Chapter 4

ERICA

The air was thick, suffocating, as I stood frozen in the middle of the room, my heart still pounding from the horrific encounter. I couldn’t seem to move. My legs felt like they had turned to lead, my arms numb by my sides.

Twenty-four hours. That’s all I had to prepare myself. Twenty-four hours before I was no longer just Erica, the girl struggling to make ends meet, but Erica, the stripper, the servant. The thought made me nauseous. How had my life come to this?

A shiver ran down my spine as I imagined him looming over me again, his cold fingers tracing my skin like I was some object to be toyed with.

Suddenly, I heard a soft sob behind me. Lilibeth. I spun around to see her huddled against the wall, her knees pulled up to her chest, tears streaming down her face.

“I don’t want to die, Erica,” she whimpered, her voice barely a whisper, her wide, terrified eyes locking with mine. “What are we going to do?”

My heart broke seeing her like this. My little sister, so scared and so helpless. This wasn’t fair. I walked over to her and dropped to my knees, pulling her into a tight hug.

“I won’t let anything happen to you, okay? I promise,” I whispered, my voice trembling as I tried to reassure her. But even as the words left my mouth, I wasn’t sure if I believed them. How could I protect her when I could barely keep myself from falling apart?

Lilibeth pulled back slightly, her face wet with tears. “But that man... he said you have to work for him. Erica, you can’t!” Her hands gripped my arms tightly, as if she could somehow stop all of this just by holding on to me.

“You’ll be—” Her voice cracked as fresh tears spilled down her cheeks. “He’ll hurt you, Erica. I don’t want you to go.”

I bit my lip, fighting back my own tears as I stroked her hair. “I’ll figure something out. I just need time,” I whispered.

Our father groaned from the other side of the room, pulling me from the moment. He was still on the floor, clutching his side where one of the thugs had struck him. A wave of anger surged through me as I looked at him—this man who was supposed to protect us, to look out for us. And now? Now we were paying the price for his mistakes.

I stood up, shaking with fury as I marched toward him. “What the hell were you thinking, Dad?” I spat, my voice trembling with rage. “Two million dollars? How could you borrow that kind of money and not tell us? How could you put our lives at risk like this?”

“Oh, shut the fuck up and stop yelling at me. You should be grateful you found yourself worthy to be sold to a millionaire like Raffael,” he spat, wiping blood from his mouth. “Besides, I thought I could handle it.”

“Can you even hear yourself? Erica should be grateful that she is to be sold?” Lilibeth asked in shock.

“Yes! What is her use anyways? Those peanuts she gets from working as a waitress never did us any good,” he responded.

I was infuriated!

“Dad—you gambled away everything, and now we’re the ones who have to pay for it. And you still have the audacity to talk trash!?”

He groaned, trying to sit up, but I didn’t help him. I couldn’t. The anger boiling inside me made it impossible to even look at him without feeling disgust. My entire life, he’d been reckless, making one bad decision after another. But this? This was the last straw.

“What did you even spend that money on?” I demanded, my voice shaking. “What was so important that you had to borrow two million dollars from someone like him?”

He didn’t answer; he just sat there in silence, staring at the floor.

His silence was answer enough.

“You’re pathetic,” I spat, stepping away from him, my body trembling with rage.

Lilibeth had gone quiet, watching our father with wide, fearful eyes.

“Erica... what are we going to do?” she whispered, her voice trembling.

I took a deep breath, forcing myself to stay calm. I didn’t have the luxury of breaking down. Not now.

“Let’s run away, Lilibeth. Just you and me. We can leave all this behind. I’ve saved up a little cash—enough for a train to take us out of town. We could stay with Aunt Rosa,” I said firmly.

“Are you insane? You’d get caught, and Raffael would kill us all. And if you do somehow pull this off, he’d kill me! He is brutal!” my father protested.

“You never cared about us when making your decisions, so why should we care about you?” I glared at my father.

“But what if we can’t run from him?” Lilibeth’s voice was small, and I could hear the fear in every word.

