Mrs. Harrison had entered her normally empty home to find the light on in her husband's office. She should have known he'd come home to gloat.

She went to her bedroom to collect something before she came down the stairs and threw open the door. "So, is the deal done?"

Mr. Harrison pulled his eyes away from his near-complete collection of Gwendolyn Dupree's first novel, Meeting of the Hearts, and smiled at his wife. "It is."

"Do you feel satisfied now? Vindicated? Is it all you ever dreamed of and more?"

"I don't particularly care for your sarcastic tone, Amelia, but other than how easy the transaction took place, yes, I feel all of those things."

Mr. Harrison grabbed his wife and pulled her into his arms. He went to kiss her but had a manilla envelope slammed into his chest instead.

"What's this?"

"Open it!" Amelia demanded.

His eyes never left hers but he slit open the envelope and pulled out the paperwork within.

"You can't be serious."

"Oh, but I am. I'm divorcing you. I have the best lawyers your money can buy and they tell me I can easily take half of everything you own if we go to court, including your shares in the various companies you've acquired."

"Why are doing this?"

"Keep reading?" she told him. Amelia could tell when he got to the part, she wanted him to read as he suddenly grabbed hold of his chair for support.

"You lying little..."

"Carefully there... you stand to lose everything with your next words," Amelia warned.

"I'll not give you a damn thing. I'll fight you and that bastard son of yours. You'll not see a dime of my money. I've already removed the clause about his acquiring the company upon his marriage. I know that was Dupree's plan all along. Get your son to fall in love with her and then take it all. Well, I worked too long and too hard to have that happen."

"Don't you mean you lied, cheated, and swindled your way to the top?"

"Fine words from the woman who claims to love me."

"I have never loved you. Who could love someone so vile, so full of hate? You were the means to an end. I had a child to support and you were looking to marry out of vengeance for the one you lost. Stupidly thinking she'd care. Why would she when she had a wonderful man like William to love her?"

Mr. Harrison's hand flew up to strike her and she prepared for the impact but it never came as her son appeared next to her holding that hand back with an iron grip.

"You dare strike my mother?"

Mr. Harrison wrenched his hand free. He rubbed his wrist.

"Have you told him?" Mr. Harrison smirked.

Amelia remained stoic.

"You haven't, have you?"

"I know you signed the deal, Father. I'm here to buy the company back from you."

Mr. Harrison let out a laugh that sounded more like a bark in response.

"You're going to offer me my own money in return for my company?"

"If you were ever a father to me you would have known I have been paying attention to your lessons. I'm damn good at business and I've made investments with the money I've earned on my own. I don't need you or your money. I was driven by my need to no longer be your slave who does your bidding. So, do we have a deal or not?"

"Let me think... not," Mr. Harrison said sitting on his throne.

He snapped up the divorce papers and tore them in half and in half again. "You both think you can just leave me. Walk away like I'm nothing!" he emphasized his last word by pounding his fist on his desk.

"I came from nothing. I spent my life building my empire but I'll be damned if I'm going to turn it over to some whore and her bastard son."

Quentin looked at his mother in confusion. Mr. Harrison chortled again.

"I knew you didn't tell him. Look at his face. That's right. Your mother is whore, who got herself knocked up and duped me into marrying her so you would live the life of luxury as my son."

Quentin knew the words were meant to hurt him but he suddenly felt elated. He laughed, surprising them both. "You're not my father?"

"Apparently, from what your mother just told me, no."

"Is this true?" he asked his mother Suddenly, her relationship with this man finally made sense.

"No, he's not your father," Mrs. Harrison admitted to her son.

Quentin laughed again and embraced his mother and kissed her. "Thank God!"

Both of his parents looked at him stunned. "My whole life I've been striving to not be anything like you. Fearing that somehow genetics or rearing would make it so, only to discover you never had a chance of making me into you. I will never be you!"

"Really? You're not running your own little con with Ms. Dupree? You're so scared she'll drop you the moment she learns the truth you're now here to bargain for her father's company but I won't sell it.

Dupree had lost his mind over a woman. This is why I've told you, time and time again. Women are fine for a distraction, for pleasure, but don't let one in. They will reduce you to nothing in seconds if you give them your heart.

Look at her father. Years and dedication are thrown away because he never took Gwendolyn to Paris," Mr. Harrison scoffed as he said this, gathering up the divorce papers and throwing them into the trash bin.

"You're better off without her. Trust me. Women make you weak," Mr. Harrison said, staring at his wife.

Quentin turned on him. "Women don't make you weak. You're a coward and a cheat. You care for nothing but yourself. You wouldn't know real emotion if it slapped you in the face. Billie is an amazing woman. I love her and I will marry her and when I do, I will gift her this entire company as a wedding present."

"You think I would be fool enough to leave that clause in about your inheritance knowing that was your plan all along? She's been playing you for fool this entire time, seeing her old boyfriend, behind your back. She doesn't love you. She's never loved you."

His father tossed a bunch of photographs onto his desk from a drawer.

"You know him, don't you? Her ex? Your best friend?" Mr. Harrison said. "I tried to warn you. I'm the only one who's been honest with you. Maybe someday you'll come to appreciate all I've done for you."

Quentin drifted over to the table. There in black and white were images of Billy with another man, holding hands, being kissed and that man was Donavan. Quentin left the pictures where they lay, he knew as much from Donavan himself that Billie was seeing him. Yet to see it in black and white hurt way more.

Quentin's eyes looked up to meet Harrison's. "So, you won't sell?"

"No."

"I'm giving you a one-time-only chance to save what little you have left. If you refuse me, you will, within one year's time lose everything. You certain you won't reconsider?"

