The Mafia's Mercy

The Mafia's Mercy

last updateLast Updated : 2024-06-30
By:  Laisha GardnerCompleted
Language: English
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The darkness in his eyes, the dangerous smell of in his breath, and his deathly grip keeping me bound to him made my heart pound in my chest and my body quiver beneath him. Shamefully, it wasn't anything that I wasn't used to, because…the things I let him do to me? When he was frustrated, annoyed, and angry at the world, I was here to be his pound of flesh. In return, he masked the void of my loneliness because for months, that was the transaction of our relationship. He'd pin me to the wall, bend me over the counter, pull my hair, slap me, choke me, and I enjoyed every second of it because in that moment, it finally felt good to be powerless. Irony is a funny thing. I enjoyed being in pain because it made me forget how much I was hurting. *** "I warned you, doll." His voice strikes a string of chills down the base of my spine, a reminder that all of the time in the world could pass, and he's still not letting go. This is where the good girl in me dies. "You're mine now," he whispers. *** My name is Mercy—Mercy Carter. I went to college. Got myself a useless Bachelor of Science in Mathematics degree. His name is Marcel—Marcello Saldívar. However, at the time, I didn't know that he, the heir to the Saldívar Mafia empire, was the man that I had blindly offered myself to. As smart as I am, I was stupid all the times when it actually mattered. After all, he did warn me he was dangerous. I just didn't think he could be much worse than my thug brother. I was vulnerable—naive. I belong to him. My name is Mercy, and I am the Mafia's Mercy.

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Chapter 1

⊰ 1 ⊱ Silent Hours

My parents were good people. They made shitty choices, but they were good parents. You see, the problem wasn’t that they didn’t understand the gravity of their poor decision making. The problem was that while they understood, they didn’t care about the consequences so long as they were the only ones who had to pay for them.

Unfortunately, life doesn’t really work that way.

You know what happens to people who can’t pay off the loan shark? They end up dead.

You know what happens to the children of those people? Well…I won’t tell you because that would violate his rules.

What I can tell you is that the Mafia doesn’t go after little girls. Instead, the Mafia takes the son of their deceased clients, they turn him into like them, and his sister becomes the girl that no one wants to sit at the lunch table with because God forbid you cross paths with her brother.

Needless to say, loneliness becomes your shadow.

My name is Mercy—Mercy Carter. I went to college. Got myself a useless Bachelor of Science in Mathematics degree with only two classes short of a Master of Physics degree.

That’s the thing about the Mafia: they don’t care that you busted your ass for five and a half years. When they’re ready for the little girl that they weren’t interested in 10 years ago, even a degree in Nuclear Engineering becomes useless.

You would think that racketeering and drug trafficking would be enough to land you behind bars, but it’s kinda hard to incriminate someone who does a really good job at convincing other people to take the fall for him.

Here’s to being the lonely nerd at the front of the class. She had no idea she’d be taken by the man who told her he’d stay away. She had no idea that she’d become his to keep.

My name is Mercy—Mercy Carter—and I am the Mafia’s Mercy.


I’m gonna fail…

I glance up at the clock as its incessant ticking reminds me that I’m almost out of time.

I had spent the better part of the last two weeks studying for my Quantum Mechanics final, and though I’ve taken Adderall three times this week already, a part of me knew that no matter how long or how hard I studied, this exam would ultimately be the end of me.

With just enough courage to pick ’B’ on the last question that I spent the past three minutes staring at, I wrap up, closing my exam sheet and gathering my belongings. I feel my heart at my throat as I approach my professor and reluctantly hand him my exam packet and scantron sheet.

His perfectly wrinkled eyes squint as he offers me a warm smile, knowing that despite my hesitation, I more than likely out performed the rest of my classmates.

He’s a sweet man, and at heart, I’m sure that he means well, but God, do I want to punch him in the face.

Pretending that I don’t, I offer him a half-hearted smile in return and go about my way.

I’m smart, I know it. Naturally, I went through the motions of attending class, doing my homework, and taking exams as though it were as easy as getting through Kindergarten all the way through until I graduated high school. With a whopping 3.8 GPA, I graduated with my mathematics degree in four years, and now I’m at a solid 3.5 with only one semester away from graduating with my Master’s degree in Physics.

At the ripe age of 24, I’ll be the first and only in my family to have pursued higher education and graduated. All of which hardly means anything, seeing as I only have my hardass older brother to brag to—should he ever come back home.

The cool night breeze flicks my dark brown hair as I hurry to the bus stop. It’s just half an hour past 8 o’clock, and I’m more relieved at the fact that this is the last night class that I’ll ever take than the sound of the bus shuttle coming to a complete stop before me.

