The Billionaire’s Marriage Promise
(Clean Fake Marriage Romance Series Book 3)
Melody Archer
Copyright ©December 2019 by Lorna F. Kopp
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the written permission of the publisher.
The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews. The reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form whether electronic, mechanical or other means, known hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage retrieval system, is forbidden without the written consent of the publisher and/or author.
Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author. This edition if published by Lorna F. Kopp. First eBook Edition: © December 2019. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the creation of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
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Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
About the Author
Chapter One
“You have millions of loyal followers worldwide. It’s plain to see you’ve helped a lot of people turn their lives around with your online mentoring programs, books and events.” Winny O, the most popular International daytime talk show host sat across from Gabe Stevenson as loud cheers from the studio audience echoed off the walls.
He smiled and shifted slightly, uncomfortable with the praise. He nodded thanks to the listeners, before turning his blue-eyed gaze back to his host.
Winny O’s unwavering gaze swept over him.
Gabe returned a casual smile, trying to hide his shaky hands. He gently squeezed the paper clip hidden in the palm of his hand. It was his usual reminder to focus so nervous jitters didn’t get the better of him.
“I feel like most of what we know about you is from your programs. But most of us don’t know the real Gabe Stevenson. Why don’t you take a few minutes to share your story?” Winny O’s brown eyes held a challenge that was familiar to the millions of viewers who watched her weekly show.
“That’s a tall order, but I’ll do my best.” Gabe leaned back on the soft studio chair and adjusted the sleeves of his blue designer sweater.
This was always the toughest part of any interview.
“I was born and raised in Paradise Lake, a small town not too far from Seattle. I was the middle child of five sons born to the best parents we could ask for. My brothers and I had a great childhood spending time doing activities and having fun with each other and with our mom and dad. But, all that ended suddenly one day when my dad died of a heart attack. I was thirteen years old.” Emotion clogged his throat and he swallowed convulsively as memories invaded his senses. He stared down at his feet for a moment and rubbed the back of his neck willing himself to regain control of churning emotions.
Taking a deep breath he looked up again, blinking back the tears that filled his eyes as he thought of his dad. “His death was sudden and unexpected. The doctor said it was caused by stress. We learned that his business partner had taken all the money out of their shared accounts and he’d found a way to access my dad’s personal account as well. We were wiped out. It was a really difficult time for all of us.”
“I bet it was.” Winny O’s brows puckered in concern and she looked at her audience before returning her gaze to him. “Did you go through period of time where you asked a lot of questions about what happened?”
Gabe shifted uncomfortably in his chair. “Yes. I had many questions for many years.”
“Would you share a few of them?”
“Sure. Even though I was thirteen years old, I went through self-blame and wondered what I could have done differently to help my Dad not be so vulnerable like he was. I also remembered feeling back then, like there was something I didn’t like about my Dad’s business partner. Back then I should’ve paid more attention, acted on those misgivings and did more investigating. Maybe I could’ve prevented the stress my Dad suffered and maybe he wouldn’t have had a heart attack.” His voice cracked and Gabe swallowed back the emotion that clogged his throat. Even though he tried to stop it, a stray tear escaped one eye anyway.
Winny O silently handed him a box of tissues, waiting for a few moments before she asked, “Did any of your questions and fears from what you saw your Dad go through, contribute to the reasons you began your self-development training?”
“Absolutely. I wanted to do whatever I could to help other people have the help they needed so they would be better prepared for life and to overcome any trouble they would face.”
“I can understand that.” She nodded. “Please, continue with the rest of your story.”
Gabe looked out at the studio audience before turning back to Winny. “After the police did their investigation, my dad’s partner was convicted of the crimes and went to jail. But, that didn’t change the fact that my father was still gone from our lives. We were left scrambling trying to put the pieces back together of our shattered family.” Gabe hesitated as he heard compassionate sighs from the studio audience. “It was especially hard for my mom to make ends meet, so me and my four brothers helped out. My two older brothers, Adam and Jack started working full-time and I found part-time work after school. I was thirteen at the time.”
“What work did you find at such a young age?”
“I started hauling newspapers after school for a couple years. By the time I reached High School, I was working for the local TV station. I was a student reporter who was interviewing people mostly for my High School. The TV station wanted to get a bird’s eye view of the student’s thoughts on different issues that affected the town.”
Winny O smiled. “Sounds like the perfect job for you.”
“It really was. The only drawback was when my girlfriend at the time, asked me to interview members of her book club. I showed up and she was the only person there. It turned out it wasn’t really an interview for the book club she wanted. My girlfriend admitted that she was jealous of my growing popularity in High School and in our small community. She wanted to be on television. She wanted to be famous. Needless to say, our relationship didn’t last. I couldn’t be in a relationship with someone I couldn’t trust.” Gabe grimaced and looked at Winny O.
