Sold to a Ruthless Mafia Lord

Hailey's POV.

"Where the hell are you?!!" Margaret's screeching voice forced me to pull the phone away from my ear.

Why did she have to always scream like that?

"What do you want?" I groaned tiredly and yawned.

"You're supposed to be at work, you silly girl! Miss Marianne has been livid for the past two hours!!"

"What? Why?", I mumbled in confusion. "But my shift doesn't start until..." I took the phone away from my ear again, this time to check the time.

My eyes widened in utter shock.

This couldn't be....

This had to be a joke!!

My shift started three hours ago!!

"I'm done for, Margaret!"

"I can see you're now fully aware of the doom you've found yourself in", she muttered sarcastically.

If my best friend's loud and insensitive voice didn't get me to wake up, the fact that I was running late cleared sleep from my eyes.

"You know this is the sixth time this month you're coming late for your shift, and we've not even gotten halfway through the month. I've been taking the heat both from the customers and Miss Marianne. I don't know how long I can keep doing that, so get your sleepy ass over here before she brings the heavens down on this restaurant!!"

I flung the old blanket away from my figure and ran to the bathroom immediately.

I washed the most important parts of my body and put on my work clothes as quickly as possible.

If I'd not stayed up waiting for my father, maybe I would've gotten some sleep. He was supposed to come back home for dinner, but he didn't. I didn't know where to look for him, so I had no choice but to wait up for him, until I couldn't anymore and dozed off.

I had more things to worry about now.

I took my bag and immediately made for the door.

To my surprise, I opened the door to see my father at the entrance.

For a moment, I stood there as his eyes hovered around my figure in utter disgust.

"And where do you think you're going?", He grunted as he walked past me into the living room.

From his bloodshot eyes and the stenchy breath I whiffed when he walked past me, it was obvious that he spent the night in the bar, just like he'd been doing for over a year.

"I'm going to work. Good morning-"

"Keep that sentiment to yourself and go get me some food so I can go to bed without getting that haunting hangover", he grumbled without looking my way.

"B... But... There's no food for me to microwave..."

"How is that supposed to be my problem?!! Go make me some food now!!", He yelled in anger.

I could feel a wave of emotions wash me as he shouted at me. I could term it as hate, but it was nothing compared to the one he had for me.

There was no point arguing with him because I knew it would take me nowhere, so I dropped my bag and walked to the kitchen.

I calmed myself down and focused on making a sandwich for him before leaving when I heard footsteps from behind me.

"I don't even know why you keep acting like you can do everything, when you should just stay in the kitchen until some decent lad pities you and decides to manage you as his wife", I heard the man's voice from behind me, but I told myself not to pay any attention to it.

This wasn't my first rodeo. I had developed a tough skin over years of consistent verbal degrading.

"You don't think. You jump from one useless thing to another. You're going this early for a job that doesn't even pay you up to minimum wage? Aren't you ashamed of yourself? Maybe that's why you haven't passed any of your scholarship exams", he mumbled with a scoff.

That one hurt me, but I didn't show it.

Other fathers would console and encourage their daughters to keep it up and try harder, but I was blessed with one who not only didn't care about my progress, but also made it a constant passion to remind me of how much of a loser I was.

"If only you took after your mother and tried to listen to me for once. But no, you can't. Instead, you killed her. Your mere existence killed her. How I wish the universe would bring her back and take you away..."

The ceramic plate in my plate slipped from my hand and shattered into several pieces once it hit the ground.

My eyes became blurry with tears.

I'd developed a tough skin, but the way he blamed me for my mother's death always made me crumble to pieces.

"Look at what you've done! You're always so careless! You never do something right for once-"

"And how about you?", I suddenly blurted.

"What?"

"Do you think she's proud of you?", I muttered under my breath and half turned to him.

"Young lady...", I heard rage and shock in his voice as he slowly began approaching me, "who do you think you are to talk back at me?! Have you gone nuts-"

"You are the one who has gone nuts!! You are the one spending money on alcohol, only to come back drunk and make me look stupid for trying to make money for the both of us! Do you think mother would be happy wherever she is for treating me like this?! Blaming me for killing her, meanwhile she died while giving birth to me-"

I was lost in trying to pour my heart and tears out, I didn't see him charge at me. I was too late to defend myself from the blunt slap that sent me crashing to the ground, causing my mouth to fill with the taste of metallic blood.

"You must be very stupid to yell at me!!", He growled in seething fury. "Who do you think you are?!! You don't even deserve to live...", He kept yelling curse words at me, but I was still trying to recover from the dizziness and headache the slap put me through.

