The Mistress by Danielle Steel EPUB & PDF – eBook Details Online
- Status: Available for Free Download
- Authors: Danielle Steel
- Language: English
- Genre: Women’s Sagas
- Format: PDF / EPUB
- Size: 2 MB
- Price: Free
It was dusk on a warm June day, as the enormous motor yacht
Princess Marina lay at anchor off the coast of Antibes in the
Mediterranean, not far from the famous Hôtel du Cap. The fivehundred-foot yacht was in plain sight for all to see, as deckhands of
the seventy-five-person crew swabbed down her decks, and washed
the saltwater off her as they did every evening. At least a dozen of them
were hosing her down. Casual observers could get a sense of just how
huge she was when they noticed how tiny the deckhands looked from
the distance. You could see lights shining brightly within her, and
everyone familiar with that part of the coast knew which boat she was
and who owned her, although there were several nearly as large at
anchor nearby. The giant superyachts were too large to dock in port,
except for ports large enough to handle cruise ships. It was no small
thing to dock a boat that size, no matter how large the crew, or how
adept they were at maneuvering her.
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Her owner, Vladimir Stanislas, had three more motor yachts of
comparable size positioned around the world, and a three-hundredfoot sailboat he had bought from an American, which he seldom used.
But Princess Marina, named for the mother who had died when he
was fourteen, was the yacht that he preferred. She was an exquisite
floating island of ostentation and luxury that had cost him a fortune to
build. He owned one of the most famous villas on the coast as well, in
St. Jean Cap-Ferrat. He had bought it from a famous movie star, but
he never felt quite as safe on land, and robberies and attacks on
important villas were common in the South of France. Offshore, with
the crew to protect him, most of them trained in high security and
antiterrorist measures, and with an arsenal of guns onboard and a
specially designed missile system, he felt secure, and able to change
locations rapidly at any time.
Vladimir Stanislas was acknowledged to be one of the richest men in
Russia and in the world, with the monopoly of the Russian steel
industry accorded him by the government almost twenty years before,
due to the remarkable connections he had cultivated with key people
since his teens. A great deal of money had changed hands at a crucial
time, and more had been made than anyone had thought imaginable
or even possible. He had heavy investments in oil now too, and in
industries worldwide. The kind of money Vladimir had made and had
at his disposal was difficult to conceive of. At forty-nine, he was
estimated to be worth $40 or $50 billion, on the deals and
investments that were known.
He was an intimate of high-up
government officials all the way to the Russian president, and was
known to other heads of state as well. And the fabulous yacht that
shimmered like a jewel in the twilight was only a small symbol of his
connections and the brilliant abilities in business that had served him
well.
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