The greatest betrayal

My time of freedom was over.

For all my classmates it was just one more celebration of the many you would have, but for me it was the indication that my days of being myself were over and so I didn't hesitate to drink like there was no tomorrow.

"You should stop, Enya!", Jenna said with concern and Kate burst out laughing.

"Let her celebrate, don't be so restrained, we're celebrating our graduation!"

Kate shouted in happiness and I gulped down the last shot of tequila, I endured the sting before tasting the salt and sucking on the slice of lime the sexy bartender had served us. The bitter sensation gave me life, but not enough to forget that the deal I had struck with my father had just ended.

The moment you finish your graduate degree you are going to marry the man I choose for you, whatever it takes, or you will be cast out of this family.

I had been foolish enough to accept that deal only two years ago when I got my bachelor's degree, but that very afternoon we had finished the last exam of the year and the only thing left to do was to wait for the grades and the graduation ceremony in less than a month. Thus, with that simplicity, my six years of freedom were over, the years in which I was not the daughter of a mobster and could not be used as a bargaining chip.

I loved my father, I loved my family and I loved who I was, but I didn't love the fact that being born with vagina automatically made me an object that my father could use for his deals.

He had told me that I was his most precious treasure, yet he wanted to use me as if I was worthless and so he was enjoying the last few hours I had left to the point of exhaustion.

Kate, a tall and seductive brunette, took me by the hand and lifted me from the table while Jenna, a plump and friendly African-American, shook her head to the point of non-participation. Not because she was straight or having fun, but because she would have to deal with the whole mess if I, the demurest of them all, was about to give myself the bender of the century to forget the fact that I was shortly going to be roped in with some horrible mobster to secure some mob business.

"Let's dance!"

I followed Kate's command, who had dressed me in a famme fatale outfit composed of a very short red skirt that flared down one leg and a black top that highlighted my turgid bust. I went with her onto the dance floor, there we laughed and moved our skeletons to our hearts' content. I didn't know if it was the alcohol that had given me courage, but I got uninhibited without problems to the point that I danced very sexy with Kate.

"You're crazy, girlfriend! That's why I love you," she yelled in my ear with no filter.

I laughed and hugged her, then we started dancing separately in an attempt to mimic TikTok dances in which we ended up laughing out loud because we were so bad. Maybe that's what prompted a couple of acquaintances from other classes to approach us.

"Can we dance with you guys?" one of them asked.

Kate and I looked at each other and nodded out of politeness.

They were a couple of really cute, handsome, fun guys, so I joined the quietest of them and started wiggling my butt fearlessly. That made him reach over and grab my hips with confidence, a fact I didn't dislike. It was the first time a man had approached me with such ease and let me know he liked me. I had never allowed it before, but that night I was sending everything to hell to forget my horrible fate.

You're so sexy!" he said in a low whisper. "I don't think I've ever seen you before, that hair color is unforgettable and all of you are perfect."

I turned my head and gave him a sincere smile.

He wasn't the first and probably wouldn't be the only one to tell me so, my reddish hair, a legacy of my Irish origins, was a commonality I shared with my two brothers and my lovely mother who rested in peace.

At that moment I thought why the hell couldn't I play a little and maybe not think about all those Catholic precepts that were instilled in me as a child to follow within the guidelines of the infamous Irish mafia.

He squeezed my buttock with no trouble and after dancing for what seemed like hours, he took me by the hand and led me to the restrooms. These, to my surprise, were not full, and we entered one of the men's cubicles which was spotless.

"You're beautiful, I have protection, what do you want to do?"

His question was genuine, so I took a deep breath and without words kissed him.

It wasn't my first kiss, but it was the first time I was very bold, so much so that I sat him on the toilet and sat on top of him so I could take control of that kiss. The short red skirt went up my legs and it was easy to stimulate me completely, the problem with that was that there was not much heat, I felt no passion or burning and suddenly in my mind appeared the worst memory I may have had in my life when I was a young girl who had wanted to kiss the boy I adored, but that ended very badly.

I felt some heartburn in my stomach as I remembered Declan, a young man my father had picked up on the streets of New York, the boy who became his ward and the most lethal enforcer in the history of the organization.

I thought of him, the boy from that time who was only two years older than me, the one who laughed with me and bought me the forbidden novels on the sly. The one who gave me chocolate when I felt bad for having my period, the one who had become the best friend of my older brothers.