He walked out of the kitchen and I was soon by myself on the floor, nursing my burning cheeks as I shed silent tears.

I received a notification from my phone and I checked to see that it was from my boss.

"Don't bother coming. You've never cease to be a disgrace to me, and I can't keep putting up with your excuses. You're not the only person with a problem, so nothing you say is going to make me reconsider. My mind is already made up. I've paid your salary for the month into your account. Go find some other boss that can accommodate your foolishness."

I don't know why this was happening to me.

I don't know if I was cursed to live a miserable life forever.

If it was hard enough that I lived without my mother, but with a father who hated me for no just cause?

I wanted to end this life.

This wasn't the first time this week that I was thinking of commiting suicide-

My phone came alive with a call and I groaned inside me. What other bad news could there be to tear my soul down?

I let the phone ring until it went blank again. I thought I was going to have some peace, but the phone began ringing again.

It rang four more times, and I concluded that I wasn't going to rest if I didn't attend to the seemingly dire situation.

"Hello?", I grumbled when I picked up the phone.

"Good morning to you. Am I speaking with Miss. Hailey Winchester?"

"Who's this?"

"I'm calling from Oxford university. I believe you made an application for a scholarship some months ago?"

Oh. I understood now and sighed. It was just another rejection-

"We called to let you know that we found you worthy of the scholarship, and we have decided to give you an all-expense paid scholarship from your first year till you graduate."

Wait...

What?

Did I just hear her well?

Surely this had to be a joke.

I sprang up to my feet with renewed hope.

"Are you messing with me?"

"No, actually. I just sent you a document for you to sign and we will send the fees for you. Welcome to Oxford university, Miss. Hailey."

This...

This had to be a dream!

Hailey's POV.

"So my baby girl will soon be a freshman of Oxford university. Wow. I still can't believe it", Gregory sighed as we stared at the moon slowly taking its place high in the dark sky. "Very soon, you'll be speaking like late Queen Elizabeth", he teased.

I playfully hit him on the chest "Stop it", I mumbled, but it only succeeded in making him laugh harder.

"Thank you", I suddenly said with a sigh when the laughter died down and we got silent.

"For what?", He asked, genuinely confused.

"For being there for me. For fighting with me and for me through the tough times. You've always been there for me even when I couldn't be there for you. You and Margaret are the only two people I have in my life who truly love me despite how much of a loser I am-"

"You're not a loser, Hailey. I hate it when you say things like that. You are the best, and Oxford university agrees with me. I'm always going to stand by you, no matter what. You mean the world to me, and no one can ever take your place in my life", he assured me.

"I'm going to miss you, Gregory", I confessed.

"I'm going to miss you too. But don't you worry. I'll make out time to visit you, and so will Margaret", he promised.

"Will you wait for me?", I looked into his eyes and asked.

"What?"

"Will you wait for me to finish college and get married so we can have our first sex as married couples?"

He smiled.

"I've waited for years. I can wait some more."

The thought of the conversation I had with my boyfriend an hour ago made me smile like a little girl.

He was the first person I told the good news too, and he made sure we celebrated it throughout the day. Margaret had work, so she wished me over the phone.

I thanked the universe for giving me two people who genuinely loved me.

Talking about those who didn't...

I just realized on my walk back home that I hadn't told my father about it yet. Not that he would care, but I had to let him know about it to fulfill all righteousness.

The small apartment finally came into view, but something caught my attention. I was surprised to see big, black sedans scattered all over the small compound.

What was going on?

Did my father suddenly have visitors that I did not know about?

I walked closer to the door, and from the window I saw men dressed in black. I could see my father in the crowd, but I could hear noises and cries.

I was even more confused at this point. What was happening?

"Please!! Don't kill me!!"

That was my father's voice desperately crying for help.

Without thinking, I immediately swung the door open and barged into the house to see what was going on.

Before my own eyes, my father was beaten and tied to a chair with the nozzle of a gun pushed against his forehead.

Just a little more pressure on the trigger, and my father would have been a dead man. The tensed silence that occurred throughout the whole room made it obvious that it was my sudden presence that stopped them from ending his life.

I looked around, and I didn't need a prophet to tell me these were evil people.

It was as though I'd stepped into a den filled with hungry, dangerous lions.

They were all dressed in black suits, with faces harder than a brick wall. Most of them had tattoos scattered all over their faces, but I noticed that they all had a common tattoo of a dagger on their necks.

