Page 69 of Billionaire Hunt

He folded his arms across his chest and crossed his legs at the ankles. “A few seconds later they noticed me standing there. The guy screwing her jumped up and scrambled off of her when he spotted me. I didn’t recognize him and didn’t even bother to stop him. All I could see was her. He was barely a blimp on my radar. He was no one to me, but she was everything. My world.”

I didn’t dare interrupt.

“So, after that, I threw myself into my work. Got my contractor’s license. I started flipping houses. I started acquiring more real estate. I made several good investments. Started my own company. I was so driven. Driven to prove her wrong.”

“Prove her wrong?” I didn’t quite understand.

“She blamed me for her cheating. She said that she was unhappy...that she deserved more than what some high-school graduate could give her.”

“I’m so sorry, Erik.”

He shrugged. “I felt emasculated. I’m not going to lie. I thought I was doing all I could to provide a good life for my wife and when she unceremoniously told me that I wasn’t, I just felt like a failure. And I blamed myself. I definitely blamed myself. I said to myself, if only I had made more money, been able to give her more things, took her on fancy trips, she would have been happy.”

“As someone who was cheated on, I get it, but she made a decision to cheat instead of leave. If she was unhappy, she should have just left.”

He shrugged. “I figured she would have eventually, she just needed a way out. I knew after she had graduated from college that we had grown apart, but I was still holding on to that memory of that person I had known and loved when I was 14.”

“Did you ever find out who the guy was that she was sleeping with?”

He nodded. “Turned out the guy she was sleeping with was her boss. She married him later. I heard they have a few kids together.”

“Doesn’t it suck when your ex isn’t miserable without you?”

He laughed. “Yeah. I was sort of hoping a sink hole would come and swallow her up, but no such luck.”

“Yeah, I secretly hoped Wyatt’s special parts would fall off.”

Erik grimaced. “Yikes.”

I giggled and he sat down next to me. “So, we both were cheated on.”

“Yep.”

“For some reason, your story seems worse. More of a betrayal.”

“I don’t know...I guess in some ways. But I made a mistake in marrying the person I thought I knew instead of the person she actually was.”

“I understand that. I married Wyatt because I thought I should. I thought I was proving something to my mom and dad, like, ‘Look, Mom and Dad, I did it without you guys. I graduated from college, I’m marrying an engineer. You not loving me didn’t faze me! I’m successful. I even have my own company.’” I shook my head, regretting my past decisions, but understanding that they made me who I was.

“You lived your life for someone else, when you really thought you were thumbing your nose at them. I get it. I became a billionaire to impress my ex who cheated on me and it got me nowhere. I’m struggling to start a family and she already has one. Money didn’t bring her back to me or give me the family I wanted.”

“Same here,” I said with a sigh. “I thought I was building a future, stability. And instead I ended up broke, alone and kind of, sort of homeless.”

“We’re quite a pair, aren’t we?”

“We’re dysfunctional and I’m tired of being dysfunctional. I want to be a little selfish for a change and just focus on what makes me happy instead of trying to impress or prove something to others.”

He smiled. “I don’t think it’s selfish to live for yourself instead of others.”

I thought about that. Maybe that’s what Uncle Niko had been trying to share with me all along.

Erik reached for my chin then and tilted my face up to meet his. “What do you say, Misha? Would you like to be selfish with me? And just be with each other because that’s what we want and not because it’s what’s expected?”

“How romantic,” I said sarcastically, as I wrapped my arms around his neck.

“Or you can just be with me because you love me and I love you.” He pressed his forehead against mine.

My heart skipped a beat at his words. “Uh oh, Erik…you told me that you love me. Do you think the earth will stop spinning on its axis in shock?”

“Hold on, let’s see.” He paused theatrically and then said, “I think we’ll be okay. No need to notify NASA.”

“You’re so romantic,” I teased.

He shrugged. “Romance is what I know.”

“You’re kind of good at it.”

“I’m good at a lot of things…but I’ll be especially good at loving you.”