SOLD

I woke up.

I didn't want to, but I did. I should have stayed in bed if I had known what would happen next. I performed my morning necessities and went downstairs, already downstairs, Lola ran up to me and threw herself on my lap.

"Be careful, Lola. You can get hurt!" I joked pulling the sweaty hair out of her face and smiled as I saw the nanny coming dashing after her.

"Sorry, Miss Mackenzie, she's fast." The girl said defending herself.

"Like flash!" Lola spoke smiling.

"I know honey, it's no problem." I smiled at her and could see the relief on her face. Lola was only five years old, and could be gone in just a blink, she was too smart and my heart in human form. I lived for her, endured that house and all the rule shitting for her.

I went into the dining room, the coffee was already on and my parents were sitting in silence, that should have been a sign by now.

"Good morning." I spoke taking a seat at the table.

"Good morning." My father replied, Mom did not.

"You're late." That was all she said.

My house was always a sea of irony. This was living with one of the richest families in the country. Dad was a businessman, he was always on his cell phone working something out, Mom was always talking about how insufferable other wives were when she was home. And apart from Dad being a gambling addict and Mom being a compulsive shopper, their marriage beyond the gates was a bed of roses. But inside the house, they couldn't stand each other, and I didn't understand why they were still married, I mean, apart from the fact that it was for the comfort zone and for the sake of the "family."

I had my coffee and headed outside. I had language class that morning, ballet in the afternoon and college at night. My college was my greatest dream, and Mom had allowed me to take it as long as I also took the other classes she wanted. In exchange for taking social work, I had to take languages and ballet, because Mom wanted to be a ballet dancer and thought that projecting her dream onto me would satisfy her. I have been doing ballet for five years. I love dancing, but I feel compelled to be in a world that I feel is not my own. Ballet allows me to feel, but social work makes me feel useful and understand other realities besides my own.

After the language class, I went to the ballet class, after the ballet class, I took a quick shower and was on my way to college when I saw my world collapsing. I was walking down the stairs when I heard loud voices coming from the office. Dad and Mom didn't usually fight, not aggressively, they barely spoke to each other and when they did it was in a roundabout way. Which made me move closer to understand what was going on.

"I can't believe you did this," Mom said in disgust.

"I did that? That's your fault too. You buy everything you see in front of you, do you think our money is infinite?" Dad threw it in his face.

"You can spend it all on gambling and I can't buy it? Maybe if you were a good husband I wouldn't have to spend time buying clothes."

"And you think you're a good wife?" He laughed snidely.

"You are an imbecile. You don't even know how to live in a marriage and now you've destroyed your family." Mom said sobbing.

That was the trigger for me to walk into the office.

"What's going on here?" I asked staring at the two startled men.

Suddenly Mom started laughing.

"Now tell me." She said spitting out the words with a sadistic smile on her face. "Tell your daughter, the shit you did. All the shit you've done."

"First, stop yelling." I spoke getting impatient. "Lola is sleeping. And the employees are not obligated to listen to your bickering. What's going on, Daddy?"

"Daughter..." Daddy said with a face like a dog without an owner, shit was coming, "I don't know how to explain."

"Ahhh don't make a scene, Carlos. Your father sold you out, Mackenzie. Your perfect father sold you out." My mother said accusingly making my world spin, I couldn't believe what I was hearing.

"What is mommy talking about, daddy?" I asked crossing my arms.

"We're broke." Dad spoke swallowing dryly.

"How are we broke? We have a company that makes millions a month." I answered with a smile on my lips, I knew the company's accounting. I studied business administration.

"Millions that are compulsorily spent by your mother, with the expenses of several employees and a luxurious house with servants, that are spent on your studies and hobbies, on your sister's education." Dad accused.

"No. Don't come blaming us. On your gambling too," Mom said.

"Papa the company has revolving capital, don't treat me like a mule, how are we broke?" I asked swallowing the anger that rose in me with each accusation from the two.

"A year ago I made a new pitch." My father shrugged his shoulders lowering his eyes.

"I know. Be direct." I spoke rolling my eyes.

"It didn't work out. We lost billions in investments. And what was left over we spent, believing that one day it would work out. I was impulsive and invested again, it went wrong again. Then I tried my luck in a game, I was winning, daughter." He swallowed hard and I saw the desperation in his eyes. "I was winning. So I decided to bet all or nothing, if I won, I would be able to triple the failed investments."

"But you lost..." I whispered.

"I lost." He said making my throat burn.

"How much did you bet, Daddy?" I asked, and I knew a stab was coming.

"All of it." He answered after a few seconds in silence.

"And who did you bet with?" I asked ignoring the embargo in his voice.

