The island Stark had purchased was very close to Palm Beach. No one had ever bought or developed it because it was in an awkward location.
The island was too small for a tourist resort, yet a little too large for a private estate, making security difficult to arrange.
More importantly, because it was near the West Coast's most famous luxury vacation destination, the island was exceptionally expensive—several times the price of more remote islands that were more suitably sized. Before Stark, no fool had ever bought an island like this.
Stark did not think he was a fool, because the island's size—the thing that gave everyone else headaches—was not a problem for him.
Originally, the island only had a white-sand beach on its western side. The beach was short and small, but Stark had bought a batch of white sand in Los Angeles and simply created an artificial beach.
As everyone knew, labor in the United States was expensive. Other wealthy people did not do this because hiring workers to spread the sand cost an absurd amount and took forever. If a hurricane came along, the sand they laid down today could be blown away tomorrow.
But Stark could use robots, meaning there was practically no labor cost. He only had to pay for the sand, and robots followed instructions better than humans. Whatever design he drew, they could build it exactly that way. It was even easier than building a home in a game.
Now, the entire southwestern side of the island had become one enormous, long white-sand beach. This would be the wedding's main venue.
There were two small hills elsewhere on the island. The lower one, closer to the beach, had been built into a cluster of hillside villas for guests to stay in. On the