The Writer and the Billionaire: A Novel
Searching for your next summer read? Look no further than my new novel The Writer and the Billionaire.
The Writer and the Billionaire is the story of Sascha Gills, a newly divorced writer whose life changes forever when she is swept off her feet by the charming, handsome, and spectacularly rich Devon Montague. But it’s not all smooth sailing—and someone from Sascha’s past seems determined to keep it that way. As Sascha and Devon’s relationship is tested by struggle and heartbreak, can they persist and ultimately triumph in love?
Here is your sneak peek!
Chapter 1
Sascha sat staring at the paper she had just signed. Her marriage was officially over! She had not been single in over eleven years, but six months ago she’d woken one morning and realized that she was not happy and had not been for the last five years. She did not want to be married to Lucas anymore. She needed a fresh start.
Lucas had been her college sweetheart and at the time seemed to be her soul mate. Thinking back on her naivete made Sascha giggle slightly, feeling a little silly for even believing in soul mates.
Hearing her giggle, her husband and his lawyer looked up at her from across the table. In an irritated tone, her now ex-husband said, “Is there something about this that you find amusing?”
His voice snapped her from her thoughts and wiped the little smile from her face. Her first impulse was to say that she didn’t find anything funny, but after a second thought, she decided not to bite her tongue any further.
“You know, actually I do find something funny. I find it funny that I ever thought this pathetic excuse for a marriage could have lasted. And even funnier than that is the fact that I let a sorry excuse for a man like you make me feel bad about myself for so long. The truth of the matter is that I deserved better than you, and you know it.”
“Oh, please, get off your high horse. You weren’t exactly the most loving, supportive wife. I am the one that deserves better,” he responded, not surprisingly.
Sascha rolled her eyes and looked down at her vibrating cell phone. A no-caller-ID caller again. She reminded herself that she really needed to get a new phone number.
Handing the papers back to her lawyer, Sascha stood up and said her final words to Lucas. “When are you going to stop blaming others for your failures? You know what? Don’t bother answering that. I can say that I am done being your excuse for never succeeding. I truly hope that someday you find your way and can become the man that you have always wanted to be.”
When Sascha walked out of that conference room, she felt as if a weight had been lifted. Sure, she was thirty-four, almost thirty-five actually, and was starting over, but she wasn’t scared. She was excited, in fact. To be honest, she had not felt this type of exhilaration since her college volleyball days. Sascha had once been one of the country’s top volleyball players and could have gone pro, but instead, she chose a simpler life with Lucas. After graduating from the University of Southern California’s MBA program, Lucas and Sascha both got jobs with financial firms and moved to San Francisco to start their lives together.
Sascha had grown up in a middle-class area in a Northern California town and was happy to be somewhat close to her family again. She thought that Lucas was happy too, but nothing ever seemed to make him happy. Not his job, not their sex life, and certainly not his wife. While Sascha had quickly found success at her investment firm, Lucas seemed to have trouble holding a job. He always quit or was fired for one reason or another. Of course, it was never his fault. His bosses were always jerks who picked on him, or Sascha was putting too much pressure on him or not supporting him. Never were his troubles his own doing—not his bad attitude, and certainly not his lack of competence.
When he began to become depressed, Sascha did everything she could to get him out of his slump. Nothing worked, and of course he refused counseling at that time, both individual counseling for himself and marriage counseling for the both of them.
One day Sascha went to him with an idea that she thought would solve all their problems. She suggested that they open up an investment firm. She had a wonderful client roster, many of whom she was sure would more than happily follow her if she left her current powerhouse firm of Chase & Sanders.
To Sascha’s surprise, Lucas was immediately receptive to the idea, and they quickly got to work on this new venture. At first it seemed like Lucas was truly happy with her and things were getting better, but that was just wishful thinking on her part.
They rented a small office in a downtown building with a monthly rent that was more than twice their monthly mortgage, but Sascha wanted—no, needed—to believe it would pay off and be worth it in the long run. Fortunately, Sascha had been able to put away quite the little nest egg thanks to large commissions she had received at her old job, but she was still a little concerned about leaving her safety net at Chase & Sanders. Despite her concerns, she knew she needed to do this for Lucas, and for the sake of their marriage.
She had been right about many of her clients choosing to follow her, but it was not long before she saw what many of Lucas’s previous bosses had seen. He gave his clients the worst financial advice, encouraging them to make risky, damn near irresponsible investment decisions, even causing one of their clients to lose more than $5 million in one week.
