nothing more of the situation and the lady she left upstairs.

Later that day, the nice lady asked her if she wanted to come live with her, and at first she said "no". The lady sat back on the chair in the library and watched Amelia for a moment before asking her why.

“ It’s not you, lady. You seem real nice, honest. The thing is, there are a lot of bad people out there. Here, they lock up the doors real tight and it’s safe. I guess, I just don’t know how you do things. I don’t want to get hurt like I did before. I don’t want them to take me like they did Evan.”

“ Who is Evan, dear?”

She had leaned over and whispered. “I’m not supposed to talk about Evan. No one believes me about him. He was my brother and one day someone took him.”

The lady frowned for a second and told her, “Amelia, I can assure you one thing. I lock my house up every night, just like they do here. I'm all alone in there and sometimes I want someone to talk to. I had a nice man who I was married to. His name was Harold, but he died, and is in Heaven now. I can’t promise you won’t ever get hurt again, the world is full of hurt, but I can promise I’ll be there with you to help you through it.”

She frowned as she thought over what the cookie lady just said. She had locks, and she was sad too. Plus, she would have someone to help her and it was nice to hear someone say that. She would miss her friends here, but maybe she should go, the lady seemed real sad and maybe she could help her.

She smiled her best smile and agreed to go. She gathered up her small bag of things, and with a deep breath she walked out of the children’s home and into the arms of her loving Nana. Her life had changed for the better, and Nana was the reason. She owed her so much and it was killing her to see her sick like this. Everything that she had gone through, Nana had made it better, even if it was just a hug when the boy at school was mean to her or helping her get through a panic attack.

Even now, she still had panic attacks, when she couldn’t be in control. Either way, her Nana fixed everything for her, so she would do the same for her now. She glanced up at the clock in the room and sighed. She needed to work because that always helped keep her mind occupied. After another glance at her Nana, she left to get some work done.

Jacob Montgomery worked hard and he deserved the nicer things in life. He wasn’t cocky or overly confident. He didn’t think he was some gorgeous stud that all the women wanted. He did, however, think he was a good man, and he tried hard to do the right thing. It was the reason the mess he was in was so difficult.

He looked down at the picture in his hand and sighed. Amelia Randolph was becoming a problem he didn’t want or need. He put the picture of the plant back down and raked his hand through his dark hair. Ever since the water had tested positive for some abnormal chemical content, she was blowing up his office day and night.

It wasn’t that he didn’t care. In fact, he was just as concerned as she was. The problem was that she was a screeching, loud, demanding woman and he wasn’t relishing the idea of having a meeting with her at all. There were steps that needed to be put into place, and he was only part of the board.

For whatever reason, she felt like somehow, it was all his fault. He tried to call her back, only to get her voicemail, which in turn, had led to the meeting they were having on Friday morning. He wanted to give her the good news, for her grandmother’s well-being, and to get her to stop leaving long winded, potty-mouthed voice mails on his phone at work. He glanced out the long window in his office. It took a lot of hard work to get to this place.

At age 31, he achieved more success than any other Montgomery before him. His great-grandfather started this business, and since then, it grew by leaps and bounds. It was passed down to each Montgomery until now, when it rested on him. He could remember as a child watching his father work the phones at night, and then spending the rest of his evening picking out his clothes for the next morning.

There was something about a great suit that made a man. Having something tailored to you was one of the luxuries he enjoyed as the CEO. He didn’t drink, or do drugs, and he worked effortlessly putting in long hours to make the business a success, and well, he liked nice suits. It gave him that extra push to do well and added to the confidence of representing the company. It started with his grandfather, and one day he would pass this entire empire down to his children. That is, if he ever got married.