Chapter 1: Sold

"Ravenna, are your things ready? Are you ready to move in with Don Diego in the next two months?"

They were sat for dinner; beans, ricee and grilled fish when her Papa finally broke the silence. She was shocked and almost choked on the rice in her mouth.

"Dad, I am only nineteen and your last child, you cannot  expect me to settle for that demon Don Diego."

 Ravenna was shocked. Even though her dad did not like her at all , she did not expect that he would go that far as to sell her off to Don Diego in the name of marriage. He used to be cordinated and family oriented, but everything changed when Ravenna's mother passed shortly after her birth from complications. He had loved his wife more than himself and the money papa owed Don Diego now was nothing compared to how much he used to have, but after the death of his wife, he had no reason to make more money. 

"Papa, you treat me differently from the way you treat Mariana and Carlos. I have never enjoyed love from you, not that I am asking for  it. All I am asking is to be with my family and not sold out to that demon."

"How dare you compare yourself to my lovely kids? You are not  worth anything. Only torture is befitting for an evil child like you."

After the death of her Mama, her father became a shadow of himself. He came home drunk more often than not. He got into trouble with the cassinos, and most dangerously, he got into trouble with the dreaded Don Diego. The terror in human skin.

"But Papa, you told us stories of how gruesome Don Diego was, how he had everyone shivering at the smell of his perfume. How he is thirty-one but has a heart of thousand years experience."

"How come you are forgetting the part where I said that he was good-looking and if one was not in his trap they would easily miss the details of how heartless he was?" Her Papa cut her halfway.

 Ravenna had not seen him in person but from the stories Papa told about him, he was not one to be messed with. This was happening because Papa gambled in his casino and now owes him a great fortune.

"Papa, but why? She asked

"I thought Mariana was already taken. Why do I need to go to Diego?

"You don't get to question me, Ravenna! He snapped, "But if you must know, I can't afford to have you here and lose my beloved Mariana?"

He chewed the fish slurping loudly,

"You are worthless, Ravenna! Don't you get it, and I hate you so much."

"But I love you, Papa. I love Mariana and Carlos as well, I wanted us to live together as a family."

"Who is family with you? You murderer!" Carlos voice came from the other end of the table.

"I only have one sister, and that is Mariana."

"You don't deserve love Ravenna, you killed your mother, my wife, the only one I have ever loved. How do you expect me to love you after that?" His eyes turned red in pain as he spoke.

"Papa but I am also your child, your youngest child."

" You are a bad omen, Ravenna! And I hate you! You deserve to be taken away and killed if necessary because a murderer deserves to be murdered. Not my beloved Mariana."

"But Papa, I don't even know who Diego is. I don't even love him. "

Her father laughed hysterically.

"Hahahaha, you are so funny, poor Ravenna. Who told you that your feelings are factored in the scheme of things? If you intend to fall in love with the man who you will marry you, then you have to refund the money I owe him. If you cannot, then you have no right to fall in love."

"Papa, how much do you owe Diego? I can get another job so that I don't have to be with Diego. You already said that he is very dangerous. What if he does something bad to me?"

"Look here, Ravenna, I don't really care what Diego does or does not do to you as long as nothing happens to my Mariana. She is my angel."

He looks at Ravenna with so much disgust as he held unto her chin. She felt his sharp nails piercing through her flesh. 

"If you decide to work for your freedom, then feel free to work for your freedom. I owe Diego $200,000,000. Let's see the magic you perform to raise that in two months."

"Papa, I will get multiple jobs to raise the money, and I will pay Diego what you owe him."

"Fine, then suit yourself."

She was determined to get more jobs if she needed to secure her freedom.  There was no way under the sun she was ever going to get married to Don Diego.

She had heard about how dangerous he was, especially when it had to do with his money. One of the stories she heard that sent shivers through her spine was that the girls in His custody were given to his boys, who would then brutally rape them. A lot of girls had lost their lives in the process. Was she going to be married to the most dangerous mafian in the city? 

Don Diego did not know what sympathy was. He derived pleasures seeing how people suffered... there were even rumours that he had peeled off the skin of one of his boys that stole from him. She couldn't afford a marriage with such a man, even though she had never met him before or even knew what He looked like.

"Ravenna, clear the table as you can see we done eating, don't linger there, clear up this table!"

Her Papa's voice came, bringing her back to consciousness. She was used to doing every house chore since she was nine years old. 

For as long as she could  remember, Papa either came home drunk and searched for any money that he could find to pay for his session in the casino. In some cases, he sold properties. Sometimes, very dangerous looking men came home looking for him. If they did not find him, they took any of the valuables that they could lay their hands on. Every time this happened,  her siblings blamed her for it.

"Hey! Don't you have ears, you silly girl, did papa not say you should  clear up the dinner table?" Carlos said, hitting the table profously.

She shivered as she was jolted back to consciousness once again because of the impact.

She stood up from her seat, determined not to let her emotion show. No one was ever going to break her anymore.

She loved her family very much, every last one of them. 'Family is everything' and even though hers didn't seem like it, she still had so much love for them but not enough to sacrifice her happiness for her elder sister's, in other sane homes, the elder sacrificed for the younger.

While Ravenna  cleaned the floor, Carlos poured  milk on the already cleaned part of the floor intentionally.

"Hey Carlos! What did you do that for?" She screamed at the top of her voice .

 Before she could finish, Papa had slapped her hard across her face.

She lost  balance and fell to the ground into the pool of milk on the floor.

"Why the freaking hell are you screaming, you scumbag? Isn't the filth he made better than you?" His voice was laced with so much contempt and disgust.

Before she could find her balance again, Carlos left the glass mug fall to the ground, just where she knelt, shattering it into pieces. A piece pierced her right index finger. The pain was excrutiating, but she didn't flinch. Because the pain she felt in her heart was more excrutiating. She cleaned up the mess and headed for work.

She picked up her phone and texted her best friend. 

"Hey Laura, please, I still need that job if the slot is still unoccupied."

She replied immediately.

"The slot is available for you. Even if it wasn't, I will make sure it is." Laura's response came almost immediately. She works at a private investigative firm just close to the club that Ravenna worked as a bar tender. She had been told to accept the offer of a cleaner in her firm much earlier working a four hour shift with a really mouth watering pay, she didn't want to leave the club it was fun and her collegue there were good to her, but at this point  she had no choice.

She waited patiently for the bus while scrolling through her phone. She checked  what she  had saved up in her account and how much was left to add up to make it $200,000,000. She still needed a whopping sum of $199,900,000 if she was to be free from becoming Diego's wife which was far fetched and almost impossible except by some miracle.