Page 116 of Happily Ever After

“I’ll keep a modest portion for myself, for the time being, but you and the girls areyoung. You can use it to do something else. I’m tired of keeping it all up. I’ll travel with some girlfriends. I’ll get a nice apartment in downtown Geneva and spoil my grandchildren. I don’t need that kind of money, anymore. I don’t want it, either.”

Dieter sat back in his chair. “Are you sure?”

“I’ve thought about what I would do in this eventuality for a long time.” She leaned her head towardhim. “You know there’s a problem in your marriage when you happily daydream about what you’ll do when your spouse shuffles off the mortal coil. Most of it is quite set up. The Geneva real estate market is strong, as always. I expect there will be a bidding war for the house. Depending on the disposal of the bank’s assets, you should have the money within six months.”

“That’s quick,” Dieter said,disturbed at the direction of the conversation.

And then she named an outlandish sum of money.

He blinked and gasped a little, having not realized Geneva Trust and his family was worth quite that much. It wasn’t von Hannover money, but he might be on par with some of the lesser Grimaldis. “That’s the whole amount, right? To be split four ways?”

She smiled at him, her condescension evident.“No, dear. That’s your share, and then a bit more after I die.”

The whole sky opened up to him.

“What do you think you will do with it?” she asked.

Hire more people. Expand fast. Buy a damned jet so they could respond more quickly to critical operations. Maybe two jets. Maybe more.“I don’t know. I hadn’t thought about it.”

“Of course, you have. I can see it on your face. You’re planning something,just like when you were a child and would plot the most outlandish schemes.”

He smiled at his mother who, even after all this time and after changing his name and his life, did know him a little too well. “An infusion of that much capital into my company will make us one of the largest and most extensive private security companies in the world. We’ll be able to do anything from protect a princessto invade a small country.”

Actually, they’d done both of those things in the last week, but they would be much easier to implement with a couple of planes and an armored vehicle or three.

She patted his hand. “Spoken like a true Mirabaud.”

He’d have to think about that. “One more thing.”

“Yes, my son?”

“While I’m here, could I grab a few things from the closets at the house?”