Page 8 of Baby for My Enemy Billionaire

“I guess.”

Katie still doesn’t look confident with what I’ve said. She’s been struggling with her self-confidence off and on since she entered middle school. Unfortunately, kids in middle school were going through puberty, and they tended to turn into nasty little shits. Some girls thought it was a clever idea to gang up on Katie because she was sweet and kind and didn’t like confrontation. I find calling her fat when she clearly wasn’t disgusting.

“I’ll speak to the principal when we get back,” I tell her as I sit on the bed and put on my shoes.

“No,” Katie’s eyes widen. “You can’t!”

“Why not? They’re not going to stop until they’re told to.”

“They’ve talked to them before, and they haven’t stopped. It’s just getting worse.” Katie says and bites her lip. “I’m trying to ignore them, but it’s not easy.”

I hate feeling helpless, and knowing my daughter isn’t happy at school hurts me. I could pull her out and take her elsewhere, but that feels extreme. Right now, I can only report it and hope that works.

I will never understand the mean kids at school and why they are cruel to others.

“Okay, fine. I’ll leave it alone. For now.” I stand up. “Are you ready to go?”

“Yes. I’m starving.” Katie winces and presses a hand to her stomach. “But then I think about what those girls said…”

“Ignore them. They are not worth your time and energy. If you’re hungry, don’t you dare starve yourself. You’ll do yourself more damage in the future.”

Katie is wavering. I pick up my wallet and the room key, shoving both into my pocket.

“As long as you’re still active and match what you take in, you’ll be fine. Just keep yourself busy and eat healthily, as you always do. Right?”

“Right.” Katie sighs. “I’m sorry, Dad. I shouldn’t be thinking about this right now…”

“It’s fine. Just don’t let it get to you.” I wink at her. “Now, shall we go and get some dinner? Afterward, we can go and do some bowling.”

Katie’s face lights up. She does love bowling. I don’t really care for it, but Marsha loved it. I do it to see Katie happy.

We leave our room just as my phone starts ringing. God, have we actually got a signal now? Katie groans as I get it out of my pocket.

“Really, Dad?”

“It’s just Uncle Kenny.”

“But Uncle Kenny works with you. So it’s going to be a business call.” Katie puts her hands on her hips. “I thought you promised.”

“I won’t know until I speak to him. He is my brother.”

I know I should just ignore it. Kenny knows I’m not doing any work calls this weekend, but he tends to ignore it. He’s more of a workaholic than I am.

Seeing the look on Katie’s face, I turn off my phone and shove it back into my pocket.

“There we go. Done. If it’s important, Uncle Kenny will tell me on Monday.”

Katie gives me a small smile, her eyes warming in appreciation.

“Thanks, Dad.”

I can hazard a guess as to why Kenny is calling. In taking over our father’s real estate business, me as the CEO and Kenny as the CFO, we have a lot of contracts to go through. I hadn’t realized that Dad owned so many businesses and buildings. He certainly knew how to get things at the right time. He owned apartment buildings, factories, and even a few retail stores.

We had been dealing with the retail stores before I left for the mountains. There were quite a few Dad had been renting out, and the rent was far lower than it should have been. The land the stores were on was pretty pricey, yet Dad didn’t charge the appropriate rent for the space. I know he did it to keep a good rapport with his tenants, but that was where the revenue went down. He should have raised the rent to what it should be.

Kenny and I were in the process of sorting all of that out. It was the only way they could keep things going as they were. It would upset the tenants, but they had been skirting by paying practically pennies for rent, so they should, at the very least, adjust accordingly. They would understand.

Eventually.

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