Being the only one waiting for it, I quickly board, offering the bus driver a small smile before hurrying to take the first open seat that I could find. The earbuds in my hands quickly find their way into my ears, and in the next moment, I’m blasting my alternative rock playlist as I shift ever-so-slightly with the bus’ steady ride.

Just before the lockscreen on my phone reads 9 o’clock, I find myself hopping off of the vehicle with my hoodie over my head and my backpack hanging off my shoulder. Being on the first floor of my apartment building, I quickly come to the front door, locking it behind me as I flick the light on.

It’s a small studio apartment, but it’s perfect for a young woman with no pets and no man to call my own.

As if I could ever.

I sigh softly at the thought of being alone for the rest of my life. This is how it’s been since I was a teenager: no matter where I went, so long as my brother showed up in the nick of time, any and all friends I made slowly but surely stopped being my friends—except the ones that so desperately wanted to date him and blamed me when he used them for the only thing they could offer: sex.

My phone clicks against the bathroom counter as I set it down, my gaze finding my reflection in the mirror as I turn the faucet on. Small shadows paint the bags under my hazel eyes, and the blush from the chilly December weather that reddens my cheeks and nose is the only reason my pale skin doesn’t make me look as dead on the outside as I feel on the inside.

I’m depressed, and I know it. I’ve been depressed for what feels like ten years now, which I’m sure has everything to do with my parents’ tragic death.

I cup my hands under the running water, bringing them up to my face as I drown my soft features in the cold puddle. It feels good against my eyelids, and as I allow the water to slip from between my fingers, I rub my hands down my face before moving to shut the water off and taking the hand towel resting beside my phone on the counter.

With the soft cloth against my face, I dry myself as I move to the small piece of furniture beside my bed, taking the small metal box and lighter resting atop of it. From my hand, the towel gets tossed onto my bed and I move to open the set of balcony doors at the far end of the room.

The golden doorknob is cold against my touch as I turn it in my hand and push it open. As I step out onto the concrete floor, I bring my unoccupied hand to meet the top of the metal box and pop it open, revealing the neatly rolled joint I’d prepped before I left for my exam earlier.

It’s Friday night, but even if it wasn’t, my scholarship and financial aid pays my bills. So every Friday evening, I come out here and smoke myself as close to comatose as I can get.

It’s easier this way.

With the joint between my fingers, I snap the box shut and stick it into my hoodie’s pocket. Swiftly, I place the roll between my lips and light it, inhaling a quick and short breath. Smoke fills my lungs, almost instantly dulling what already feels like numbness in my chest.

I hold it, allowing my eyelids to fall shut as I exhale slowly to the beat of the music still buzzing from my earbuds.

“I love you, sissy.”

My eyes gloss at the memory of the sound of my brother’s voice ringing in my head.

It’s been like this since I moved to this small college town and he left with him.

I remember the day like it was yesterday, and it’s been the one thing keeping me up at night.

I walked the stage at my high school graduation earlier that day, and Levi and I were sitting on the black leather couch in the living room, watching my favorite episode from The Office for the third time that week. With an empty box of pizza we’d shoved down our throats resting on the coffee table, I leaned into him as he threw his arm around me.

I hate myself for it, because I knew that it was coming. But I kept pretending that it wasn’t. I pretended that the timer my brother was on wasn’t ticking and about to go off.

But I knew.

I knew that when my parents were shot before my own eyes, it fell on him to drop out of his junior year of high school to work and pay the bills. He refused to let me help. He said I’d make something of myself some day. He said I was too smart to throw my life away, and since he became the man of the house, it was his job to take care of me.

He did.

What he thought I didn’t know was that the money he was making was from working with the same man who was responsible for our parents’ death. What he thought I didn’t know was that that man only let my brother stay until I graduated high school and that night would be his last night by my side.

It kills me.

I take another hit, attempting to stop the knot from forming at the edge of my throat. It’s enough to settle my nerves, but it’s hardly enough to stop my mind from going to places that I really wish it would stop going to.

It all happened so fast.

One minute we were laughing at Jan and Michael arguing in the Dinner Party, and the next, the front door was flying off its hinges.

I jumped what felt like five feet in the air, scrambling up to my feet as Levi rose to his. He harshly took my arm into his hold and dragged me into his bedroom where he shoved me onto his bed and ran to grab the gun from his nightstand.

My heart hammered in my chest as he waved his finger at my face, his hazel eyes darkening as he warned me, “Shut the fuck up and don’t come out.”

He was serious, and I knew it.

He never spoke to me that way unless I was about to do something he warned me not to—which was always. That time, however, he left no room for argument.

With the gun in his hand, he hurried to the door, and just before walking out, he turned to me and said, “I love you, sissy.”

That was the last I saw him—the last I heard from him.

From that moment on, I did the only thing he ever pushed me to do: study.

And five and a half years later, I’m still doing it: studying and missing him.

