Page 104 of The Billionaire's Demand

‘What kinds of companies?’

‘Businesses that were failing but which had untapped potential. I exploited their market weakness to get a good deal, then either restructured to turn a profit or pieced them up and sold them off, whichever was going to yield the best return.’

She shook her head. ‘I can’t even imagine how you got started doing that,’ she murmured. ‘As someone who comes from nothing, who never had money behind me, just getting by is a struggle some days.’

‘Yes,’ he agreed with vehemence. ‘Precisely. I hit rock-bottom, Libby. I hit it, scraped along it, settled there for long enough to know that I couldn’t keep living like that. I had to claw my way off the bottom with my bare hands. It was bloody and hard, and I had to fight tooth and nail to get out, but I swore to myself I would never know that kind of poverty again. I would never be hungry, I would never be cold, I would never be on the streets.’

Admiration for Raul’s determination swelled inside of her, and a pride too that she immediately fought. After all, what business did she have feeling proud of him? None of this was down to her. He wasn’t even her real husband. It was a sobering thought and her smile momentarily slipped.

‘I got a job at a construction company. Just a small one, run by an old couple—they were in their late eighties when I met them. I don’t know why they hired me. I was as surprised then as I am now. I was seventeen, skinnier than a nail, but they took a bet on me and I wasn’t going to waste the opportunity. I worked my fingers to the bone, and the owner’s wife, Maria, would bring lunches to the site. She must have seen how hungry I was. I ate, gained weight, grew stronger, worked harder. I worked for them for three years, got to know them, and then the owner, Pedro, came to me one day and told me he was retiring. That he was leaving the company to me. It was a gift, Libby. A gift. Only, he didn’t see it that way. He said I would take their legacy and turn it into something great. He said that he believed in me.’

Raul’s eyes widened and Libby’s heart felt dangerously soft and aching. ‘No one had ever believed in me before. It was a gift and a burden. I have spent the last ten years trying to justify his faith.’

Libby’s eyes were suspiciously moist. ‘Do you still own the company?’

‘It’s the backbone of all that I do,’ Raul admitted. ‘It’s basically unrecognisable now, but I kept the name, and I think of Maria and Pedro often, I wonder where I would have been if it weren’t for them.’

‘They didn’t have children?’

‘No. They couldn’t.’

Libby grimaced sympathetically. ‘They must have felt that they won the lottery, finding you.’

‘I try to make decisions they would be proud of,’ he said, again looking surprised by the admission. ‘I try to justify the gift they gave me.’

‘Raul, even without them, I have no doubt you would be sitting here right now. There’s just something about you. Pedro and Maria saw it; I do too.’

His eyes flicked to hers then away again, almost as if he didn’t want to believe that.

‘Do you ever think about those guys who stole your boat?’ she asked, sipping her drink, then easing back in her seat as the waitress appeared with their entrees, a delightful little bowl of velouté.

‘Think about them in what way?’

‘Wonder about their lives, what they’re doing now?’

‘I know what they’re doing,’ he answered simply.

She blinked. She supposed it was possible the police had kept Raul in the loop, given they’d tried to steal his boat.

‘Two have been moved into apprenticeship programmes to learn a trade, one is at a boarding school in the city, and another is being helped by a social worker with some childhood trauma he experienced.’

Libby paused, midway through lifting her spoon from the bowl. ‘How do you know this?’

Raul briefly looked uncomfortable.

Libby’s heart sped up. ‘You did that for them, didn’t you?’

‘Punishment of a judicial nature didn’t seem to fit the crime. Besides, I know what kids like that need, and it’s not detention.’

Her stomach was in knots and tears sprang to her eyes quickly.

Raul looked terrified.

‘I’m sorry.’ Libby half laughed. ‘It’s the pregnancy hormones.’ But it wasn’t, and she shook her head, dispelling that. ‘No, it’s more, it’s... I think you did a wonderful thing for them,’ she said softly. ‘Maria and Pedro would be so proud of you.’

Raul looked away before she could see his response, but she knew she’d touched a chord deep within him.

‘It was the right thing to do.’

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