A mafia gang.

I was doomed...

One thought came to mind, and that was to run away.

In one swift move, I turned away and made for the door with all the speed my frail, shivering legs could muster, but it was not enough.

Before I even got to touch the doorknob, I was lifted off the ground by one of the men.

"Drop me down! Drop me down right now!!", I cried and kicked with all my might, and I was duly thrown to the floor, blood rushing from the cut I got from falling head first.

"Axel, p... Please! I need you to spare my life! I know I was stupid, but I shouldn't have done what I did. I shouldn't have stolen from you. I was being stupidly greedy. Please spare my life!! Please!!", My father kept begging for his life, not caring at all that mine was also in danger.

I would've begged too, but I'd been hit in the head too many times today to even think right at this point.

For some unfortunate reason, I'd caught the attention of the man who was just about to kill my father. From the aura of dangerous authority that he possessed, it was obvious he was the gang leader.

One step after the other, he began approaching me, his dark soul piercing eyes not leaving my body for once. He finally squatted when he was close enough. I was retreating in fear, but my back was already against the wall.

"Please, Axel. I still have a lot of life left to live. Please don't cut it short! Have mercy on me-"

"Edward?", He finally spoke, his voice echoing through the whole room, even though he muttered.

"Yes, boss!", My father answered immediately.

"Do you want to live?"

"You know I want that more than anything else my boss! I just need you to spare my life this one time-"

"I'll let you live."

"Thank you so much boss!! I can't thank you enough-"

"Only one condition."

"O... Okay boss... Anything you want, you will have this very instant-"

"Your daughter. She's the one I want."

For the first time since I came close to me, I looked him in his cold eyes to make sure he was joking, and he wasn't.

"S... Sir?"

"Let me rephrase... Your daughter is the one I want in exchange for your life. In other words, it's either I take your daughter with me, or I take your dead body. Choose one-"

"My daughter! T... Take my daughter and do with her whatever you want!! Infact, she's still a virgin and can serve you very well! She... She will go off for a very high price if you sell her off in the black market!! She's worth more than my life!! I promise you, my boss!!!"

In sheer disbelief, I looked over the shoulder of the gang leader.

This had to be a joke.

Surely, my father wasn't selling me off to this evil man just so he could live.

It wasn't just the fact that my father was being so inconsiderate to make me pay for whatever sin he committed against this devil, but the fact that he didn't even think twice about it.

Hell, he didn't even wait for the man to finish making his offer!

"Take her and do anything you want with her... Just spare my life", he begged him.

It was now I knew that the man I called my father hated me more than anything. I meant nothing to him.

The gang leader turned to me.

"You heard your father. You're coming with me", he said.

I don't know where I found the courage, but I looked him dead in the eye.

"I'm not going anywhere with you!"

The disrespect agitated one of the men standing beside me, and before I had a chance to fight for myself, I was picked off the ground again.

"Let go of me!! Let me go now!!", I screamed and cried at the top of my lungs. "Father!! Do something!! Don't let them take me away like this!! Father!!!"

But there he sat, watching as they carried me out of the house.

"Be careful with her. You heard what her father said. We can't scratch our diamond before selling it", the devil teased before they blindfolded me and bundled me into one of the cars.

Hailey's POV.

I felt the car stop.

I heard doors open.

After what felt like hours of driving, I'd gotten to an unknown destination.

"Wh... Where are we-"

I felt a force roughly take off the cloth over my head, and I was immediately blinded by neon lights from a distance.

"Get down!!", One of the men barked and dragged me out of the car without even waiting for me to respond to his instruction.

"Take it easy on her", the gang leader my father called Axel warned the man.

For the first time, it felt like I was so precious to a stranger - only, I was only useful for material exchange.

I was dragged into the building, and from the blaring music and red lights, I knew we were in a club.

I was led into the club like a lamb led to slaughter, and I wished I didn't have that blindfolded taken off my eyes.

It was a different kind of chaos. The pleasure filled Sodom and Gomorrah chaos.

Drunk men yelling loudly over the booming music, filling the air with a foul stench of alcohol. Young ladies half naked dancing for the entertainment of the drunk men, filling the air with sweat and heat.

Nobody even cared to see that I was tied and abducted by these men.

"What are you staring at? Move!", The man behind me pushed me and forced me to follow Axel through the back.

Soon enough, we were walking through a long corridor with dim, failing light bulbs.

The air was foul here, but not with alcohol. The corridor smelt of blood. It smelt like an indoor abattoir.

