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PROLOGUE
Twenty-year-old, Mary Catherine Amato studies herself in the mirror with a critical eye. Her dark-brown almost black hair falls in waves around her face and down her back. She’s never considered herself to be beautiful, even though her mother tells her that she’s the most beautiful girl in the world, but that’s what a mom is supposed to say, right? Her heart shaped face is too full in Mary’s opinion. At least compared to the other girls at the elite forming arts school she’s attending. She’s twenty years old and still a virgin. How sad is that? Biting her lower lip, she continues to study herself. Her arched well-manicured eyebrows are a good feature and her lips are full, but overall, she just looks plain. She turns her face to study her makeup, ensuring it isn’t too dark or not evenly spread over her skin.
Smoothing her hands down the black sequined gown her mother insisted she wear for the performance tonight, she frowns at herself again. She’s entirely too thin, the dress is hanging on her instead of hugging her curves that are basically non-existent. This concert has caused her to have an overwhelming bout of nerves, which has left her without an appetite. The times she’s made herself eat, she’s ended up losing it all in the toilet. Hearing someone approaching, she glances up into the mirror to see her brother standing at the door to her room.
“You look fine,” Tony speaks. “Come on, Mom says it’s time to go.” Mary nods as she watches him walk away. Frowning she thinks about how their relationship has changed recently. Tony, her big brother used to be her best friend, despite being four years older, but they hardly speak at all. Tony was a jock in high school and the most popular guy in his class. Things began changing when he entered his senior year. Mary had never been a member of the popular crowd like Tony, but he’d always been her big brother, her protector. At least he had been when they were younger. Shrugging she thinks that’s just how it must go as you grow up, but she’s still sad at the loss of the closeness they used to share.
In the couple of years since he graduated from college, he’s gotten to be much closer to their father. She supposes that’s to be expected since he’s begun working at their father’s business. Grabbing up her scattered makeup on her vanity, she tucks it into her small bag to place in her purse, before hurrying downstairs where the rest of the family is waiting for her. At the bottom of the stairs, her mother turns to look at her descending the stairs.
“Mary Catherine, you look absolutely gorgeous,” her mother gushes as Mary reaches the bottom step. “I knew that dress would be perfect. Look at her, Antonio isn’t she gorgeous?” Mary looks at her father. His face lights up with a handsome smile.
“You are stunning, Mary Catherine,” her father utters, placing a kiss on her cheek. “You’re going to knock them dead.” Warmth floods Mary at her father’s praise. It isn’t often he pays much attention to her anymore. She’d been Daddy’s little girl as a child, but as she’s gotten older, he’s been distant. Not as interested in her or what’s happening in her life. Perhaps, he’s just been busy with work. He does have to work long hours. She hears his phone ring late at night, and he will leave to take care of some problem at the warehouse. Since Tony’s working with him, they both get up and go out.
“We better go,” Evelyn, Mary’s mother says. “We don’t want the star to be late.”
“Mom!” Mary protests. “I’m not the star. I’m just another singer.”
“Humph!” Her mother snorts very unladylike. “You’re just the soloist, and the best singer in the group.”
“You’re only saying that because I’m your daughter,” Mary argues, shaking her head at her mother’s unrelenting praise.
“Let’s go, superstar,” Tony articulates in a joking tone, as he bumps her shoulder with his. Mary smiles at him as they head out the door. She’s pleased that he’s acting more like the old Tony before he became a serious businessman at the ripe old age of twenty-four.
* * *
The night has gone so much betterthan Mary had thought it would. She’d been very nervous about her solo. She’s practiced so hard for so long and it seems all the long hours have paid off at last. The concert has been a smashing success. The theater is empty as Mary and her mother make their way across the stage, heading to the back door leading to the parking lot in the back.
“Your father and brother had to leave as soon as the concert ended,” Evelyn informs her as they approach the exit. “Some emergency down at the warehouse, but they will meet us at Umberto’s for a celebratory dinner.”
“Another emergency?” Mary asks as she pushes open the door to enter the back parking lot behind the theater. It seems there have been a lot of emergencies in the warehouse lately. Mary can’t fathom how a building used to store things could have that many emergencies. She is about to question her mother further when she notices it’s unusually dark out. The lights are out in the parking lot. Bright lights suddenly pin her as if in the spotlight on stage, blinding her as she clears the door. Unable to see she missteps in her heels. Mary pitches forward, stumbling a few steps before realizing she can’t stop her fall. She tenses in preparation for hitting the dirty pavement.Pop! Pop!Pain flares through her as she faceplants onto the unyielding pavement. The sound of squealing tires confuses Mary as she picks herself up from her fall.
“Mom, what was that popping?” Mary turns toward the theater. “Agghh!” A shrill shriek leaves her body as she sees her mother laying on her back, her arms thrown wide. Her eyes staring, but unseeing toward the black sky above them. A large dark pool forming under her back and spreading over the front of her beautifully expensive dress. Falling to her knees beside the still woman, Mary cries.