Mr. Harrison scoffed at Quentin's threat. "Get out of my home. You're dead to me."

Quentin pressed his lips together and nodded his head. He held his hand out to his mother. "Are you coming?"

Quentin's mother took his hand in hers and they left that house, Mr. Harrison, and that life behind together.

"Are you alright?" he asked his mother once he had her in the car. Quentin gave the driver his address. "You'll stay at my home until you have a chance to find a place of your own or you can choose to remain with me the choice is yours. No one will ever tell you what to do again."

"Quentin those pictures."

Quentin looked away and out the window. His mother turned his face towards her.

"Don't believe what you see with your eyes, even they can deceive you. Billie told me she didn't know you and Donavan were friends. She met him in the lobby of the co-op when she went looking for you. You had a fight?"

Quentin thought of that day. That night he made love to her only to have her turn him away in the morning. Maybe he was a fool to pursue her.

She had coffee with him and the next time she saw him he coerced her into seeing him, offering her something she valued, a book from her mother. It was the first book her mother ever written, given to him by your ... by Harrison. He collected every copy ever made to keep them out of the hands of Mr. Dupree. It was the story of how Gwendolyn and William met. A true love story but your father was written as the villain. Of course, the names were changed but he knew the truth. The truth of how Gwendolyn really saw him, felt about him.

Quentin knew how much Billie loved those books. What they meant to her. Still, it needled him. "But why lie to me about it?"

"Are you saying you've been entirely truthful with her?" his mother posed.

Quentin knew he hadn't. He knew the deal was coming to a close. He thought he had more time, but the truth was he didn't know. He gambled and he was wrong.

"One shouldn't be casting stones when their hands are just as soiled," his mother advised. 

"I get it. I only hope when I tell her I don't lose everything," Quentin said to his mother.

"If you do then Billie is not the woman you or I believe her to be."

She gave her son's cheek a kiss and slid over to open the door now that they were outside of his home. "Don't let her get away, son."

"I don't plan on it."

"I've got a lawyer to call and divorce proceedings to arrange," his mother said with a sad smile. Quentin knew now that she did not really love the man, she called her husband but after that many years with someone, it still had to hurt that you were never capable of earning their love in return.

Quentin stared at his phone. Billie stared back at him with her come hither look. He failed her. How was going to face her knowing he failed her? There was never a chance. She was right all along.

***

After about an hour's drive, Billie ended up outside of town. She pulled up at the factory that was fully operational, parked her car, and headed to the office of the head engineer.

She knocked on the door.

"Come in."

"Ms. Dupree? So, to what do I owe the pleasure of this impromptu meeting?"

"I figured out the problem," Billie said to the man sitting behind the desk. He sat up a little straighter.

"You did! Don't toy with me. What was it? What was my error?"

"A simple transposition mistake in the numbers. I figured it out when I realized the formula was divisible by nine."

"Are you serious?!" The man stood up and took the papers that Billy procured for him from her bag. He glanced over the numbers.

"I'll be damned," he looked up at her his smile stretched ear to ear. "You've done it! You figure out the last piece of the puzzle!"

"So, we can proceed?"

"Yes! Definitely!" the man said with a chuckle. "My God. I can't believe it. It was so simple and the answer was right in front of me."

"Sometimes you have to step away from a problem for the answer to become clear," Billie said and her own words struck her. "I'm taking a little vacation. How long do you think it will be before we have a test product?"

"3 months thereabouts."

"Make it 2. I'll take care of the promotion of the product. You're about to become a very rich man Mr. Davis."

He hadn't stopped smiling at Billie since she handed him the papers. "You've already made my family's dream come true. This time with them is invaluable."

"So, Travis and Oliva are having fun?"

"They are having a blast, Anna, too. I'm joining them tomorrow to see a musical based on one of their favorite kids' films."

"You know if we go to press with this product you will be needed here full time?"

"I know. I've discussed it with Anna. While the kids have been having fun, she's been scouting out homes and school districts. It will be quite a change for us, but well worth it, I believe."

"So, this vacation? Going anywhere nice?" Mr. Davis asked.

"Paris," Billie told him. "It's a trip that is long overdue."

"You and your fiancé will have a lovely time there."

Billy toyed with her ring, "I'm going alone."

"Alone?"

Billie didn't like the look of concern that crossed his features.

"Something has come up. My father has sold the company. This product will not be a part of Dupree Industries. I will be personally financing its production and distribution. Just give me a chance to work out the details, okay?"

"Yeah, sure," Mr. Davis said still stunned by the news Billie imparted. He had full faith that she'd pulled this off but he couldn't imagine what must be going through her mind now that her father sold the company.

"Don't look at me like that Stephen. I've come too far to fall apart now. We will make this a success. This invention of ours will revolutionize the industry. H-Tech won't stand a chance."

"I'm all for competition but are you certain this is a war you want to win?"

"What do you mean?" Billie asked.

"I mean you seemed happy, Billie. For the first time since you and I met and started working on this project. I don't know what happened between you and Quentin but happiness like that is hard to come by."

"Thank you for your advice. I'll take it into consideration," Billie said although she had no intention of doing so. Billie was surprised she could say it with such ease. She had become rather adept at lying, since meeting Quentin. The key she gathered was wanting the other party to believe in what you were saying more than you believe in it yourself.

"I'm glad to hear it. He's a good guy, Mr. Harrison. I hope you work things out between you."

Billie smiled but it looked out of place. "You can reach me on my cell phone, should you need me for any reason."

"Alright. In 2 months, we will have a tested prototype for you to release to the press."

"Thank you, Stephen."

"You're welcome."