The Billionaire's Inconvenience

Chapter 3

It was only two weeks ago that Dean's secretary, Miranda, pitched him the idea of releasing his autobiography to commemorate his thirty-second birthday. It began as a magazine feature, and she thought, why not turn it into both an issue and an autobiography? "Absolutely not!" was his immediate response.

In his opinion, which was a very valid one, he garnered enough attention from the press and the general public, all involuntarily, of course. He'd do something perfectly normal that millions of other men did on a regular basis, but one simple action from him would turn into a trending topic.

Like when he was photographed wearing his hat backward while walking down the street, and people immediately compared it to JFK Jr.'s, turning it into some kind of sick 'who wore it best?' contest. Well, thank God he wasn't cycling, too, because that would have been too epic.

"Well, good thing I didn't come to you first. I told your father about it before telling you because I knew exactly what your response would be. He loved the idea and said we should get on with it, so as we speak, let's just say word is out on the street, and pitches from various magazines are coming in."

He gave her a look. "Miranda. Please remind me whose secretary you are again." Miranda was in her late forties, of average build, blonde, and beautiful, and looked very good for her age. She had served his father for ten years before he took over as CEO, while his father stepped down but remained chairman.

One thing people loved about Maxwell Ashford was that he was always a hard worker. It was his drive, work ethic, and ambition that enabled him to build a multimillion-dollar corporation at fifty. But he believed he was on this earth for a good time and not a long time, so when he clocked seventy, he stepped down without duress and passed the baton to his son.

He was still in very good health, and since he saw that the company was doing very well and that he could still oversee matters from behind the scenes, he stepped down and decided to enjoy the rest of his life. Despite the scandal involving his wife, Marianne, Dean's mother, he did not let the incident destroy him.

It certainly broke him down to some extent, because he loved her with all his heart and gave her everything she asked for and needed. Still, he offered her both love and money and suffered the devastation of the incident, so maybe both were not enough, and he was missing something.

Dean was not left out of the damage caused by the scandal; in fact, it wrecked him so much that his father had to send him overseas to France for a few years to live out of the public eye. After spending five years in France, he was sent to Germany for another five years because his father feared he would get too soft there.

After Germany, he spent another three years in Switzerland before coming back home to the States. At the time, it all seemed too much for him, but looking back now, he would always be grateful for that decision because those experiences led him to where he was and gave him enough exposure to think quickly and make decisions faster and better than most people.

"Well, I'm sorry but this is really a good idea, and I knew running it by you first would be pointless. Do you know how fast and high our stocks rise when anything remotely positive about you is said? I don't understand the correlation, but you do have some kind of magic in you, boy." He did know. Not magic and all that nonsense, but it had since come to his attention that whenever he was mentioned, the stocks were affected.

To be honest, it was both a curse and a blessing, making him a little more self-conscious than he would have liked. But he never truly bothered about that because, aside from seeming to do no wrong in the public eye, he was also a very disciplined man. He hated scandals and drama, and always winced when he saw outrageous headlines about other people's controversies.

He couldn't help but have a soft spot for the old woman despite all her antics, which would normally deeply irritate him. Although she sometimes took it a little too far, he always expressed his annoyance, and she immediately apologized and never repeated it. She was one of the very few people who were not afraid of him.

"Next time, run it by me first, Miranda. After all, the autobiography is mine, not my father's."

"Okay, sure. So, we can go ahead and start the selection process?"

"Do I have a choice?" She smiled in response.

"Okay, we'll start the process immediately."

"Miranda?" He called.

"Yes?"

"Any other magazine except Vogue and Arising, please."

Miranda gave a hearty laugh. "Vogue didn't even apply, but I think Arising did, so okay then. No Arising.”

“Thank you," he responded coolly. She smiled and left. It was not as if he had anything against Vogue, but they had too large an audience, and he wanted to keep it as low-profile as possible for someone of his status.

Arising, on the other hand, was a different case. When the scandal involving his parents all those years ago happened, he remembered them as the magazine that, in his opinion, printed the most false narratives, and he did not want to be associated with them now or in the future.

He looked over at the People's magazine on the table, where his face covered the front page as the most eligible bachelor of the year. He remembered how much convincing it took for Miranda to finally get him to do the cover. Maybe that was why this time she just bypassed him and went straight to his father. I mean, who could blame her?

Dean thought about the journalist he was about to meet and lightly rubbed his temple, hoping it would be a quick, straightforward process. He learned she was somewhere in her late twenties and that her name was Vivienne.

He wasn't too happy about it being a woman, because if it were a man, at least he could match the male energy and speed up the interview without lingering on any questions he didn't feel like answering. Still, he had dealt with female journalists, of course, and knew how they could be.

Generally, women were usually inquisitive beings; pairing that with the journalistic instinct already made him tired before the interview even began. Moreover, he prided himself on being a gentleman, at least on most occasions. He tried his best to avoid raising his voice at women, no matter the situation. Well, except when it came to his mother, who was both the one who gave him life and the bane of his existence.

He was told she would be something like a shadow for the next three months, which almost drove him insane. "What do you mean she is going to be following me around for three months?!" he fumed at Miranda.

"Well, that's the only way the autobiography is going to be possible. She has to study you, your routine, and your ethics."

"But you know damn well that's not how it works." He replied.

"Yes, not necessarily, but this is a different case. They don't just want word of mouth, they want all the facts." Miranda pleaded.

"Oh, okay, if that's the case, I guess she should be following me home and sleeping in my apartment as well."

"I'm really sorry, Dean. I know how much you love your privacy, but-"

"No, I'm not sure you do, Miranda." Dean retorted.

"She's just always going to be in the background; you don't necessarily need to pay her much attention," Miranda said, trying to patronize him.

"The hell I don't. The point is for her or anyone else not to follow me around like some creepy ghost." His mind was brought back to the present as he heard the ding of the elevator. It was time to get this first part over with.