"With the casino owner." He sighed. "He's an old acquaintance, whenever it's handy we play. I always beat him."

"Oh you always beat the casino owner?" I asked staring at him with narrowed eyes, because it was too much stupidity for one person.

"É. I always won. I was winning, daughter." Daddy said in a desperate grimace.

"Daddy..." I swallowed dryly. "What's this about selling me out?"

"To pay off the debt we have, we would have to sell the house and the company. How would we survive? We would have nowhere to go, we didn't have a way out. So he made me an offer..." He paused to think about how he would destroy me further. "The owner of the casino is a man of high society, known to all in our midst, and he is thinking of getting elected as mayor of the city. The man is a widower, and his twenty-two-year-old son takes care of the business. He has proposed a marriage to me.

Daughter, I am a respected businessman, a role model in the cream of society, marrying you would clean up his image, people would look up to him, making him eligible. We would lose nothing and he would become an investing partner in my company."

"You sold me out to an old man with a son who is old enough to be my older brother? An old man with no character and who owns illicit businesses?" I asked feeling my blood boil. "Instead of just selling the things Mom buys and getting back on our feet little by little? How would we survive? It was just a small house, no servants, no luxuries, with one job, it was just you guys working."

"Your mother can't even fry an egg." My father laughed. "Work from what? Don't you realize the society you are in? This isn't a fairy tale here, what would I work at? A chauffeur?" He cracked a bitter smile. "Who would take care of your sister? You? You'd rather live poor, without college, without education, see your sister without a proper education, your mother working as a waitress or a store clerk, right? Because you don't even know how to clean a house, you'd rather live a shitty life than marry a man who is only forty years old and become a lady of society?"

"Lady of society? Do I look like I want to be a mistress of society?" I asked impatiently. "You are talking about the reality of thousands of Brazilians, Dad. This is how 90% of people live in the country, and are alive."

"But we are not those people. We don't know what it is like to live this reality, and do you think that if these people had the same choice as you, they would choose to be poor? Really, what a fairy tale you live in." My father laughed. "Nobody wants to be poor, Mackenzie. Doesn't being privileged to go to a paid college teach you something? Knowing about other people's reality doesn't make you understand, it doesn't make you live. You may know that there are poor people, but you don't live like them, and you can't stand to spend a day in a small house with no servants, no one to cook for you, no one to wash and iron your clothes, no car to take you and pick you up everywhere, safely. You couldn't bear to see your sister without a proper education, because poor people don't have an education."

"That's disgusting you talk." I spat. "The Lord is talking about people. And really, I am privileged to have everything of the good and the best, and perhaps in fact I could not bear what they bear. But I am sure they are richer in soul than the Lord. They would not sell a child. They would not treat a son as a commodity." I returned.

"They wouldn't have to." My father cracked a bitter smile. "I'm not proud of what I did, I lost, I have no way to go back to the past. But you are treating the deal as the worst thing in the world. And it isn't. If I were you, a lower class woman would be very happy to have a rich, social cream, political man wanting to marry her. But you are here complaining, asking for a reality that you couldn't handle for a day, and proving to me how spoiled you are just like your mother. But if you won't do it for yourself, at least do it for your sister."

"The Lord is a rotten man." I spoke feeling the tears welling up.

"Is that what you want? Your sister living in some slum? No security, no education, running risks every day? We have no way to raise her. You were raised by nannies, your mother doesn't know how to raise a child. Think about your family, but if that's not enough, think about Lola. Her future is in your hands. I don't know what you learn in college, but look at the young people you're trying to save and think about whether that's the same fate you want for your sister." My father said.

"Are you really going to keep quiet?" I faced my mother, she couldn't listen to all that and not say anything.

"What do you think I'm going to say?" My mother gave me a sad smile, "Your father is a self-centered jerk, but he's right in saying that I'm no good for anything. So do different from me, marry this man, finish your college, be someone better than me, for your sister's sake. Make the dreams that I couldn't make come true. And put your feet on the ground, you can't change the world and love doesn't exist. Oh, and learn to pretend enough and instead of being a fool and letting a man run your business like I did, run yourself, so that in a few years you won't have a shitty marriage like mine. That was all she could say, I could see the glint in her eyes, but she raised her head and in one last glance at my father, left the room stepping firmly.

"How could you?" I whispered.

"I'm not proud of it..." He returned. "But there's nothing I can do about it."

"So I never had any choices, did I?" I asked.

"You're already a woman, you're eighteen, I can't force you into anything. But you know what the best choice is, for the sake of your family." He replied.

I closed my eyes swallowing the tears for a few seconds, I didn't want to believe what my life turned into in a matter of seconds.

