CHAPTER SEVEN

Lana.

"And you're sure this is the best decision for you, L?" Cam throws at me even as he continues helping me pack my things into the new box I just bought the day before.

I sigh and slump back into his living room sofa. What other choices do I have anyway?

This city isn't fit for me anymore. I have nothing here, not a boyfriend, not a father, and definitely not Dominic. Instead if mopping about this harsh reality, I'll rather pick my life back up and move into a new city. Start life afresh. New opportunities, new goals, I know I can do it.

"Cam, this City doesn't work for me anymore, I have to leave." It's not like I'm leaving some huge inheritance behind. My fathers business has been crumbling for a while now, and thankfully Im not among the party of his children who wish to inherit any of his money anyway, so now that there isn't much to inherit, I'd be much happier away from all these.

Cam walks towards me and places a hand on my shoulder, a gesture I know implies that he supports me yet he's definitely going to say his two cents on the matter. "Look, I know you're not happy here. You don't think I notice? How you pretend to be alright and cheer up for my sake yet you're hitting terribly on the inside? Im not that bad of a friend, okay? I can see things. But don't you think its at this point in your life you need your friends and family the most?" He gazes at me earnestly as he says.

Family? What a funny concept. The only one I ever had was myself. I love my mom hopelessly but if she could look at me for so long and lie straight to myself then Im beginning to question if she loves me as much as I love her. I know my mom has a weird sense of love. After all she loves my dad even after all he's done to her, but what she did to me is the final straw.

I can no longer pretend my family isn't a tangled web of toxicity anymore. They're not normal people. We're not a normal family and the sooner I accept that, the safer I'll be. "I appreciate your concern, Cam. I do, but I've already made up my mind. I'm leaving, no matter what." I say with conviction.

I know how much this will hurt him, my decision to leave wont just bring distance to my family, it'll also cause a distance between me and my best friend. Camille's been the only one for me for a long time now, and I know he cares for me more than anyone right now, but I also know he'll be fine. He's Camille, he always protects himself just fine.

"Fine, I can see no amount of melodrama from me would change your mind. That was some good persuasion acting I just put to work you know." He says with a fake comical look and I can't help but release a fit of helpless giggles. Trust Cam to make it all a joke.

"Thank you, now can you please join me in packing. I'm so exhausted already, jeez." I offer him a fake pout before relaxing into the bed again. Before my body can slump into blissful relaxation fully, the sound of my ringing tone cuts to my ears.

I groan and shoot up quickly, frantically reaching for my phone while hoping it isn't the airport calling to tell me something has come up concerning my flight to Switzerland- my new start. My groan turns into a painful moan when I see whose name is on the caller ID.

"Answer her this time, L. You'll be leaving, you at least owe her that." Cam offers his suggestion again. I glare at him before ending the call. He shoots me a matching glare of his own.

"I'll call her back when I've arrived safely in Switzerland. You know my mom, she'll never let me leave if I tell her goodbye right now." I reply and from the look on his face, I can tell her was counting on her doing just that.

I shoot him another glare and he raises his hand in defense while I turn away. My eyes darting around his beautiful apartment setup. Cam's always been a sucker for bright colors so the pungently bright yellow and teal curtains hanging just opposite the sofa I'm seated don't repulse me so much.

I love his apartment. I glance around again, taking note of most of his designs, storing the information at some part of my brain so I can recall them for later when I settle in Switzerland properly, maybe I'll decorate my own apartment like this and send a picture to him. He'll forgive me for leaving if I do that. I smile at this.

After cutting my mothers call for the fifth time today, I'm thankful when I and Cam finish with my packing and we're ready to go. "You know, you don't have to see me to the airport you know?" I offer quietly. I want him to see me to the airport though. I don't want to be alone.

He snorts and gives me a funny look. "You really think I'll miss a chance to see your annoying face one more time. Think again, weirdo." He hits my back lightly as we move the two boxes out of his living room. The doorbell suddenly rings and I'm a bit worried at who that might be for a moment.

"That's probably the Uber I called to take us. Hurry, lets not keep the poor guy waiting." He urges me on as we move quickly to the door. But the moment we step out, we realize that its not an Uber driver outside, but the one person I didn't want to see before leaving- my mom.

"Mom?" I ask, still unsure that my eyes aren't playing tricks on me. How did she know I was here? The last thing I need right now is her trying to stop me from leaving. When my eyes land on Mia, my stepsister from one of dad's mistresses, my initial question is answered.

Mia and Cam dated for a few weeks but broke things off because Mia was being a bigot. I think if I can remember correctly, Cam, being Cam had wanted Mia to fuck him with a strap-on, I mean the bisexual man that he is has his needs obviously, but Mia had been so repulsed by it that she'd said some pretty hurtful things to Cam before breaking things off with him.

So I know the last thing Cam needs right now is to face my homophobic stepsister, and her being here is probably my fault.

"Mom, what are you doing here?" I ask more firmly. On a closer inspection of her, I realize how terrible she truly looks, and Mia must have noticed this for her to agree to help my mom and bring her here.

Her usually bright copper eyes, look almost bloody as she stares at me like she's just seen a ghost. Her always impeccably kept brown hair; which she always kept to impress my father, suddenly appears to have strings of silver in them. Are those grey hairs? She looks frighteningly pale too, and Im almost scared that this is all my fault.

"Lana-" She starts, but before she can say anything else, her legs suddenly give up on her and she passes out in front of us.

