She'll do

I twirled in a gold sequin dress that I would never be able to afford. It was probably worth more than any amount of money my mother’s side of the family had ever touched for generations.

I stared at myself in the mirror a little longer than necessary and ran my hands all over the length of the dress. It hugged my body like a second skin and reached a few inches above my thighs, showcasing my legs.

I smiled, feeling increasingly confident the longer I had the dress on. It was nice to act like I was the centre of attention for once. I giggled at the excitement of doing something I wasn’t allowed to do.

My smile, however, was short-lived when I heard footsteps approaching. I rushed to take off the dress, but unfortunately, the zipper was stuck.

I tried to reach behind my back to take it off in time, but it was too late. The door to Daniela’s room opened, and Orla walked in. She was the head housekeeper at the Kavanagh household, and she was very fierce.

“What are you doing in Daniela’s dress, Fiona? You have been hired here to work, not audition for a fashion show.”

I looked down in shame, unable to look her in the eye. The moment my eyes landed on the gold dress, and I felt like it was calling out to me, I knew it was wrong. My mother taught me not to covet things I couldn’t have.

I was just a maid. That dress would be thrown away for the simple fact that I had worn it. Fortunately, Daniela wasn’t there to see me in it. She wouldn’t have let me off the hook. She would torment me to no end.

“I’m sorry, Orla. I don’t…I don’t…I didn’t…”

She glared at me and shook her head.

“Mr. Kavanagh wants to see you in the study,” she said, brushing off the incident with the dress.

I immediately got on my knees and clutched her dress with tears in my eyes. The consequences of what I had done were dire. In the Kavanagh household, any small mistake could get you more than thirty lashes of the whip as punishment.

“Please, Orla. Forgive me. I will never do this again.”

I didn’t want to be punished. Daniela wasn’t around, and we didn’t know when she would be back. She wasn’t there to see me in her dress. If Orla forgave me, it would be the end of it.

She had so many nice dresses. She wouldn’t miss the gold one.

The only reason I hadn’t been taken to a brothel to earn my living there was that I was Daniela’s personal maid.

If anyone found out I dared to try on her clothes, I would suffer great consequences. I didn’t know what I was thinking when I did the forbidden when I knew how bad the consequences were going to be.

“Get up,” Orla said, grabbing my hand and pulling me up. “I will not tell Mr. Kavanagh, but you need to change.”

Orla walked into Daniela’s wardrobe and picked out the only white dress that was there for me to wear. It was a sundress that reached a few inches above my knees. I was too scared to ask what was going on as Orla straightened my red hair using Daniela’s things.

She put perfume on me, asked me to put on earrings, and a diamond bracelet. That was my breaking point. If Daniela found out I wore her things, she would kill me.

“What’s going on?” I asked her.

“I don’t know. I’m just following orders from the boss.”

Everyone knew you couldn’t defy orders from Cathal Kavanagh. So I didn’t protest.

When she was done getting me ready, she grabbed my arm and pulled me to Mr. Kavanagh’s home office. My heart thumped as she dragged me there, imagining the consequences of putting on something that wasn’t meant for me.

Orla knocked once and pulled me into the office. Cathal Kavanagh was sitting behind his desk, with two men opposite him. One was his oldest son, Lorcan Kavanagh, and another one I didn’t recognize.

I didn’t want to look at him for too long, so I looked down immediately. My hands were crossed in front of me as I fought to get the thought that all three men were staring at me out of my brain.

 It made me nervous.

“Cillian, this is my younger daughter, Uma,” Cathal said.

My eyes immediately sprang to his. I wasn’t Uma. I was Daniela’s maid. Uma died two years ago when the family's house was raided, and his wife died. Why would he lie?

I didn’t dare say anything, though. Cathal was capable of a lot of bad things. God knows I had been through nothing but hell in that household. The look he gave me indicated he expected me to play along.

No wonder Orla had made sure to groom me. It was so I could meet a stranger and be introduced as his dead daughter.

“She’s very shy,” Cillian commented, his rich English accent shining through. “I thought she died, Kavanagh. The Cartel attacked and killed her along with your wife. At least that’s what people say in the streets.”

I looked at the British man who had been lied to. He looked rough around the edges and tall with dark hair and brown eyes. The seat he was in was almost too small for him. He was a huge man and therefore very intimidating.

He looked like a killer. His suit did nothing to conceal how evil he looked. Not with all the tattoos littering his neck and hands.

Why would Cathal Kavanagh lie about me being his deceased daughter? I was a nobody, and he and his family never failed to remind me of that fact over and over again.

“That was a lie I told to protect her. I wanted my enemies to think they took something precious from me. She’s my youngest. Protecting her means the world to me.”

“Okay. She will do. Although I wanted the oldest.”

“Daniela is in the States studying for now. Uma is the best fit for this alliance. She hasn’t studied past high school, and she has no ambitions. Since the night her mother was murdered in front of her, she can’t leave the house because she’s too afraid.”

That was far from the truth. I had dreams, but Kavanagh just wouldn’t let me pursue them. I had to repay the debt I owed to him by slaving away at his house.

Wait…alliance? What was he talking about? All I knew was that Kavanagh was a third-generation Irish mafia boss. That was all I knew about him and his business.

I had seen more blood in those four walls than one would see in a hospital. The walls had been repainted more times than the number of years I had been alive. The Kavanagh household was nothing but a hub for violence and death.

Cillian, the stranger, looked at me and smiled.

“I’ll take her. Tell her to pack her things. I’m leaving here with her tonight.”

Cathal looked scared and speechless at the same time. It was obvious he was uncomfortable. It was the first time I had seen him that scared of someone. I always thought he was fearless, but I guess I was wrong about that.

He was human, like the rest of us.

“Give her a few weeks—”

“Tonight, Cathal or the deal is off.”