The Billionaire Swap novel · Chapter 1 of 16
Chapter 1: Two Portfolios
Meredith grabs the billionaire's son, Abigail says okay to the bankrupt heir, and at her tiny wedding Trey Hatcher announces his family is the one that ruined her new husband.
My sister wanted my husband.
She said it at Sunday lunch, in front of our whole family, with her hand on my arm.
"Abigail, you never cared who you married. So let's swap."
I was about to nod.
My husband reached over and put his hand across my mouth.
"That's not happening," Stuart said.
To understand why I was about to nod, you have to know what I'm like.
I have never fought for anything.
When I was five, Meredith and Toby screamed over the last juice box in the fridge.
I sat on the kitchen stool and watched them pull it apart.
Juice went all over the floor.
I didn't need it. It was just juice.
Mom said I had no temper.
Dad said it broke his heart a little.
Then they both noticed how handy it was.
A girl who doesn't fight can be handed whatever is left.
Meredith got the big bedroom with the bay window, because girls should be spoiled.
Toby got private tutors, because boys should get ahead.
I got the small north room over the garage and the public school on the corner.
"Abigail's the sensible one," Mom told everyone. "She won't mind."
I didn't.
At twenty-three I had a desk job filing claims at Lakeshore Mutual Insurance.
Meredith came home from two years in London in March.
That same week, Mom and Dad called us both into the living room.
Two leather folders sat on the coffee table.
Dad cleared his throat.
"You girls are old enough. Your grandfather made some promises. These are two good families."
I opened the one closest to me.
Stuart Drummond, twenty-eight. Heir to Drummond Group.
The photo showed a man with dark brows and very bright gray eyes.
A note was paper-clipped under it.
Drummond Group: in bankruptcy since last spring. Family assets frozen.
The other folder said Trey Hatcher, twenty-nine. Only son of Hatcher Capital. Worth billions.
"Meredith chooses first," Mom said.
She said it.
Meredith didn't even look at mine.
She swept Trey's folder off the table and hugged it to her chest.
"The Hatchers. Obviously."
Then she smiled at me.
"You take the broke one, Abigail. You're not picky."
I looked at Stuart's photo again.
He had a nice mouth.
"Okay," I said.
Mom let out a big breath.
"He's still a Drummond, sweetheart. It's more than you'd have found on your own."
Dad nodded. "Then that's settled."
I closed the folder.
A husband is a husband. As long as he's a person, I'm fine.
After that the house turned into Meredith's wedding.
Fifty tables at the Drake Hotel.
Dresses flown in from Milan.
A moving truck came to our driveway three Saturdays in a row.
Furniture, handbags, crystal, a silver tea set.
Mom stood at the curb with a clipboard and a check for five hundred thousand dollars.
"The Hatchers can't think we're cheap," she said.
For me, she packed two suitcases and a thin silver necklace.
Then she went upstairs and came back with Grandma's green jade bangle.
Grandma had always said it was for me.
Mom slid it onto Meredith's wrist.
"It looks better on her," Mom said. "You don't wear jewelry."
"Okay," I said.
My own wedding was one week after Meredith's.
Ten tables at Rosa's, the Italian place by the train tracks.
The morning of it, Mom called.
"Your father's back is bad, and we promised the Hatchers a brunch. You understand."
Only Toby came, and he left before the cake.
I wore a plain white dress off a sale rack.
A few Drummond cousins sat in the front, and two girls from my office.
Then I saw Stuart in person for the first time.
He was taller than his photo, and thinner.
His navy suit had been washed so many times it had gone soft at the cuffs.
But his tie was perfect.
He looked at me.
When he slid the silver ring on my finger, he leaned close.
"I'm sorry," he said quietly. "You got stuck with me."
"I don't mind," I said.
He stared at me.
Then he laughed, very softly.
We were cutting the lemon cake when the front door of Rosa's banged open.
Meredith came in wearing white silk, with Trey Hatcher behind her.
She held up her phone and filmed the room.
"Oh my God. Paper napkins."
Trey strolled over to our table and looked Stuart up and down.
"Congratulations, Drummond."
He picked a strawberry off our cake and ate it.
"By the way, my father's the one who bought up all your debt."
He licked his thumb.
"We'll be taking the rest of your company at auction in September. Thought you'd want to hear it from family."
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