Page 3 of Bound in Paradise
“Um… also not possible…”
Zack’s eyes narrowed on the odious little man who was about to bear the brunt of his wrath. Aubrey’s eyes widened and he hastily pushed another document across the table.
Snatching it up and reading through it, Zack felt his blood boil to volcanic proportions. “Thiscan notbe legal,” he gritted out from between clenched teeth.
“I assure you, it is.” Tattersall leaned back in his chair, suddenly oddly calm. “I drafted it myself, so I know it’s airtight.”
Not doing himself any favors!
Without another word, Zack rose from his seat in one swift, smooth movement, swept up the documents, and left, leaving Aubrey Tattersall squawking behind him. He’d take this shit show to his own legal team for answers.
PROLOGUE DANI
IN THE BEGINNING
DANI
“Daniella, what on earth are you doing?”
Sticking her tongue in the corner of her mouth and gripping it with her teeth, Dani carefully pressed the tiny building brick into place. She was almost done. The pictures meant she could follow the instructions, even if she couldn’t understand all the words.
“CuginoLuca let me borrow some of his Lego,” she replied, scanning the final few pieces and missing the look of horror and disdain on her mother’s face. It didn’t matter. She’d grow used to those expressions over the coming years.
“Mamma Mia!”
Dani jumped as her mother’s hand came down on the table, shattering the model she’d worked so hard on, and scattering the bricks everywhere.
“Esme?” Concetta’s voice was a harsh screech as she yelled for Dani’s nanny before she turned her disapproving glare back on Dani.
“Go to your room and play with your dolls, Daniella. They are far more suitable for a five-year-old girl.”
“Sì, madre,”Dani held back the tears of sadness and anger that threatened to explode from inside her as she turned towards the pink, frilly room filled with all the boring dolls, and the itchy dresses she already hated. Even at such a young age, she instinctively knew she shouldn’t let her mother see just how much this upset her.
Closing the door to her bedroom behind her, Dani sat on the floor against the oppressive dark wood and listened as her mother shrieked orders at her nanny.
“Get this mess picked up immediately and return this abomination to Master Luca. Make sure the boy understands it isnotsuitable for Daniella to play with this kind of thing.”
“Yes, mistress Concetta, of course,” came Esme’s subdued response.
Dani looked around the large candy pink room. She hated pink. There was every kind of doll imaginable. Baby dolls with bottles and feeding bowls, that pooped in their diaper, so it had to be changed. Eww! They came with all kinds of accessories. Prams and highchairs, rocking cribs and their own tiny bathtubs. Boring! Why would anyone want to play with those? Her cousin Luca didn’t have any of them. He had fun stuff like Lego.
Then there were the Barbies with their fancy outfits and matching shoes. She’d seen some that were dressed as doctors and even an astronaut, but her mother had refused to give her any of those more interesting dolls, saying they were ‘unseemly’.
Dani didn’t know what unseemly was, she only knew she’d prefer those dolls to the ones she had.
Her gaze moved to the shelf on the far wall. On it were the porcelain dolls. They were creepy and stared at her with their perfect hair and perfect faces, wearing their perfect clothes, and they didn’t do anything but stand there with their soulless eyes, looking far too perfect.
Sometimes Dani had nightmares that her mother tried to make her into one of those porcelain dolls. That her voice was gone and all she could do was exist and look pretty.
But Dani wanted to be an explorer. She wanted to go out and see the world and all the exciting things in it. That was so much more fun thandolls!
“Daniella! Why aren't you dressed? You need to leave for your Cotillion class in thirty minutes.”
Dani looked down at her dirty hands and sneakers. The horrified look was on her mother’s face again. It seemed to be there more and more, lately.
“I don’t want to go,” Dani replied, her own expression mutinous. “They’resoboring! Luca doesn’t have to go, so why should I?”
“Well, that’s where you’re wrong. Zio Lorenzo has agreed that Cotillion classes would be a good thing for your cousin too, so you’re going together from now on, Daniella.”
