Page 38 of The Mysterious Billionaire
Turning back in the seat, I glance over at her. She looks tense, but equally her eyes are sparkling, and she seems happy as she drives, occasionally glancing to her right at the view of the hills and fields.
I can understand why she likes it here. As we head away from Willowmere, which sits in a valley not far from Arrowtown, the Cardrona valley road winds through steep slopes thick with high-country tussock, while the sky opens out, higher and bluer, it seems, than in the city. It’s a very different landscape from the rolling green hills of the Ashford family farm in the Waikato Region, but it’s no less beautiful.
“Mads,” I say, thinking about what Bill called her. “Probably a better nickname than Cupcake.”
“Or Caligula.”
I snort. I guess I have Brielle to thank for that one.
I’m still smarting a little from Maddie’s crisp reprimand on the plane. Her admission that she knew about her grandfather’s offer of acquisition was hard to take and led to me being sharper than I’d planned. But she was right to scold me. I have to stay businesslike and civil, or I might as well ask her to turn the car around and take me back to the airport. Whether she approached me at the ball with the intention of softening me up is irrelevant. It’s done now.
Except it’s not irrelevant. It’s the center of the tornado around which everything else is spinning. It doesn’t matter how many times I tell myself it doesn’t matter—it does. And I have no way of knowing whether she was telling the truth when she insisted she wasn’t sent to seduce me.
“That was a heavy sigh,” she says.
“Just an exhalation.”
“Something bothering you?”
I shift in my seat, feeling restless. I need to go for a run or something; I’ve been cooped up for too long. They often joke at work that I’m like a caged animal, as I hate meetings and being stuck in my office. I’m always out walking the corridors and often work in odd places like the break room or the main office for a change of scenery.
“How much of this is personal, and how much is business?” she asks.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean your mood. Are you grumpy because of what happened at the ball? Or because of the partnership?”
“Possible partnership,” I correct flatly.
She keeps her gaze on the road. “I didn’t mean it to sound as if I’m assuming it’s over and done with. And I’m sorry if I’m irritating you.”
That deflates me slightly. “It’s not you, Maddie. It’s the situation. I’m deeply angry that my father’s even considering offering Tom seats on the board. It feels like the first step toward a takeover. I’m the eldest, the heir, and the company should be mine when my father retires. Mine and Marcus’s and Aurelia’s, anyway. We’d run it together. My father spent years building this legacy. And now it could be whisked away before I’ve even stepped into the role.”
“So it’s just about my grandfather?”
“No… if I’m honest, I’m not impressed with Brielle’s AI model. I appreciate that you have data to back it up, but it feels like sleight of hand, a flashy show to distract us from the real intention.”
“To take over.”
“Yeah.”
“It’s not,” she says. “Look, I’m not going to deny that my grandfather’s driven, and he can be direct and even ruthless.But he got where he is by understanding the technology. He’s a smart guy. When he asked me to go to the board meeting, he told me to imagine how much more we could improve the yield I’d improved at Blackridge with Ashford’s pasture growth data system. He can see the potential in combining the systems.”
“Sorry, but you’re being naïve if you think Tom’s interest in Ashford AgriTech is purely scientific.”
“I’m not naïve. I understand what you’re saying. I’m just asking you to accept that greed isn’t the whole issue here. We all need to think bigger than stocks and shares and board seats. Imagine how different the world would be now if Tim Berners-Lee had sold the internet to the highest bidder? That’s what this is about, Caesar.”
“Feeding the world?”
“Yes, feeding the world, and you can say it without that touch of sarcasm, please. We have the opportunity to create a life-changing technology if we combine our systems. It could have a significant effect on farming everywhere. Ever since the Neolithic, people have been trying to grow their crops and feed their sheep and cattle better. There have been so many crop failures and famines. So much hunger over the last four or five thousand years.”
She hesitates after that long speech, then adds, “If I tell you something, do you promise to keep it to yourself?”
“Uh… I guess.”
“My grandfather has seven brothers and sisters. He was the eldest. His dad was a farmer. They lived not far from here, on a farm high in the hills. When Gramps was seventeen, his father died in an accident. It was up to Gramps to keep the farm going and to look after the rest of the family. Pasture growth was poor in those first years, and the family struggled. I’m not asking you to forgive him—I know you can’t do that. But maybe it helps toexplain why he’s so keen to make this work. He believes in the science, and he genuinely wants to help people.”
I don’t say anything for a moment. Maybe it does explain why he’s like he is, but that doesn’t excuse his ruthlessness or arrogance.
