Playing With The Mafia Prince

Chapter 4: Debt

“Hi, maman.” I forced a wide grin on my face, staring at my mother’s face through the screen.

“Hello, my donya,” she greeted warmly. “How are you?”

My chest welled with affection at the familiar endearment that she had called me all my life. In her native language, Farsi, donya meant world.

Mom was the rock that I knew had my back no matter what, the shoulder to cry on, and most importantly, my biggest motivation.

Ever since dad died, mom has been struggling to fulfill the roles of financial provider, mother, father, tutor, and whatever else she could do to make sure my sisters and I were happy.

The desire to repay her for all the sacrifices she made to keep our family whole is what drives me to work so hard, to dream and achieve.

“I’m alright.”

She frowned, her intuition as sharp as always. “What’s wrong? You seem tired.”

Oh, mom, you have no idea.

“Too much partying.” I shot her a lazy smile to cover up my lie.

There was a snort from beside her, and my sister, Nora, peeked her big head in front of the camera. She c****d an eyebrow at the sight of me.

“You look like s**t,” she said bluntly.

I flipped her off, much to my mother's outrage. After she was done with her scolding, I pressed them for information on how they were and what they were doing.

I was desperate for something to distract me from the chaotic mess that had officially become my life. Riley came home from her basketball practice a little while later, sweaty and exhausted.

“Hey, Lebron, how’s school?” I teased.

She let out a loud groan, heading straight to her bedroom to clean herself up. Riley was the youngest in the family, but she had somehow grown to be the tallest.

Mom shouted something at her, allowing Nora the opportunity to steal the phone for a moment.

“So? Any cute boys at CU that might tempt me to apply?” She asked eagerly.

I rolled my eyes. “Plenty of them. All ding dongs, though.”

“Perfect!”

“What’s perfect?” Mom appeared suddenly over her shoulder.

Nora’s eyes widened as she began to stammer out the first thing that came to her mind. Then she rushed inside with the excuse of helping Riley to avoid my mother’s suspicious gaze.

That left Mom and I alone, and I knew that was my best chance to ask.

I swallowed, bracing myself.

“If you..” I considered the best way to phrase my offer so that she wouldn’t get upset. “If you ever need to, like, borrow some money until you get paid again, I can lend you some out of my student loans or paycheck. I’m living on a pretty low budget here. I don’t need that much money.”

Mom was shaking her head before I even finished. “Everything’s fine.”

“But-”

“Did your sisters complain about needing anything?”

“No, of course not.”

“Then I don’t need anything,” she said sternly.

“Have they shown up yet?”

She closed her eyes briefly at my timid question. We usually tried to pretend they didn’t exist.

Those men, the debt collectors, gangsters, whatever they were called, that my father owed money before he died.

The ones who had just barely agreed to spare our lives when my mother couldn’t give them all of the money at the same time

.

Instead of killing us, they agreed to monthly payments.

The payments were relatively low—for their standards, at least—and the debt was much too large for us. Mom’s been throwing paycheck after paycheck at it for years, and we were still only halfway through the amount.

It was moments like these, where my mom looked so damn exhausted, that I hated my father the most.

My mom was saved from responding due to Valerie’s arrival.

“Mama Hashimi?” Val mouthed a safe distance away from the laptop.

I’d told her about my mom’s expected reaction to her, and she’d decided it would be best not to give my mother a heart attack at such a young age. I nodded at my roommate subtly.

“I’ve gotta go now, maman. I think I’m going to sleep or something. I’m not feeling too good.”

It was only partially a lie. I really wasn’t feeling my best, but mom didn’t need to know that I would be tossing and turning for hours in bed.

“Okay, feel better, honey.”

We bid each other good night and hung up. I leaned my head back against the wall with a quiet thump.

“You good?” Val asked cautiously, like she was worried I was about to burst out sobbing.

“Yup.” I got under my duvet and turned onto my side, facing the wall.

“Well.. okay, then.”

I pretended I didn’t hear the hurt in her voice.

***

Smiling widely, I walked in and greeted the desk clerk in my lobby.

“Hello, ma’am. I’m Emma Hashimi, a sophomore.” I held out my university I.D. “Would you happen to know if a package arrived for me?”

The woman scowled at me, snatched the I.D out of my hand and started typing furiously on her computer keyboard. Alrighty then. Dev sniggered behind me, then coughed to try to cover it up. I glared at her.

“No,” the clerk snapped at me.

“Oh. Thank you,” I responded.

She grunted and I took that as my cue to leave.

“I’m growing on her,” I said as Dev, Alex, and I made our way onto the street.

I ignored their disbelieving stares. To be fair, the first time I met the woman she snarled at me, so this was definitely an improvement.

“You just can’t stand the idea of someone not liking you, huh?” Dev nudged my shoulder playfully.

“I don’t blame her,” Alex blurted out, green eyes soft when they rested on me. “It’s kinda hard to believe that someone wouldn’t.”

Whatever retort I had been planning to give Dev died in my throat. I looked away from Alex, focusing my gaze on the sidewalk that we were marching along. Dev coughed unnecessarily loudly.

A tinge of warmth spread over my cheeks.

“So, what’s the plan for your birthday?” My question was mainly intended to distract her from whatever inappropriate joke she was about to make, and it worked.

Dev groaned loudly, in a way that made me reconsider whether editing was a good career for her when she was such a drama queen. Maybe she should go into theater instead. She grabbed onto my arm with a pout that was unmatched by any three year old.

I sighed.

Here it comes.

“Emma,” she began. “You know I love you, right?”

I hummed in response, feeling Alex’s amused gaze on me.

“And you value our friendship, don’t you?” At this, her grip on my arm tightened almost menacingly.

“Uh, yes?”

She narrowed her eyes at my hesitant response. It came out more of a question than a statement.

I cleared my throat. “I mean, yes. Of course, I do.”

“Perfect! You’ll come then!” She seemed suspiciously pleased with the answer that she had coerced out of me.

It was my turn to narrow my eyes at her and Alex. I tried to get him to meet my inquisitive stare, but he went as far as to stare into the front window of a lingerie store to avoid it. This must be worse than I thought.

“Come where?” I wasn’t sure I wanted to know the answer.

“To my birthday party.”

There was a pause. For her to be acting so wary, holding back information, that could only mean one thing… My jaw fell with horror, eyes wide as I staggered away from her.

“Damn it, Dev. I told you not to do this in the street,” Alex grumbled.

“No. Absolutely not. I refuse.”

“But—”

“Don’t bother. Your step-brother got Alex fired, and he nearly assaulted me in the street. I refuse to willingly be within thirty feet of him.”

Dev stomped her foot. Like, actually stomped her foot. In the middle of the busy street on a college campus. Her irritation faded abruptly and was replaced by a calculating look that I didn’t like. I didn’t like it one bit.

“A week,” she declared.

I c****d my head back.

“I will do your Western Lit. homework for a week.”

Alex and I both gasped. Western Lit. was the most taxing class ever, especially with my professor. Each class, we were assigned readings that took at least three hours to complete.

I stroked my chin thoughtfully. “Midterm essay too?”

Her nostrils flared. The midterm essay was a nightmare that no sane college student would be willing to face. Dev remained silent for a few moments, as though she were debating whether me being at that party was worth all the pain she’d have to suffer.

“Fine.”

As I said, no sane college student.

“You’ve got yourself a deal.”

She held out her hand for me, asking to shake on it, but I let my nose scrunch up with disgust.

“No, we do this like grown ups.” I offered her my pinky instead.

Dev and Alex laughed. I repressed a smile of my own as we locked pinkies with one another.