I didn’t have an answer for her. All I could do was shake my head and force a small smile, though it felt hollow. “We have to.”

RAFFAEL

The air in the warehouse was thick with tension, the dim light casting long shadows across the crates stacked high around us. The only sound was the quiet tapping of my boots on the cold concrete floor as I approached the man kneeling before me. His body trembled, his face pale with terror, knowing exactly what was coming. I liked it when they knew—when they understood the gravity of crossing me.

“Raffael, p-please,” he stammered, his voice cracking as he looked up, eyes wide with desperation. “It was a mistake—I swear, just a mistake.”

I stopped a few feet away from him, my eyes narrowing in disgust.

“A mistake,” I repeated slowly, my voice low, cold. “Do you think I’m stupid enough to believe that?”

He flinched at my words, his eyes darting nervously between me and the barrel of the gun in my hand. “No, no! Raffael, I—”

“Shut up,” I snapped, my patience thinning with every breath he wasted. His excuses were nothing more than the pathetic whimpering of a man who thought he could betray me and live to tell the tale.

I circled him like a predator, the sound of my boots echoing in the empty space. He didn’t dare move, didn’t dare even breathe too loudly, knowing his life was hanging by a thread.

“You thought you could trespass on my business, huh? Thought you could take what belongs to me and walk away unscathed?”

The man was visibly shaking now, his body wracked with fear. “I didn’t—please, Raffael! I didn’t mean—”

I fired.

The blast echoed through the warehouse like a thunderclap, and the man fell backward, crumpling to the floor with a thud. His body went limp in a pool of blood.

I holstered my gun and wiped my hands on a handkerchief, my lips curling in satisfaction. That was the price of betrayal. It didn’t matter who you were, where you came from, or what your excuses were. When you crossed me, you paid in blood.

“Raffael.”

I turned to see Pietro, one of my capos. Pietro was a loyal man and a good friend. He was sharp as a blade and just as ruthless. He stopped a few feet away, nodding toward the lifeless body at my feet before shifting his gaze back to me.

“Everything taken care of?” I asked, my voice casual, as if we were discussing something as mundane as the weather.

“Yes, capo. The shipments are on schedule. We haven’t encountered any more issues since the last... adjustment.”

“Good.” I nodded, already turning to leave. But Pietro didn’t move. He stood there, hesitating, like he had something else on his mind. I raised an eyebrow, signaling for him to speak.

“The girls... Erica and Lilibeth.”

At the mention of their names, my jaw tightened. The heat of anger stirred low in my gut, but I kept my face impassive. “What about them?”

“They’re not at their house anymore.” Pietro’s voice was measured, careful. “They’ve left.”

I felt a surge of fury, sharp and immediate, rip through me. My hands clenched into fists, and I had to resist the urge to pull out my gun again just to let out the frustration boiling inside me.

“They think they can just run?” I growled, each word dripping with venom. “Those stupid little girls think they can play games with me!”

Pietro shifted slightly, sensing the growing storm within me.

I let out a bitter laugh, the sound cold and humorless. “Those two have no idea who they’re dealing with.”

Pietro didn’t say anything, waiting for me to give the order.

I took a slow, deep breath, trying to rein in the blaze of fury coursing through me. But it was no use. Erica and Lilibeth had defied me, and that was something I wouldn’t tolerate. I had given them a clear deal, a clear path to survival, and they had spat on it.

“I want them found,” I said, my voice low and dangerous. “I don’t care how far they’ve gone or who they’re hiding with. I want every inch of this city searched, every contact questioned. Bring them back to me within 24 hours.”

Pietro nodded sharply. “Understood”

I took a step closer to him, my eyes narrowing into slits. "And when you find them, Pietro, I don’t care how you do it—bring them back alive. I want them to see the consequences of trying to play smart with me. I want them to understand what happens when they try to run."

Pietro met my gaze, unwavering. "They’ll regret it."

"They will," I agreed, my voice a deadly whisper. "Oh, they’ll regret it."