Chapter Seven
The owner of the restaurant greets Gabriel like an old friend, with a warm smile and a two-handed shake. He seems sincerely pleased to meet me, even giving me condolences for my father, as if he’s dead instead of merely poor and ill. In this society that’s worse than death. I accept them awkwardly, still torn between a deep-seated grief and my sense of betrayal.
My father was the only family I knew for so long. He was my whole world, like Gabriel said. And I would have done anything for him. I did anything for him, auctioning my virginity once his medical bills drained my college fund.
But he wasn’t the man I thought he was.
He betrayed me, essentially selling me as part of a business contract before he was attacked. And maybe worse than that, he betrayed my mother. He ha
