Hey ! This is my new fic...Some people will notice it's very similar to 'Paradise' novel written by Judith McNaught. It is. I just thought it was a fantastic story...So, this is not 100% original fic. just to let you guys know ; ). Hope you like it anyway : )

Paradise - Prologue

The room Rory had shared with Lane at Bensonhurst for four years was full of packing boxes and filled suitcases. Hanging on the closet's door, the dresses they'd worn at the previous night were decorated with ribbons indicated they graduated with the highest honours. The open door of their dorm let the unfamiliar sounds of male's voice go inside their room. Rory's father had spent the night at a local inn and was going to arrive in an hour, but Rory had lost track of time. Already filled with nostalgia, she was flipping through a thick stack of photographs she'd taken from her desk, smiling at the memories each one evoked.

The years Lane and she had spent in Connecticut had been wonderful for both of them. Lane made a lot of friends as soon as she arrived at the college. The girls thought she was unique and original. In their freshman year, Lane organized and led a successful raid on the boys at Litchfield. In their sophomore year, Lane designed a stage setting for Bensonhurst's annual school play whom was so spectacular that some journalists published them in their newspapers. In their junior year, Lane asked Dave Fletcher out for going to Litchfield's spring dance. Besides being the lead guitarist of a rock band, Dave was also good-looking and very smart. On the day before the dance, he did two major things: He gave his very first official concert with his band, and took Lane's virginity in a nearby motel.

Lane, with her dark beauty and her off-hand attitude, was a splendid creature. Rory, in contrast, was quietly gracious and serenely beautiful . Whenever the two girls went out together, males returned to stare. Lane enjoyed the thrill of dating and the excitement of a new romance. But Rory found her popularity with the opposite sex curiously deprived of fun. Although she enjoyed being with boys, dating guys for whom she felt no more than friendship was pleasant, but not as strong as she'd expected it to be. Lane attributed all that to the fact that Rory idolized Dean, her only love for the last 8 years. The young, handsome and rich Dean Forrester III, the first man who kissed her under the mistletoe... The first man who made her heart beat faster...

Rory had known since childhood that she wanted to get her college degree and take her rightful place at the head of Hayden's someday. Those shops were all her life. During the years she attended Bensonhurst, she had managed to see Dean quite often. It wasn't really hard since both her family and Dean's one were members of the Glennmoor Country Club. The Glenmoor's tradition was that every member had to attend every bal, and every year, Rory somehow managed to go with Dean. Each summer, she'd invited Dean to be her partner for the junior-senior tennis tournament. His acceptance had always been kind; their matches had always been absolute defeats, mostly because Rory's extreme nervousness when she was around him. Rory snapped back to reality, realizing that she was putting an end to an important period of her life, an trying to enjoy this moment.

During their packing, two brothers of another student came to help Lane and Rory. They started forward. Behind them, was standing Christopher Hayden, his face darken with fury as he looked at the three young men.

-What the hell is going on in here?

The five occupants of the room froze under his icy voice. Rory tried to smooth things by hastily introducing the boys to her father.

-Out! I thought the rules of this school prohibited men other than fathers from entering this goddamned building.

-In the first place, the school ended yesterday, so the rules aren't still applying. Second, they were only trying to help up stack these boxes for shipping so we can leave...

-I was under the impression, he interrupted, that I was coming here this morning to do all that. I believe that was why I got out of bed at...

-Excuse me, Mr. Bancroft. You have an urgent call downstairs, said the receptionist.

When he left to take his call, Rory sank down on the bed and Lane slammed her Coke onto the desk.

-I cannot understand that man! He's impossible ! He won't let you date anyone he hasn't known since childhood, and he scares everyone else who'd dare to try. He gave you a car for your sixteenth birthday, and he won't let you drive it. I have four Korean brothers, dammit, and combined together they're not as protective as your father is ! Rory, you have to do something about that...or this summer is going to be worse than the last one. I'll be gone half of it, so you won't even have me to hang around with .

-I'm way less worried about summer than about what will happen after that..

Lane knew she was referring to the battle she was having with her father over which college she would attend. Several universities had offered Lane full scholarship, and she'd chosen Harvard University because Rory was planning to go there. Rory's father, however, had insisted she apply to Maryville College, which was little more than an exclusive finishing school that taught young women how to behave in society.

-Do you think you'll convince your father to forget about Maryville?

-I am certainly not going there !

-We both know it, but your father is the one who pays, and the one who makes the final decision.

-He'll give in, Rory sighed, trying to believe what she was saying. He's impossibly overprotective of me, but he wants the best for me. He really does and Harvard is best. A degree from Maryville isn't worth the paper it's written on.

Lane still felt the anger she felt every time they talked about the upcoming autumn . And then she wondered why Rory's father was so possessive and overprotective, why Rory never had a boyfriend, why this man was so nice to her...

