The Mogul's Reluctant Bride - Book Two
Ana E Ross
PROLOGUE
Kaya cupped her little hands over her ears and hummed the tune to her favorite song, “You Are My Sunshine”. But as hard as she tried to drown out the noise, she could still hear her mother’s angry screams and her father’s booming voice coming from inside.
Finally, her father’s heavy footsteps thumped across the floor. As he opened the door, she jumped up from the front step of the apartment where they’d made her sit while they yelled at each other.
He smiled at her. He always smiled at her, even when he was mad with everybody else.
“Are we going to the zoo now, Daddy?” She’d waited all week to go to the zoo with him. She’d waited all week to see him.
He crouched down beside her. “No, baby. We’re not going to the zoo today.”
Tears filled her eyes and her lips trembled. “But you promised. You promised you’d take me to the zoo. Please, Daddy.” She placed her hands on his broad shoulders.
“I’m sorry, Kaya, baby. But your—”
“Kay! Kay! Get in here before I whip your behind.”
Kaya’s heart beat hard and fast inside her chest when her mother appeared at the door with a cigarette between her fingers.
Her father stood up. “Go on,” he said. “You heard your momma.”
Kaya balled her fists and glared at her mother. “No!” Her long braids slapped across her face as she shook her head in defiance. “I won’t go inside. I want to go with my daddy.”
“Get out of here!” her mother screamed at her father. “Don’t talk to her. Don’t you ever talk to her again or I’ll have your—”
“Okay, Nadine. I’m going.” William Brehna smiled at his little girl again. “Bye Kaya, baby. Daddy loves you.”
“Daddy!” Kaya screamed as he walked down the steps.
“You stay away from that man.” Her mother grabbed her arm, hauled her inside, and kicked the door shut. “He’s a no good—”
“He’s good. He’s my daddy. He’s my daddy.” Tears spilled down her cheeks as she glared at the puffy-eyed dragon with a curly stream of smoke oozing out of her mouth.
Nadine Brehna glared at her daughter then marched into the only bedroom in the apartment and slammed the door.
Kaya ran to the window in the living room and watched her father get into his car. But instead of driving off, he just sat there.
It could have been seconds, minutes, hours—a five-year-old had no concept of time, only the reality of abuse and loneliness.
She jumped up with joy when he got out of the car and came back up the walkway. She ran to the door, threw it open, and leaped into his arms. “Oh, Daddy, we’re going to the zoo.” She didn’t really care if they went to the zoo, or the park, or if they only went for a walk around the block. She needed so much to be with her daddy.
He was the only happiness she had.
He pried her arms from around his neck and pressed a cold metal object into her hand. “This is for you, Kaya.” He set her on the step and knelt in front of her, his big white teeth sparkling in the morning sun. “It belonged to your great-great-grandfather.”
A big lump settled in Kaya’s chest when she saw tears in her father’s eyes. She’d never seen her daddy cry before. “You can keep it, Daddy. I don’t need it.” She wiped at his tears with trembling fingers.
Her father held her hands and dropped wet kisses into her palms. “Don’t you ever lose this locket, Kaya. It contains a code to a box in a bank, but don’t go to the bank until you’re eighteen.”
He made her say the name and location of the bank several times until she remembered it.
“And don’t let your momma know you have this locket. You hear me, baby girl?”
“Yes, Daddy.” Kaya gazed at the object then slid it into the pocket of her shorts.