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Comments

user avatar
Ashleigh0119
Oh this one was wonderful from beginning to end!
2025-04-11 11:04:02
0
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Coco
I greatly recommend this book it’s a great read. What a beautiful love story, yet I’m heartbroken…
2024-08-23 05:31:36
2
115 Chapters
⊰ 1 ⊱ Silent Hours
My parents were good people. They made shitty choices, but they were good parents. You see, the problem wasn’t that they didn’t understand the gravity of their poor decision making. The problem was that while they understood, they didn’t care about the consequences so long as they were the only ones who had to pay for them. Unfortunately, life doesn’t really work that way. You know what happens to people who can’t pay off the loan shark? They end up dead. You know what happens to the children of those people? Well…I won’t tell you because that would violate his rules. What I can tell you is that the Mafia doesn’t go after little girls. Instead, the Mafia takes the son of their deceased clients, they turn him into like them, and his sister becomes the girl that no one wants to sit at the lunch table with because God forbid you cross paths with her brother. Needless to say, loneliness becomes your shadow. My name is Mercy—Mercy Carter. I went to college. Got myself a useless Bache
last updateLast Updated : 2024-02-21
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⊰ 2 ⊱ Shadow of the Past
The icy cold water is refreshing as I chug it from the glass cup, its coolness kissing my tongue. The remnants of the joint I’ve just smoked linger in the air, its scent infused in my blood-red sweater.I stink. I need a shower.My hooded eyes are redder than usual—a direct result from smoking an entire gram on my own.I cross my arms in front of me, taking the hem of my hoodie and t-shirt together before pulling it up and over my head. In one swift motion, I draw it from my body and toss it into the brown hamper positioned beside the bathroom doorway.With this, I reach behind me and unclasp my bra, slipping it out of my arms as I kick the white sneakers off of my feet. As high as I’m riding, by the time I recognize my next movements, I’m standing naked in the shower with the steaming hot water cascading through my waist-length hair.The sweet scent of the strawberry shampoo that washes my hair makes me smile in contentment as I throw my head back and run my fingers through it. Nothi
last updateLast Updated : 2024-02-21
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⊰ 3 ⊱ Reckless Embrace
I sit at the foot of my bed, brushing my knuckles with the pad of my thumb as my hand clenches onto the fingers of my other hand nervously. My leg jumps, the heel of my foot tapping against the carpet floor beneath me.My heart hasn’t quite caught up with the stillness of this moment, its rapid beats a testament to the fear and uncertainty that clings to my like a second skin.It feels like only seconds ago, yet hours apart, that I was dragged back into the life that I thought had parted ways with me the day that my brother walked out the front door of my childhood home. Now, in the quiet of the place I thought I’d always be safe, I can’t help but feel like a boat adrift in the middle of a tsunami.I never thought that I’d catch myself wishing that I weren’t as high as I am right now. The problem is not that I’m not sober. The problem is that while intoxicated me is typically a lot better at handling stressful situations, intoxicated me is also excellent at feeling the extent of my an
last updateLast Updated : 2024-02-21
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⊰ 4 ⊱ My Brother's Keeper
No one talks about how the first man that you choose to give yourself to holds power over you—even if it’s the slightest bit of it.I guess that’s why you’re not supposed to give your virginity to a man you’ve just met.Although, the problem wasn’t that I gave it to him. The problem was that it was him I gave it to.Still, he was kind to me. Instead of up and leaving immediately after deflowering me, he stayed and held me until morning came and I sprung up from my bed when I heard my brother’s car pull into the driveway.I gasped loudly, my hands trembling with adrenaline as I tapped on Marcel’s shoulder, anxiously calling, “Marcel! My brother’s home!”When his eyes snapped open, he didn’t seem remotely fazed, and in that moment, I should’ve known. I should’ve known that the man who merely appeared interested in the fact that the girl sitting in his car was the sister of the town’s infamous thug, and not cautious, was someone who was far more menacing than the thug himself. After all,
last updateLast Updated : 2024-02-21
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⊰ 5 ⊱ Old Bonds, New Problems
The familiar sound of the incessant beeping from the vital signs monitor prompts an audible groan from the back of my throat, pulling me into consciousness. My eyelids feel heavy, and I struggle to lift them as the bright light that beams from between the opened window blinds pierces my hazy eyes. My eyebrows furrow, my lungs drawing a deep breath as the discomfort from my shoulder slowly settles. It isn’t until my vision clears that I begin to recall the events from the night prior, coming to me like flashbacks in bits and pieces. Marcel. “Mercy?” My eyes widen at the familiar voice, my head snapping to the side to find Levi standing from the chair positioned at my bedside. He straightens on his feet, swiftly moving to stand beside me. “Hey…” the tenderness in his voice is comforting until I remember that I haven’t seen him for the better part of 6 years and the man who put me in this hospital bed is the same man that’s been looking for him. “Levi..?” My voice quavers, the rippl
