The Broken Billionaire: Love's Darkest Shadow

Diana and Mitchell had been best friends since high school and had basically gone through the worst and best in life by each other's side. Now at the age of 23 since they were both age mates, they were at that stage in life where they wanted to get their lives in order. Both were single and had gone through the system of education graduating with first class honors in university. Diana had a degree in marketing while Mitchell had one in catering and hotel management.

Diana worked at one of the companies in town as their marketing strategist and Mitchell worked as a hotel manager in town, both jobs had good pay and they rented an apartment together so that they could split the expenses and be able to save up the extra money for future endeavors. As they sat in the living room of their two bedroom apartment that they rented, they watched TV while surfing social media sites just to catch up with the modern world

"Look at this" Mitchell said to Diana as she showed her an update from one of the gossip groups.

"What are-- it says tech billionaire brings his company into town as he wants to invest and create more job opportunities in our town " Diana said as she read the post." Hmm, I didn't know that we are going to have a billionaire in town "

" Are you thinking what I'm thinking? " Mitchell teased

" What now? " Diana asked. She knew that Mitchell had some of the craziest ideas and was ready to hear what she had to say now

"I say, we try to get this billionaire to date one of us. I mean he could be the solution that we have been looking for. Can you imagine having a billionaire boyfriend?" Mitchell asked

" I knew you were going to say something like that. First of all, nowhere in that post does it mention the billionaire neither does it show his picture. And isn't Global Tech one of the few companies whose owner is not known to the public? " Diana asked for clarification as she tried to reason with Mitchell," Besides, what if he's a seventy year old man? "

" Old guy I can work with, as long as he pays my bills and spoils me like the gem I am. And who says we can't dig up and know the identity of the billionaire? Can't be that hard, we can use our feminine side to get what we want"

" Oh my God. You are definitely giving me gold digger vibes right now. Okay, I can work with that. So you want to tell me, you think there aren't other girls out there who have had the same thought? " Diana asked

" Ok, don't you dare judge me. I'm young and I need money " Mitchell said with a bougie voice," and the difference between us and those other girls is that we are going to actually act on our plan instead of just thinking it through. So are you with me or not? " She asked Diana

" I don't know Mitch" Diana answered unsure of what to think of the idea

"Come on, what if he's a young rich billionaire who happens to be single?" Mitchell asked

" Why is it that people always think that billionaires don't have girlfriends or wives? " Diana asked

" Uuhm haven't you read every other book that has a billionaire? Most of them don't want to get attached to someone or they just have a cold heart " Mitchell answered

" And what if this rich billionaire has a cold heart? " Diana asked

" Well every cold heart just needs some warmth and eventually it'll melt" Mitchell asked

" You sound so sure. Maybe his heart is just too cold to melt" Diana said as she tried to discourage her best friend a little bit

"Stop being a negative Nancy and at least give some back up on this. If you don't and I become successful, don't come looking for me when you want some money" Mitchell teased

They sat together and surfed through the updates trying to get some more information about the billionaire despite Diana trying to avoid the whole topic but to no avail. Mitchell made sure that Diana helped her with stalking every activity of Global Tech to see any loopholes that would suggest who the billionaire is. According to all that they could find was that the company mainly invested in activities that involved people who were considered as the young generation from the ages of somewhere 18 to late 30s,therefore, they concluded that the billionaire was possibly around this age bracket. This excited Mitchell even more as she saw that the had an actual opportunity to find the man who was still young and would not be considered as too old for her. Diana just helped her best friend since she knew the chances of her actually getting the billionaire were slim to none. Upon further poking around, they found out that Global Tech was seeking to hire new people for their new building in town.

