Her Forbidden Millionaire

The white hair flowed down past her shoulders, without a single strand out of place, she smiled. “My husband always liked you. He used to say it’s a wonderful thing how someone who doesn’t care all that much for money could make us so much of it.”

“Well, my job is to protect what you have so that you have it a long time. I don’t always make the best decisions but that just comes with the territory. I’m happy that he was happy about how I managed everything.” Phoebe smiled.

“And that’s what brings me in here today. I want to thank you for that wonderful bouquet you sent. It was absolutely beautiful. Next, I know you’re busy and whatnot, but Jameson told me that if something like this were to happen to come straight to you. He said to trust you with the assets and to work with my estate attorney and accountant to set up trust funds for my grandbabies. I have more than enough for myself so don’t you go worrying about me. I don’t mind if you assign one of these youngins in here to the file but only if you pick them. I don’t want nobody you don’t trust touching anything. They got to learn, and I’m patient. And make sure to tell them they’re not getting your commission, they will get the one they’ve earned.”

Phoebe smiled as the old woman stood from the chair. “I’ll be sure to make that explicitly clear. Now I know you didn’t come all the way down here just to tell me that.”

The old woman waved her hand at Phoebe. “Not at all, sweetie, you’re just a stop along the way. I got a few other errands to run and wanted to be sure you got to work on this right away.”

“Thank you. It was lovely seeing you today and I hope to see you again soon.” Phoebe smiled again. The old woman sure knew how to change her mood. She wasn’t even thinking about Lincoln Gold or his snobby lawyer.

Pam had called a few moments later asking Phoebe about the brunch. Phoebe gave her the play by play which ended with Pam shouting into the phone, “That bi*ch is fu*king unprofessional! How dare she? Especially after that ass hat, Clayton, got away with saying that. I can’t wait for him to get fired, or better yet, for one of these men around here to be actual men and whoop his disrespectful ass!”

“Girl, calm down,” Phoebe chuckled. “I’m doing what I can. I’m typing up a letter to FINRA right now.”

“Who are they again?” Pam asked.

“The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. Think of the Bar Association for lawyers. I mean until he gets physical, it’s not like I can have him arrested. I’m making a complaint with his company’s Compliance team too. They’re going to get hit with lawsuits if he keeps it up,” Phoebe stated.

“Yeah, that is if they haven’t already. Somehow I feel like this won’t be the first complaint against him,” Pam said.

Phoebe chuckled a bit. “Yeah, and it probably won’t be the last either.”

The next few days flew by as Phoebe tried to put the thoughts of losing out on a huge client from her mind. Her competitiveness wouldn’t let her feel good about failing to land Lincoln Gold for the company. The publicity and the money would have been good. She couldn’t believe she let that woman chase her out of that brunch.

Then Lincoln’s confident smile flashed before her. He was handsome and had such a warm demeanor. She was almost disappointed that she hadn’t taken him up on his offer to go out but her ego couldn’t handle it. Besides, men with lots of money often came with lots of problems, and she didn’t want any of them. So when she saw Bobby standing by her office before she’d even got settled in for work that day, her heart began to race. He had a thick file in his hand and an expression she couldn’t read.

“What’s wrong?” she asked with an annoyed expression on her face.

“Nothing, why do you look like that?” he asked with his expression changing into a half smile.

“Because you’re standing at my office door before eight in the morning with a file as thick as the Yellow Pages with an expression I couldn’t read. Something looked wrong, so I asked,” Phoebe told him as she tossed her jacket onto her chair.

Bobby placed the file on her desk. “He’s all yours.”

“Who?” she asked with her eyebrow raised.

“Lincoln Gold,” Bobby said with a smirk.

“Get the hell out of here! That crabby wench actually let him pick us!” Phoebe exclaimed. She wasn’t sure whether she was excited that she landed him despite Clayton and Sheryll or that she would get to see Lincoln again. Her joy suddenly faded as she sat down to look at the file in front of her. “I don’t have the time for this, Bobby. I can’t manage a new, high profile client.”

“Nope!” Bobby pressed against her desk and leaned in toward her. “You were explicitly told that if you landed Lincoln Gold, he would be your personal project to get his finances back on track. I can’t risk the reputation of this company on anyone else taking this job. He’s all yours! I hate to bring it up, but Mr. Aimsley passed away which means you have an opening. Life goes on, Phoebe. Let’s get this money!” Bobby probably would have cart wheeled out of her office if he could.

Phoebe was mad that he threw her deceased client in her face. She wasn’t ready to move on. She wasn’t ready to learn someone else’s crazy money habits and vices. Most of all, she wasn’t ready for Lincoln Gold to be in her presence.

“Oh, and Phoebe.” Bobby knocked and poked his head back in. “He’s on his way in. So brush up on that file.”

“Bobby!” Phoebe called out but her friend and boss was on his way down the hall already. The file was being held together by a series of thick rubber bands as she peeled them off. As she thumbed through the numerous amounts of paperwork and files she saw business after business after business… all of them failures. It almost made her sad to wonder how many people had to suffer from the closings of all of these establishments. She made up her mind right then and there to make sure she wouldn’t fail him.

Phoebe grabbed one of the interns to make a copy of the file and bring it back to her immediately. She wanted to be sure she had everything backed up just in case something fell out or needed to be changed later. The intern did as he was told and came back in no time. She dropped the copy of the file in her desk, but while she was trying to get the drawer closed, she heard someone stepping into her office. Thinking it was Bobby, she started yelling out while fighting with the drawer. “Hey, do you think he’s going to come in here with an entourage? You know how those celebrity types do.”

“I don’t think so,” the voice said, but it didn’t sound like Bobby. Phoebe poked her head up from behind her desk to see Lincoln Gold standing in her office.