The Philanthropist (Trillionaire Boys' Club Book 5)

by Aubrey Parker

  “Have you ordered?”

  “Yes.”

  “What is on the table?”

  “Breadsticks. In a basket, with a white cloth napkin wrapped around them, to keep them warm. A candle in a tiny jar.”

  I nod, even though she can’t see me. She’s not seeing any of this either, and wherever this free association is taking her now, she’s probably never literally been there. This is a kind of guided meditation. A dream she’s dreaming while she’s still awake.

  “What is the server’s name?”

  “Paul.”

  “Describe him.”

  “Short. Balding. With a beard.”

  “Is there anything in your hands?”

  “I’m holding a glass of wine.”

  “Red or white?”

  “White.”

  “Do you love your husband?”

  Rena stops, taken fully off-guard. I resist the urge to say more. I resist the urge to comfort her. I know this hurts, and I’m sorry.

  Her voice hitches. “No.”

  I hear someone in the audience sniff, but I don’t turn to look. “But you did. Once.”

  Rena nods. I see a tear leak down her cheek.

  “Rena?” I nearly whisper. “Who is at the table with you, besides your husband?”

  “My son, Oliver.” Another tear.

  I don’t quite know what this is yet, but I have a very strong suspicion. I don’t want to ask Rena about her pending divorce, though I’m already sure there is one. And I don’t want to ask her about her lover, though I’m pretty sure there’s one of those, too.

  Rena’s problem isn’t the social anxiety she told us is crippling her business when this all began.

  Her problem isn’t even her disintegrating marriage.

  It’s guilt.

  “Look at Oliver’s hand,” I say, leaning close, speaking so quietly the lavaliere mic can barely pick it up. “Is he holding your hand right now?”

  She shakes her head. More tears are falling, and I know we’ve reached the painful crux of this issue.

  “Rena,” I say, “tell me. Where is your son’s hand?”

  “In his father’s,” she says, and then begins to weep.

  Did you enjoy this sample chapter? Be sure to pick up your copy — TRILLIONAIRE BOYS’ CLUB: THE GURU — available now!

  SHIT YOU SHOULD KNOW

  So you’ve stuck with me this long. You’re five books into the series.

  And that’s funny, because my intention with this series was always for it to not truly be a series. I mean: I wanted it to be a bunch of books with a similar style and characters that made cameos in stories other than their own, and in that sense … yes, it would be a series. But you wouldn’t have to read them in order. There’d be no reason to. It’d be a bunch of disconnected narratives with a shared world and shared aesthetic. But not a series series.

  (Basically, my original plan was for The Trillionaire Boys’ Club to be like the Nancy Drew books. Remember Nancy Drew? She had a mystery in each book, but outside of any one book it was like the other books hadn’t existed. It was like, “Hey, Nancy, doesn’t this sound similar to the fifty other mysteries you’ve solved where the least likely person was the culprit? No? Of course not, because NOBODY FUCKING REMEMBERS THEY HAPPENED.”)

  Anyway. That’s not how things for the TBC worked out.

  As I’ve mentioned in other author’s notes, I already had an incomplete series that I loved but couldn’t figure out how to present in any logical way, relative to my other work. But as the TBC began to roll in earnest, I realized the Syndicate had some “grand plan” brewing, and that it’d be cool if I could steer things so that “grand plan” could be what was already happening in my other series.

  So that’s what I did: I wrote more TBC books with that direction in mind, and right now I’m finishing off the mystery series to match.

  And that’s all fine, but what I’m increasingly shocked by is just how deep this particular rabbit hole has gone. Now that it’s all developed a bit more, it’s clear that the TBC series doesn’t just “sort of set up” my next series; it plows right into it. That next series is different from this one, but it’s hard for me to imagine those of you interested in the STORY of the Trillionaire Boys’ Club not being curious to follow the STORY of the coming series even if it is a slight change of direction. Reader follow-through to the new series has begun to feel nearly inevitable to me, and I sure hope you agree.

  Because hell … that other series is where this increasingly awesome “big story” goes.

  I still argue that the Trillionaire Boys’ Club books are standalone novels. There’s a big story building in the background, but each book’s plot definitely centers firmly on the couple in it. You could absolutely read the story you just finished as your only TBC read and come away satisfied, I think. You’d get the feeling that Aiden and Jamie had a history prior to this book and you’d probably be curious where they and those around them went next, but you’d also know that for all intents and purposes, the Jamie/Aiden story arc was over. (And it is. They lived happily ever after.)

  But … yeah. This has definitely become a true series. One you can read out of order, but one that I think a curious reader will really want to follow from beginning to end.

  Because, come on. You know you’re curious about what’s really going on with Anthony Ross, who Aiden spent this entire book manipulating Jamie to get in front of. I’ll further bet that you’re not only curious about Anthony as a hero, but as a person and a revolutionary. What’s he up to? What “plan” of his is the Syndicate so eager to climb aboard?

  And you’re probably getting increasingly curious about some of the shadowy figures mentioned in the background, too. We’ve heard about Alexa Mathis a lot, and we saw how she controlled the Eros board in the Trevor’s Harem series. You met Parker Barnes in that series as well, and poor Parker sort of got his ass handed to him again at the end of this book. But you know they’re up to something, right? You know they won’t stop trying to get whatever it is they want … right?

  All of those things are clues. There ARE answers coming to each and every one of them.

  I guess I can’t just tell a simple story. It’s not in my nature. You’d think I’d know that about myself by now, but I’m just now figuring it out.

  You’ve got one book left in this “first phase” of the Trillionaire Boys’ Club and it’s coming up next, in April — Book 6, The Guru. That’s Anthony Ross’s story, and believe me: it’s fucking incredible. You will NOT want to miss that one. Not only is Anthony an amazing hero, but the “big story” flat-out takes off in that book.

  There will be a “phase two” to the Trillionaire Boys’ Club series, but it won’t continue with Book 7 (The Founder) until late summer or early fall of 2017. Between book 6 and 7, I’ll release that other series I keep mentioning.

  And that series is where you’ll find out what all of these plans (which have slowly percolated since Trevor’s Harem and boiled harder through the TBC books) were driving toward.

  It’s big. It’s so grand in scope, I’ve had to spend months tying three distinct series (yes, three; you’ve only heard about two) together in very precise ways.

  You will FEEL, and deeply.

  You will be amazed.

  And if I do it right, you will see all these loose ends finally come together … across multiple worlds and works … for once and for all.

  (Well, not “for all.” I can’t promise “for all” if I’m being realistic. I don’t have a history of being able to say, “Well, that’s done and we won’t ever see it again.” I tend to tinker and interweave forever.)

  So: Next is The Guru. That’s Anthony Ross’s book, the sixth book in what has clearly become a series, and the final story in “phase one” of the Trillionaire Boys’ Club.

  After that?

  Well. That’s when I try my best to blow your minds.

  - Aubrey

  P.S: I’m copying this P.S. from
the last book’s author’s note, but who cares because it’s only a P.S, right? Anyway: if you’re not already following me and the happenings here at Aubrey Parker HQ (there’s not really an HQ), you may want to friend or follow me on Facebook and join my email list so you don’t miss anything. I promise not to be selfish about our reader-writer relationship.