What was destined had finally begun.
" Mum how are we going to pay the bad man?" A little girl who had just turned Six a few moons ago asked her mother who was sitting in just as much of a shock as the rest of the people who were present in the living room.
There was a dropping silence throughout, not a word spoken.
" We will figure something out Kiana, we always do. Come on now it's way past your bed time." The elder sister, who was also the bread earner of the family muttered, extending her hand towards her younger sister to take her to the bedroom while the mother of the girls couldn't move. She had frozen to the spot.
After all, getting to know that her late husband had crossed the big bad mafia was no small a deal. He had promised to him their eldest daughter,Olivia in exchange of money to set up their now flourishing business fifteen summers ago.
But coming to think about it, this wasn't a big deal for the devil. After all, he hated Olivia. Always suspected that she wasn't his blood. Always diabolically thought that his wife had an affair when led to the dirty blood Valentina being born into the family.
" Oh Olivia, my child what are going to do now? Your father never loved you, that we all knew of, but stooping to this was a new low, even for him." The mother finally regained her senses as she found her elder daughter descending the stairs after putting her youngest to bed.
All Olivia did was scoff. If only her mother knew what kind of man her late husband really was.
" Relax mom. This abysmal set-up, I am sure of, will not be acceptable to Alessandro Valentini. Why would he want to marry me when he has women better than me in every sense do his bidding?" The twenty four year old ginger head asked her mother.
" Honey you have no idea what your father has thrown us all into. If there is one noble thing that exists in the Valentini family, it is their word which they value above blood. Once a Valentini gives their word, they are bound by it. It has been going on from generations and will pass on to the generations. There is no escaping it." Arla told her daughter who had just dropped on the couch, relaxing back.
" They are the mafias mother, they have no honor. A word would mean nothing to Alessandro Valentini, especially a word which binds him to the likes of me forever. I am going to send a letter for him at one of his legal offices, asking him to get rid of the damn agreement. I am sure he will be more than happy to do it. Anyway, I am off to bed now. Today was a long day." Olivia was so fixated on her belief that her mother was more disturbed than scared but she had to let it go for now.
" Goodnight my dear." Arla kissed Olivia's forehead before they walked off to their respective rooms.
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Olivia kept on running the happenings of the past two hours in her head as she laid on her bed. How the goons of the Valentini's had made way to her home at dinner time and practically threatened her five year old sister to call out for mom. How then they had slapped the contract on their face about what her so-called father had done to her, threatened them and then walked out as if it was the most obvious thing to do.
How he had turned her into an opportunity for himself to get money for starting his business which was hers now and still treat her like shit.
The damned man had passed away two years ago from cardiac arrest leaving their family nothing but his sinking business. He had even mortgaged the house they lived in for money and gambled all of it away too. Olivia had to drop out of her business school, Yale where she was on scholarship to support her family. Her mother couldn't handle the business, she never understood it. She was too good a person to be a business-person so naturally, Olivia had to take over.
She not only saved their print publishing company but soon was going into broadcasting. Not only business, she had a way with words too and it only helps when two of her strongest powers combined was what she was doing.
But currently, sleep was miles and miles away from her. She only knew two things about Alessandro Valentini and one of them was that he was a secretive, secretive man with blood on his hands. The second thing that was public knowledge was that the killer had what they call as ever more killer looks with the power of having any woman he wanted but that was not what she was worried about. She was scared about her family. What if what her mother had told her was true? What if the Valentini's did value word above all?
She threw her duvet off her and stood up, deciding that there was no point just lying there and decided to get some work done. Her company was launching their own news channel in six months time and this was her opportunity to go bigger and she couldn't let some Mafia goon spoil it for her.
They had a small lawn on the front poach of the house. Her mother was fond of gardening and in the nights like these, the same lawn was her saviour from her thoughts. She grabbed her laptop and a few files and walked out the door. There was a corner that she had made for herself in the lawn with fairy-lights to sit when she needed solace. As a little girl, she was always intrigued by fairy-lights and that obsession didn't die as she grew.
" All that I now wish for is a mug of hot chocolate." She found herself saying but then again, she had her nose into the files all forgetting about the hot chocolate a while later.
The night turned into dawn, which was confirmed by the chirping of birds. Time truly flies when you don't have the luxury of it and Olivia had known that for a while now.
She finally stood up, stretching herself and then took a deep breath.
" Good Morning Olivia." She muttered to herself, picking her laptop and files up and tip-toed back inside to her room so that her overly concerned mother doesn't find out she had been working all night when she saw the contract papers lying on the coffee table and just like that, once again, Valentini's were back inside her head.
Before getting back to her room, she picked those papers up and threw herself on the bed, starting to go through the papers and she laughed to herself.
Her father, after all, had asked for a handsome amount of seven-hundred thousand dollars in exchange for his daughter to them.
The contract clearly stated that either the said daughter, Olivia Parker be handed over to the Valentini's after her twenty-fifth birthday or the amount be returned to them with interest in the time period of six months which was practically impossible.
" You haunt me even in death father." She muttered to herself, pinching the valley between her eyebrows, throwing the papers away from herself and closed her eyes for a bit.
She couldn't believe that the term handed over was actually used in that contract like she was just one of the things one possesses and not an actual human being. She was even sure that the first clause of the contract will never be upheld in any court of law but she also knew that the second option was completely valid but her family was in no position to pay that money. It was a huge amount and even though they were doing well for themselves, that kind of money was just not possible to be given to anyone. What also was true was that Valentini's did not live by the laws of the country. They had their own laws which they made, executed and then accounted for.
Soon Olivia was woken by her sister, Kiana who was gently stoking her head. Kiana had always been an early-riser in contrary to her elder sister who could go on sleeping if not woken up but today wasn't one of those days for she had work to do and issues to face.
" Good morning my little princess." Kiana was dragged next to her sister who started ticking her.
" Liv! St....stop." She said hysterically in between her laughter, begging Olivia to stop.
" Why Kia, wasn't it you who told me yesterday that you are not ticklish?" Olivia asked her while she just giggled.
Kiana and Olivia couldn't look anymore different. No one could tell they were sisters. Kiana was a raven-haired, pale skinned girl with hazel orbs while Olivia was a ginger-head with so many freckles on her face and ocean-blue orbs. Kia was a carbon-copy of their mother but Olivia on the other hand neither looked like her mother nor her father.
She was her own person, even looked that part. That was one of the reasons her father thought that her mother had cheated on him and I was a product of that. That is why he hated her but he also stopped caring about anything, even Kia when he gambled all his money away. But that was a thought for another time.
" Kia go and get ready for school. I will drop you on my way to work." Liv instructed her sister who nodded her head in obedience and walked out of the room.
Olivia once again took the papers in her hands.
" Damn them for not keeping any contact details in the public domain." She muttered, frustrated thinking about how she'll have to go the traditional way of writing a damn letter to Alessandro Valentini but after all, it is them who contacted people when they needed them and it was going to stay that way.