In a matter of six months, Lucas had ruined their business and destroyed Sascha’s reputation as a financial adviser. They had gone through all their savings and had gotten into horrible financial debt. They were close to losing their home when Michael, an old friend of Sascha’s from college, helped them out, unbeknownst to Lucas, who would have flat out refused the help. Sascha felt a little guilty about keeping Michael’s aid from Lucas, but she had already lost so much because of his poor judgment she refused to lose anything else, especially her home.
Michael Ghant had made it big in the software and tech business. He offered Sascha a job as a CFO at his company and a generous starting bonus, which more than caught them up on their mortgage and other delinquent bills. It was shocking and disappointing to Sascha that Lucas, with his education and training, was so completely oblivious to his financial problems. And sadly, worse than him being oblivious was that maybe he just didn’t care anymore.
When Sascha began working for Michael, he made his feelings for her very clear, and she made it very clear to him that she would honor her marriage vows. Being the gentleman that he was, Michael accepted her rejection graciously but made it known to her that he felt she deserved so much more than an unhappy marriage to a selfish, cruel man.
During the course of her marriage, Sascha had gained over fifty pounds and lost all her self-confidence. Once upon a time, she had been a confident, athletic, smart, attractive woman, but Lucas had taken all of that away. As the pounds came on, so did his insults and his reasoning for being unfaithful. As far as she knew, he had been unfaithful at least twice during their marriage, but deep down she knew there had been other infidelities. Just like the cliché, the first woman was a twentysomething girl named Rebecca who was a secretary at a financial firm Lucas once worked for. He told Sascha that it only happened a couple of times and that it meant nothing. Sascha, wanting to believe him, forgave him quickly and foolishly commended him for his honesty, even though there was unlikely an honest bone in his body.
The second affair that came to Sascha’s attention was not so easily forgiven. After years of fighting to make their marriage work, Sascha decided that they needed marriage counseling. At first Lucas refused, but Sascha told him that if they didn’t get help soon, she could not see them staying married. He actually looked fearful at that statement. At the time, Sascha believed that look was about fear of losing her, but later she realized that it had likely been more about losing his cash cow.
Sascha decided to seek the counseling services of a college pal of hers, a woman by the name of Gina Campbell. Gina was very attractive, with her petite frame, long black hair, and olive skin. Standing next to Gina’s five-foot-two frame, Sascha felt like an extremely insecure giant.
Apparently, Gina had never married, which was surprising to Sascha, considering all the boy drama she’d always had in college. Gina was the girl who always had to have a boyfriend—yours or her own, it didn’t matter. She was the girl who had no qualms about sleeping with someone else’s guy and stealing your man. In fact, she seemed to enjoy the challenge.
Of course, Gina’s behavior caused many problems with the other girls in their group and on campus, but Sascha always felt sorry for her. For someone to behave the way Gina did, she must have been terribly insecure and sad inside. Plus, Sascha didn’t feel threatened by Gina. Try as she might—and she tried hard—Gina just couldn’t steal Sascha’s boyfriend Colin.
Colin was Sascha’s college boyfriend before Lucas, whom was tragically killed during his and Sascha’s junior year, by a hit-and-run driver. Sascha was heartbroken by his death but eventually moved on when she met Lucas. Colin had been such a kindhearted, sweet guy. The loss of Colin changed everyone in their circle of friends.
Fast-forward ten years, and Gina Campbell was now a well-respected marriage counselor, with multiple best-selling relationship books and a sex advice podcast. Even though Sascha and Gina had had their ups and downs in college—some might even have called them frenemies—over the years they had gotten along well. Well, well enough.
At first when Lucas and Sascha started their counseling sessions with Gina, Sascha saw immediate results. She believed they were communicating better and had even started to be intimate again after a near six-month dry spell. But sadly, the feelings of a new and improved marriage would be short lived. It was not long before she realized that Lucas was cheating again. When she first confronted Lucas, he denied it and tried to turn everything around on her. She eventually dropped it and went to bed as he stormed out, but her gut was telling her that he was lying and cheating once again.
The following morning, she woke up to Lucas’s snoring next to her in bed. The bastard had sneaked back in at some point in the night. The sun was on his face, and as she looked at him, all she felt was disgust—disgust with herself. How could she have stayed married so long to this creep? she wondered. Looking at him made her realize that she did not love him anymore and had not for a very long time. She got up, got dressed, and went and found herself a divorce lawyer that day.
After hiring the best lawyer her money could buy, she quit her job because she knew that Lucas would try to milk her for spousal support, and she refused to give that lazy, no-good bastard another dime of her money. Let his mistress take care of him!
