Chapter 1 - Twist of Life

Aurelia's POV

The fluorescent hum of the diner always seemed to vibrate at the exact frequency of my headache.

I wiped down the counter for the hundredth time that night, my movements mechanical and precise.

Outside the window, the Las Vegas Strip shimmered in the distance—a playground of neon and false promises. To the tourists, it’s a city of dreams. To me, it’s the place that swallowed my father whole and left us with the bill.

It's been 10 years since his death, but I can still remember the day so vividly. The banging on the door from the loansharks didn't allow us a time to grief.

I can still remember my mother's face when they shoved a piece of paper that shows the enormous amount of debt he left us.

Apparently my father gave up, and end his life in his own comission. But my mother is a warrior who didn't give up on me and Amelia, my little sister.

She promised us school, college, education for a better future. And even though it's been 5 years since I graduated high school, my mother keep up with her promise for me to go to college.

I'm 23 now, but I wasn't ashamed of my age when I register myself for the freshman year. As long as I can go I'm satisfied.

"Aurelia! Table six!" my manager barked.

I moved on autopilot. I’ve become an expert at it. To help my mother with our family debt I worked various part time jobs, waitressing, bartending, anything, as long as it's not stripping.

Because ironically that has been my mother's way to put the food on our table. She wasn't proud of it, but it cover our bills, it keep the loan shark away from trashing our tiny apartment or worse, kidnapping both me and Amelia as different type of payment.

I saw her dance a couple of times when she practiced at home. She was beautiful, and I can see our resemblance everytime I playfully follow her movement.

When I was little it became our routine, I will watch her dance, follow her movements, laughing together at how silly I look.

Then at one point, when I started picking up all the moves she made me stop. She doesn't want me to have her skill, she doesn't want to see me around a pole anymore when I started to grow.

The diner door flew open, the bell clattering cut me off of my thoughts. I saw Maya, my coworker, her face pale. "Aurelia," she panted. "The hospital. It’s your mom. She collapsed."

I dropped the rug. My feet move before I could even think. I rushed through the door, faintly I can hear Maya screamed from behind, but I'm already running.

The hospital was a maze of white walls and the sterile scent of bleach. I found the ICU, my breath coming in jagged stabs.

And then I saw her, my mother wrapped in white sheets. She looked smaller than I had ever seen her. Her hands hooked into the machine next to her, the steady beeping sounds filled the sterile room.

"Ms. Van Guard?"

I looked up, and I saw the doctor, holding a thin manila folder while he look at me. It wasn't hard for him to guess who I am, considering my resemblance with my mother.

"I'm Aurelia. What happened? She was fine this morning. She was just tired."

The doctor sighed, looking down at his notes. "Your mother has been a patient here for several months, Aurelia. She didn't tell you?"

My heart stuttered, panic pulsing through me. "Patient for what?"

"Stage three lung cancer," The doctor said softly.

"She’s been battling it quietly. We recommended an aggressive course of chemotherapy and targeted radiation months ago, but she... she insisted she didn't have the funds. She refused the treatment to avoid the debt, opting only for basic pain management while she continued to work."

The world tilted for me. All her "tiredness," her weight loss, the cough she had dismissed as a lingering cold—it wasn't her job. It was this.

My mother had been dying in silence, dancing through the pain just to keep up with her promise to send me to college, to pay the debts, to send Amelia to school.

"Her condition has worsened significantly because of the delay," The doctor continued.

"If we don't start the advanced treatment immediately, she won't last the month. But the cost of the specialized care she needs now... it’s substantial."

I leaned against the cold hospital wall, short and heavy breath leaving my lungs. I have no money. The college fund that my mother gave me was already spent last week to register for my classes.

"Aurelia?"

I looked over and saw Mama Vivienne, draped in a charcoal silk trench coat, her hair coiffed into a perfect silver bob, her signature style.

"Mama V." My voice break as I rushed into her arms. She was the woman who looked after all the girls in Casanova, the one who ensured my mother was fed, safe, and paid.

"I heard, darling. I came as soon as I could." She embrace me firmly, and for a second I let myself crumble, my tears drenched her silk coat.

The doctor left. We sat on the plastic chairs in the waiting area. Mama V listened as I recounted all the doctor’s words, her eyes fixed on the door to the ICU room.

"Your mother is a warrior, Aurelia," Vivienne said, her voice low and raspy. "She did everything to keep you away from the life she led. She wanted you to be the one who made it out. But we are at a crossroads now, aren't we?"

I looked down at my own hands, it was dry and patchy, a result of labor work for countless hours. "I can't let her die. Not after she spent her whole life saving mine. But I have nothing, I’m just a waitress."

