The Gift: Book 1 (The Billionaire's Love Story) Read online

  She shuffled along, listening to the lady from one of the recruitment agencies she had visited earlier, regarding an interview she’d attended two days ago. She hadn’t got that job either.

  “Did you dress smartly?” The woman asked her.

  “Of course I did.”

  “Then I don’t understand it. You have the qualifications and you’re only looking for temporary work. You just have to keep trying.”

  “I don’t understand it myself.” Where was Jacob? He’d let go of her hand for a second and disappeared out of sight. She looked around frantically until she saw him standing at the door of a toy shop. Complete relief swept over her. The shop looked big and glitzy and it broke her heart to see him standing there.

  Who was that talking to him?

  She marched up angrily, unsure whether she was angry with herself for not being able to afford anything, or angry with the man for trying to entice her son inside.

  He was tall and solemn looking and he’d opened the door for Jacob but she knew her son well. She knew he wouldn’t go inside because she’d taught him not to talk to strangers. But even so, she knew he would be standing there, almost salivating. She walked up to him and, just as she predicted, Jacob waited patiently, not going in yet desperately wanting to all the same. One look at his face confirmed exactly why she’d been deliberately avoiding these big stores.

  They couldn’t afford to go into shops like this, Jacob knew that. They could browse, but she was in a hurry to get him home and feed him. It had been a long day for him, coming to the city straight after school. It took just under an hour but after a whole day at school, this trek into the city—where she’d tried to combine a visit to the Rockefeller Center with a few visits to recruitment agencies—had tired him out completely and this cold and chilly weather only exacerbated his asthma.

  Jacob looked at her with his big excited eyes and she had to give in. The man at the door eyed her coldly but the sheer look of delight on her boy’s face warmed her heart on this chilly Friday evening. The more Jacob pleaded with her, the more she relented. But when the assistant told her to put the kid out of his misery, she felt the blood rush to her temples.

  “He’s not miserable,” she replied defensively, her nostrils flaring as she stared into the man’s cold, blue eyes.

  “He doesn’t look too happy to me.” The man replied, looking at her coldly. She ignored him and told Jacob that he could have a look but no more than ten minutes. His face instantly lit up as she stepped inside, feeling comforted as the rush of warm air heated her chilled hands and face.

  She’d come here once, last Christmas, when Kay had told her to spend the holiday with her. Kay had bought Jacob a small remote control car which had given him hours of pleasure; something they had both needed on their first Christmas away from Colt.

  Jacob sat on the floor and started to play with some toys and she looked around the store, noting that it was full of lots of children and that there was a man going around taking photographs. There didn’t appear to be many parents. She wondered if there was a special event going on; one that she and Jacob had unknowingly crashed. Savannah walked over to where the tall assistant stood, and saw that a woman with shiny dark hair and shiny shoes was talking to him.

  “Is something going on in the store?” Savannah asked.

  “We’re not open to the public,” the shiny haired woman replied. Savannah felt instantly mortified. “You’re not? I’m sorry,” she apologized and saw that the other shop assistant was talking to Jacob.

  She rushed over just as the man got up to answer a phone call. “I’m sorry, honey. We have to go,” she said to her son, and saw his face drop. “I don’t think we should be here. I think they’re having some sort of Christmas party for the children.”

  “Aaaaw, Mommy.” His look of disappointment cut her heart into two. The idea of pulling him away just when he’d found something that made him so happy pricked her as sharply as a needle.

  No wonder the tall man had looked at her with such contempt. He’d taken pity on Jacob and let him in because he felt sorry for them.

  “You should let the poor kid stay,” the man said, creeping up behind her. She didn’t like the way he looked at her, at the way he was eyeing her clothes. Suddenly she felt more conscious than ever of her ripped tights.

  “He’s not a poor kid,” she replied, turning her back on him so that he couldn’t see the ugly tear in her tights.

  Jacob stared at the floor quietly.

  “Looks to me like he wants to stay.”

  “But the woman said—”

  “I don’t care what she said.” The man’s voice had a hard edge to it.

  And I don’t care what you say, she thought. The moment had been ruined and she didn’t want to be here a moment longer. The two assistants were obviously having a disagreement themselves. Then the woman approached her and told her about tonight being a charity event for children from adoption centers.

  Savannah was now desperate to leave. Not only was she humiliated for having turned up at an event they weren’t invited to, but she now also felt drab and dirty in front of the other woman, in her matching red suit and shoes and handbag. With her perfect hair and her perfect makeup, she appeared to have the perfect life.

  Jacob said something about seeing the man on TV but Savannah wasn’t paying attention. She felt the color rise to her cheeks.

  “No, I don’t think you did, honey,” she said quickly, wishing they were outside. She didn’t like the cold stare the man gave her. It made her feel unwelcome.

  But Jacob was insistent. “I did, Mom. He was on TV.” She managed to smile. “Come on. Let’s go.” She threw a contemptuous look at the tall man who smiled at Jacob as they swept past

  Outside on the cold, frosty streets again, Savannah breathed easier. But she could see that the chill in the air wasn’t so great for Jacob. “Here, honey,” she said, handing him the asthma inhaler. “Remember how to do it?”

