“Exactly. It is disgusting. Can we focus on business? I have a date.”
“Sure, if you say so,” Nick teased. “I wonder who the unlucky man is.”
“Nick Saunders! You better watch your mouth. I can still whoop your ass, you know,” Zia said as she hit her brother playfully on the chest. “Can we please discuss the preservation and the ball?”
“She said please! The mighty Zia said please,” Nick grinned. “Sure.”
“Seriously, Nick. You’re full of it. But luckily for you, I have business on my mind,” Zia said as she pulled some papers from her bag and laid them on the table. The atmosphere turned from jovial to serious as Zia shuffled papers.
“I really wish we could maintain the preservation without this ball. It is stressful,” Nick said.
“Yes, it can be, but it’s a good way to get everyone who is someone to care about something bigger than themselves,” Zia said.
“Did you reach out to the state again? Maybe they might be interested in acquiring the property?” Nick said.
“I’ve already been in touch with everyone that matters, and the general consensus is that if the state gets the land, we might as well say bye bye to that land the way God intended it to be. The state will turn it into a mall.”
“Sad,” Nick said. “Well, a mall is not going to work. We might as well keep doing things the way we’ve done them for years.”
“That’s the plan,” she said as she pulled binders out of her bag, each binder color-coded. She was incredibly organized when it came to financial matters. Anything else just fell by the wayside for her. He chuckled as he imagined what kind of life she would have had as a homemaker thousands of years ago.
“What’s funny?” she asked.
“Nothing,” he said, not wishing to get into an argument with her. She always claimed that if she ever had to make a home, she’d be just fine.
“I think we can find ways of reducing expenses next year so we don’t have to depend so heavily on donors,” Zia said after a moment of silence. “I don’t know how much longer our donors will be this generous, especially if they have nothing to gain from it. At a point, we might need to reconsider our options.”
Nick didn’t say a word. He knew what she was referring to. They had discussed letting go of the preservation that had been part of the family for centuries. But Nick would never let that happen, and Zia knew his opinion of it but occasionally still pushed it. The preservation, which was a few thousand acres, was tucked away in the Shenandoah valleys of Virginia. It had been in their family for years, just like Saunders Empire had been a family legacy from his great-grandfather. A few years ago, the man they had trusted with managing the preservation embezzled the money they had entrusted in his care, and as such, they ran a risk of running down the preservation.
This was their third year raising funds by leveraging their contacts and marketing the fundraising as a way to preserve nature for generations to come. The people on his guest list usually had so much money to donate they didn’t even care to know where the preservation was located.
Now Sara was on his guest list, and he didn’t want to tell his sister that she might not be getting ten million from her.
In that instant, Nick felt bad. He hadn’t thought what inviting Sara meant to the preservation he cared so much to protect. The dinner was strictly for twenty people who always gave them at least ten million dollars. They didn’t always have the same guest list every year because they didn’t want people feeling bothered about donating, but each of them was responsible for inviting ten guests guaranteed to give a hefty donation.
When he had invited Sara, all he cared about was seeing her again and being in her company. He hadn’t given her ability to donate much thought. Sara was going to cost him ten million without knowing it. He didn’t mind paying her donation in secret, but if Zia found out, she’d eat him alive. Nick knew enough not to get on Zia’s bad side. She would bite his head off, even in public.
“Oh, I’m looking through your guest list, and I recognize most of the names, except this one.” Zia pointed to a name on the list.
He didn’t have to look to know who she meant, but he wanted to play it safe until she said something. “Who?”
“Sara Nolles?”
“Yes, Sara. She’ll be a good donor. I met her some time ago. I think she’s someone we want on our side.”
Zia looked at Nick in a way that told him she knew he was lying, but she didn’t press it. That was the other good thing about Zia; she knew when to back down and Nick loved her even more for that. Zia let the topic drop and moved on to the rest of her agenda.