Chapter One
Kelly closed her eyes and tried to focus on making it home. She had opted to stand the short way home, afraid that she would otherwise end up on the other side of town after missing her stop. It had been a hard day and all she wanted was to go home and get as much sleep as she could. Being in college with no money and a mediocre job, which she had just lost, had made her life more stressful than the life of any twenty-three-year-old needed to be. She had tried all her life to make both her parents proud but, as it was, she would be lucky if they still looked to her as a daughter after finding out she had lost her third job in two months. It wasn’t that she didn’t try. She had done everything in her power to please her employer, but she found that she did not love her job. The longer she had worked as secretary, telephone attendant, and then waitress, the more she had become resentful towards her jobs.
The bus lurched to a stop and Kelly got off, deciding that she would run home and get started on a new job hunt before she told her parents. Just as she stepped off the bus a beautiful little girl with blonde pigtails and a scowl came bolting towards her from out of nowhere. Concern filled Kelly as she looked down at the little girl, who had clearly escaped her parents. She stepped forward and scooped her up before the girl could make her way on to the bus. She perched the girl on her hips and bounced her up and down as she began to lash out against Kelly. There was only one thing to do, and that was to find her parents.
Just as Kelly was about to take her first step, a woman came running out of a building nearby. She looked young and Kelly assumed that she must be the mother. She ran straight towards Kelly and grabbed the child from her hands.
“How could you do that to mommy?” the woman asked, obviously angry with the child.
“Oh, I’m sure she only meant to be off for a few minutes,” Kelly tried to joke. She had been an energetic child, so she knew what it was like for little girls to want to do a bit of exploring, even if that meant the parents would be worried crazy.
The woman looked at her as if Kelly had lost her mind. Just then a man came out from the same store the woman had just left. He looked much older than her, but Kelly was impressed by how handsome he was. He wore a gray fitted suit and a scowl that made Kelly want to cringe. He walked with slow, long strides, taking his time to get to them. Kelly registered that the woman standing beside her was afraid of him, and she wondered why.
“I’ve had it with you, Julianna,” he said, in a low, rumbling voice. “This is the second time you’ve lost our child this week. The judge said you could have supervised visits, but I frankly have had enough. I’m taking her.” Just like that, Kelly watched as he yanked the child from her mother’s hand. The little girl, who had previously quieted, now stretched out her hands and began crying to be returned to her mother.
Kelly was about to speak when the strangest thing happened. Instead of reaching out for her child, the mother simply sucked her teeth and walked away, leaving the father holding the crying little girl.
“Do I know you?” he asked.
“Oh, um, no. I was just here to catch your daughter just now,” Kelly said, trying to step around him so she could flee the scene of what appeared to be the weirdest episode she’d ever seen.
“Ah, so you caught little monkey here?” he asked affectionately. “I’m surprised you were able to. She usually gets a few blocks from us before we can catch up to her.”
“She basically ran into my arms,” Kelly joked.
“Did she?” he asked, looking down at his daughter. “You like this lady?” he asked his daughter, who was now sobbing quietly into his jacket.
Kelly was thrown a bit off guard by the turn of the conversation, but it seemed the little girl understood clearly because she nodded and placed her head on her father’s shoulder.
“Seems you’ve done what many have tried to do,” he said with a smile. “You’ve won over a Moretti.”
Kelly didn’t register the name immediately, but after a second she began to recognize who he was.
“You’re Oscar Moretti?” she asked, beginning to understand a bit better. The woman she had just met was his ex-wife, who he had caught cheating with his business partner. Or that’s what the gossip columns had reported. She had heard a lot of things about Oscar Moretti from the gossip columns. He had made a name for himself in college, turning his measly inheritance into a multibillion dollar hotel empire. He’d had relationships with various tall, thin models before marrying Julianna when she fell pregnant. Their split had been of great interest to Kelly’s circle of friends, and had been plastered on the covers of all the tabloids for months.
“Yes, I am,” he replied. “And you are?”
“I’m Kelly, Kelly Taylor,” she replied.
Just then a car drove up, and a man dressed in a black suit and sunglasses stepped out.
“It was nice to meet you, Kelly,” Oscar said, handing the little girl to the man in the suit. She reluctantly let go of her father, who then stuck his hand into his pocket and pulled out a card. “Give me a call, Kelly, I think I have a proposition for you,” he said, handing her the card. For a moment their hands touched and Kelly felt a jolt of electricity shoot through her that she had not felt since she was a love-struck teenager.
Kelly was impressed, but she wanted to know what a man like him wanted with a girl like her. And she also wanted to go home and figure out why the simple brush of his hand against her made her feel as if butterflies had invaded her stomach.