The day I “graduated” from high school and no longer needed tutors was a celebration for me, even if I had been the only one doing the celebrating, and only in my head.
Though I hadn’t realized it at the time, those tutoring sessions were my only chance at interacting with anyone who wasn’t one of my father’s men or one of the servants in the house. They provided some social interactions and kept me busy.
I didn’t realize what a blessing the interactions were until two weeks in, and I found myself in complete and utter isolation.
College was out of the question. The purpose of my entire existence was to marry a man my father could use to expand his powers across more territories in the United States, and possibly even further.
My father was a powerful man. From what I had figured out, based on hushed conversations around me, my father controlled most of the southern border. He had his evil little fingers in all sorts of vices, be it sex, gambling, or arms trade.
However, he mostly made his money through drugs, having set up a partnership with the Mexican cartels. They worked as sort of the middleman between my father and South America, where he transported second rated drugs for a hefty profit.
But my father’s main residence, my prison, remained in Arizona, in a mansion just south of the state, in a pretty isolated area. This residence was more secure, more secretive than the Svalbard Global Seed Vault.
Nothing but desert sand for miles on end, with the hot sun beating down on the skin at the back of my neck, to make me feel like a small, insignificant ant in a child’s ant farm project.
Finally, we pulled up to the house. Father got out of the car first before I got out and walked over to him, my head down, focusing on our feet.
He was wearing expensive black loafers.
“Go get ready, girl,” he said dismissively, before walking inside the house. I stood there for a moment, my eyes scanning the vast space before me.
I had thought about running away so many times.
But despite being the daughter of a Don, I was pretty sheltered.
I didn’t even have a driver’s license. I knew how to drive, but my lesson was cursory at best.
What would I know about running away?
Who would I turn to?
There was no one in this world related to me, save for Father.
And what would happen to me once my father found me? My father would surely look for me if I ran. Right now, I was his biggest asset.
Myvirginitywas his biggest asset. My marriage would be used to form an alliance for my father in his quest for more power. He had been looking for a husband for me since I was sixteen.
I didn’t know what was taking so long, and sometimes I wished he would find someone already, for no other reason than I would be able to leave this place.
The famous sayingBe careful what you wish forran in my head on a loop over and over as I made my way up the steps and into the house.
Roberto greeted me at the front door, his kind brown eyes wrinkled in concern as he took me in. I smiled at him to let him know I was okay, before walking past him and to my room.
Roberto was the only person in this house I could count to be on my side. But I would never put him in a situation that forced him to choose between me or my father.
Choosing such was a death sentence.
He’d been the one to clean up my mother’s blood in my father’s office the day after he murdered her.
I guess something about that made him just a little protective of me. Or as protective of me as he could be without getting my father’s attention.
I closed the door to my room behind me and leaned against the wooden door.
This room was beautiful.
Fit for a princess.
A gilded cage for the daughter of a monster.