Chapter 7

• Arielle paused to catch her breathe, she was so tired that she was almost dropping on her toes, but she couldn’t even take a break, there was still so much she needed to do and still so many people that she hasn’t been attended to, it’s been over a week since she started working here and she couldn’t even tell if she was killing herself or trying to save herself from dying, the job here was so stressful that she was this close to quitting, that’s if they don’t fire her anyway.
• “Ariel! Why are you still standing there? Get to work!”
• Her boss yelled, she hated her voice, hated the woman to the core, she honestly didn’t expect to be treated well here but this was worse than all of her expectations, no matter what she does, her boss was never just satisfied.
• “If you don’t move faster, I am going to cut your pay, I can not be paying you to be this lazy, if you don’t want to work then why not go be a hooker? At least you have the body for that,”
• She yelled at her and Arielle could only calmly walk faster into the inner part of the bar to get more drinks, she could hear the laughter of the awful men in the bar who spent most of their time here and half of it trying to get the ladies here to get down with them, never would be her, she could take anything but sell herself cheap is where she drew the curtain.
• “It will all pass,”
• She whispered to herself as she got out more beers from the refrigerator and walked back out to serve them to the people.
• It look like forever but at almost eleven pm, she was finally free to go home, she never stays at the bar no matter how late or how tired she was, not that the room there was anything to write home about.
• As she made her way back towards her house, Arielle couldn’t help the sadness that took over her, why did she have to have such an ill fate and hard life? Why couldn’t she just be one of the lucky people in the world, she wasn’t born into a functioning family, wasn’t born rich and so far in her twenty-four years of living, she hasn’t been lucky at all, not even once.
• The house was dark when she walked in, as expected, they haven’t paid their bills so they might have disconnected them, not like she uses the light much anyway, she opened the door and met her parents sitting in the living room, there was a torch and she could tell that they were waiting for her because, on a normal day, they would already be sleeping.
• “You finally showed up? Where have you been?”
• Her mom asked. Arielle resisted the urge to roll her eyes, it would have made sense if her mom cared about her whereabouts genuinely but she knew that wasn’t the case.
• “I was at work, I need to work remember?”
• She said as she made to walk passed them to her room.
• “We need to talk,”
• Her stepfather’s rocky voice came, stopping her in her tracks, she turned to him, knowing already that whatever they want to talk to her about would not be pleasant, they never had anything good to say to her, not even once, that she had gotten used to expecting the worse from them.
• “What do we have to talk about this time? I just got back from work and I am so tired already,”
• She voiced.
• “It won’t take long, we’ll that’s if you agree to what we are going to ask of you,”
• Her stepdad said.
• “What do you want? Money? I don’t have any, I haven’t been paid.”
• She revealed.
• “I don’t want money, but what I have to say can bring us loads of money if you agree,”
• Her dad said. Arielle turned to her mom who was suspiciously silent, as much as she wanted to tell her dad to go to hell with whatever money talk he had, she couldn’t bring herself to leave so she stayed and listened even though she knew she was going to regret staying.
• “What’s this about? I hope it is not about what you told Luciano the other time?”
• She asked the question that has been eating at the back of her mind, she has done her best to keep every thought of that man away from her mind, the thoughts of him and what he could do to her difunctional family scared her so much, and the fact that since he returned to Russia, there hasn’t been any good thing about him being said in public, it was always something bad and each time she remembers that her family was indebted to him too, she shivers in fear.
• Luciano was wicked and heartless, just across the street from hers, he had sent a man, his wife, and their six weeks old baby to the street for unpaid debts, he forcibly took their home even while knowing a six-week-old baby would have to sleep outside in the cold, she hated him so much and wished there was a way to destroy him just like he was doing to other people but he was untouchable.
• “Are you even listening to what I am saying, Ariel?”
• Her dad's voice rang and she realized she has been lost in her thoughts, she caught her mom glaring at her.
• “What did you say?”
• She asked trying to get what her stepfather wanted to say.
• “I said, if you don’t want to be Luciano’s woman, which might I say is the biggest money earner, we can have other means of making use of your beauty, we can’t let it keep wasting,”
• Her stepdad said and she couldn’t help the disgusting feeling that settled on her even though she knew she should have expected it.
• “What are you even saying right now?”
• She asked.
• “You heard him right, I will go straight to the point, Don Mario wants you as s mistress and he is offering a huge sum of money, all you need to do is be his mistress,”
• Her mom said.
• What?”
• Arielle asked short of anything else to say, her mom just told her to go be a mistress. The Don Mario she knew was a man with numerous women already, how could her mom want her to go there?
• “You heard me, and don’t you dare say no, I have had enough, you are going to do as we say,”
• Her mom responded.
• “I am not going to do anything you say, I am an adult and I get to speak for myself and do whatever the fuck I want, you don’t tell me what to do!”
• She yelled.
• “Shut up and listen to your mom and me for once, you have what it takes to take us out of poverty, just do it, all you need to do is suck a dick and get fucked a couple of times and we will not have to suffer like this, how hard is that?”
• Her stepdad said, Arielle could only stare.
• “She is so selfish, I wish I had not had her, my life would have been so much easier and more enjoyable, such an ungrateful bitch just like her real father,”
• Her mom said.
• “You know what? I don’t even want to argue with you guys no more because it is pointless, you guys are just going to keep doing shit and expecting me to clean up after you, mom, for once I do agree with you! It would have been better if you had just had an abortion and not had me, at least I won’t be here now suffering while you do everything to make my life hell, I hate it so much,”
• She let out doing her best not to cry, but it was so hard to keep the tears away, she was tired and should be resting but no, her parents just had to prick who never cared about her well-being.
• “You are so selfish, if only I had that choice, you think I won’t have? You act like we didn’t do anything for you, I have been putting a roof over your head since birth, you should be grateful,”
• Her mom responded. It would have made sense if Arielle had not been paying most of the bills at the most times, it would have made sense if she didn’t have to work odd jobs at only thirteen to be able to eat, it would have been so much better if she had an education like other kids, but she didn’t have any of these and her mom couldn’t see just how much of a failure she was for not being able to give her these things, if only her mom had cared about her, maybe things would have been different, maybe she would have been able to provide for them too as they want, but they didn’t do anything to make her life easy so why were they expecting so much from her.
• “Don’t worry mom, it won’t last, I will leave soon and you don’t have to deal with me anymore, but one thing should be clear, I won’t ever do anything that you want me to do, it would make sense if it was something worth it but you guys want me to either be a mistress or a sex appeal object and I am never going to be those things, I am not going to be any body’s mistress just so you both horrible people can feed!”
• She said and paused to clear her throat and also calm her nerve.
• “You have to do it!”
• Her stepdad said Arielle resisted the urge to cuss at him.
• “I am not going to and you can’t make me!”
• She responded firmly.
• “Stupid, and so selfish!”
• Her mom muttered but she heard her, she ignored it and decided to just leave, what was the point anyway? She walked away to her room and rushed to the bathroom wanting to take a bath to calm herself but the water was not running and she didn’t want to use the water she saved up, that would be used in the morning, hopefully, she gets paid and she can then pay for the water bill.
• “I hate my life,”
• She let out as she lay on her bed, her mind went over her fight with her mom and stepdad, they hurt her with every word they speak yet they never see it that way, she cried herself to sleep hoping that the next day will bring a new life where she would be loved, wanted and appreciated…