Chapter 1: April surprises her father and assumes a new job

There is a theory that there are certain chemicals in the body that make a person resist incestuous impulses. Another theory is that as children grow up in close proximity to each other, parents, and to other family members that they somehow condition themselves to resist those urges.

I guess I missed all those chemicals and all that social conditioning.

I also missed the genes and memes that conditioned me to monogamy and exclusivity.

I missed the aging genes that are supposed to reduce a man's sex drive as he ages – both psychologically and physically. I have a high libido, and the women who know me well consider me virile.

I tried to play the roles most men fulfill. In college I dated, courted a pretty girl, got engaged to her, married her, impregnated her, and helped her birth our daughter. I repeated those last two steps another time producing another daughter. I played the role of a good daddy until the younger daughter was ten.

While I tried to be a good husband and father, I was not a faithful husband. I strayed. I had other love affairs, but because of the social pressures I felt, I curtailed, and limited them. I still carry the guilt about my infidelity.

I eventually apologized to my wife, explained where my head seemed to be, went through some counseling, and subsequently we parted ways. I had done well in business by then, so I could offer her a generous financial settlement, and I continued to support our daughters.

I became obsessed with my business, bootstrapping a computer electronics company from a small, single location business, into a domestic, multi-million dollar business, and then further into a global, billion-dollar empire that spanned electronics, communications, and the Internet, and was a force to be reckoned with.

Power does funny things to people. It can eat them up and spit them out in little pieces, totally destroying them. It can put backbone and mettle into a person and raise them to greatness and accomplishments they hadn't imagined. It can consume people, or it can put them in a position to direct and consume the power around them for either good or bad purposes.

I struggled with the power that came with the growth of my business, and with the wealth I accumulated at a rapid rate. There is a close correlation between money and power. I tried not to let the sense of power go to my head; notice I said 'tried.'

I believe in karma that the actions in this and prior lives influence things later in this life, and even in the lives my soul creates in future existences. For that reason, I kept a perspective on what I called my complete life. I periodically nurtured my spiritual side with trips to converse and learn from gurus in far away lands. I developed my philanthropy, carefully nurturing a half-dozen charities with large donations with the hopes that they could leverage that money and alleviate some of the world's larger problems. I did small things to enrich my intellect, things separate and distant from my consuming business, such as painting, photography, and writing fiction.

I tried to keep in touch with my humble roots and always act with a sense of gratitude and respect for the events, people, and forces around me. If I'd had that same perspective earlier in my life, I might have been kinder to my wife, but I had that karma to deal with.

As my business and related power grew, I also learned about the back hallways of the other seats of power, such as government. I learned how to make things happen. I learned about influence with and without authority. I learned about deal making, trading, quid pro quo, and scratching each other's backs.

So it was on a windy morning, June 10, a Saturday, that I answered my front door to find April, my oldest daughter.

April smiled at me. She captivated me. I also hadn't seen her alone for six years. I had talked to her, kept in close touch with her accomplishments in high school and Stanford, and I had generously funded her education and living style. I'd had a photo or two, but nothing like the vision of loveliness that stood on my doorstep.

April said, "Are you surprised to see me?"

"You bet I am? How'd you get in past security?"

"I begged them not to announce me. One of your heavily armed men is about ten feet behind me being sure I will not accost you. I think if I go to kiss you which I want to do; he'll shoot me."

I glanced up and there indeed stood a bodyguard I only knew as McCabe. He had one hand inside his jacket, no doubt already fingering the trigger on his handgun.

"It's OK, McCabe. This young woman is a pleasant surprise and is always welcome here without escort. Thank you for bringing her here. You can go now."

He nodded and visibly relaxed as he turned to leave.

As his footsteps faded, April threw herself into my arms and gave me a huge kiss on the lips. "Daddy, I've missed you."

"I've missed you too, and I'm sorry, sweetie. I haven't been much of a father the past ten years. I didn't make your graduations or some of your other rites of passage."

"But I've been to some of yours," April proudly said. "I attended the dinner where you were honored for your work and backing of the research for an AIDS cure. I sat in the gallery when you testified before Congress on Net Neutrality, and again on the digital divide. I even took a one-night art class with you, along with two-hundred others, at that summer art program in Columbia, Maryland. I was sort of disguised; I wanted to say something, but decided not too since no one else knew who you were. I didn't want to 'out' you."

"I'm honored ... and I'm also proud of all that you've done. It isn't that I wasn't watching from a distance. You are a fine young woman with distinguished credentials from not only your class work, but also from your extracurricular activities."

April said, "And now I'm ready for the next phase in my life."

"Ah," I said to myself. Here's the rub. She's here for money, as so many others around me often were. I loved April and would give her everything I had, if that's what she wanted.

April said cautiously, "I would like to move in with you. I'll pay you rent, or whatever you decide, but I would like to live here ... with you."

Her statement took me by surprise. I visibly balked. I felt my eyes flare.

April countered with some new excitement, "I promise I'll be the best daughter you can imagine. I'll dote on you ... I'll disappear when you want ... I'll..."

