Prologue

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RIVER'S POV

I walked into the house after a long shift feeling exhausted with every bone in my body aching in protest. I had just pulled a twelve-hour shift at the clinic and as rewarding as my job was sometimes it left me feeling like a walking corpse. I put my keys in the bowl by the door, kicked off my shoes, and hung up my coat. The house was lit up in Christmas decorations even though the holiday had been two days ago. There was no rush to take them down though since it was still the holiday season.

I walked past the long foyer and made my way directly to the kitchen to get some water and food. I found Claudia, our housekeeper who had also been my nanny since I was a baby humming to herself as she made what I assumed was a grocery list. Besides Claudia, we had a full staff because even though it was just me and my day. we lived in a three-story mansion in Beverly hills so we needed help maintaining it. Some of the staff lived in the house with us but mostly on the ground and the first floor. The third floor was family-only.

"Good evening Claudia

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"Good evening Claudia."I greeted her with a smile kissing her cheek.

"Mija you're home. How was work?"She asked and immediately started serving me dinner.

I opened the fridge and retrieved a bottle of water before sitting down on one of the high stools tucking a stray lock of my blonde hair behind my ears.

"It was good but I had to put down a dog with bone cancer today. He was old though so the family had been expecting it."I answered.

I loved animals that's why I pursued veterinary medicine at the university. I was lucky enough to have my dream job which meant spending all day surrounded by the most innocent furry animals on earth.

"I'm sorry to hear that mija."Claudia consoled placing a plate of rice, chicken breast, and a side salad in front of me.

Claudia was not Spanish, she was Italian like me but she was obsessed with Spanish telenovelas and had called me mija for as long as I could remember. She was in her late fifties, standing at 5'2, and had been in our family for as long as I could remember.

"It's okay. Where's dad?"I inquired.

I'd seen his car parked out front together with like six more so it meant he had company over but I couldn't hear or see them.

"He is in the conference room with his guests and they asked not to be disturbed." Claudia informed me.

The house was so huge we had a conference room in it. It was large enough to fit a group of fifty and my dad liked to utilize it for his business meetings. My dad's line of business was well, how do I put this delicately, unique, so the meetings happened a lot. I was already used to it and knew the drill.

"That's okay, I am not in an interactive mood anyway."I replied with a shrug.

Claudia smiled at me and went back to finishing her list. I ate in silence while scrolling through my phone ignoring messages from my best friend, Demi asking me about my new year's eve plans. The answer was nothing. I intended to spend the night alone in my bed enjoying my two days off.

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