  “One puff,” he told her, then put the piece into his mouth and pressed, breathing in long and slow.

  “Better?”

  He nodded.

  “It won’t always be like this, honey,” she told her boy, as they walked along in the cold, desperate to get home. One day she’d be able to walk into this store and buy him whatever he wanted.

  “I know, Mommy. It’s okay.”

  His words brought a lump to her throat. She was bringing him up properly, with values and manners, and gratitude. Despite the dark memories from his childhood, she felt confident that he wouldn’t be scarred for life. She was trying to build happier memories for both of them and had given herself one year to get her life back together.

  She sensed Jacob had retreated into himself once more. “Honey,” she said, trying to cheer him up. “You’ve gone quiet again. What are you thinking?”

  “You didn’t believe me.”

  “I didn’t believe you about what?”

  “About that man.”

  “What man?”

  “The man in that shop. I told you he was on TV.”

  “Okay, honey, sure I believe you.” But she was already thinking of what she could do tomorrow to find work.

  “Can we go back there next week?”

  “What, honey?” Her thoughts had drifted to more important matters. She didn’t particularly relish the idea of wandering around the cold streets of New York visiting more recruitment agencies but sending her resumes via email wasn’t yielding much success either. If she didn’t find something soon she’d have to go back to waitressing in the evenings, something she didn’t want to do, because it meant leaving Jacob at Rosalee’s until late evening. As nice as Rosalee was, Savannah didn’t want to burden Kay’s former cleaning lady too much. Savannah now cleaned the apartment but used Rosalee every so often for childcare.

  She could start waitressing again but it was an option she left as a last resort, when she could no longer put food on the table.

  “To the toy sh
op. Can we go back?”

  “I’m not sure. Let’s see.” She hated denying him things and tried to do her best. But the toys in that shop were extortionate and putting food on the table mattered more.

  Chapter 3

  The highlight of their weekend had been putting up the small two foot long Christmas tree that she’d bought from Wal-Mart. It was small, and gaudy, and fake, but she and Jacob had decorated it with excitement, and joy, munching on chocolate Oreos and pretzels and dancing to songs on the radio.

  Things turned even better on Monday when luck smiled down. One of the agencies called her first thing in the morning as she got ready for another day of wandering around New York.

  Her self-esteem hovered somewhere between mildly hopeful and cautiously realistic. But the call from the agency telling her that an urgent last minute job had come up was the best Christmas gift she could have hoped for.

  Was she interested?

  She most certainly was.

  The work would be boring and tedious basic administrative tasks.

  She didn’t care as long as they paid her.

  Could she take it?

  Oh, god yes!

  Could she start today?

  She was already there.

  She stared at the tall skyscraper and took a deep breath in. A few weeks of filing at this place? She’d clean the toilets willingly if they asked her.

  She stepped inside the cool metallic and marble interior of Stone Enterprises and stared at the pale gray walls and the leather and steel furnishings that surrounded her. White porcelain vases full of lilies adorned the place.

  The recruitment agency had told her she’d need to look super sharp in a place like this even if she was only doing menial tasks.

  Savannah gave her name and the name of the person she was supposed to work for to the cool blonde at reception. The woman looked so smart and stylish that Savannah stared at her own clothes in dismay. She’d worn her black suit. It had never been a suit, just separates, but the color seemed similar enough that her ensemble could pass as a suit. The material of her skirt was different to that of her jacket.

  “Please take a seat,” the blonde told her. “Someone will come down for you shortly.” Noting the woman’s blonde pony-tailed hair, Savannah fingered her own mousy brown hair gingerly, trying to smooth it. Not only was it the wrong color, it wasn’t even within an inch of being as groomed and as shiny as the hair of the women who worked here.

  She stared in dismay at her shoes which she’d polished on the weekend but which now exhibited telltale splashes of Jacob’s orange paint on one of them.

  How come she hadn’t noticed that earlier?

  She considered going to the ladies room but decided to postpone that until later, after her boss had shown her the tasks. She sat down on the soft padded leather sofa, waiting nervously and feeling out of place and as if she didn’t belong.

  It’s only filing, she reminded herself.

  The elevator doors in front of her opened and the noise of sharp, high-heeled footsteps followed. “Ms. Page?” A redhead in a pristine black and white suit appeared before her. “Hello,” she put out her hand for Savannah to shake. “I’m Briony Marsh.”

  “Nice to meet you,” Savannah replied, getting up from her seat.

  “I hope you’re not afraid of heights,” said the woman. “You’ll be on the 21st floor.”

  Savannah shook her head and followed the woman into the elevator which was full of others but had emptied by the time they reached the 21st floor.

  “This way,” said Briony and led Savannah through a long corridor that had identical doors leading off it. The floor was carpeted in deep black and she could feel its thickness even through her shoes. The walls were papered silver and black and she wondered if all the floors were the same. The whole building and everything inside it, people, and furnishings, screamed rich and extravagant. With trepidation, she followed Briony to the end of the corridor, to a smaller room on the right. The office was small, but it had everything she needed; a computer with attached scanner, a printer, a phone.