Winny shook her head from side to side, her brows puckering as she turned to their studio audience. Looking back at Gabe, she signaled for the cameraman to zoom in and get a closer shot.
“It’s seems like you’ve experienced a few times in your life when people you trusted maneuvered their way into your life in a way that made life difficult.”
“I guess that’s true. I wish I would’ve known back then what I know now.”
“Most of us I’m sure would agree that hindsight helps us see things clearer.” Winny O looked out at her audience and sighed. “But, let’s switch to something more recent. Not long ago, I read in Seattle’s business magazine that your date to the Benefit Gala told a reporter that you were getting married. Is there any truth to that?”
“Sadly, no. We hadn’t got to t
he point in our relationship where we had talked about marriage. Needless to say, we are no longer together.” Gabe expelled a breath in as he remembered how Maddie had burst into his interview with a reporter at the Benefit Gala and casually hinted they would be married soon. It really frustrated him when people felt like he could be so easily managed.
“What experiences motivated you to start your career?” His host cocked her head slightly to the side, her gaze intensely focused on him.
Gabe expelled a slow breath. “For the most part, yes. After my dad died when I was thirteen, I was devastated. I’d just lost my best friend and mentor and the man who encouraged me everyday. Along with that, the realization that the man my dad trusted had betrayed him was really difficult to process.” Gabe shifted uncomfortably. “I wanted to grow up to be like the man I most admired, my father. But, I also wanted to learn how to do whatever it took to prevent people from their ability to sabotage my family. That led me to spending time at our local Library whenever I could to read all about how to become a better person and develop a success mindset. I started learning as a teenager and I continued to learn until finally in college I began writing about personal development in a blog and talked about it through podcasts and videos.”
“According to comments from thousands of people around the world, you’ve certainly helped many people and given a lot of them hope. I think that speaks for itself.”
“Thanks so much Winny. That means a lot coming from you.” Gabe smiled as he reflected. “What I really want to do, is to help as many people as possible to learn how they can live each day with joy, to love themselves better and to help them reach out to others to make their dent in the world.”
Loud clapping from the studio audience filled the room.
Gabe nodded and smiled warmly. Their show of appreciation for his work meant a lot to him.
“I see your family is here. From their big smiles, I can see they’re proud of you.”
He looked at his mom, his brothers and their wives and his grandparents who were seated in the front row. They nodded as the camera panned towards them. Gabe saw his mom was a little misty-eyed, while his other family members had big smiles on their faces.
Gratefulness for his family welled up inside him. “Everyday I’m thankful for their love and support.”
“Support from family is so important.” Gabe look at the audience to see them nod vigorously. Winny O shifted back to him and the camera zoomed in for a close-up. “Looks like you have almost everything, except the one thing most men want.”
Bracing himself for Winny’s next question, something compelled him to ask. “What’s that?”
“A woman to love.” She paused and he squirmed a little more, becoming really uncomfortable where these questions were going. “Tell us Gabe, have you ever had a serious relationship or been married?” Brown eyes challenged his so he couldn’t look away. Gabe could feel prickly heat rising up to his cheeks. He should’ve known his host would dig deeper and ask the one question he’d been able to avoid in most interviews.
He responded with the only thing he could think of. “No I haven’t. It’s never been a priority.”
“Hmm.” She looked him over as if doubting the truth of his words. “Is it true that your marital status might be changing soon?”
Gabe’s neck and cheeks felt like they were on fire. He looked over at the crowd who seemed to be waiting for his answer with baited breath. Turning back to Winny O, he decided to play dumb. “What do you mean?”
“Well, I read last month’s article in one of Seattle’s most popular magazines questioning whether you’d be single for long. I’m sure there are many single women out there wondering the same thing. So I wanted to ask you, are the rumours true that your great-grandfather Walker Stevenson setup his will in a way that required all five of his great-grandsons to marry by their twenty-seventh birthday to receive their inheritance?”
Gabe uttered a low groan. He should’ve realized that at least one reporter would have found out the details of great-grandfather’s will. It seemed like he was doomed to answer the one question he hoped to avoid. “Yes absurd as it sounds, it’s true.”
“How long do you have until the deadline?”
“A little over six weeks.” Gabe had given himself more time to look for a wife then his older brothers had done. He liked to plan things out ahead of time. Yet, even though he’d been looking for a woman to marry for almost a year now, no one had appealed to him. Now, he only had six weeks left to find a wife.