“Oh God! Mom! Mom!” Mary can’t process what she’s seeing. The metallic scent of blood fills the air causing bile to rise in her throat. Retching over and over until there’s nothing left, Mary remains on her knees on the filthy pavement until the police and ambulance arrive. Still sobbing uncontrollably, she’s hoisted to her feet and placed in the back of an ambulance while emergency personnel survey the scene. This is the night that Mary’s life changes forever. The night she learns her family isn’t who she thought they were.
CHAPTERONE
Six years later…
Ruby Cox, born Mary Catherine Amato, hurries across the busy street after looking both ways. Jacksonville is truly hopping this morning. The traffic is worse than usual. The sky has clouded up with a slight chill in the air. She really shouldn’t have slept in the park last night, but she can’t risk staying in one place too often. She tries to spend a few nights when the weather is good in one of the local parks. The authorities frown on such activity, but a girl has to do what a girl has to do. Ruby has to stay in places where she can’t be tracked, so leasing an apartment or even renting a decent hotel room is out of the question.
Today has been frustrating to say the least. Ruby has run into one obstacle after another. The public swimming pool where she can usually get a shower in their locker rooms is closed due to a water main break. She walks another ten blocks to get to another facility where she can shower. She wasn’t planning to hit the YMCA this morning, but since she’s here for a shower, might as well get her exercise in for the day. Reaching into her backpack for her wallet, she realizes she never got it out of the storage locker at the bus depot where she pays a monthly rate to have a place to store what few valuables she has managed to accumulate. Luckily the bus depot isn’t very far.
On her way back from getting her wallet, it begins to mist rain, just adding icing on the cake of a crappy morning. Reaching the YMCA, she swipes her damp hair out of her eyes before pushing the buzzer to gain entrance. An attendant is quick to let her inside. The man gives her a hard look when she enters.
“Are you a member?” he asks skeptically. Ruby has seen the look on his face many times in the face of others over the years. Distain that a homeless person would dare to darken the door of a fine upstanding business, outrageous. Stifling the urge to throat punch him, she smiles ever so sweetly.
“Yes, I just misplaced my fob,” Ruby replies. She wipes out the id card she’s managed to procure. It hadn’t been easy to come by, but with plenty of ingenuity she’d gotten a membership under a fictious name. He gives it a hard look but allows her to continue inside. She heads to the weight room and begins her arm routine. She’ll have to make it quick. She doesn’t have much time before she needs to be somewhere. It’s not like she needs to workout with the life she leads; she gets plenty of exercise. However, she does like to keep her muscles as strong as possible. A woman living alone on the streets has to be able to protect herself. She’s still vulnerable, but at least she’s not an easy mark. If someone tries to hurt her, she’ll at least make them remember her afterward.
Once she’s finished her routine, she heads for the showers. She showers, washing her hair and body in record time. Normally, she lingers in the shower, enjoying the warm water cascading over her body. Living on the streets, she doesn’t get to shower daily like she’d been used to before her world was shattered. She no longer takes anything for granted. She treasures every moment of the simple pleasures in life.
Ruby doesn’t look like someone you’d expect to be homeless. It isn’t something she is either ashamed of nor proud of; it’s just the way it has to be. There’s no way she can risk being found again. It’s entirely too dangerous trying to rent a place or even get a job where her social security number is required. Ruby tried using a fake identity, once, but she’d been found. She’d barely gotten away before being caught. After that fiasco, she lives in homeless shelters where they don’t ask a lot of questions. She only takes jobs that pay cash under the table. She’s been blessed to not have to resort to more illegal activities to survive: stealing or prostitution. She’s had some really bad times and gone without eating for days at a time, but she’s managed to survive and learn how to take care of herself.
While growing up in New York City, Ruby had believed she lived in a typical upper middle-class Italian-American family. Her father, a business man, loved her mother unconditionally, giving her whatever she wanted or needed. Her mother, a housewife, was active in local charities and activities associated with her children’s schools or interests. Ruby was the only daughter and youngest child of Antonio and Evelyn Amato.
Ruby hadn’t known what her father did for a living or how that would affect her entire life until her mother’s untimely death. Ruby had been oblivious to the goings on around her, mostly because her mother had sheltered her from the reality of their life. She has mixed feelings over the way her mother chose to handle their life situation. Keeping her in the dark. Her mother only wanted to protect her, but not knowing anything about their real life put Ruby at a huge disadvantage when her mother died. She was suddenly thrust into the unfamiliar, and it was sink or swim time. Ruby was totally unprepared to swim at the time.
Ruby’s mother, Evelyn, had always wanted to have a singing career but never had the talent. Ruby, however, had a golden voice from a young age. Evelyn had encouraged her to grow her talent, and she had. She spent every waking hour perfecting her talent. She loved to sing, so it wasn’t really a hardship for her, back then. Ruby spent much of her time at singing lessons, auditions, and recitals. She took piano lessons and frequently entertained her family and their guests with her talents. She was active in academic team and choir in school. She’d had no idea of all the things going on in the back ground.