I interrupted, "April, I'm not always here. I travel a lot. What would you do?"

She cocked her head to one side. "Why I'd be with you, Silly."

"Huh?"

April explained, "I'd be your personal assistant." She paused and then launched into a long explanation without taking a breath; "I know that Martin Remy was your PA until you promoted him two months ago to head your integrated circuits plant in Dallas. I know you've tried to find someone else, but no one has had the right chemistry with you, and I promise I'll adapt to whatever chemistry you want with me. I just want to be with you, and work with you. I'm not trying to takeover or be anything other than your PA for a while. If I don't do a good job you can fire me or demote me or something – anything, just please please please let me work for you ... with you. I promise I'll be good, and I'll study and learn things I need to be effective and efficient for you. So what do you say?"

April took in a huge breath of air, since she'd said her mind without a break.

"Do you have any idea what you'd be getting into?"

"I think so. I wrote a paper in my business class on being an executive assistant." She rummaged in her large purse on the floor beside her and pulled out a bound report that must have been two hundred pages long; the title, 'The Formal and Informal Roles, Duties, and Responsibilities of an Executive Assistant, ' by April Worthington. Inside the cover as I flipped it open was the letter grade from her instructor – A+. I read enough of the instructor's comment to see it was high praise.

"Impressive." I paused and added, "You know that my previous assistant's did not live with me."

"I know. I checked." April blushed, "I even interviewed Martin for my paper. I learned a lot from him. I also interviewed Nancy Schneider, you previous PA."

I blanched. Nancy had been more than my PA. She'd been my lover as well. When she couldn't reconcile the two roles, she'd asked me what I wanted to do. I told her I wanted her in my life as a lover, and she took that role for another three years before we decided we'd burnt our lust away. She moved on to another post with sterling references and my personal recommendation over that period.

April acknowledged, "Yes, I know you had an affair with Nancy. She didn't tell me – Mom did. I guess Nancy was one of your weaknesses."

I chuckled. I could keep little from Megan, my ex. She'd always been able to read me like a book.

I drew April into the house. I'd been working in the living room, reading a pile of papers on a potential merger or acquisition with Austin Vibe, an acoustic products company.

April glanced at the papers on the coffee table. "Ah, the purported interest you might have in buying Austin. It's a good deal, but only for about fifty million. Anything more and you're being taken."

I volunteered, "They want a hundred million."

"They are way over valuing their good will and brand in the market place. Don't buy it at that price. They have no other suitors, and you should be able to name your own price. Fifty is a fair offer too; their whole team will walk away millionaires, and you get a tidy asset you can fold into your commercial electronics division. Also, I wouldn't do the deal unless Robert Helmsgood and Kent Harper stay on for five years to keep running the subsidiary. They understand the business and market like no one else, plus they've got the expansion of the product line in their heads..."

April paused and added, "I read a rumor that your electronics division was thinking about the acquisition, so I did some further research. It was easy since they were right in Silicon Valley, only a couple of miles from campus. I hung out in the coffee shops near there for a week, and asked a lot of questions."

I studied April. That statement and summary of the small company far exceeded my expectations from any personal assistant, and surely not my daughter fresh out of college, and not even working for me yet.

I muttered under my breath, "Nicely done, April. You just got yourself a job and a place to live."

April moved in over the next week. In a brief conversation with one of the men from the moving company delivering her belongings that she'd shipped from California, I discovered that she'd booked them a month earlier including my home as her ultimate destination. I wondered if she'd had a Plan B, but I didn't ask.

Having a gorgeous twenty-two-year old around did wonders for my image at work. To preserve at least some sense of propriety, we'd agreed that April would use her mother's maiden name as her surname; thus, she became April Manning. Her business cards read Personal Assistant. I told her she had to work up to the title of Executive Assistant, although I saw little distinction between the two jobs.

April fit in well with Mary Aldus, my secretary. The two of them worked on my schedule, my to do list, my speeches, my appearances, my travel arrangements, my meetings, my correspondence, my strategic planning, my philanthropy, my behind the scenes contacts, my recreation, my exercise regime, my doctors and dentist visits, and everything else about my life.

When there'd be sudden changes or calamities in my schedule in some way, I'd find that it was April who had resolved the issue in a satisfying way.

After a month I found April anticipating most of my life, including my opinions about things, how I'd vote or veto some idea, and she'd have a one-pager summarizing the key points before I'd walk into that situation. Frankly, she was amazing.

We were routinely putting in twelve-hour days, sometimes longer. These were nothing new for me, but I could tell April found them occasionally taxing and unexpected. She rolled with the situation, and didn't even seem to mind the weekend work.

If I were her age, I would have wanted a social life, but her social life became whatever I was doing outside of work.

I studied her on a flight in the corporate jet from Gaithersburg, Maryland, to Dallas, Texas. She napped on the seat across from mine, her head slowly sinking onto her chest as she slouched against the window of the Grumman Gulfstream jet.

