Page 15 of Remember That Time

Damn.

"I'll be right there." I hung up and stuck my phone back in my pocket before looking at Gianni. "I need to head in to hand over the big fat check I wrote for the fundraiser. Apparently, they want a face to go with it."

Gianni nodded.

"It was very nice meeting you, Gianni Galeazzi. Maybe we'll meet again someday."

The sooner, the better.

I very reluctantly walked away and headed back inside. I wanted to stay and talk to Gianni some more. He intrigued me in more ways than one, and that was rare for me. I usually found people to be very tedious. Long conversations made me want to strangle people.

I was not a patient person.

When I reached the patio doors and glanced back, Gianni was still sitting there. The forlorn look on his face made me wonder what he was thinking so hard about. Whatever it was, it obviously made him sad.

That didn't sit right with me.

Knowing I had no other choice at this point, I left Gianni to his thoughts and walked into the event venue. Lester met me just inside the doors and led me over to the staging area.

The next hour was an hour of time I would never get back in my life. By the time I made my way to the car, my eyeballs ached so much I wanted to gouge them out with a toothpick from one of those stupid cocktail wieners.

I hated those damn things.

"Lester, get me everything on Gianni Galeazzi."

"Yes, sir."

"Do it quietly," I directed. I didn't want the man to know I was looking into his background. At least, not until I was ready to tell him.

"Of course, sir."

Lester sounded like a "yes man" but he wasn't. He was just very, very good at his job. He got things done in a timely manner when I asked for them. I wasn't sure where all of his connections came from, but in the five years he had worked for me, he had never let me down.

"Any news on the pregnancy test?" I asked.

"The test has been verified, but whether it is your child or not remains to be seen. We're unable to test paternity until we know who this person is. I'm still trying to track down who sent the letter, but until they contact us again, the lead is pretty cold."

"Let me know the second you have something." As much as I wanted to get rid of whoever this was trying to blackmail me—and I was positive that was what they were doing—I didn't want it affecting me trying to get to know Gianni.

"Yes, sir."

The rest of the ride back to my penthouse was quiet. Lester worked on his tablet and I read through contracts and project notes. Just because it was evening didn't mean my work day had ended.

That was the thing that most people didn't understand about the rich. I had to scratch my way to the top one dollar at a time, but it took working almost twenty-four hours a day for years toreach this point. I still tended to keep long hours simply because I was bored and had no social life.

I did not consider tonight's charity fundraiser a social event. It was a "see and be seen" event where people went to pander to their fellow rich people, look good, and make connections. Very few of them actually cared where the money they donated was going.

I didn't much care either beyond having Lester make sure that the money was actually going to fund the children's hospital. I hated organizations that raised money and only sent a little to what they were actually raising the money for, using the rest for "administrative costs", and fifty percent of those were bogus.

By the time we pulled up in front of my building, I was ready to grab a drink and call it a day. I climbed out of the back of the car and waved Lester away, telling him to head home, before walking inside.

My penthouse was on the top floor, which allowed me an unobstructed view of Upper New York Bay and the Statue of Liberty. It also allowed me to wave my keycard and get an express ride to the penthouse on the elevator. No waiting for it to stop on every floor.

Vasso, my butler, cook, and all around handyman at home, was waiting for me when the elevator doors opened. He was the only person I allowed free reign in my house. I'd brought him over from Greece ten years ago and he'd been with me ever since.

"Good evening, sir," he stated as he took my coat.

"Evening, Vasso."

---