I don't realize the scream that breaks out of my lips as we all scramble towards my mother who is almost hitting the floor after she fainted. My arms come around her in a quick embrace before I help her up with the support of Cam and Mia inside. How badly has she been fairing for her to faint like this? I ask myself.

***

"I've gone through your job qualifications, Miss. Sullivan, and I must say you're more than qualified for this job." The man in front of me says with a wide smile plastered on his face, while his eyes dart round my upper body with underlying interest.

I resist the urge to hurl my previous breakfast at him, and instead plaster a fake smile on my face. Of course this job is below my qualifications. In fact the odds of seeing someone like me in his organization are way less than zero, but what choice do I have?

My family is in shambles.

My dad is nowhere to be found and while I think of the night at Dom's place. I almost wonder if I didn't make up that part of my thoughts. Dom couldn't still be holding my father captive, could he? Besides, if I don't get a job soon enough I'll have more to worry about than where my father is.

Who would have thought the Sullivan's would be so knee-deep in debts? Well, not me because it seems like that's the only thing I've been seeing lately. Debts from one company or the other.

It isn't enough that our company is at the brink of bankruptcy, we are buried in debts. I don't even want to know what my father was thinking when acquiring so many debts, and a part of me, the selfish part refuses to accept that he took such loans with thoughts of marrying me out to the Santoro's.

I've been to more than fourteen companies for interviews today and none of them want to have anything to do with someone with the Sullivan name attached to it. Once upon a time, my last name used to open doors for me. Now it seems like it only created problems wherever I went.

I sigh and give the pervert in front of me a hopeful look. "So what do you say sir? Will you be hiring me?" I know I sound way too desperate but I am. The fact that with my Ivy League school certificate, I'm still seated right here in front of men like this shows just how desperate I really am.

Maybe if I has succeeded in leaving the country, I'd have had a better chance at finding a job. So much people couldn't be familiar with the Sullivan's in Switzerland, could they? But after my mom fainted in front of Cam's house. She hadn't woken up as easily as I expected and we had to rush her to the hospital.

From there, things went relatively downhill. We discovered that she was suffering from low sugar diabetes, and it'd gotten so bad that she needed quite an expensive immediate treatment to save her life, so that went most of my savings, and I couldn't leave her alone anymore, since she needed to have company at all times.

What kind of daughter would I be to leave my dying mother all alone in New York? My mother's words not mine. But she had been right, so here I am, trying to get a job in a City I thought I'd be out of by the end of last week. "What could you do for this job, Miss. Sullivan?"

"Huh? I'm sorry sir. I missed that?" I say to the man whose words just pulled me out of my depressing thoughts.

"I said, what could you possibly do for this job, Miss. Sullivan?" The way he says my last name assures me of two things. First, he's mocking my situation. A Sullivan applying to work at such a place. Oh, how the mighty have fallen! Secondly, he doesn't mean what can my qualifications do for this job sadly.

By now he doesn't even bother to hide his lecherous gaze anymore, his eyes caress my skin like a wet blanket and I suddenly can't wait to be out of here. But I'm desperate so I play naive instead, "What do you mean, sir?" The smile on my face is more of a struggle now.

He licks his lips slowly and stands up from his chair. I watch with bated breath as he walks to me ever so slowly. "You're a young and beautiful woman, Miss. Sullivan, and with your stellar qualifications, you could work anywhere you want, but here you are and I know just why."

"W-why?" I stutter.

He approaches me more closely and makes to reach out to me, but I shift just minutely, he barely notices it. "Because you're desperate. You wont have ever thought of coming here if this wasn't your last chance, or am I wrong?" He has a smug smile on his face as he speaks and I suddenly feel like punching it off his face.

"Oh, well. You've caught me, Mr-" I glance at his name tag resting on his table. "Mr. Shelton. I am desperate. However I can assure you that hiring me would be the best decision of your life. I'm a hard worker and I'm one of the best." I say with a bright smile.

He smiles at this. "I have no doubts you're a hard worker, Miss. Sullivan, but I'm afraid to work here, you have to be ready to work in other ways too." He says, this time his eyes drop blatantly to my breast and I recoil in disgust, but manage to give him a matching smile.

"Well, I'm sorry sir, but that won't be possible." I respond. I'll have to be at a certain low to even consider sleeping with someone like him. I can only imagine how many women he's treated like this, and I have the urge to hurt him badly.

He only laughs and walks back to his seat. "Well, I guess our conversation is over, Miss. Sullivan. You won't be working here then." He says, still with a smug look on his face. For a moment I can only stand there in astonishment, because did this man just refuse to give me a job because I wont sleep with him? How dare he!

"You may leave now, Miss. Sullivan." He says without even looking at me. I shoot him a hard glare before stomping out of his office. The slimy bastard!

But the minute I'm out of his office, the reality of my situation dawns on me. I'm hopeless and jobless and my mom's medicines will need money. I'm quickly running out of cash no matter how badly I manage things and soon I just might take up Cam's offer to loan me some money. God, is this really my life now?

I'm so deep in thoughts that I don't notice until it's too late that I've bumped into someone. I raise my eyes to meet a man that looks almost as tall as a fucking tree. His eyes are dark and daunting and I try to take a step back but his grip on me remains firm. "What? Who are you?" I ask.

"It's no personal grudge, lady. Just doing what the boss asks." He responds in a monotonous voice, but before I can ask what he means, I feel a sharp stinging pain behind my neck that draws me slower to an eminent darkness. The last thought in my mind before I pass out is—

Oh shit!