The Mafia's prize

SS

oing here? I let o

e. Not a thing looked familiar, except

finitely no

t that I was in a room that didn't look like the one I had lodged in the previous day. My mind was saved fr

swer to my question,

y, it

se I have some business to catch

. Even though we were both drunk, we definite

t part again and quickly looked beneath. I didn't seem to re

t to say. I had let myself down; I had

s br

events of the previous night as I t

games with by the beach before going back inside to have a glass of whisky. One glass turned into a couple. I don't even know why, considering I don't like drinking much. I

ed a stranger to take my virginity. I had n

e tears, I had no one to blame.

t have a bad feeling about it," my best friend, Laura, had earli

ave listen

quietly to my room. Packing my luggage

art r

n. I couldn't help bu

for nearly two years, and, during that time, I never allowed him to have sex with me. I had explained to him that sex was a commitment I wasn't yet ready to make. I didn't want to be used and trashed, like my friend, Susan, had experienced in Jacob's hands. Like the gentleman that he wa

e from my endless thoughts. Som

as my mother. She was everything a real mother wasn't. She did nothing but set for me the worst example

money on trees. She felt entitled to whatever I had, as if I owed her such loyalty. I would work m

l phone and sent h

," I had ended, visibly upset. I loved her, but I really

e when I got a text from her: "If

age of it. I couldn't say no to her, even though

ca," s

, trying hard not

okay?"

," I

me better than anyone, and obviously, she kne

t message fr

t was only on the basis of money th

I don't

w m

80

put a stop to her unbearable addiction. You

t even know what to do anymore. T

he assured me. "Thank you; tha

We both mana

u soon,

. Hope you go

aura, what a friend she is. She is the only one who could hear my words, even when I said nothing. My childhood sweethe

tell her

e made a costly mistake, one I will hav

an under