Escaping The Mafia Boss

Prologue

Katerina Dale

Pain.

I looked into my full length mirror at my dull green eyes and all I can see is pain.

Porcelain skin that appeared more fragile than I'd like to admit with long legs and a small waist. Natural ginger curls fell down my back and rested just above my waist.

Sometimes, I wonder why God had to make two of us. I wonder what life would have been like if I was born first or if I was born with my father's brown hair and blue eyes like my twin sister and not my mother's green eyes and red hair.

But no, I was born second and the loss of blood caused my mother's death. My birth family resented me for that and branded me as a curse of some sort. The fact that I looked more like my mother upset them even more. Tears fell down my cheeks as I look at the calendar on my dressing table.

Today is my twenty-fourth birthday and I can hear my maternal grandparents running around the kitchen, trying to cook my breakfast. Last year, they almost burnt the whole kitchen down as they tried to make my birthday breakfast themselves. A small smile tugged at my lips as I recall running into the kitchen and spraying everything, including them, with a fire extinguisher.

But who could blame them? My maternal grandparents were both prominent business figures until they retired when my birth family left me on their doorstep during a cold, rainy night with a single note that said to 'keep me away from the public's eyes or else'.

Without any hesitation, my maternal grandparents packed up the next morning and left the city to move to the countryside where they had a huge bungalow property that had been unused for years. They said my mother spent a lot of time here during her childhood and wanted to raise me here.

We live a simple life but my grandparents were not able to do a lot of physical work due to their age and health issues so they hired maids and cooks. Which explains why they're so bad at cooking themselves since it is always the chefs or me cooking.

A timid knock at my door snaps me out of my thoughts. I quickly wipe my tears away and reply with a soft 'come in'. The maids rush inside with my outfit of the day as I hold my towel tightly around my body and smile towards each of them.

"Good morning, Ms. Avery. We wish you a very happy birthday. Here is your outfit, may we assist you with dressing up?" the younger maid with pigtails questions as the other two smile towards me. My birth family never gave me their name so I took my mother's maternal family name instead.

The maids ask the same question every morning but are met with the same reply. I do admire their tenacity though but I've never undressed in front of anyone and that isn't going to change anytime soon.

"That is quite alright. Are grandmama and grandpapa cooking breakfast?" I question as I glance at the white dress adorned with the embroidery of red roses and a pair of white heels with slight annoyance.

I hate when my clothes have the colour red since it brings too much attention paired with my naturally fiery ginger hair. But at least the sleeves were white lace and long sleeves with the dress reaching just below my knees. I rarely wear anything shorter than that since I don't like to show too much skin.

I've never been a fan of shopping, in fact I hate it. At the age of twenty-four, my height never grew past 5'4 feet, and I was more curvy than the average girl. At first, it was too tiring to travel to the city and shop for clothes that fit me but then grandpapa arranged for me to have my own personal tailor. I tried to refuse and begged them to save their money since my birth family never gave them a penny to raise me. But they both refused so I eventually let them have their way.