“Here’s $100—Can you be my mom today?” a billionaire boss’s son asked—until a shy woman replied, “Keep it. Billionaires pay in secrets.”

knows me.”

“He does.”

From his pocket, Julian took out the same crumpled hundred-dollar bill that had started everything. It had been dried, pressed flat, and placed in a small frame, but he had removed it for this. The fold lines were still visible. So was the tiny tear at one corner.

“I kept this,” he said, “because it is the only money in my life that continue reading …