Maid for the Billionaire(42)

Dominic had postponed returning to the plane to give his team more time to research recent events. However, with each discovery the inconceivable became less deniable.

Abby might be telling the truth.

He thought back to their first encounter and the simple way she‘d been dressed. Jeans and a t-shirt were not the clothes of a hired siren. What if she really had been there simply to help her sister? She said she‘d stayed out of concern for him. He had repaid that kindness by practically chasing her around his brownstone and then insulting her.

As he looked back over their time together, he felt ashamed by his actions in a way he never had before. Each step of the way, Abby had freely offered her companionship and her support.

Because of her, he‘d been able to spend a few days as simply Dominic; not a defiant son, not a corporate magnate, just a man mourning a loss.

He groaned as his recent outburst replayed in his head. He‘d mocked her for being a teacher, when in reality it was one of the many things he admired about her. Unlike him, she had a passion for what she did that was not driven by greed or personal gain. And it was that desire to help that had brought her to China with him.

It was conceivable that Zhang could have used Abby‘s concern for him to manipulate her into delivering the additional contract pages; which had forced Dominic to make his first act of philanthropy. However unwillingly it had come about, his company would now have a positive cultural impact on billions of women and lead the way for other large corporations to support international social causes and, surprisingly, that knowledge filled Dominic with an unsettling feeling of satisfaction.

The media called him a hero, but the real hero was Abby.

Without her, he might have gone on believing that the world had somehow cheated him and deserved to be treated accordingly. How had he gotten so politically powerful without ever wondering if he could use his influence to better the lives of those less fortunate? Had it been arrogance or obsession which had allowed him to deal with third world countries without ever considering that he could affect more than their exchange rate?

In less than a week, Abby had changed him forever. And what had he given her?

He had barged into her life, blackmailed her, used her, and dragged her off to China for purely selfish reasons.

No, there wasn‘t much about the last week that he was proud of.

What had this trip been like for her? He could only imagine and, once again, admire the strength of her character. He remembered her saying that she hadn‘t traveled outside of the states before. But she had done it for him without complaint. She‘d accepted being deposited at a hotel in a foreign country with body guards who were little more than strangers to her.

She must have been terrified when she‘d overheard the guards discussing their surveillance of him; unable to trust the very people he‘d told her to rely on. Why hadn‘t she come to him when she‘d heard? What had she said? She‘d wanted one more night of intimacy with him before breaking the bad news.

He couldn‘t fault her there, either. Hadn‘t he been the one who had repeatedly reminded her that what they had was temporary? He‘d thought that by saying the words he could gain some control of his emotional response to her. Instead, it had held her silent when she most needed someone to talk to.

From what he‘d been able to gather from Scott‘s team before he‘d sent them packing, Abby had met with Zhang for the first time yesterday. Scott had admitted telling Abby that he‘d seen no harm in the meeting. He also detailed their next day‘s outing into a rural community for the sole purpose of showing Abby China‘s educational needs. At the time, Dominic had dismissed his words as part of their web of lies, but now he considered them. Someone like Abby would have been easy to manipulate. Once she‘d seen the need and been told that Dominic‘s livelihood relied on her taking action, Abby would have done what she thought was right. Especially, if as she said earlier, she‘d fallen in love with him.

He groaned.

Each of her decisions made sense when he asked himself what a good, moral, loving person would do. Nothing she had done was in contradiction of the way she had lived her life. She protected those she cared about. She sacrificed for those who needed her. She risked for the causes she thought were important.

He had done nothing to prepare her for the situation he‘d thrown her into; one that she‘d navigated with remarkable confidence considering the challenges which had arisen. There would probably never be a way to know for sure if he could have closed the deal without the contract addendum, but Stephan‘s presence was testament to the forces working against him. No one could deny that the scholarship provision had closed the deal.

Five percent profit from a company as large as Corisi Enterprises would hardly be missed and the global boost to his company‘s international standing due to that charitable donation was priceless.

The more he thought about how Abby had met each challenge, the more he admired her.

She‘d gloriously marched up to China‘s Minister of Commerce and handed him the paperwork as if it were something she‘d done a hundred times before. She couldn‘t have known for sure if that act would see her heralded as a hero or a criminal, but she had risked herself for the sole purpose of saving his company. And how had he repaid her? Vicious accusations, kidnapping, and more insults.

She was right; he wasn‘t good enough for her. She deserved someone who knew how to treat her like the precious gift she was. His gut twisted painfully at the thought of her being with another man.