-Do you really, honestly, believe that the reason why your father acts like your watchdog is because your mother cheated on him?

Rory hand't thought about the answer yet when her father entered in the room, urging them to finish their packing fast.

***

The summer, which had begun with a funeral, had degenerated into a five-week intense battle with her father over which college she would attend--a battle that had escalated into a full-fledged war the previous day. In the past, Rory had always bent over backward to please him; when Christopher was needlessly strict, she told herself it was only because he loved her and was afraid of what could happen to her; when he was rude, she excused him because of his many responsibilities that exhausted him. But now, now that she'd discovered that his plans for her were in no way what she imagined, she was not willing to give up her dreams to pacify him.

-I will not go to Maryville ! I'll go to Harvard and I'll obtain a diploma that'll be worth my efforts!

-Oh yeah? And how do you think you'll pay your subscription? I told you I would not pay it, and you don't have enough money to pay it yourself. Don't even think about it! You'll stay home, and you'll attend Maryville. Am I making myself clear, Rory?

-You are completely irrational! Won't you ever understand that...

-Oh, I perfectly understand ! I understand that you want to do some things that I don't approve of, with certain people I don't approve. You know it and that's why you want to go at that University and live in a dorm. What you really want, Rory, is the occasion to live in mixed dorms with boys everywhere, even in your bed!

-You should get medication! You are absolutely insane!

-You're just like your mother! You've got the best, but you dream of having more and more...

-You are insane! I'll never forgive that. Never! With those words, Rory turned around and headed outside.

-Where do you think you are going?

-OUT! And don't expect me to come back for midnight. That's over!

-Come back now, Rory!

Rory had walked out the door and spent the evening with Lisa and had intentionally come back at 3 o'clock. She listened to her father's insanities, and her intention to resist him grew stronger. And stronger again was her intention to take his place at Hayden's. Long before she'd fallen in love with Dean, she had fallen in love with that store, the landmark of Boston's downtown. The door men and the fourteen storey building were Christopher's pride , and it would certainly be hers too.

From the time she was a young girl, she'd assumed that someday she would have the chance to follow the footsteps of all her ancestors and take her rightful place at the head of Hayden's. Each generation of Hayden had proudly worked their way up through the store's hierarchy, starting there as a department manager, then moving up through the ranks to vice president, and later, president and executive chief. Not once a Hayden failed to that goal. Not once had Hayden's been ridiculed by the press for being incompetent or undeserving of the titles held. And Rory knew she wouldn't break that tradition. She only needed a chance. And the only reason her father didn't want to give in is because she had decided to be a daughter instead of a son!

***

Rory abruptly pulled out of her closet the dress she was going to wear at the Fourth of July party, tossed it across the bed, and removed her bathrobe . Even after a cold shower, all her anger was still there, not ready to go. Even though she didn't really want to go at the Glennmoor that night, her father wouldn't have the pleasure to see her sad and sorry. She would go to that ball and have fun. Or at least pretend it.

***

Rory parked her Porsche next to a gleaming new Rolls and a Mercedes. Trying to find a way to look happy, she didn't recognize the doorman who greeted her with the most charming smile. When she entered in the Glenmoor Country Club, the first thing she saw was Dean, dancing with a sexy young woman. She turned her head to the bar; asked for a martini. Right before she had time to take a sip, Jonathan Summers came to see her, and asked her to join him and his friends. Rory thought that invitation funny, since they had spoken to her only because time made her beautiful, unlike what she looked like when she was young, when none of those people talked to her.

-Rory, I love your dress. Where did you find it?

Rory had to look down to remember what she was wearing. Fashion Storey, Hayden's.

-Where else? Leigh Ackerman teased.

For the next hour, the conversation was about their childhood. But since she had no idea what they were talking about, she looked really bored. Bored enough that Dean came to see her and asked to talk more intimately.

-I have big news. You can be the first person to congratulate me. Sarah Ross and I are getting married. We're going to announce our engagement officially at a party Saturday night.

The whole world stopped turning. Sarah Ross? That sexy girl with him earlier...She didn't like her before the dance. She still didn't like her, especially now! She'd always appeared to Rory as being shallow and vain , although she was extremely pretty and vivacious.

-I hope you'll be very happy, Rory said, in a neutral tone

She didn't give him time to reply, and she left. By the time she came back to Jonathan and Leigh, she heard one of their friends, Shelly, talking about a man that entered in the club.

-Look at those shoulders! Look at that face! See that, Jonathan? This is pure, undiluted sex-appeal!

-He doesn't have any effect on me. Turning to another friend. What about you, Rick? Does he turn you on?

-I won't know until I see his legs. I'm a leg man, that's why Rory turns me on, Rick joked.

Jonathan told them who he was a little later: Jess Mariano.