My Father's Friend
My Father’s Friend – Chapter 31

At that moment, Cauther looks into the room where the Monroes are gathered. He only watches Casey, and listens carefully to the contemptuous way she refers to him, but she still refuses to marry him. She hoped her father would talk some sense into her.

-Daughter, please. I need you to calm down.

-Calm down? But how can you ask such a thing of me, when I was kidnapped, almost raped and incidentally bought by none other than your partner, your best friend, father! Cauther is a criminal, a mafioso, a trafficker of innocent girls who are kidnapped and sold every night by a brute animal -Speta furious.

-Casey, I’m asking you to calm down. Remember what house we’re in.

-I don’t care if that man listens to me, I will not tolerate all this. Why do you have this social intercourse with that fellow? He’s a danger father, he’s a gangster, you don’t know what they do to those girls in that place. And he buys me, and on top of that he comes and tells me every damn day that we are getting married and that you have given him your consent. Can you explain to me what the hell that means, I don’t want to live in this house anymore, it’s a prison.

The old CEO blinked without saying a word, he didn’t even know where to start… and to top it all off, the reaction of his quiet daughter left him dumbfounded.

-Well, Dad? -Why did you agree to my marrying that guy? Do you have any idea what he does with the women he kidnaps? The girls say he murders them, is that what you want for me, that man over there?” He points to the dining room, but it was empty. Where is he?

-Casey, you can’t talk about Cauther like that,” The man lets out his breath. We need to sit down so we can talk better.

She opens her lips, she thought he was sitting at the table, but he wasn’t… at what point had he left?

Suddenly she feels her father’s hand on her shoulder bringing her back to reality, the man gestures for her to move forward and she obeys.

-She sits down as she watches her father stand up, “Listen well, daughter. I think you’ve gone a little overboard, and I can understand you perfectly. Given all that you’ve been through, I don’t blame you for feeling like a prisoner in this house, but….

-But what? What’s going on, Dad? Why the f**k are you defending that man?

-I’m aware of what Cauther’s up to, clandestinely of course.

-What? -Casey’s eyes widen.

Casey’s eyes widen, it must have been a f*****g dream…

[…]

He didn’t need to hear any more of Casey’s words, just that he said he didn’t want to stay in his house was more than enough for Cauther. That’s why he drove his car as far away from home as possible, besides, he had business to attend to.

In any case, Rafael would probably end up taking her home. No matter how hard he tried to convince the old man, he wouldn’t listen to him. Chances are she wouldn’t be home for the night. She didn’t want to be in his house, or in his bed, or even less with him….

[…]

Otto had only just woken up that morning, he was scratching at the bridge of his eyes, trying to wake himself up. The other side of his bed lay empty, and he cursed to himself.

-Stupid Lucilda has left, who the hell told that bitch she could leave my bed, you’ll see later….

As he gets to his feet, the door to the room is so brutally slammed that the hinges give way from the impact. Otto gasps with fright as he sees a strong and very muscular guy enter his bedroom. He knew him very well, so he stayed where he was waiting for the guy’s company.

-Otto, Otto, your guards have informed me that you were here holed up in your room,” says a man who appears behind the muscular man, who stands in the doorframe.

-Hiding? Not at all, I just woke up. I wasn’t expecting your visit,” he smiles half-heartedly.

I’m not expecting your visit,” he smiles half-heartedly. -The guy puts his hands in his pockets. I’ve come because I’m a little uneasy about something I’ve heard about.

-Can I get dressed?

-No.” The man snaps his fingers.

At that, his bodyguard approaches Otto, grabbing him by the collar with evident violence…

-What are you doing? What’s going on? -He manages to say with difficulty.

-Where is the girl I sent you? -Otto opens his eyes.

-The… the girl, she…

-You sold her, didn’t you? -He snaps his fingers again. At that the guy throws a punch in Otto’s face that knocks him to the ground. Did you sell the girl? -he insists.

-I was paid a good amount for her, I left you a large part of the reward. I left more for you than for me, I swear,” he answers, wiping his mouth.

-Do you think I want that f*****g money? -He smiles.

Otto grabs a shirt to wipe his mouth and then stands up. If this guy didn’t care about the money, then he was in deep shit.

-I thought that…

-You don’t believe anything, you know why? Because you’re a f*****g idiot. You sold that girl, when I only sent her over here to keep her hidden. And you come along and sell her out like it’s nothing,” he snaps his fingers once more.

The muscleman lands two more punches in Otto’s face, who falls to the ground, his face all bloody.

-Wait…” He raises his hand.

-No, you’re a fucker I won’t let live. You’ve made the worst mistake of your life.” He looked at the guardalado for him to kill him.

-I can replace her,” he adds in an attempt at salvation.

-Oh yeah? -He raises his hand to stop his boy. And how?

-I’ll try to track down the buyer, I think I can replace the girl.

-And who’s to guarantee that she wasn’t murdered? And you’re just wasting my f*****g time.

-I don’t know, but… I think I can replace her.

The man watched as the wretched Otto wiped his bloody nose. He felt sorry for the guy.

-I’ll give you three days, if you don’t get her, I’ll kill you.

-Yes, yes, I understand.

Before the bodyguard left, he gave him another blow right on the nose, which ended up breaking it.

-Only three days, Otto.

Leaving him warned, the subject leaves Otto’s room accompanied by his companion who was wiping his hand full of b***d.

-If he replaces it in time, I want you to kill him later,” he orders as he advances down the corridor.

-Yes, sir.

-If he doesn’t get it, give him a rather painful death. The worst you can think of.

-Of course, sir.” The muscular man smiles.

The man clenches his jaw as he walks down the corridor, needing to replace Casey. It wasn’t in his plans for that greedy bastard Otto to sell her out. He shouldn’t have trusted that sewer rat, but he’d get what he deserved. He’d just wait to see if the a*****e found her before he did.

And by the time he got his hands on her, he wouldn’t let her get away…

[…]

A horrible shiver ran through the black-haired girl’s body, the truth is that for a moment she imagined that she was in some kind of dream from which she already wished to wake up. But the reality was, it was no dream, her father’s words were so real that she felt her stomach churning and the deep urge to vomit was so dreadful that she had to stand up to avoid throwing up everything she had in her stomach.

-Father, what are you talking about? -His voice trembled, but not from fear, not from the urge to cry. The feeling was different.

-Don’t be alarmed, you have to understand that Cauther….

-He’s a drug dealer? A murderer? A deranged bastard? -He’s annoyed. I buy into a bar where innocent girls are being prostituted, and you come to his defence. What the hell is wrong with you, Dad? -she adds hysterically.

It was impossible for her to believe what she was hearing, her father, Rafael Monroe, the most respected businessman in the city was defending a mafia trafficker. Who bought his own daughter, it couldn’t be true. She refused to believe that her father… from one moment to the next she stopped her thoughts, at that she looked at Raphael from one breath to the next as she opened her eyes wide.

-Are you in on this too?