Page 37 of Interview with the Billionaire

Bridge: Oh.

[Damien is fighting a smile. I assume he is amused by my reaction. I wasn’t expecting an admission.]

Bridge: And have you put that behind you?

Damien: We have.

Bridge: Nikki? Do you agree?

Nikki: I do. But that’s not to say we’ve brushed it under the rug or shoved it in a closet. Like Damien said earlier, that whole thing strengthened us both. We realized how much we wanted to be together. We both knew it, but we were fighting it. And in the end, we came out stronger.

Bridge: Fighting it. But why?

[Damien drags his fingers through his hair, then frowns.]

Damien: I’ve been in love with this woman since the first time I saw her.

Bridge: In Dallas?

Damien: [nods] It was love at first sight, just like in a fairy tale. But everyone tells you fairy tales aren’t real, or at least that Happily Ever After isn’t realistic. So maybe we both let ourselves believe that a little.

Nikki: Except, we were wrong.

Damien: Happily Ever After should be the norm. I walked away from Nikki once because I was a fool. I’ll never do it again. I would give up everything I have for her. For our children.

Bridge: You came close to losing Anne.

Nikki: I won’t talk about that. We said it was off-limits.

Bridge: All right. Let’s talk about Ash. Nikki, how was Damien after Ash made his announcement at your wedding? And then after he confirmed paternity?

Nikki: How do you think? He was shocked. Devastated.

Damien: I’d just learned that I missed out on an entire lifetime of one of my children.

Bridge: Who you’d fathered when you were a child yourself.

Damien: Doesn’t make him any less mine. And we don’t need to keep walking this path.

Nikki: No, we don’t, because the bottom line is that Damien did the right thing. Ash is his son. He’s part of our family. And we’re all trying to make up for lost time.

Bridge: And you’re okay with that. How Ash was conceived? Who his mother was?

Nikki: Okay with it? What happened to Sofia and Damien was vile. But that’s hardly Ash’s fault. It’s Richter’s. And Jeremiah’s. And you have no right to suggest—

[Damien puts a hand on her arm. She settles.]

Bridge: There’ve been other paternity claims.

Nikki: And there may be more. Shockingly, my husband was never a monk.

Bridge: Does that frighten you?

Damien: I think it’s time to back off this line, Lena.

Bridge: I’m not trying to harass you. I want to understand the way you think. The extent to which you two are a unit.

Damien: The full extent.