"I don't know anything about it! I swear I don't!!"

Some of the doors were half open, and this cry came from one of them.

It picked Axel's attention, and suddenly, he headed towards that noise.

Before you know it, we were in a room with no windows. There was only one dim light bulb, and directly under it was a tortured man who had blood falling from his torn lips.

He caught sight of Axel, and he suddenly began shedding, as if he'd concluded within him that his life was over.

"Has he confessed yet?", He asked.

"Not yet boss", the tormentor who was in the room with him replied.

I heard a trembling chuckle exude from Axel.

He simply walked over to the metal table across the room, picked up a bottle of alcohol and walked back into the light.

"I see you have a lot of endurance for pain", he muttered as he gulped down half of the hot drink. "I'll ask you this question, one last time and if you don't give me the answer I want, I'll shoot both your knees and pour this gin into the holes. Where is the money you stole?"

"Boss, I swear I did not have a hand in what happened-"

"Okay. You chose the hard way. Don't say I didn't warn you", Axel shrugged and immediately fired two shots into both his knees, making him cry in extreme pain.

"Arrrrghhh!!! Shit!!!", He cried in pain.

He felt hot liquid flow on his legs, and he shrieked even more in extreme agony. It felt like hot liquid metal at a million degrees was poured into his legs, and it sent pains rippling throughout his entire system.

The pain in his eyes was so intense that I was already shedding tears on his behalf.

"The next one is going to be at your groin!! This is your last chance to talk!!", Axel warned.

He was literally shaking in his seat, his whole system shuddering violently from hurt. He didn't think he could hold up much longer.

"You asked for it-"

"It's in Mexico!!", He finally shrieked in terror. "It's... It's in Mexico. That's where the money we stole was kept", he cried.

"So, you did steal it."

"I'm sorry boss. I swear I didn't mean to join them. I just needed the money badly to help my sick mother, and I didn't have the mind to ask you for it-"

"Your mother... Is she still sick, or is she dead now?", Axel suddenly asked out of the blue.

"She... She died yesterday, boss. Why..."

"Good. She won't be lonely after all."

"Wh-"

Before anyone could stop him, Axel smashed the bottle of gin against the man's head and stabbed him on the neck with the pointed end of the bottle, spraying blood all over his black suit.

"Argh!", I let out a shriek at the horror I just witnessed. I felt my knees get weak under me, and my head got dizzy just replaying the action.

For the first time in my life, I'd witnessed someone murdered in cold blood, and it was by this heartless being.

My yelp got his attention, and he slowly turned to me, an evil, bloodstained smirk on his face.

He began advancing, and my legs kept taking a step back until my back hit the wall.

But he didn't stop.

He kept advancing with the shattered, blood dripping bottle in his hand.

He was inches away from my face, and I could feel his hot breath on my face. The evil aura of power from his eyes drew up so much fear in me, I didn't know when tears began falling from my eyes.

But without saying a word or laying a finger on me, he walked out of the room, and his men made me follow him.

We walked into another room with a slender woman sitting at the table. The dark eyeshadow and dark lipstick against her whitewashed face made it known that she was no different from the rest of the men.

"Have you killed him?", She questioned Axel.

"Yes."

"What next... And who's this?", She questioned as her eyes scanned my body with an emotionless face.

"She's the payment for Edward's stupidity. Take care of her and make sure she's well-fed. Do not lay a finger on her. I repeat, do not-"

"I heard the first time, Axel. She'll be treated like the princess you want her to be", a tinge of sarcasm was laced in her words.

There he was, making me feel like something special again.

"Good. I'm going to Mexico tonight. That's where they kept the money they stole from me", he said.

"Why can't you just send someone?"

"I want to kill their source over there myself. I want my face to be the last thing he sees before going to hell. I'm off", he said and walked out of the room.

If his conversations were not violent, his actions were full of it.

How the hell did my father cross paths with this man in the first place?

"Hey you!", The woman called me like I was a stray dog.

She threw some shiny rags on my face. "Wear them and go make some money for me", she ordered.

I stared at the clothes for a moment and realized that they were thongs and bras that would expose everything but my nipples.

"Didn't you hear what I said? Or does stupidity run in your family?"

"I'm not going to be stripper-"

Before I could finish, she slapped the words right out of my mouth.

"Don't be a fool. You have no choice here. You obey my orders, or you die!! If you haven't figured it out yet, then let me spell it out for you - you don't own your life anymore! The Black Daggers are now in possession of you, and you'll do exactly as we say!!"