"Fine, I'll marry him. But know that was the last time you saw me calling him dad." I replied nodding and before he could answer anything, I left the office.

My heart ached. But still I stood there, swallowing the urge to cry, to kill my own father, to take Lola and run away... But I had no money, I had nothing, and now I didn't even run my own life. I was sold like a gambling debt. How decadent.

I sighed. When the car stopped in front of a huge casino, I had to take a few deep breaths to contain the pain that was eating away at me. I had other plans for my life, many other plans, but I was there, going to meet the man who would be my husband because my father was a piece of shit.

I looked at myself through the car window one last time, I was wearing a knee-length black dress to express my grief, a perfect bun stuck in the back of my head, and a scarpin heel on my foot. I would not bow my head and I would not be tamed like my mother had been. If he wanted a wife, he would have one, but one who could support me first.

We entered and the place was extremely luxurious, and amazingly, in this modern era, there were no women there. We entered through a lane where you could see the whole hall, but nobody could see me, so I wasn't noticed. We climbed a staircase that led to a breathtaking view, the beauty of the place was truly breathtaking. I sighed when we stopped in front of a door and one of the security guards opened it for us to enter.

My breath seemed to have run out, but I lifted my head and didn't let my emotions get the better of me. I would not be a spoiled child. Not at that moment. A man was in front of the table, he was standing with a smile on his lips. He was even charming for an old man of forty. His hair was impeccably combed, his brown eyes scrutinized me, and a broad smile played across his face.

"I was told you were beautiful, but I had no idea how beautiful." He said. His voice was thick.

I didn't answer, just ignored him.

"Daughter, this is Mr. Fontana. Your future husband." My father said, his eyes watching me. "This is my Mackenzie."

"Mackenzie is a very pretty name." Mr. Fontana said. "Call me Erick. This is my son Vincenzo." He turned around making room for the armchair on the other side of the desk.

The man sitting in the armchair was extremely charming, his hair fell messily over his face, his blue eyes met mine, he arched one of his eyebrows in response. Unlike his father's starched suit, he wore only a dress shirt with two buttons open, his arms were on the table and the sleeves were folded up to the elbow, showing a tattoo that covered one arm and was lost inside the shirt, piquing my curiosity for a moment.

He just nodded, looking from me to my father and back to a thick notebook on the table.

"He doesn't talk much." The man said. "What about you, do you talk, dear?" Erick said.

"When I feel like it." I replied with a wry smile on my face. I watched as a corner smile formed on the boy's lips.

"Daughter, don't be rude." My father whispered beside me.

"No problem." The man said with a defiant smile on his lips. "Just be yourself. I understand how you are feeling, after all, I am a stranger."

"Have you ever been traded in gambling debt as well?" I asked arching one of my eyebrows.

The man laughed low, and pointed to a black couch next to the door and facing the desk. The other stranger seemed focused on his notebook, but attentive to what was going on.

"Have a seat." He said. "Let's talk and get to know each other better. And you're not being shortchanged on a gambling debt, although I also understand why you feel that way."

I ignored him, my father put his hand on my back guiding me to the couch because he knew I wouldn't get out of my seat. I sat down impatiently, ignoring the man sitting in front of me and staring at all the other things in the office.

"Would you like something to drink? A wine?" Erick asked.

"Vodka." I replied narrowing my eyes at him.

"Daughter..." My father stared at me.

"Are you selling me to a casino owner and worrying about what I drink?" I stared directly at my father.

"Sorry, she is still digesting everything that happened." My father said facing Mr. Fontana.

"No problem, I like strong personalities." The man stared at me, I could see it stamped on his face, he was staring at me like an expert hunter, and I was his prey.

"Is that a strong attribute for girls you seize in debt?" I asked crossing my legs.

He chuckled.

"You are my first acquisition." He smiled.

"I really don't know whether to be sad for me or happy for all the others." I replied.

He nodded and I looked away, which stubbornly stopped at the stranger who was now staring at the notebook with the pen on his lips, he paused the pen on his lower lip, then clenched his jaw and nibbled his lip as if thinking, but soon his eyes met mine. He narrowed his gaze at me and then looked down again, making me even more curious. I looked away ignoring something my father said that made Mr. Fontana laugh. They started talking business, a contract was put on the table.

"So those are the terms, here is defined our partnership and my investment in the company, as well as the issue of party support and marriage." Mr. Fontana spoke making me want to laugh, it was real, I was being bargained for.

A security guard came in and spoke something in the man's ear.

"Will you excuse me for a few minutes? I'll be right back." Mr. Fontana said.

My father nodded and I just ignored him. He left the office followed by the security guard.