I felt a lump in my throat and then I remembered the last time I saw him, when he was packing my bags and I dared to tell him how I felt after he had ignored me for weeks, but his words were clear: I don't know what you think you're doing, but at no time have I given you any reason to think you can come and tell me something like that. I don't like you; I'm not interested in you as a woman, and I don't want to bring this up again.

My heart broke into a thousand pieces and that feeling of rejection came back to me with force, so I stopped kissing the boy and got up. I wasn't in the best moment to continue, I couldn't, as always, Declan was coming to my mind to fuck everything up.

"Are you okay," the boy asked and I denied.

"I need a moment, sorry."

He looked at me with some irritation, but he respected my decision very well, which I appreciated and walked out of the bathroom, what I never imagined was that I would run into none other than the man who had unconsciously ruined my moment. My eyes must have been deceiving me, especially because what I was seeing was a man in every sense of the word.

Declan was no longer a thin young man, he was full of muscles to match his height, his long hair was recalled in a way that suited him, his dark eyes felt intense, as did the contraction of his jaw that told me he was annoyed. The dark boy was a man who looked at me as if he wanted to scold me.

And as if in a synchronized fucking moment, the acquaintance came out of the bathroom zipping up his pants. That gesture Declan picked up on and the guy looked at us with some curiosity, I don't know what he saw in my expression, but he approached me with some bravado.

"Are you okay, is he bothering you?"

I immediately looked at Declan's hands, when he squeezed them, I immediately turned to push the poor boy away before my former love reacted violently.

"No, he's not bothering me, so don't worry, he's a good friend who came looking for me."

He nodded and walked away with some reluctance, Declan didn't take his eyes off him and when he walked away, I sighed enough to let out some calm.

"No wonder your father didn't want you to come to college," Declan said in a sarcastic tone of voice and I turned to look at him with narrowed eyes.

I ignored him and cut to the chase; he had never visited me before so something was up.

"Why are you here?" I asked him right away.

He looked me in the eyes for what seemed like hours, but knew very well it had been minutes, then he gave me a full head-to-toe once-over and lingered on my hair. I had trimmed it and that night I had styled it in waves, something very different from how I normally wore it up in a braid.

Just as he had changed, so had I, but that wasn't the important thing.

"I came to take you home, your father has sent for you urgently, and will only talk about it when you are home."

A thousand things went through my mind, so many that none of them had to be terribly bad, so I squared my shoulders.

"Fine, but I have to take my friends to the dorm and pay the bill, you can stop by in the morning for me at my dorm and I'll be ready."

"You're missing my point Enya, I need you to go home with me right now, that's not up for discussion. We can do it the easy way or the hard way, you just decide," he blurted out flatly and I glared at him with hatred.

"I don't like this, but since you are so insistent, you will take my friends to the dorm and I will pack a week's worth of clothes, then you will bring me here without hesitation or I swear to God I will make Zeus leave you without offspring," I fired back at him and went straight to the table where my friends were.

I thought I heard a hint of laughter, I just ignored it and remembered my dog, a Doberman with bad temper who was a sweetheart to me. I thought about the one good thing about coming back, that I could have Zeus by my side. I loved my family, very much, so much so that I had made that deal not to be exiled as I had made a promise to my mother.

I would stay with my family until the end.

One way or another it hurt that my father had been so blunt with that decision, but it was what I had to do to get a taste of the world. So, when I approached the table, I was sure the girls' reactions would not be long in coming.

"Where did you get that gorgeous specimen of a man?" asked Kate boldly.

"He's a worker of my father's," I told a half-truth, which made her feel very uncomfortable. "He came looking for me because something happened at home, so I have to go back now, so I'm sorry to interrupt, but it's best to go to the residence. I won't be quiet leaving you two alone."

Jenna looked at me with some concern, mostly because of the way Declan was all over me. She couldn't be fooled, so I just smiled at her to mitigate the action. I would call her later to tell her.

"Well, if this handsome man will take us, I'm leaving," Kate said before taking him by the hand to head straight for the exit.

"Everything okay?" asked Jenna when she saw Declan walk out with Kate.

"Yeah, all good, best to pay the bill and go, I've got a long drive to take."

If Declan had come, I could bet my dad had sent the jet with him, so I took a deep breath for the hours of travel I had left from San Francisco to New York, about five and a half hours plus the drive.

I groaned to myself and walked out of the bar with the assurance that my life was about to change.