PROLOGUE: THE BEGINNING OF THE END
My daddy, Jeremy Danielson, and my mother, Priscilla Ferrara, were what one would call a 'Hollywood' couple. For the first thirteen years of their marriage, they lived the perfect life here in the Los Angeles suburbs. Daddy made sure Mommy and I had only the best. He made sure Mommy and I got only the best cars, clothes, jewels, food and love that money could buy.
But money runs out, eventually, and even a daddy's love runs out, as I soon learned.
When I was thirteen, my life fell apart. It did not happen in one swift fall from grace. It happened gradually, over the years, only I was too young to realise what was happening. It started out with angry glares, and progressed to little arguments. Soon, it moved on to large fights, and it escalated into Daddy's ultimate betrayal.
Mommy had hired nineteen-year-old Claire Ward to be our cleaning girl on the weekends. Every Saturday, she would come over and clean the house. Mommy didn't like having full-time servants because she was worried they might steal from us. She figured she would not have that problem with a part-time maid.
How wrong she was. Claire did steal from us; only what she stole was far more expensive than the costliest Persian rug, or the most expensive Picasso painting. What she stole from us was Daddy.