“And when he married Amalie, and it was like Princess Diana all over again. The ad campaign he initiated with Amalie as the face of the company took off like a rocket. The ads were everywhere, TV, radio, billboards, magazines, the whole nine yards. He did not overlook one angle promotion-wise. The whole world wanted to look like Amalie Laurent Moss. You know the French. They called the couple the Princess and the Frog.”

“And then . . .” Annie said.

“And then he screwed up,” Abner said gleefully. He tried to . . . I don’t know how to explain this . . . he used old footage of some of the video Amalie had shot for promotions and dubbed in her person. Does that make sense? The new shoots were crude, and the media picked up on it. He pulled in his horns right away, then went with all stills. The other big companies started taking shots at him and his company while they redoubled their own advertising budgets with fresh talent.”

“So, the company couldn’t survive without Amalie is what you’re saying. It started going downhill when she left, and Moss couldn’t get the company back on track,” Myra said.

Abner clapped his hands together. “I hate that bastard. I got into his financials, and the man made billions, that’s with a B. The company now isn’t worth the packaging. He’s also taken some political hits here in town. Doesn’t matter if he’s the President’s best bud or not. To be honest, though, a lot of it is jealousy. I mean, get real, the guy could walk in and out of the White House at any time of the day or night, whereas the others have to make an appointment and go through all that Secret Service rigmarole. Moss just acted like he owned the joint. Hey, you heard all the rumors, read all the write-ups about the guy. It was all true. Not sure now, though. Then there are all those whispers about a little black book. It’s like where there’s smoke, there’s fire. He has a file, or so the whispers go, on every politician and advisor in the administration. Who knows if it’s true or not, but you have to ask yourself how those whispers started in the first place.