"Yes, finally! An opportunity" Mitchell said as she waved her phone in front of Diana's face. When Diana read the story carefully and started laughing

"I think you should read that story more carefully" Diana said with a smirk. When she read the post carefully, her joy suddenly turned into disappointment when she realized that the only job openings were in the marketing department. After a short tantrum, Mitchell had an idea and Diana could see it on her face

"What's that look for?" Diana asked

"I just had the craziest idea" she answered

" Oh no, if it's what I'm thinking, I'm not going to do it. There's no way I'm going to be your inside woman in that company. I already have a job" Diana said the moment she knew what Mitchell had in mind

"I'm sure it doesn't pay as much as this would pay" Mitchell reasoned

Diana had left the apartment to escape Michelle's desperate please for her to apply for the job at Global Tech so that she could have an inside person in the company. She went down the street and went into a coffee shop since she needed some caffeine in her system. She just didn't see it much of her concern and didn't want to quit her job so that she could apply at the company. While waiting for her turn in line, a young handsome man came and cued behind her waiting for his turn too.

She hadn't had the opportunity to look at him better but she could smell his cologne on him and it was kinda intoxicating. It was not that concentrated but it was definitely enough to get her attention. By the time it was her turn to make her order, she was already getting tired of standing and when she walked up to the lady, her smile faded. The lady had on this no nonsense look and barely smiled back to any the customers. She ordered her coffee black with some cream on it to which the lady at the reception just wrote it down without any expression on her face before going to get her order. Just as she was about to place that order, the guy behind Diana spoke up

"I'll take mine the same way" the guy said over her shoulder. Diana was not expecting this therefore she turned shocked a little bit. "Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you" the guy added

" No worries" Diana said to him before turning to the lady taking the order," make that two please " she requested

"Whatever" the lady said as she placed the order

" What an enthusiastic lady" the guy whispered in a sarcastic tone which made Diana chuckle a bit.

"Tell me about it" she said as she leaned back a little. When their orders were ready, Diana was about to pay but the young man swiped his card paying for both of the orders to her surprise.

"You didn't have to do that" Diana said when as she turned to him and handed him his coffee

"You saved me from having a whole conversation when ordering my coffee, it's the least that I could do" the guy said. "I'm Ryan by the way" he said as he stretched his hand for a handshake

"You could have let me pay for my own coffee, I don't like when someone else does that. I'm Diana by the way" she responded as she started walking towards one of the booths at the coffee shop. The booths were made such that they could accommodate only two people per table and in the whole shop, only one was available. So when Diana went and had her seat, Ryan was left scanning to see if there was another open booth. He walked towards her booth but it's like he had second thoughts about sitting there when he looked at her. He slowly walked by her while still sipping his coffee. Diana looked over her shoulder and around the shop to see if there was any available slots but she saw none. After contemplating whether to ignore Ryan or not, she finally gave in

"You can seat here" she said to him since he was standing behind her waiting for a seat to be available. Ryan turned and gave her a warm smile before sitting down across from her.

"Thank you" he said in a low voice

"No problem" she responded

"I thought I had offended you, that's why I was steering clear from you" Ryan said with some humor to it which made Diana smile slightly

"Well, I don't make it a habit of wanting to get my things done by another man" she said

" Definition of independent right there " Ryan said amused

" I actually just think of it as me being able to get my things done without needing unnecessary help. When a guy does this, you don't hear people calling him independent. He's just being a guy who can get his things done" Diana reasoned

" That's the first time I've heard that and I completely agree with you. That's some good reasoning right there " Ryan said," anyway, I'm new in town and I just hope that this place is what it's said to be"

" And what's that? " Diana asked a bit curious about what the city's reputation was to the outside world

"One of the top ones is there are a lot of opportunities in this city, in terms of career, love and life" Ryan said

" And which of the three are you looking for in the city of Georgia? " Diana went on

" Mostly career and life" Ryan answered

"Well, that's a surprise. It's the first time I've heard a person who has come to Georgia and is not looking for love" Diana said

" Some things aren't built for people like me" Ryan said

" I smell a dark past concerning your love life, and I'll respectfully not ask anything about that. So, what are you looking for in terms of career? " She asked

" Well, I'm thinking of starting a company here. You know, have a few staff here and there. Make a killing out of the sales and that sort of thing "Ryan answered

" Big dreams deserve big leaps" Diana commented

" I know. I just hope that it'll be a success or else it would have been a complete waste of my time and resources " Ryan said

The conversation went on for a while with some moments of awkward silence here and there. After a while, Ryan had finished his coffee and excused himself to leave without asking for her number or trying to get her to meet him for another chat, something which she liked because she was in no mood to turn him down despite him being good looking and humble

What Diana didn't know was that Ryan was the billionaire genius behind Global Tech company. Despite his young age of 26, Ryan has accomplished so many accolades due to his knowledge and intelligence that many reporters claimed to me unmatched. Ryan was born in a family where he was the only child and found himself on the lower side of the society because his parents were poor. His parents decided not to have another child so that they could be able to at least afford taking care of him and meeting their needs at home.