  “You’ll be working in here for the next three weeks.”

  Three weeks? Savannah’s heart did a triple somersault. She’d been so excited to have a job that she’d not even asked the agency about her hourly rate or how long the contract was for.

  “Is that alright with you? It’ll take you right up to Christmas Eve. Can you work Christmas Eve?”

  Savannah knew she couldn’t because Rosalee was going to her son’s over Christmas and this left her without childcare, but she found herself nodding in response. “Yes,” she replied, grateful for extra work.

  “We usually close half day that day, but this project is important and it needs to be done quickly.”

  “It’s fine,” she replied. It was freaking amazing, or it would be, once she figured a way around her childcare problem.

  Christmas Eve. Maybe she’d be able to buy Jacob a few decent Christmas presents this year.

  “It’s straight forward enough.” Briony pointed to the big, bulky plastic boxes that were piled one on top of another and reached just above her head.

  “You’ll need to go through those boxes and take a few bundles of files and work through them in order. Let me just show you. Take out a bundle. It’s paperwork for one client. Some might have many bundles to their names. Scan each sheet like this,” she slipped the sheet of paper into the scanner. “Then save it like this. When you’ve scanned one bundle, put everything back in order back into the boxes. I’ve got some empty ones in that corner for you to start with.”

  How long was this going to take, Savannah wondered? It looked simple enough.

  “They’re more or less in alphabetical order. Start with these, see, they’re numbered at the sides. The scanning is what will take the longest time.”

  That’s all she had to do?

  “I’m sure you’ll be fine, there’s nothing much to it. Just work your own system. Go through these boxes first,” Briony told her, pointing to the three boxes that were spread out on the floor. “I had the maintenance men get them down for you. Do these first before you start on those.” She pointed behind her and Savannah looked at the three piles of stacked boxes piled high and wondered how she was going to lift them.

  “I think three weeks should be enough. See how you do.”

  “Thanks,” said Savannah.

  “I’m on extension 3279 if you need me. It’s just a few doors down.” She smiled, and slipped out super-fast, before Savannah had even had time to ask her anything. She stared around her in a daze, knowing nothing about what department this was, who she was working for, how long she had for lunch or where the ladies room was. It was as if she’d been left to her own devices. Still, she could hardly complain.

  She had an office job in Lower Manhattan, in the Financial District. She was here for three weeks which meant three weeks of income. The thought made her smile as if she’d just heard one of Jacob’s jokes.

  She took off her coat and scarf and smiled at the idea of having her own room with nobody else to worry about. She wasn’t sure she’d fit in anyway; not if the rest of the people who worked here looked like the models from the Paris catwalks. She smoothed down her skirt; at least she had new tights and they weren’t torn. Yet.

  She set to work quickly, knowing that the work was easy to do, that it beat working at the supermarket and she felt grateful for the good things that had at last started to show up in her life: an apartment in New York, for which she had to pay no rent, a wonderful babysitter and now this.

  The best thing of all? No Colt. Nobody to tell her she was a worthless piece of shit. No nasty scenes for Jacob to witness.

  They were safe and happy and she felt lucky to be here.

  Before long, she’d finished the first box. Staring out of the window to take a breath when she finished the first box, Savannah observed the ant like images crawling around on the sidewalks below. The Christmas decorations looked garish wi
thout the magic of the dark sky but it didn’t matter. She was happy. Even graffiti would look good to her the way she was feeling.

  This building was huge and she had no idea how many floors the company she worked for occupied but once this contract ended she could ask Briony if any of the other departments might need a temp. It was an exciting possibility and for now the worries that usually plagued her at night and clung to her soul like mildew during the day were temporarily pushed away.

  Re-energized, she set to work with gusto and by lunchtime was almost through the three single boxes which had been lying on the floor. If she didn’t slow down, she would get through the rest of them far quicker than three weeks. If she wasn’t careful she’d do herself out of a job. She had to slow down.

  It was time for lunch and she decided to eat her homemade sandwiches but needed to go to the ladies room first. As she made her way back to the office, she heard a voice behind her.

  “Are you lost?”

  She turned around to see a woman frowning at her.

  “No,” Savannah replied, and was about to go into her room.

  ““Do I know you?” The woman asked, leaning in and peering at her. “You look familiar.”

  Savannah recognized her instantly. Morticia Addams in a business suit. How could she ever forget? It was the woman from the toy store. All of a sudden Savannah wasn’t so sure that she was a shop assistant.

  “I’m working here for a few weeks,” explained Savannah, feeling the need to justify her presence since the woman looked at her as though she’d caught her stealing.

  “Here?” The woman’s eyes scanned her appearance from top to bottom. Was that a look of pity that flashed behind her eyes? Savannah couldn’t tell.

  “I’m working for Briony Marsh.” Why don’t you go and ask her if you don’t believe me?

  “You are?” The woman’s steely blue eyes sparkled with amusement, heating Savannah’s skin for the wrong reasons. “Welcome,” she said, and headed back towards the elevator bank.