Chapter 1 KAREN ANDERSON

KAREN ANDERSON

"Boss, she is here."

I heard the man that has led me in said to another man who was seated on a sofa. He was sipping from one of the glasses filled with liquor and ice.

And it was he that I came to find.

He was called Capon, a loan shark. He lowered the glass of wine back onto the table, reached for the saucer that held the remains of finished cigarettes and a fresh fat cigar stick and slipped into his mouth.

His face roughened up more than it already was and his eyes pinched as the heavy smoke escaped his nostrils and mouth dancing randomly into space.

All these while he acted like he never saw me, like I wasn't even standing before him.

My teeth gritted but that was as much as it could go.

"Capon hates to be interrupted. You must wait until he speaks to you before you speak." His man, the one that led me in had told me right at the door before we walked in.

My eyes darted across the large room. It was the VIP section of the nightclub. Only the elites dared to step foot into the place.

Somehow it was worth it.

The atmosphere was calm and light music played in the stereo from one corner of the room unlike in the other section where I had passed that had the music loud.

There were a few other men in the places. They all looked wealthy. A few of them were smoking and drinking while others had ladies in between their thighs smooching away. Some of the men looked really older than the girls.

I noticed a hint of discomfort from one of the girls.

The man was particularly large in size in contrast to her tiny self and was squeezing her breasts very aggressively, with a satisfied mischief grin plastered in his fat face. Like one that hadn't been opportuned to see a firm breast in his entire life. Men like this disgusted me a lot.

Then I wondered why she couldn't say no, and why exactly she was there instead of landing a slap on the geezer's face and stomping away.

But I knew better than to judge her. Sometime ago, I almost found myself in her position.

Something bitter stirred in the walls of my stomach and my teeth gritted in my jaw.

Moments like this had my blood boiling but then I remembered I had my own worries to face. I pulled my gaze away from them and back to Capon.

His fingers were adorned with different kinds of rings. I wondered how much each of them cost. Maybe one of it could even afford one of father's medicine.

If only I could have just one of it...

"Miss, did you bring my money?"

Capon's voice came halting my thoughts.

I blinked and my eyes settled on him. My lips had become too heavy, and my throat dried up. But my knees didn't as I quickly fell on them.

"Please sir, give me one more chance. I promise to get the money and bring to you...just one more chance is all I ask..."

Capon scoffed with irritation. "One more chance...you all always ask for one more chance but you never do anything with the chance."

"No sir, I promise I will bring the money to you..."

"Or maybe you wouldn't need to..." he said and sipped slowly from his glass of drink.

I looked up with wide eyes to meet his own, unsure of what I just heard him say. Was he going to let off father's debt? My heart started to beat fast.

"What do you mean sir?"

He dropped his glass of wine back on the table and faced me.

"You are not a kid. You know what I'm saying..."

I forced a thick swallow down my throat and bit down on my lower lip. I would have wondered if he was suddenly possessed. I have heard stories about Capon and he had never, ever let off a debt. Never. The only time as I heard he ever let off a debt was when he wanted a sex mate. More like a slave mate.

"I'm sorry, sir but I don't understand you," I said, keeping my voice as calm as I could.

I watched as his face formed into a thick frown. He lifted his glass and began to sip from it again. He made sure to down the entire content before he started to speak again. His man rushed over and refilled his glass.

"Look here, I am a businessman and I don't have time for this. Pay up your father's debt if you still wish him to be alive."

His tone was hostile.

"I will pay you sir, just give me a little time...please..." I pleaded.

He glanced at me and tapped the seat beside him.

I looked at him in confusion.

"Come and sit here," he said.

I stood up from the floor and slowly I made my way to he spot he had tapped. I sat two inches away from him. I was aware of myself, of my short gown.

For the first time since I stepped into the room, my body felt the impact of the air conditioner even when it actually had been there all along. The coldness struck the bareness of my flesh, my exposed laps. I immediately regretted not listening to my inner self. I held my two legs tight against each other.

He patted on the seat again, closer to him and nodded a smile at me.

I felt myself getting jittery. I wanted to get on my feet and walk out of that place without another glance behind me. But I knew I couldn't.

I pushed myself closer to him, still making sure to give a little distance between us.

"What if you don't have to pay your father's debt anymore?" He asked, glancing at me.

My heart started to beat fast again. The excitement came bubbling inside me again and I imagined what it would be like to not have to pay up father's debt anymore. It would be an impossible wish come true. I would have loved to use the money to get myself and Lilly new clothes and then we would go somewhere fun with father and have fun... but that was a luxury we couldn't afford even if Capon scraped off father's debt.

"You are young and beautiful and you shouldn't let your old man's debt pull you down. You like nice clothes huh? You know, nice shoes, nice things. I could even get you a nice house. Yeah?"

His hand started to move, towards me, slowly as he spoke and finally it rested on my lap.

"You like nice stuff, don't you?"

I nodded slowly, stifling down the bitter bile of anger that had started to surge through me.

My fist curled up tightly and gripped the fabric of the sofa hard.

"Yeah, all of them nice things. I can get it all for you... I know you will like them and you won't have to worry about your old man's debt. I will take care of you..."

He was slowly touching my laps as he spoke. I felt my body hot from anger. My eyes fixed on the bottles and glasses on the table. A stretch and I would reach any of it and smash it on his head.

But each time I tried to reach any of it, father's face flashed before me. His face when he was in pain and agony. His face when he needed a new set of drugs. His face when it was time for his monthly medical checkup.

The door of the Vip section flung open and a woman marched in looking really furious.

I watched as Capon's hands flew away from my laps and he scrambled to his feet.

"What...how...I mean what..." he stuttered facing the woman.

I regarded the woman. The woman that had the power to bring Capon to his feet and trembling. I was surprised.

She looked classic and just like Capon, she adorned her neck and fingers with a little too much jewellery. Different kinds of bangles dangled in her wrists that I imagined the clank clank sound coming out each time she moved her hands. Her face was masked with a heavy makeup that looked cakey and uneven. I couldn't let myself imagine what it would look like if she mistakenly got drenched in rain. It would be a disaster.

But that was the least of my worries as she had turned towards me now and was shooting me a glare.

"I'm sorry, boss, I tried to stop her..." Capon's man was saying but was shut up almost immediately as Capon shut him a deadly glare.

"You didn't tell me..." Capon started to say.

The woman shoved him away and walked past him stopping before me.

"You, isn't it enough that your miserable self can't pay up a debt. Now you choose to seduce my husband?"

What? Husband? His wife?

I looked at the woman and then at Capon and back at the woman again and it immediately sank in. The famous Capon's wife that even the Capon himself dreaded.

I got to my feet realising the danger I had fallen into.

"I'm sorry, ma'am...I only came here to ask for another chance to..."

She lifted a glass of drink on the table, tried emptying the content on me but stopped halfway.

"I will write off your debt if you can do anything I ask you to..."

I didn't let myself get excited. The only thing I smelt from her offer was danger.