Interview with the Billionaire Read online

  * * *

  More than that, I will make her mine.

  He looks at me and sees strength. He believes in me even when I don’t believe in myself. “I have the strength because of you,” I say.

  He shakes his head. “That’s not true. But even if it is, so what? I’m right beside you, and I promise you, sweetheart, I’m not going anywhere.

  * * *

  - Anchor Me

  Transcript: Dodge/Dunlop

  Day 1, Session 3, 3:30 pm

  Audio Transcription by All Access Enterprises

  Annotations added by client: Spicer, Magdalena

  Location: Stark Home, Malibu, CA, 1st floor living area

  Subject(s): Evelyn Dodge, Frank Dunlop

  Interview conducted by Maggie Bridge

  * * *

  Begin Interview

  [Subjects are sitting on the sofa holding hands. These two are recently married—about a year—and their newlywed status is apparent.]

  * * *

  Bridge: Thank you both for agreeing to these interviews. Obviously, I want to get a solid picture of Nikki and Damien for the article, and your input is invaluable.

  * * *

  E. Dodge: Honey, you don’t have to thank me. I’m the one who arranged for the article, remember?

  * * *

  Frank Dunlop: Evelyn…

  * * *

  E. Dodge: He’s my rudeness checker. Keeps me in line. How I lived without him, I’ll never know.

  * * *

  [Were I only reading this interview, I might think she was being sarcastic. But I can hear the affection in her voice, and the tender way their hands touch tells the truth as well.]

  * * *

  Bridge: Evelyn, you’ve been representing Damien all his life. Been there for the good times and the bad.

  * * *

  E. Dodge: I have indeed.

  * * *

  Bridge: What would you say is the biggest challenge he’s overcome?

  * * *

  E. Dodge: Oh, come on, Maggie. We’re not going there.

  * * *

  Bridge: You mean the abuse? The trial?

  * * *

  E. Dodge: I’d say those two are intertwined. And I believe Damien took that topic off the table.

  * * *

  Bridge: It’s difficult to talk about Damien’s past without at least touching on those events.

  * * *

  E. Dodge: Fair enough. But you know what? I don’t think that was the hardest. Well, only tangentially. I think his biggest challenge was walking away from Nikki. Thinking that the reveal of those horrible photos and videos would destroy her. Turns out what destroyed them both was him walking. Idiot boy.

  * * *

  [I manage to hold back my laugh.]

  * * *

  Bridge: I spoke with them about that in our first interview.

  * * *

  E. Dodge: Then you already have a sense.

  * * *

  Bridge: Can you give me your broad impression of Damien?

  * * *

  E. Dodge: One of the best people I know. And one of the hardest to get to know. That boy protects his privacy. It’s hard to get to know him. But it’s worth it. And he will go to hell and back to protect the people he loves.

  * * *

  Bridge: You’re smiling.

  * * *

  E. Dodge: Just remembering something I told Nikki that day she met him at my house.

  * * *

  Bridge: What’s that?

  * * *

  E. Dodge: Think of Damien as an iceberg. Most of that boy is well under the surface. Honestly, I think Nikki’s the only one who’s truly seen the full essence of that man.

  * * *

  Frank Dunlop: Can’t blame him, though.

  * * *

  Bridge: What do you mean?

  * * *

  Frank Dunlop: He’s had a lot of shit thrown at him. I’d be protective, too. Hell, when I think of Nikki, I know I’m part of the shit. And she hid some part of herself away because of what I did.

  * * *

  E. Dodge: Frank, no. She loves you.

  * * *

  Frank Dunlop: Now she does. But that’s because she’s an amazing woman. She owed me nothing. Especially since my leaving left her at the mercy of her mother.

  * * *

  Bridge: Why did you leave?

  * * *

  Frank Dunlop: I couldn’t take it anymore. Elizabeth, I mean. And I was a fool for walking out on my girls. I’ll never forgive myself for that. But I’m damn sure glad that Nikki found it in her heart to forgive me. You, too, Ev. Taking a chance on a man who did that to his children.

