“But the patents and your company…” Holly put her hand in front of her mouth and her eyes shimmered. And finally he understood. It wasn’t because he was significantly poorer than he’d been, twice now in his life, but because she was afraid he’d lost his shot at pursuing his dream.
For the first time in his life, he was surrounded by people who loved him and wanted nothing more than for him to succeed. In his book, he was the richest man on earth.
“I already told him he’s an idiot.” Owen threw up his hands, then let them slap against the sides of his legs as they fell. “There’s a twenty-four hour wait time on the transaction. Can someone please talk some sense into him before I do it with my foot up his ass?”
“The business will be fine.” Trent held out his hand and she came to him. So he tugged her to his side, looped an arm around her, and kissed her cheek. “We’re going to be too. This isn’t going to change as much as you think.”
“How do you figure?” Owen glared.
“If this was only about the money, I’d have taken my inheritance and invested it in something safe. This is about doing work that means something to me. About giving back all the time. About taking what I have and making it enough, more than enough. That’s what I really want. It was never about the money. It’s about spending my life for the greater good. I know it sounds ridiculous, but I want to change the world.”
“You’ve already changed mine.” Holly smiled up at him.
“Thank you.” Trent put his face in his hand. “I’m probably being selfish by doing it this way because I also like the thought of building things from the ground up like I was before my dad died. Besides, I can’t see any other solution.”
“Whatever it takes, we’re with you,” Holly promised, then looked over at Owen and Lorenzo, who were nodding. “Somehow we’ll get through this and back on track. We’ll think of something. Some way to get through this as long as you’re not in trouble. Your mom will drop the charges now right?”
Even she didn’t sound entirely convinced. In the ominous stillness, the ringing of Trent’s phone jarred them all. Trent answered before it could rattle his nerves again. “Hello?”
“What are you doing over there? Your account manager at the bank just called to verify the directive you called in.” Ford asked, sounding only slightly annoyed. “Don’t you think you should consult with your lawyers before making such drastic moves?”
“Not when they’re the right thing for everyone I love,” Trent responded without hesitation.
“And what about you?” Kari asked from the other end of the line. “Holly isn’t going to be able to be happy if you’re not okay too. Even if you let that transfer go through, you’re short some cash. Your mom is a selfish piece of shit. She’ll come after you for the rest of the money. You know she will.”
Ford chimed in. “I don’t think Kari’s wrong, but I do think she’ll only be wasting some of her precious funds if she does. There’s no way you’re going down for that when you’re legally entitled to the money and I’ve heard from an inside source that they have more than enough to nail her on the kidnapping conspiracy. Here’s what I think you should do.”
Everyone stood still barely breathing.
“Instead of sending it back to your mother, donate it. Let’s say half of it goes to research on kidney disease and support of families fighting the disease, including the funds already allocated to Holly’s mom. The rest could be earmarked for funding green energy solutions.”
Owen grinned. “I’d had a similar thought, but not one that genius. This way Trent could still tap into some of it for startup costs and Holly’s mom is in the clear. Meanwhile if his mom tries to come after him, she’ll look bad to the rest of the socialites, which would never do.”
Holly melted against Trent so he propped her up.
He looked down at the woman in her arms, who nodded and hugged her tighter. “I’m good if you are. We’ll figure the rest out so we can keep going on our research before someone else beats us to it. Especially now that the schematics will be on record with the patent applications, it will be important to move quickly.”
“What if you got an infusion of cash from angel investors to bridge the gap or, hell, to increase your funding beyond even what your inheritance was?” Brady asked.
“Venture capital?” Trent groaned. “I didn’t want a bunch of opinions watering down my ideas. But I guess, if we have to…”
“The man said angel investors.” Josh jumped in. “And if you take our money, we’ll let you do whatever you want with it. You were doing just fine on your own. Well, actually, I take that back…with Holly’s help. So my one stipulation is that you hire her on as the head engineer of your company.”
“What?” Trent could hardly breathe.
“Are you sayingyouwant to invest in Trent’s inventions?” Holly asked.
“Of course they do, girl!” Kari cheered. “They’d be dumb not to get in on that, and my guys are anything but stupid.”
Lorenzo and Owen both came closer, waving their hands and nodding their heads.
Trent couldn’t speak past the knot in his throat.
So Holly did it for him. “Thank you, all of you, so much.”
She buried her face against Trent’s chest, which gave him the strength to accept his friends’ generous offer. “You’re sure?”
Owen and Lorenzo shot him looks like he was nuts. He probably was, but how could everything be coming together so perfectly? To be able to do this on his own, without his family’s money making it possible, was everything he’d been working toward before the world had turned upside down a month ago.