Chapter One

Ten years later

Zara Howard

Walking back home after work is something I always look forward to. In those 20 minutes I felt the most in my element. Daydreaming with a pinch of overthinking? Yes please.

As I plugged in my headphones, my mind wandered to how my life has played out in the last few years. It's been ten years since Asher Lancaster left our house after shooting my stepfather. My mother was deranged, barely able to maintain her sanity while Scarlett and I tried our best to calm her down.

I still remember shuffling in my bed that night, hearing sniffles of my mother and sister as I wondered how the hell was our family going to survive considering I was barely 18 and Scarlett was 20 back then.

No matter how shitty our stepfather had been to us, he could at least put bread on the table twice a day.

I remember the very next morning, a mysterious envelope in our mailbox. It had a couple hundred dollars but that's about it. There was nothing else with it. It didn’t say who it was from, why the person was sending the money, nothing at all.

I eyed the envelope carefully in search of any names or messages. At the corner of the envelope, I found very familiar "L" logo.

The Lancaster’s.

Ever since then, we received an envelope just like that every month. No words exchanged. No communication whatsoever. Just a wordless agreement.

The Lancaster Empire on paper was a billion dollar business on paper but everyone knew the real business they actually dealt in. Being the younger Lancaster brother, Asher was very aware he wasn't going to be the heir to Lancaster Empire but he didn't care too much for it.

The law couldn't do much damage to the Lancaster’s even though everyone knew exactly the kind of ‘business’ they carried out.  The Lancaster’s were very good at shutting people up. Sometimes with their politics and sometimes with their guns.

But there was another side to the Mafias. The girls who couldn't help but swoon over Asher Lancaster.

I felt my cheeks heat up as I thought about it. Stalking the newspaper for every article about him, reading an embarrassing amount of fan fictions about him or well, just like right now, not having the most holy thoughts about him.

Even though it had been ten years since my first and only interaction with him, I can’t help but wonder what my first interaction with him as a grown woman would be like. Obviously, in non-murderous and relatively less fear-ridden situations.

The hopes of running into him or even just catching a glimpse of him made me do kinda crazy things which included doing anything to be even remotely related to the Lancaster enterprises. That explains why I work in one of the sub-offices of the Lancaster Enterprises as an assistant.

He has this unexplainable grip on me and I can’t quite put a finger on it. He was the bad guy in most of the stories the newspapers had to tell. Everything about him screamed Anti-Hero and maybe that is exactly why my body felt like it was on fire just at the mention of his name.

The last few years have gone by pretty decently. Thanks to Asher providing for us, we barely ever missed the presence of our stepfather. Scarlett even got a job as a waitress in a restaurant.

We have tried to keep away from the mafias and gangsters as much as possible and we were doing a pretty good job doing that until very recently.

The restaurant that Scarlett works in has a lot of local gangsters as its regular customers. They come to the restaurants for less suspicious ways of making deals and signing contracts for not so lawful things.

One such evening at the restaurant, Scarlett was serving the table of a local gang leader Victor Lawford. Scarlett is the definition of beauty standards. Luscious hair, pretty face, curves at all the right places. Of course, she caught the attention of Victor.

He asked her out. She was quick to decline.

But not so surprisingly, he didn’t appreciate Scarlett turning him down. He has been pestering her ever since. He hasn’t tried to lay a finger on her but well, doesn’t make him any less scary. Hopefully he’ll give up and it’ll fizzle out soon.

I sigh as I finally reach my doorstep. Just when I'm about to enter, I hear yelling and shouting and things being thrown around. I gulp as I timidly open the door. I’m met with the sight of my entire house trashed. Scarlett crying and doing her best to protest while Victor Lawford wrecked the entire apartment.

My eyes desperately look at Scarlett to see if she's hurt. She is trembling like a leaf but I breathed out when I found no traces of injury anywhere.

“How many fucking times do I have to ask you Scarlett?” Victor yells as he smashes the lamp onto the floor, making me flinch and causing me to drop the house keys on the floor.

This causes Victor and Scarlett to look in my direction. Scarlet rushes towards me and almost clings to me.

“What is going on? Are you alright?” I whisper feebly. I tried my best to stay calm but my heaving chest told me I was failing miserably.

 “Ask your sister to go out with me or I know other ways to make that happen” Victor demanded before Scarlett could respond.

His words made shivers run down my spine. We both continued to stand there wordlessly so he continued, “I have done everything to convince you, asked you out nicely, persuaded you, and threatened you. Don’t make me do shit that can hurt you. We both know it won’t take me more than a phone call to get you kidnapped.”

As Victor paced around in the room in anger and frustration, I took this opportunity to sneakily take out the pepper spray out of my bag.

“What is it gonna take, Scarlett?” He yelled again but this time took three big strides towards us so he’s standing just a few inches away from us.

“Victor, I suggest you leave. I think you already know her answer and she’s made up her mind. I am sure you can find someone else who can fancy your interests.” I tried to be as stern as possible. Panic was getting the best out of me. I could feel my hands tremble even as I stuck out the pepper spray in front of his face.

“Or what huh? You’re gonna come to your sister’s rescue?” Victor angrily grabbed my wrist, not happy about me trying to protest in any way.

“Leave, Victor. I have 3 different flavours of these pepper sprays. You don’t want to do that to yourself and your eyes. Leave us alone.” I blurted. Clearly giving threats isn’t my strong suit. I chose to shut up before I spewed more nonsense.

Victor clearly wasn’t threatened nor did he find humour in this situation. His grip on my wrist tightened. It was so painful, I felt my eyes well up.

“This isn’t fucking funny” His voice sent chills down my spine but I was so terrified at this point I stood there frozen like a statue. I didn’t even have it in me to protest against the death grip he had on my wrist.

Scarlett tried her best to protest, begging him to let go. I knew exactly what he was trying to do. He was trying to manipulate Scarlett by hurting me. He knew she would give in eventually.

Almost as an instinct, I grabbed the vase placed nearby and smashed it onto his head. He let go of my arm and grabbed his head, wincing in pain. I took this opportunity to pepper spray him, causing him to scream louder.

Thankfully, we were standing close to the door so we both took this opportunity to kick him out of the house.  As soon as he was out, we tripled locked the door. Scarlett was so petrified she even pushed the couch against the door so the door couldn’t be pushed open easily.

We both sat down on the floor, unable to process anything that just happened. I couldn’t utter a single word. All I could do was stare at the purple bruise on my arm that Victor had left.