  * * *

  E. Dodge: Frank, no. You’re a good man. And you’re a man who learns from his past. That’s more rare than you know.

  * * *

  [The moment between them is so intense that I have to look away.]

  * * *

  Frank Dunlop: Well, I’m trying to learn. And I’m proud that Nikki trusts me now. I blindsided her when I came back, but she took a chance on me. That girl of mine is pretty special.

  * * *

  E. Dodge: She damn sure is.

  * * *

  Bridge: It’s wonderful to see that you two have repaired your relationship, but I wonder what impact you leaving when she was a child had on Nikki.

  * * *

  Frank Dunlop: There’s a question. I’d have to say every problem she has. Fair bet they stem from her mother, and I’m the one who left her at Elizabeth’s mercy.

  * * *

  [Evelyn squeezes his hand.]

  * * *

  Bridge: Can you be specific?

  * * *

  Frank Dunlop: The cutting, for one thing.

  * * *

  Bridge: You blame yourself for that?

  * * *

  Frank Dunlop: She wouldn’t have been forced to enter all those pageants if I hadn’t left. But I think the one that truly guts me is how much being a parent terrified her. She didn’t think she could handle it. That she’d start cutting again. Didn’t think she’d be a good role model since she didn’t have one. Thought she wouldn’t know how to do it right. All of that.

  * * *

  E. Dodge: But she got past that, and she’s a great mom.

  * * *

  Frank Dunlop: She did. Hell, she held it together during the kidnapping. She coped. She was a mom, and a good one. Can’t say the same for me. I was out of the country and didn’t rush home. Didn’t even call until later. I didn’t know what to say or how to say it. I hurt her when I left. I didn’t fight for my family. For my kids. But Damien will. Hell, he already has. She’s standing with a damn good man.

  * * *

  [She squeezes his hand. For the first time in my career, I don’t know what to say.]

  * * *

  E. Dodge: She’s a remarkable woman. I remember the first day I met her, standing alone, not giving a flying fuck about all the Hollywood types mingling in my living room. One exchange and I knew that girl was smart. Not just decoration. Fifteen minutes later, and I knew she’d become one of my favorite people. I remember telling her I wanted to see how her story would turn out. Would it be a romcom? A comedy? A drama? God forbid, a tragedy? Would it have an Happily Ever After?

  * * *

  Frank Dunlop: Turns out it was all those things.

  * * *

  E. Dodge: It was. She and Damien are in a saga. And from my perspective, I’d say it’s epic.

  Interview End

  You’re my blood and my breath, Nikki. You’re my life. I will always fight for you. I will always come to you. And I will happily destroy anyone who tries to hurt you.

  * * *

  - Play My Game

  A Letter to Evelyn

  Dear Evelyn,

  * * *

  This is far too late, but I was inspired this morning to send you a thank you letter for sending me to that damn pageant in Texas all those years ago.

  * * *

  Who would have believed that a pageant I anticipated being a painful slog would ultimately change my life.

  * * *

  As I write this, my wife of less than a day is sleeping, the sound of the surf on this secluded beach filling our charming, beachfront room.

  * * *

  I hope you know that you are the mother she should have had. That asking you to participate in the wedding wasn’t Nikki simply being polite.

  * * *

  And I hope you know how much you mean to me, now and over the years.

  * * *

  I loved my mother, so I don’t want to claim you in that way but I hope you know that I have always thought of you as family.

  * * *

  I think perhaps you bit off more drama than you expected when you agreed to represent me after Jeremiah banged at your door.

  * * *

  For that, I apologize. And I thank you for never wavering. For always being there for me.

  * * *

  There are things about my past that I would change. You are not one of them.

  * * *

  Much love,

  * * *

  I cannot believe that anything about Damien is a danger to me. On the contrary, he is a gift. A rescuer. A knight upon a white steed, though he would scoff at the image and insist that the horse must be a black one.