April was young, but even asleep dynamic, and vibrant. She had good color, even a tan. I wondered how she had that tan when I was pasty white from being inside most of the day. She had long brown hair that glowed in the sunlight from the window, and dark brown eyes I constantly got lost in beneath her lids. She had a firm chin, a body that most models would lust after, and yet she was slightly busty and filled out her business suits in a comfortable way that drew the male eye.

April's personality was truly sparkling. She bubbled with enthusiasm about every aspect of life and every aspect of the job. She ran from task to task, afraid to sacrifice even a second to the completion of a task. She was a tough taskmaster, yet when she followed up with someone about an action item, she did it politely and firmly. There was never any doubt about her authority to act on my behalf.

We had one situation that became visible to the entire company, because it happened in front of a large meeting with twenty others in the room. Through April, I had asked for the Vice President of our Internet Services Division to give me a five-year plan based on broadband trends in five third-world countries. She'd given him the assignment, and even followed up with him a week before our meeting where this was one of the items on the agenda.

As we got to that item, Kyle Wingate, the VP, commented that he'd not done the work. He thought the assignment was something April had cooked up on her own, and not something serious, and demanding of his time and attention. As he spoke those words the room went deathly quiet.

I went ballistic. It wasn't the first time this bozo had ducked an assignment I'd passed on to him through my PA. I stood and walked down the table until I was next to Kyle. I pointed at him and then at April. "If that young lady asks for you or anybody in your unit to do something, you take that as a direct order from me. Not a request, but an order that you complete that work. If she says 'jump, ' you fucking well better ask 'how high?' on the way up, otherwise, you may find yourself at the end of a long unemployment line. DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?"

Kyle cringed and nodded.

April looked embarrassed, but stared down Kyle after I returned to my seat. Her demeanor seemed just right to me. She needed the mantle of my authority to be able to do her job, and he and other execs hadn't been according her that privilege. After that meeting, they were on notice that things better change starting that instant. They did; April found new respect and authority in the company. Suddenly, getting things done became a whole lot easier for her.

I took four senior execs and April on the corporate jet and we flew to Tokyo one Saturday night. We arrived Sunday evening and checked into the Hotel Okura. Our appointments didn't start until Monday morning, Tokyo time. We would have about twelve hours to decompress, get over our jet lag, get our plans and papers in order, and be ready to go at seven a.m.

We'd talked business most of the way over the pole and Alaska, across the International Date Line, and into Japan. I zonked out like a light at the hotel. The next thing I knew was when April shook me awake.

"Dad? Matt? Wake up. We've got to be ready in twenty minutes. You're alarm clock didn't go off. Come on, up at at 'em." She was cheery, but again displaying that combination of innocence and authority that she'd taken on with me.

"I'm up. You're right. I forgot to set the clock. How did you know?"

"I have the room next to you. I put my ear to the wall and didn't hear anything."

"Are the others up?"

"I banged on their door. Yes, I think they're moving."

"How you get in here?"

April laughed, "I had a key, of course." She held up her key card.

"I'll be ready to go in fifteen." I started to swing my feet out of bed, but then remembered that I was naked – my preferred sleeping style.

April laughed, "I'll be in the restaurant. You want your usual muffin and coffee?"

"Please."

On that note, she was gone.

The day's business had been a success. We'd bought part of a company, sold off another chunk of one of mine, and completed it all by four p.m. I'd bowed so often my back was sore. April had a combination bow and curtsey that the Japanese men loved. The four other execs were going to stay in country for the next couple of days and firm up the deal, and then fly home on commercial carriers.

The corporate jet lifted off from Tokyo International Airport (HND) at eight o'clock just as the sun was setting.

April said, "I have you scheduled for a little surprise for a few days, so don't argue with me or expect to be in control for the next four days. You are all mine."

I gave her my stern, 'I'm the boss' and 'I'm the dominant alpha father' look, but to no avail. April had put her seat back and obviously planned to try to get some sleep as we started to fly east-northeast out of Japan at 40,000 feet altitude.

About ten hours later, I'd had a good night's sleep, felt almost on some U.S. time zone, and had split my reading time between a pile of business reports and some emails, and a pleasure book by Harlan Corben.

Except for her nap on takeoff, April seemed to have worked the entire trip. She'd been typing incessantly into her Apple laptop computer, and I knew I'd be the beneficiary of her work sometime soon.

The plane started it's descent, and I figured we were going into San Francisco or San Jose, both places where we had offices and businesses, but such was not the case. We were well south of those places, and scooted the large jet into Monterey airport (MRY) using every inch of their 7,616-foot runway to land and stop the high-speed aircraft.

The weather was ideal, with temperatures in the low seventies as we disembarked about two p.m. Customs and immigration met us, and we were cleared through in five minutes. April had arranged for a rental car, to my surprise.

"Get in, Matt. We've got a short drive ahead of us."

I followed, tossing our luggage into the truck, and getting into the passenger seat of the mid-size sedan. I laughed about how this was the most down market car I'd been in for months, yet it was one of the high end rental cars April had arranged. I kept my mouth shut, curious about what her surprise would amount to. I had after all turned over to her my life and all its component parts.