Plan B (Best Laid Plans #2) - Jana Aston Page 0,67

a new product line, a best-dressed issue, and someone is having a baby billionaire.

Wait. My eyes drift back to the cover of MoneyWeek because that’s a picture of Kyle.

With a big headline reading ‘America’s Most Powerful CEO.’

And a smaller headline reading ‘Billion-Dollar Baby.’

I don’t know what I’m looking at, but I don’t like it. A trickle of unease creeps up my spine, adding to the overall ick feeling of the past hour.

I snap the magazine out of the stand and slap it down on the counter with my other items, jittery to pay and get the heck out of there so I can make sense of what I’m looking at.

I manage to make it back to the condo before flipping the magazine open. Mostly because reading and walking is even harder with an actual magazine than it is with a phone.

I make it as far as the kitchen countertop before I’m flipping it open while tearing open a peanut butter cup, but I lose interest in the peanut butter cup before I can even get it to my lips.

America’s richest bachelor has married and—

Okay, wait. Richest? Like, come on. Surely there are many, many bachelors richer than Kyle Kingston.

Right?

I open my phone and Google ‘Kyle Kingston net worth.’ Why have I never done this before? Probably because it’s totally weird. Why on earth would I ever have looked this up? I know he’s rich, his grandfather founded KINGS, for crying out loud. But that’s the company, right? I’m sure all that money is tied up in the company and he’s not even the only heir and his grandfather is still living, so—

Oh, holy shit.

I knew he was rich, I’m not an idiot. Millions and millions of dollars kind of rich.

Except.

It’s more like thirty-four point seven billion dollars. I abandon my peanut butter cup and take the magazine to the couch because I need to sit down.

Thirty-four point seven. I don’t know how to think that big. So a billion dollars. Times thirty-four. Maybe they’re wrong? I mean really, what does Wikipedia know? Forbes has the same information though, and an article. He inherited half of his father’s wealth when he died and it’s grown from there. Something about a trust William Kingston set up that distributed the bulk of his wealth to his two sons prior to his death via shares in the company. But then Kyle’s father passed away, and that early inheritance was in Kyle’s hands before he was thirty.

Which means Kerrigan is worth something similar. And they’re going to inherit more when their grandfather passes away. God, that’s so morbid. And all that talk about Kerrigan having a driver with her at school? I’m pretty sure now that ‘driver’ is code for ‘bodyguard.’ Which would be hot in another time or place. Focus, Daisy.

He’s got an uncle who’s worth even more than he is—William Kingston’s living son, and Wyatt’s father. Wyatt, who is relatively poor because his parents are still living, but the internet estimates him at two billion even now. Poor little rich boys.

I flip back to the magazine as my phone buzzes. It’s Kyle again, because I ignored his last text. I’m ignoring this one too. I scan the article, which references some billionaire bachelors list he was on last year. Ugh, who makes these things up? And why didn’t I read any of them? If Kyle were an actor or a musician I’d have probably had a better grasp but I’ve never followed business.

Sources close to the couple tell us they were married in a private ceremony—

Double ugh! What sources?

—and are expecting their first child early next year.

Seriously, what sources? Do they want an ultrasound picture too?

The new bundle of joy is estimated to be worth a cool one billion dollars.

What on earth does that mean? Babies don’t have a net worth, that’s ridiculous. I suppose the baby would eventually inherit Kyle’s money but that’s not a guarantee. Kyle could donate it all to a cat rescue group and leave the kid zero. Which honestly he should, because how in the hell do you raise a kid who’s going to come into that kind of money not to be a pretentious entitled little dickhead?

In what was previously a closely guarded family secret, the terms of a trust previously set by KINGS founder William Kingston have become public. The first grandchild of William Kingston is set to inherit one billion dollars, to be kept in trust until his or her eighteen birthday. Here’s where things