3.

KARALANA.

“What is going on here?” Dayana was already on her feet, staring down the thugs before I even had time to process what was going on.

She was always swift to respond to any situation and always quick on her feet. But even I knew that what she was doing was irresponsible.

“Dayana, stay in your seat!” I said from my seat, trying to make sure she didn’t aggravate the thugs any further than they already were. Confronting them head-on was a risky move, and it would be better to slowly and gently speak to them to avoid any provocation.

My mind raced with questions, my thoughts a jumbled mess. Why were they here? And most importantly, what do they want from us?

“Sit the fvck down, bitch. We’re here to speak to the man,” one of the men dressed in black snarled as he pointed a gun directly at my father.

“I’m his eldest daughter. What do you have to say to him?”

Dayana's defiance held steady as she faced the menacing thugs, her eyes locked onto the one who had spoken. The tension in the room was suffocating as we awaited their response.

The man with the gun, his features obscured by the shadows, shifted his gaze between Dayana and me before finally addressing her. “Your father owes us a huge amount of money. He's been playing games, dodging us for far too long."

I exchanged a worried glance with Dayana, my heart sinking at the realization that our father's past actions had finally caught up with us. The weight of his debt hung heavy in the air, and I knew that we were in a terrible situation.

I’ve always known that we’d been struggling for quite a while, surviving on the small amount of money my dad got from construction and the money Dayana got from working at the diner, but that was barely enough. Life had been a constant struggle, a delicate balancing act to keep our heads above water.

I never thought that his old habits would come back and that he would need to patronize loan sharks to the point that they came to our home to harass us. I glanced at Dayana, who looked visibly shaken by what we had just heard. The strong resolve she put out seemed to have shaken her tremendously, and I knew I had to pick up the slack now.

“How much does he owe?” I demanded, my voice firm but tinged with anxiety, as I got to my feet to stand beside Dayana.

The man with the gun regarded me for a moment, seemingly unperturbed by our presence. He finally responded with a cold, emotionless tone, “Including interest, it's a hefty sum of eighty thousand dollars. And he's been avoiding us for months.”

“Eighty what?” Dayana asked, her voice faltering before she could finish what she was saying.

Eighty thousand dollars? The figure seemed to punch me in the gut as I staggered back and held the table behind me, a chill running through my spine. It was an amount that seemed insurmountable, and I couldn’t understand how my father had managed to accumulate the debt.

I looked back at him to hear some sort of denial, or maybe the thugs had the wrong house, but he looked down at the table, silently defeated.

“Uh,” I started, running my hand through my hair. “We need to talk to him. We’ll figure this out and get back to you. You can just leave your phone number, and we will get back to…”

The thugs looked at us and laughed a cold, humorless laugh. “We’re past talking, ma’am. We are here for that money, and we need it now. We’ve given your old man enough time. Now, we just need our money, or else things are going to get real ugly around here.”

I was about to respond, but my words trailed off as I met the cold, unyielding gaze of the thugs. They laughed again, their laughter devoid of any warmth, and it sent a shiver through my spine. Their reaction was clear, there would be no negotiations, no time for discussions or delays.

I watched in shock and horror as one of the thugs, a burly man with a shaved head, took a menacing step closer to my father. His voice was laced with menace as he barked out, "Pay us back what you owe us, Desmond! And we want it now!”

My father, his face drained of color, stammered, "I...I'm working on it. Just give me a little more time, please."

I reached out to the men, too.

“Please just give us a little time, and we will make sure we pay you back your money, sir.”

I was lying through my teeth because I was certain that there was no way we could pay that amount of money anytime soon. We were barely able to afford our basic necessities, much less, trying to repay almost a hundred thousand dollars.

Still, I hoped that I and Dayana’s appeal would get through to them even though it wasn’t working.

The thug's eyes narrowed at my father. “I already said that we don’t have any more time to give you, old man.”