Million Dollar Christmas Proposal

She and Toby had that in common. They both loved learning. But he was committed to excelling in a way she never had been.

With a determination her parents should have been proud of, Toby had earned top marks in school and worked on gaining both friends and confidence in his new environment. He’d said he was going to be happy and her brother was one of the most genuinely joyous people she knew.

She couldn’t stand the thought of him losing that joy once he realized they simply couldn’t make MIT happen.

It wasn’t fair. He deserved this chance and Audrey just couldn’t see any way to give it to him.

Only the best and the brightest even got considered for MIT, and those who truly stood out among this elite group were accepted. The private research university accepted fewer than ten percent of their applicants for incoming freshmen and transferring from another school was almost impossible.

Which made any plan that had Toby attending a less expensive state school to begin with and moving on to MIT such a remote possibility as not to be considered at all.

Toby hadn’t just gotten accepted, either. He’d won a partial scholarship. It was a huge deal. His high school administration and counselor were over the moon, but not Carol and Randall Miller.

They hadn’t softened their stance toward their son one bit. The one question they’d asked had been if Toby still claimed to be gay. When Audrey had told them he did, they’d made it clear they wanted nothing more to do with their youngest son. Ever.

Worse, they’d offered her both a return to the family fold and an obscene amount of money, more than she would need to help Toby go to MIT, with two caveats.

The money could not be used for Toby and Audrey had to sever all ties with her baby brother.

That so was not going to happen. They were family and to Audrey that word meant something.

But all the will in the world wasn’t going to pay for Toby to live his dream and attend MIT.

He wasn’t eligible for federal financial aid because until the age of twenty-five, their parents’ income would be used to determine his need. Even if he had been, MIT was a very expensive school. Four years of textbooks alone would pretty much wipe out what Audrey had managed to save for his college expenses over the past six years.

The cost of living in Boston or Cambridge was high as well, leaving no wiggle room for Audrey to make up for the tuition not covered by the partial scholarship.

Audrey was still repaying her student loans. Her job at Tomasi Enterprises barely covered their living expenses now that her parents had stopped making the child support payments required by the state. Toby had turned eighteen two months ago, and things had gotten lean, but she wasn’t pulling any money from his college fund. No matter what.

The New York housing market was ugly. Even outside the city, where she’d moved with Toby when he first came to live with her. And because she wasn’t in a city apartment there was no rent control. Each new lease she’d signed had included a bump in their rent. Their current year’s lease was going to be up a month before Toby graduated.

Audrey had no idea how she was going to make the new rent without the child support payments. Finding a cheaper apartment in Toby’s school district wasn’t happening, either. She’d been looking for the past three months, just to get on a waiting list.

She didn’t know what she was going to do, but she wasn’t giving up.

She might not have any dreams left, but she still had a boatload of stubborn.

* * *

Unable to believe what she’d heard, Audrey remained in her stall in the ladies’ room for several minutes after the two senior support staff who had been talking in the outer area left.

The bathrooms in the Tomasi Enterprises building were swank, providing an outer sitting area where female employees could take their breaks or breastfeed their babies in onsite daycare. Vincenzo Tomasi was known for his pro-family stance.

While the man himself was an unashamed workaholic, he expected employees with families to actually have a family life. Many of the company’s work-life effectiveness policies made that clear.

And what Audrey had just heard would seem to indicate that Mr. Tomasi took his commitment to family even more seriously than anyone could ever imagine. Seriously? Ten million dollars for raising his children acquired through the recent tragic deaths of his brother and sister-in-law? And $250,000 a year in salary besides?

It sounded too good to be true, but it worried her, too. Because Mr. Tomasi clearly believed he really could buy a loving mother. What he was a lot more likely to get was a woman with dollar signs in her eyes.

Like the one who had been listening to his personal administrative assistant complain about her new and impossible assignment. From the way she’d talked, it was obvious the other senior support staffer was more than interested in trying to become a billionaire’s wife. That didn’t mean she would make a good mother.

But putting on a show to get the job? Easy.

After all, how many people in Boston believed Carol Miller was an adoring and proud parent? Audrey was only too aware of how easy it was to put on that kind of show.

She’d been taken in herself, once upon a time.

The two women discussing what Audrey considered Mr. Tomasi’s very personal business hadn’t bothered to make sure no one was using the toilet stalls and could overhear them.

While the stalls had actual interior wooden doors that reached the floors, they were all open air a foot from the ceiling for ventilation purposes.

Sound carried. Words carried. And Audrey had heard an earful.

* * *

Palms sweaty, heart beating faster than a rock drummer’s solo, Audrey stood outside Vincenzo Tomasi’s office.

Was she really going to do this?

She’d spent the last three nights tossing and turning, her brother’s future and Mr. Tomasi’s outrageous plan vying for attention in her brain. Somewhere in the wee hours of that morning she’d come up with a pretty brash plan of her own.

Unquestionably risky, nevertheless if it worked she could give her brother the best Christmas gift ever. The realization of the dream he’d worked so hard for.

Going through with it could also result in her immediate dismissal.

But despite the lessons of the past six years, or maybe even because of them, she had hope. She and Toby had made it this far when their parents had been sure they would crash and burn, returning to the family fold repentant and willing to toe the line.

They’d said as much when she’d gone to them to ask for help for Toby’s schooling.

So hope burned hot in her heart.

Hope that maybe fate had smiled on her and Toby for once. That maybe destiny had put Audrey in that bathroom stall at just the right time to overhear the conversation between Gloria and the other staff member.

Hope that maybe Audrey could make a difference not only in her own life, and that of her brother, but for two orphaned children. Maybe she could give them the kind of loving upbringing she’d longed for, the kind that their uncle clearly wanted for them.

It was insane, this plan of hers. No arguing that. And probably Mr. Tomasi was going to laugh her out of his office. But Audrey had to try.

If for no other reason than to impart to him just how easily his scheme could end up backfiring and hurting the children he was so obviously trying to protect.

Audrey had considered long and hard about whether to approach Gloria first or Mr. Tomasi directly, but eventually she realized she didn’t have a choice. Not if she wanted to give her crazy, dangerous plan a chance of succeeding.

Approaching Gloria meant giving the PAA the chance to turn Audrey down before Mr. Tomasi even heard about her. She couldn’t let that happen.

Audrey couldn’t ignore the semi-public nature of the discussion in the bathroom, either. After that lack of prudence on Gloria’s part in keeping her boss’ information private, Audrey had no confidence in anything like real discretion on her own behalf.

After all, Gloria’s loyalty to her employer was legendary. She had no such allegiance to Audrey and even less impetus to keep Audrey’s brazen suggestion to herself.

So Audrey had had to figure out a way to see the CEO without his PAA present. It wasn’t as hard for her as it might have been for someone else who hadn’t spent the last four years fixated in hopeless fascination on the man who owned the company where she made her living.