Chapter 0001

•ISABELLA•

After slamming the door behind me, I rushed to the change room, took my bag from my locker, and headed towards the front entrance.

I was so angry that I wanted to push anyone who got in my way.

I wasn't in the mood to ask people to get out of my way, especially now that the club was getting crowded, and people were already drunk.

I bumped shoulders with people who were coming inside and those who were just too drunk to watch their steps while I rushed for the front door.

"Where are you going?" Sarah stood in my way.

I rolled my eyes and stopped walking. "I'm going home."

Her eyes almost popped out of her eye sockets when she heard that. "What? Are you insane? The boss is here, remember?" She exclaimed.

"He can suck his own dick, I'm out." I clutched onto my bag, shoved my way past her, and left.

Luckily, I found a taxi outside and took it and went home.

On my way back home, I kept thinking about my father and what he was going to say when he saw me coming back home from work.

He instructed me to impress Antonio so that I'd be able to keep my job, but if he meant that I had to encourage his sexual advances on me, then I was better without a job.

After paying the taxi fare and hopping out of the car, I stood outside the driveway and looked at my house.

My heart started beating fast because the lights weren't out. It meant that my father was still up.

I looked at the time on my phone, it was 10 PM, and I was not supposed to be home until morning at 5:30 AM.

I took a deep breath and decided to go inside. After closing the door behind me, I heard giggles from the living room, and I knew that my father had company.

I decided to tiptoe my way upstairs before they noticed me because if he was with someone, it meant that he was drunk.

And I wasn't in the mood to deal with the drunk version of my father.

"Come here, you little brat." My father called behind me, and I froze in my steps.

I took a deep breath and turned around slowly. He was sitting on the couch with one of his bitches that he brought to the house.

The girl looked like she could be my age if not a year older or younger.

But this was not surprising at all since my father had decided that his dating types were now girls young enough to be his daughters.

"Why are you home at this time?" He got up, and the girl with him rolled her eyes at me, fixed her shirt, and covered up her breasts.

"I quit." I didn't want to beat around the bush, and then I swallowed.

I knew that hell was about to break loose. He was going to swear at me until my eardrums hurt.

His face countenance even changed when he heard that I quit. It was as if I just spat vulgar words.

"You quit what?" He walked towards me.

"I quit, Father. I can't work for Antonio anymore, he -"

Before I could finish my sentence, I felt a slap across my face that caused me to stumble back.

I heard a ringing noise from my right ear and could not believe that he had just slapped me in front of another girl who was the same age as me.

He never slapped me before, and this caught me by surprise. I had no idea that it was so important for me to try to keep my job at the club.

"You will go back there and ask for that job back. Do we understand each other?" He fumed.

"I'm not going to do that, Father! No! If you want to work in that club, you go there yourself, and do not escort me with you!" I snarled and rushed upstairs to my room.

After closing the door behind me, I took a deep breath and went to sit on the edge of my bed.

The flashback of what happened in Antonio's office made me feel a chill down my spine. He was a dangerous man that I didn't want to associate myself with.

Everyone knew what he was capable of, and the thought of his hands on my body made me feel a knot in my stomach.

We all saw the girls that he brought into his office and pretended not to know them the next evening, and I was not going to allow myself to be amongst them.

***

I had no idea how I fell asleep when I woke up tied up in a chair.

For a second, I thought that I was in a dream, and there was no way that I was back in the club and tied up on a chair while my father stood there watching.

I groaned and looked around me, feeling my head getting light and the bright lights on the podium made me feel dizzy.

My body ached as if someone had been punching me before I got tied up.

"Father..." I mumbled as I lifted my head and looked at him.

"Please, you can hire her back and get all the money that I owe you. You don't have to do this." He pleaded with Antonio, and I didn’t know what to make of everything that was happening.

I closed my eyes and said a little prayer, hoping that I would wake up in my bed and this would be over, but no, it didn't happen.

I opened my eyes, and my father was still standing there looking at me with eyes filled with pity.

As I tried to regain my consciousness, someone came and helped me drink water from a bottle.

I started to feel a little better, and I realized that I was indeed back in the club and tied up on a chair at the stripping podium.

I saw Antonio’s bodyguards, and next to my father was Antonio.

I felt my heart beating fast against my chest when I remembered that my father had pleaded with Antonio to hire me back to pay back all the money that he owed him.

I didn’t know that my father owed him money until that very moment.

“Name a price of your choice, and it will be yours, but she will be mine as repayment for the money that you owe me.” Antonio negotiated with my father.

“Father, what’s going on?” I asked in horror when I realized what was going on.

"She’s my daughter, Antonio. I can’t sell her off to you just like that.” My father protested.

“50 million dollars for her.”

My father gasped in shock as he looked at me. I knew that look, and the money that he heard was getting into his head.

I was his daughter, but that money sounded more valuable than I was to him.

I knew that he was going to take the offer and sell me off to the only man that he knew was not good for me.

He knew that Antonio was going to break me, but the look on his face told me that he wanted the money more than saving me as his daughter.

“50?” He gushed as the widest smile spread on his face.

“50 million,” Antonio emphasized, looking at me.

“Deal,” my father held out his hand to Antonio.

I watched as he took his hand, and they shook hands in exchange for my life, freedom, and free will.

Just like that, my father sold me off to Antonio Rodriguez.

When Antonio turned and looked at me, there was a smirk of victory on his face.