At a young age, Ryan was seen to be learning so much in a short time, something which made his parents hopeful that he would be able to use his brains in life and make the best out of life. By the age of nineteen, he had finished his high school in one of the low class schools in the neighborhood. He managed to get the highest score in the whole state, something that attracted someone into sponsoring him and taking him to one of the most prestigious universities in the world where he managed to graduate with a degree in economics and also law, both of which he studied at the same time and still managed to get first class honors. During his time in the university, Ryan started a small organization that dealt in various sectors, one of them being the stock market. At the age of 22,most of the world's stock market had slumped reducing the value of so many shares. It was then that Ryan used his intelligence and formulated the possible trend in the stock market. He later took one of the biggest risks in his life when he gathered up all of his savings and some loans he took from a few banks which amounted to nearly ten thousand dollars and waited for the right time to buy the shares. He used his projections to buy them just about two weeks before his proposed date when he had predicted the stock market would be revived and the shares would have cost more than a hundred times their current value. It took exactly three weeks for the stock market to start coming back to life and it was at this moment when Ryan's shares grew in profit, more than he had even predicted. He used this money and invested in different places but specialized on growing his company into a tech giant in the market. By now, he had met Christian, his now best friend who had also taken the same risk as Ryan but decided to venture into the cosmetics business, something which proved to be quite marketable as well. They helped each other and their companies grew into multi billion companies before they even graduated from the University. Despite their immense wealth, they both decided to live simple lives trying their best not to attract so much attention. By the time of their graduation, their companies had branches worldwide and their identities were still kept on the low with most of the work in their companies being done by their trusted personal assistants. Ryan had chosen to come to Georgia since he wanted to go somewhere where he wasn't known that much and that's why he established one of the main branches of Global Tech in Georgia. Ryan walked back into the building just as anyone else would do and schedule an appointment with the personal assistant.This was one of the ways that both Ryan and Christian kept a low profile and checked in their offices once in a while.

He had a lot on his mind and one of them was Diana, whom he had shared a booth when out to get his coffee. He admitted to himself that she was really beautiful but the moment he saw her show no interest and not impressed when he paid for their coffee, he knew where to draw the boundary. To him, paying for the coffee wasn't a way of trying to impress her, rather it was just a way of showing his gratitude. He anxiously waited for his personal assistant to come down from whatever he was doing and pretend to pick him up for the appointment with one of the senior members of the company. He tapped his fingertips on the glass table while thinking about how he had risen to such great power and not a lot of people knew who he really was. He even gave it a thought about how the two receptionists at the desk would react if they knew that their boss was just standing in front of them waiting his turn like a normal client. He admired the decor and interior designing that had been done in the building. The building, was a skyscraper which went to the thirtieth floor and had a roof with a helipad on it. In the whole company, the only people who knew who he really was were his personal assistant, his executive committee which made decisions on his behalf but only implemented them with his approval, and a lady he appointed as his acting CEO and founder who would represent him during the company's functions and meetings with the staff.

After waiting for around five minutes his personal assistant, Rodriguez Delacruz finally came. He walked quickly to where he was and walked to him heading for the elevator.

"Took you long enough" Ryan said

"I'm sorry about that sir, we were just finishing up a meeting with the marketing department with the help of Olivia" Rodriguez said. Olivia was the lady that acted as the CEO and founder of Global Tech

" And what has been the end game of that meeting?" Ryan asked

" It has been agreed upon that we should hire at least ten more workers in that department to really sell our agenda to the people of Georgia. With this done, we are looking at a possibility of net profit growth of around 200% within the next two months. Nearly three times more than we had originally planned for." Rodriguez answered him as they walked into the elevator

"Well then, make sure that you and Olivia see that through" Ryan told him