  * * *

  - Claim Me

  Transcript: Hunter/Archer

  Day 1, Session 4, 4:15 pm

  Audio Transcription by All Access Enterprises

  Annotations add by client: Spicer, Magdalena

  Location: Stark Home, Malibu, CA, 1st floor living area

  Subject(s): Ryan Hunter, Jamie Archer Hunter, Orlando McKee

  Interview conduct by Maggie Bri
dge

  * * *

  Begin Interview

  [Subjects Ryan and Jamie are sitting on the sofa. Ryan is sitting while Jamie is lounging, her bare feet in his lap. Orlando (Ollie) is on the floor, his back to the couch near Jamie.)

  * * *

  Bridge: Thank you for agreeing to this interview. As three of the Stark’s closest friends, your perspective is invaluable.

  * * *

  Jamie: Three of? I think you meant to say that since we three are their closest friends.

  * * *

  Bridge: Did I?

  * * *

  [It’s clear she is fighting a smirk.]

  * * *

  Jamie: Totally. Because it’s true. I’d even say that as for me and Nikki, I’m slightly above Ollie.

  * * *

  [She bats at his head.]

  * * *

  Jamie: So you can totally hit the road.

  * * *

  Ollie: Jamie, chill. You put a camera in front of her and you get The Personality. You want to see the real Jamie, you’ll have to turn the video off.

  * * *

  Bridge: I guess I’ll just suffer through the hyped-up version of Jamie. I prefer having a video. I like to look back at facial expressions.

  * * *

  Jamie: I do that. Study faces. Only I do it as an acting exercise.

  * * *

  Bridge: I do it to see who’s bullshitting me in an interview.

  * * *

  [I’m speaking only to Jamie and she knows it. She bursts out laughing.]

  * * *

  Jamie: All right. Let’s get this party started.

  * * *

  Bridge: Jamie and Ollie, you two have been friends with Nikki since college?

  * * *

  Jamie: High school. And Nik and Ollie were next door neighbors.

  * * *

  Ollie: I got an up close and personal view of the insanity that is her mother.

  * * *

  [Jamie shudders]

  * * *

  Bridge: What?

  * * *

  Jamie: Elizabeth Fairchild is like a creature from a horror movie. I alway shudder in horror movies. Seriously, Nicholas drew the short straw in the mom department.

  * * *

  Bridge: Nicholas. And you’re…?

  * * *

  Jamie: James.

  * * *

  Bridge: And you?

  * * *

  Ollie: Oh, no. They tried out Olivia, but I didn’t bite.

  * * *

  Jamie: Which I think is evidence that it’s not a trifecta but a duet. Sorry, Ol. I’m the real bestie. Girl power and all that.

  * * *

  Ollie: You know I love you, Jamie, but dial it back. Let the woman do her job.

  * * *

  Bridge: So how did the nicknames come about?

  * * *

  Jamie: Ah-ah. You can’t expect me to reveal all our secrets. Seriously, what are you looking for?

  * * *

  Bridge: Just information. You and Nikki went to school together?

  * * *

  Jamie: That’s right. But I was the ballsy one first. I moved here. She stayed in Texas. Then she wised up.

  * * *

  Bridge: And you were already out here?

  * * *

  Ollie: I graduated college early and went to law school. I worked in LA for a while and then transferred to the firm’s New York office. I came back right before Nikki moved here.

  * * *

  Bridge: That was Bender, Twain & McGuire? The firm that represents Damien and Stark International.

  * * *

  Ollie: Yeah.

  * * *

  Bridge: Are you still with them?

  * * *

  Ollie: Considering it’s your job to know things, I think you already know the answer.

  * * *

  Bridge: You’re an attorney with the FBI.

  * * *

  Ollie: I am. I thought a change would be good.

  * * *

  Bridge: And what do you do?

  * * *

  Ollie: I don’t share my life with reporters for no reason. This is about Nikki and Damien.

  * * *