Prologue
The suitcase zipped shut behind Danica. She fixed her collar in the mirror, simultaneously inspecting her recently cut hair for any errant strands.Better not be. For what she paid to have the best stylist in the region come by every week to keep her groomed… well, if the woman couldn’t do something as simple as make Danica’s hair nice, then she wasn’t the best.
“Did you get everything, Mr. Clayborn?” she asked her assistant’s reflection.
Nigel Clayborn nodded. “Yes, ma’am. Five dresses, seven blouses, three pairs of pants, and plenty of undergarments to get you through your trip.”
“Excellent.” The collar was meticulously fixed by the time Danica walked away from the mirror. “Have Ms. Clayborn confirm that Ms. Colbert will be joining me before we take off.”
Danica didn’t like it when her obedient assistant didn’t act,hm, obedient. Whenever Mr. Clayborn looked like that, Danica knew that something sinister propagated beneath her feet. Itwas either boiling bad blood between the Clayborn siblings or… her father.
“About Ms. Colbert…”
Danica shot her assistant a biting look. Before Nigel could nuke his own ass, someone knocked on the chamber door.
“Ah, Danica.” Russell Moreau admitted himself without invitation. “Just the woman I wanted to see.” He smiled at the packed bags lining the wall. “Ready for Chicago?”
Danica tucked her hands behind her back. “Everything should be in order.”
“Excellent. I’m counting on you.”
Once upon a time, Danica loved to hear that from her father. Not that Russell ever withheld praise. He always praised his daughter… when Danica earned it. She would receive no participation trophies, but she would get a “good job” when shewona trophy.
Her father’s praise had been a drug for a while. When an only child was rejected by her mother from an early age, it was natural to search for a father’s praise, wasn’t it?At least I’m past that now.She couldn’t say that about some of her contemporaries. Although Russell saying “good job” still felt pretty nice.
“When I get back,” Danica began, relieved to see a relaxed demeanor on her father’s face, “I’d like you to meet my new girlfriend. Perhaps we could have dinner together.”
Russell’s expression remained unchanged. Yet the atmosphere? That completely shifted in Danica’s private quarters. Russell had been brought up to speed about Alicia, right? If he hadn’t seen the tabloids, then he at least heard about Alicia’s existence through the corporate grapevine. Some shareholder or partner or direct underling would have said something about Danica cavorting multiple times with the same woman. Her hookups and random one-night stands didn’tcount. People only took notice if the womanrepeated.My asking him to meet her must be like a stab in the stomach. So was the day young Danica Moreau received the informal announcement that her perfectly matched parents were getting a sudden, messy divorce.
She had only been what, six? Seven? Barely starting school, let alone boarding school. Mother Julia wasn’t around that much to begin with, but she always paid careful attention to her daughter when they were together. Even with nannies, Julia was in charge and had the final say in everything.“No, Danica, you didn’t finish your dinner, so no ice cream.” “Did I say that you could touch that, Danica? Be a lady. Ladies don’t touch people or things without permission.” “You can have it if you promise to play with it. Do you? All right, but if this is like the last thing we bought you, then forget any other toys for three months. Do you know how long three months is? A very long time.”
To have that kind of guidance leave her life, never to be seen again outside of tabloid speculation, would have broken lesser girls. Particularly when said trash rags loved to lie about Julia’s supposed conditions. Schizophrenia. Paranoia. Narcissism. Some said she had burn scars all over her body. Others said she had tried to kill herself with Russell’s treasured Civil War pistol and was currently kept in a mental hospital. Danica’s least favorite lie that actually made her sue for libel was the one that implied she had been beaten by her mother, prompting Russell to divorce her with no visitation rights.
“Your girlfriend.” Russell was a plaintive speaker when he wasn’t impressed. “I had hoped you had moved on from her already.”
Danica pretended she didn’t hear that tone in her father’s voice. Russell had only readily approved of about three women in Danica’s dating life since coming to terms with herpersistentsexuality. Gale, the daughter of a Scandinavian shippingmagnate; Patrice, a Georgian debutante whose family used to be one of the richest plantation owners in the Confederacy; Mika, a Japanese diplomat’s daughter with ties to the royal family and untold riches. That last one only got a pass because of the connections. Who cared if she wasn’t white if it meant the Moreaus tangentially became Asian royalty? Russell had many business associates in Japan and South Korea. They were all in the business of making each other more money.
He didn’t even like that I was dating the heiress of a Hong Kong empire.If Danica’s beloved was to be non-white, then she must be of some kind of noble blood. Money wasn’t enough. The Moreaus alreadyhadmoney. Must she continue to insult the Moreau name with her lesbianism? And now the girl wasn’t evenwhite?
Alicia was white, but she had some of the worst breeding possible. Danica had looked into it shortly after realizing she was falling for the former hostess of Midnight.
Alicia… Danica had forgotten the fortune teller’s Tarot cards until that fateful night in which she met and seduced Alicia Colbert.She looked like that card.So many fortunate signs in such a short span of time.
“You remember what you once told me about meeting ‘the one?’” Danica attempted to keep her countenance chipper. “I haven’t stopped feeling that since the moment I met her.”
“Yes. At that club of yours.”
Danica shrugged before grabbing her wallet off the nearest table. “Does it matter where I met her when it comes to my instincts?”
“I’m happy for your current happiness. Truly.” Russell walked farther into the room. He nodded to Nigel Clayborn, who took the massive hint to get the hell out of there. As soon as the man had scurried from the room, Russell continued, “A fatherwants nothing more than to see his child succeed and be happy. Ensuring a good match for her is one of those keys to happiness.”
Danica knew exactly where this was going, but decided to play dumb. She was too content with her thoughts of Alicia to do otherwise. “Then you’ll be even happier to know that things are going well with her. I’ve already had her background checked out. No criminal history, and a scholar.”
“If you think I haven’t helped myself to her background too, then you might be a fool.” Russell sat in a chair in front of the coffee table. “No one has ever heard of this Colbert family. Her parents are a schoolteacher and a nurse.” Russell scoffed. “I know I told you to follow your gut while you’re young, daughter, but you must realize that we have standards to adhere to. It’s one thing to have your fun with pretty but poor women. It’s another to make accusations that you think she might bethe one. Come on, Danica, you’ve known her for what? A month?”
“Short of that.” Danica checked her collar again. Was that a tag she saw?Damnit. She wanted to be perfect for once in her life. Yet her clothing always had plans of its own. Alicia doesn’t seem to mind. That made Danica smile at her reflection. As long as Alicia was happy with her girlfriend’s appearance. God knew Danica was more than happy with hers.
“When I was your age, I was falling in love with women and calling them ‘the one’ every other month.”
