We’ve started the launch of OF GODS AND GLOBES III and today’s first story features a billionaire. We’ll be riffing in the comments on billionaires:

Who is the worst? Who do you think? Why?

Juliet Marillier’s story Twins

…is the first in the volume. It’s about a wicked billionaire. Here’s how it begins:

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Someone needs to set this story down. Cass can’t do it now. Mum and Dad would like it to fade away like some not-quite-believable myth. That leaves me to be the storyteller.

Cass and I shared birthdays, being twins, and it was on or close to our birthday that Z used to pay his annual visit. If I could leave him out of the story, I would. But without Z we wouldn’t be where we are now. 

We were a classic nuclear family: Dad, Tim, financial analyst; Mum, Leda, helped run a wildlife rescue group. Me, Paul. My brother, Cass. You might see Z as a sort of fairy godfather. 

Our parents waited until our twelfth birthday to tell us the truth. We weren’t quite what we seemed.

* * *

Our eleventh was the best birthday ever, thanks to Z. Our family was comfortably well off by most standards, but compared with him we were poor. Z was mega-wealthy. He was the smartest–some said craziest–entrepreneur in the world. Just about everyone had heard of him, but nobody knew his real name, or if they did, they were sworn to secrecy.   

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To read the rest, get a copy of the book.

And tell us in the comments: who is the worst of the billionaires?

What do you think: who is the worst of the billionaires?