last updateLast Updated : 2024-02-21
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⊰ 6 ⊱ The Currency of My Existence
I wish I could say that if I’d done things differently, I wouldn’t be here. However, the unfortunate truth is that even if I had done things differently, it feels as though this was destined to happen.I guess that’s what happens when your parents leave a mess for you to clean up.My hand grips onto the balled bed sheet in my fist as though it’ll keep me grounded to my body should Marcel choose to put a bullet through my head this time like he said he would. With crippling anticipation, my gaze follows him as he moves from the doorway to stand just before the foot of the bed. Despite very notably feeling my heart pounding in my chest, it isn’t until I register the increasingly shorter pauses between each beep from the vital signs machine that I realize that the spike of my heart rates’ doubled. My hands tremble on my lap, the veins on my arm dilating as my blood pumps faster and harder.It’s okay. It’s gonna be okay.…No the fuck it’s not.The smirk dancing on Marcel’s lips shifts ev
last updateLast Updated : 2024-02-21
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⊰ 7 ⊱ An Impossible Request
I inhale deeply as my eyelids flutter open.There’s an odd numbness lingering in my chest as my empty eyes gaze at the coffered ceiling with gold lining. Despite the unfamiliarity, my absent mind ignores the lingering discomfort in my shoulder as my sight shifts to the illuminating, flat, round bulbs in the center of the odd geometric pattern of the decorative panel.I wasn’t ready. Although, I suppose, I probably never would have been.Levi…I didn’t get to say goodbye the first time he left, and I can’t help but wonder if maybe the reason he avoided saying goodbye at all is because he knew how I’d react. If 24-year-old me couldn’t hold it together, what hope was there for 18-year-old me to not have utterly collapsed under the heartbreak of knowingly parting ways with the only family I had left—the only family I have left.I suppose I only wish he’d stayed with me until I fell asleep.Would it have made it all better?The breath that parts my lips makes my chest slowly fall, my head
last updateLast Updated : 2024-02-21
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⊰ 8 ⊱ The Illusion of Choice
I stand at the window, my arms crossed tightly, as if holding myself together, while my gaze drifts across the vast, open fields that stretch for acres around the estate.I’ve been counting down the minutes until Levi’s time is up, and without having heard from Marcel since the last time he was here—almost a week ago—I’m left to assume that Levi, with only a few hours left until his deadline, will probably show up short-handed—just as Marcel insinuated.I kept hoping that Levi would come to my rescue, the way that he somehow always did when we were growing up—with and without parents.But he never did. Each minute of silence chips away at the little hope that I have left in me, and as guilty as it makes me feel, I mentally prepare myself for the moment that Marcel decides to walk in here to give me the inevitable news.It’s not that I don’t have faith in Levi. It’s that I know my brother, and if he did have the money to buy my freedom back, he would’ve done it the very day I was taken
last updateLast Updated : 2024-02-24
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⊰ 9 ⊱ Tempting Fate: Part 1
As of late, it seems that I often find myself thinking about the past. Even as I sit here, in the elegant dining room, staring at the computer screen in deafening silence, I’m drawn back to the haunting memories of the choices that I made that contributed to this. It’d been a week since learning about Marcel’s identity and I was home alone, yet again, like every Saturday evening for the last two years. Levi didn’t waste his breath on telling me to stay home—he didn’t have to. I’d felt so ashamed of the vulnerability and stupidity that led to me making desperate choices that I only left my room to go to school whenever he was home. In fact, I avoided him when I could. I couldn’t bring myself to look him in the eye. The humiliation was too much. It was the middle of December, and being in South Texas, it was just a little below 60 degrees. I’d curled up on the corner of the couch, wrapped in a blanket as I leaned into my side, my elbow resting on the armrest and my head propped up as
last updateLast Updated : 2024-02-24
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⊰ 10 ⊱ Dancing with Fate: Part 2
As I stand before Marcel, behind the closed doors of the room I’ll be calling home for the next month, the tension between us weighs heavy, suffocating like that night, 6 years ago.He had scooted closer to me after I’d wiped the tears from my face, and despite knowing that it was evident—with or without crying—that something was eating away at me inside, I wouldn’t look at him.I wouldn’t dare to.I was afraid that if I did, he’d see right through and break me in half, giving himself free reign into every thought and feeling that I had.However, when the knuckle of his index finger found my chin, bringing my eyes to look into his, I didn’t feel like the world around me was collapsing or as if I was collapsing with it. Instead, I found comfort—a sense of safety.“I want a girl like you,” he said softly. I furrowed my eyebrows, confused, but before I could mutter a sound, he explained, “Quiet, smart, cute enough to be pretty but not pretty enough to be sexy. Keeps to herself, stays out
last updateLast Updated : 2024-02-24
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