There was a brief silence filled between us. I didn't know what to do, then Mama V took my hand, her grip was cold but steady.

"There is a way. Elena held a very specific spot at the club—a favorite among our regular clientele. But the real money, the kind of money that pays for top-tier oncologists and experimental treatments, isn't on the main stage."

She leaned in closer towards me, "The club has a 'Private Tier.' It’s for the upper class—the top one percent. Men who don't want a show; they want an experience. They want someone fresh, someone with a story. If you’re willing to take your mother’s spot—not as a regular dancer, but as a protégé for the private suites—you could earn in a week what she earned in a year."

"A week.." I whispered, that amount of money will save mom, pay our ongoing debts with the loan shark, and keep both me and Amelia's in school.

"But.. I'm a student, I'm going to attend college, if Mom found out about this-"

"She won't." Mama V promised, "I'll make sure she'll never find out and I will keep your identity protected. I'll give you a new name. No one will ever know who you really are."

I gulped, the implication hung heavy in the air. My mother had worked tirelessly, enduring the gaze of strangers and the ache of her muscles, specifically so I would never have to step foot on that stage.

To agree on this was to betray her greatest wish, but to refuse was to sign her death warrant.

"What if they want something more than.. Dance?" I asked carefully.

"Don't worry, Casanova is one of the most exclusive strip club in the whole Vegas. We have guards and protection in every corner, you have the right to say no and they will protect you.""

"What if, what if they force it?"

Mama Vivienne's laughed softly, "Oh darling, did you know who owns our club? It's Lucien Thorne, and nobody, I mean this, nobody would dare to cross against him, and that's why your mother is always safe with us."

Lucien Thorne, I heard his name a couple of times, though I didn't know that much about him. Mother has tried her best to shield me from the dark side of her world.

Lucien is more of a ghost story told in the dark corners, you heard his influences, his ruthlessness, his massive power and influences in the underworld, but you never see him.

My mother has been working in Casanova for a long time, and if they can ensure her safety, then they can surely ensure mine too.

"Alright.. I'll do it." My grip on Mama V's hand turned firm. "Just tell me what I have to do."

Mama V gave me a small, sad nod. "You have your mother's spirit. We start tomorrow. Welcome to the family, Aurelia."

=====☆☆☆☆☆=====

It feels like a nightmare, but as I looked at myself in the mirror, the reflection that stares back at me said otherwise.

The white masquerade mask covered half of my face, the white bodice sparkling from the embedded crystals, and the short flowy white mini skirt told me that I look like a dream.

A dream of lust, mystery, and seduction. Something forbidden that can be seen buat can't be touch.

I took a few deep breaths, preparing myself for my first stage. It's been a week since the talk with Mama V, and she has been preparing me for this.

Compliments showered around me, I look like my mother, like a spitting image her in a younger version.

Big brown eyes with long and wavy blonde hair, curvy and full rose lips. But they brought me to a different place than where my mother used to dance.

They brought me higher, to the higher floor of Casanova. Behind the golden door men of power sitting around, the talk of business forgotten as they engulfed in expensive bourbon.

As I walked in, the atmosphere was thick with the scent of expensive cigars and power. The room was bathed in deep red light, with soft golden spotlight hitting the center of the stage.

I stepped into the light, along with some other girls. The music—a haunting, slow cello—began. I let the desperation move my body. I spun, the white flowy fabric of my skirt flaring out like a cloud against the red darkness.

Years of practice with my mother start catching up, I move with grace, closing my eyes as I imagine myself back in our living room, her eyes turned with glee whenever she saw me spun.

I can almost hear her laughter in my head, and it filled me with a new type of encouragement, a new sense of confidence.

I knew I have to do this and I will do my very best to hear her laugh again, to feel her warm embrace, even if it means I have to strip.

I can feel their eyes on me, heavy gaze filled with lust, some calculative, some demeaning, some hungry stares, but I kept to myself, focusing only on my dance.

"You did amazing." Mama V told me in the backstage, "That was different than anything I've ever seen, so elegant and graceful."

I let out a shaky breath and hug her, she has been my rock these past weeks, even paying my mother's treatment in advance for us.

"You got this Aurelia, a couple of months, a year tops and I think you'll be able to cover up every bill you need to pay."

I nodded, for the first time I have hope blooming in my heart after such devastating weeks. I can dance and earn money easily, nobody is allowed to touch me sexually, and when I have enough money I'll get out of here and get my degree for a better job.

That brighter and better future is now within my reach.

The path ahead finally seemed clear. I had no idea that I wasn't walking toward my freedom—I was walking straight into a cage I could never leave.