Page 107 of Rival to the Billionaire

"I do, actually."

"Go ahead," she says, her voice encouraging.

I clear my throat. "What was your secret?"

Jenny blinks at me. She cracks a smile, looking up and down the room uncomfortably before turning her gaze towards me again. "I…really don't know what you mean. What secret?"

"The other night, you were telling me about how much you hated the Ultimate Reading app," I say. "But here you are, presenting on it."

"I'm, uh…I'm sure you all know I was rather frustrated about the company's financial contributions to the development of the app and, of course, I worried about the potential security risks.” She looks around the room again. "But, as you can see, everything worked out."

"But that's not what I mean," I say. "I mean, there was something else, something that you said." I lean forward. "You said you didn't like the app."

She exhales. "I did."

"You said that you hated it. That you hated the coding, that you hated the user interface. Everything about it, you hated. What changed?"

She's silent for a moment. Her gaze drops to the ground before going back to me. "Nothing has changed, Mr. Anderson…and yet, everything has."

"I don't understand."

"I…I was wrong, Mr. Anderson," Jenny says. "I was…mistaken." She looks at me, her hazel eyes shining with sincerity. “You’re right. I didn't like the app at all. In fact, I hated it."

"Then why?—"

"Because I realized something," she says. "Before, when I was railing on the project, I wanted to hate everything about it—the whole app. Hating it was easier. I didn’t have to put in the work to understand it. I didn't want to give it a chance. Because it was different. Because it pushed boundaries. Because it didn't fit into the neat little box I'd created in my head." Her chin lifts slowly. "But after I saw it in action and started experimenting with it, that's when I realized how much potential the app really has."

She pauses. "And I realized that the app wasn't that bad at all. It was actually pretty great, and I was the one who hadn't given it a chance, who hadn't given it any kind of fair evaluation."

"I'm confused," I say.

"I'm sorry." Her cheeks look slightly flushed when she sees the look on my face. "What I'm trying to say is, I got over myself. I got over my preconceived notions of the app, because once I started to let go and just experiment with it, the possibilities were endless. I started to see the app from a different perspective," she says. "I started to think about what it could do for the company—what it could do for the world." She hesitates. "What it could do for me, if I let it."

I realize we're no longer talking about the app at all. My stomach is churning. I wet my lips, looking into her eyes. "Would you do anything differently then?"

"No." She seems to hesitate for a moment. When she speaks, it's with a confidence that I can’t look away from. "I wouldn't change a thing."

My eyes fall to her lips, captivated by their slight tremble. I feel as if I'm in a dream. "I take it you accomplished your goal, then,” I say.

Her focus remains on me. "Not even close."

I feel a rush of heat creep up my neck. "Then what was the point?"

"To learn something about myself." She pauses for a moment. "To question my own assumptions and to see the world outside of my own perspective. And to realize that everything is mutable, Mr. Anderson—that nothing stays the same." Her eyes meet mine. "Except for this."

"What's that?"

"My feelings for you," she says. "I love you, Ryder… I truly do."

The room breaks out in murmurs. Derek calls for order. Jenny stands frozen for a second before Derek cuts in.

"I'm sorry, Ryder," my older brother and CEO starts, "but we've got a lot of people who are interested in learning more about the app. We've got a lot of questions about it."

"We'll get back to you on that," Jenny says, seemingly unfazed by the interruption. "But first, I'd like to say a few words about Ryder."

I turn towards her. She's staring at me, her eyes filling with water.

"Ryder, you are the inspiration for this entire project," she continues. "You are the reason I set out on this path in the first place. You are the reason I'm here today. And you are the reason I developed such confidence. I used to be afraid of everything," she says. "But you've never been afraid of anything, not even once."

---