“So, not a whole lot of time to find a woman you want to marry.”
Gabe grimaced and nodded, feeling heat crawl up his cheeks. He really didn’t like where this conversation was going.
“If you don’t mind my asking, what do you inherit if you decide to go along with his wishes?”
It looked like Winny O was focused on the topic of his upcoming marriage and he was stuck answering her questions. “Well, Grand decided to give me his Island. Most folks around Paradise Lake know the place as Walker’s Island. It’s about an hour away from Paradise Lake. The only thing there are trees, Grand’s hunting lodge and a small cottage.” Gabe winced inwardly at the sighs coming from the crowd. He really didn’t want to talk about Grand’s ridiculous will requirement, but it looked like that Pandora’s box was now wide open.
“Sounds like a great place to get away from the bustle of everyday life.”
“Yeah, it’s great. I have great memories of fishing and sailing every summer with my Dad, Granddad and Grand when I was a kid.” A warmth filled Gabe as he remembered the pleasure of sailing with his Dad, enjoying being on the water just beyond Walker’s Island.
Winny O smiled broadly. “With so many great memories attached to Walker’s Island, have you thought about agreeing with your great-grandfather’s last wishes?”
He turned toward the audience and cringed at all the wide-eyed gazes that stared back at him. Suddenly Gabe wished he could disappear. Why had Winny O chosen to focus her interest on whether or not he was getting married? He squeezed the paperclip in his hand once more reminding himself to play it cool and smile.
“I’m thinking about it.”
“What’s stopping you from saying yes?”
“I’ve never found the one woman whom I love and want to spend the rest of my life. I’m starting to doubt she’s out there.”
She leaned a little closer. “Maybe some of those fears you mentioned earlier are holding you back. Maybe you’ll discover when you let go of your fear of being vulnerable, you’ll truly be able to let yourself fall in love with a woman and marry her.”
A knot coiled in his stomach at her words. He didn’t want to admit that any of her words were true.
It wasn’t fair that his host was shining a magnifying glass on all his weaknesses. But he remembered this was exactly what made people choose Winny O’s daytime TV show over many others. She was very good at getting down to the heart of things.
Yet, he still doubted there was a woman out there who wouldn’t try to manipulate him. He doubted there was a woman who wouldn’t demand more than he had to give.
Before Gabe could comment she continued, “Are you telling me you have never fallen in love?”
Heat prickled the skin at his neck, sending another wave of irritating discomfort down his body. Maybe it was time he answered Winny O’s questions a little differently. Maybe just this once he could veer her off track. “Not recently. But, years ago there was one girl that I loved and asked to marry me.”
“Oh, do tell.”
Gabe enjoyed the moment filled with gasps and wide-eyed surprise. “This girl was beautiful with long blond hair. She lived by the beach and was always out searching in the water for another rock or plant. I taught her how to sail on my sailboat and she taught me how to find wonderful plants and creatures under the water. We became good friends.”
“Go on. You said you asked her to marry you.”
“She was scared of being alone, a
ll she had were her aunts who were getting on in age. I told her I would marry her and then she wouldn’t need to be alone or scared.” Gabe grinned as the studio audience as he heard their oos and ahs.
“Did she agree?”
“She told me, it would be hard to wait, but that she’d marry me.”
Winny raised an eyebrow, waiting.
Gabe reminded himself that honesty needed to prevail. “I should fess up and tell you this girl was six years old at the time.”
Winny O sent him a I-can’t-believe-you-just did-that grimace. He could hear his brothers chuckle from the front row, but no one else seemed to understand his sense of humor. For a fleeting moment, Gabe thought of the scared little girl who had captured his heart all those years ago. He wondered how Rory was doing now. It had been years since he’d last seen her.
“Well, maybe that’s where you should start in your search for a bride, Gabe.” His host leaned back on her chair and winked, then turned to glance at their audience. Soon they began to chant ‘yes’ and Winny O looked at him with a big grin. “Go find this girl. See if she will agree to marry you now that she’s all grown up.”
The corners of his lips turned up slowly. “Maybe I will.”
Winny O nodded and said, “Thanks Gabe for joining us here on the Winny O show.”
“Thanks for your kind invitation. It was my pleasure.”
His host looked directly into the camera. “There you have it, folks. That was Gabe Stevenson, also known as the number one personal development mentor in the nation. Keep an eye on Gabe in the months to come. He might surprise us yet, and suddenly find and marry the woman he loves.”
Gabe Stevenson managed to keep his hundred watt white smile intact. His Grandmom had coined the phrase to describe his smile.
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