The Unbreakable Oath

I hate it here.

If I could escape, I would be gone forever.

Vanished into thin air.

Disappeared into the unknown.

Anywhere but here.

I'll even go back to fucking Catholic School in Ireland.

Boston is a beautiful place, and in another life I would be starting to get ready to attend the College of Art and Design.

Instead, I'm not even allowed to leave the house because my father is a certified gangster, and I had to pay for his sins by being sent away living like a nun.

Everyone knows the head of the Irish mafia in the States has a daughter, but none has seen me, because my mother passed away at childbirth and I was given to my grandmother to raise.

When I became a teenager, I was sent to a Catholic School in Ireland where your every move was being watched.

The only escape I've ever had was painting.

There's a knock on my door, and a young maid enters without permission.

Like I said, I hate it here.

"Miss Lily, your father is requesting your presence in his study."

I refrain from rolling my eyes. At least at Nana's house things weren't so formal. The old lady was strict, and made sure I'm polished into a fine young lady, but never all these bells and whistles.

I walk through the grandiose house that is completely unnecessary for us to live in. My father never remarried, never had more children, so apart from the staff it's only him and me.

He probably needs the house so that when we get attacked, there are lots of secret places to hide.

Why wasn't I born into a normal family? One who didn't have enough money to send me to college, so I studied really hard and wowed everyone with my art and got a scholarship. A full ride.

A girl can only dream.

I knock on the door and wait for him to answer in that low, smoky voice before I enter.

Pappa flinches every time he sees me since I got back from Ireland.

I don't think he expected me to look so much like her.

"Lily, please have a seat."

Pappa is still very much a handsome man in his mid forties, and I often wonder why he never remarried. He could've had a boy, a heir to this ridiculous criminal kingdom.

I oblige like I was taught to do, even though I want to flop down on the comfy looking leather couch underneath a vast bookcase. "It's time we talk about your future."

I light up from the inside, my chest burning in excitement. This is it, my chance to state my case.

I've always wanted to be back in Boston. I want to make friends on campus that share my same interests and get a fake I.D. to go bar hopping. I want to visit Nanna whenever I like, even though she can be a pain in my ass sometimes.

"You're getting married to Vincent DiCassio." Pappa says without so much as blinking.

My heart drops to my shoes.

What?

Getting married?

I'm freshly nineteen, how the hell could I get married now?

"Pappa! No!" I jump from the chair behind his desk, my cheeks burning in anger. "I just turned nineteen, I haven't even talked to a boy apart from the staff here. I can't get married!"

Pappa doesn't lose his cool like I just did. He just simply nods and look at me with an intensity I don't like.

"Calm down Lily. I don't want you getting a weak heart."

My mother had a weak heart, and yet she married into the mafia and got pregnant when she was strongly advised not to. Her heart couldn't carry us both, and she paid with her life.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with my heart, and this heart definitely doesn't want to get married. Not now, not ever.

"Pappa, I know I'm not a man, but I am smart, and I can help you with the organisation." I plead, hoping he would listen to me. "I don't need to get married. I can just stay here with you."

Pappa sighs and rubs his eyes. When he looks at me again, I notice how tired he seems, how defeated.

"You're not a child anymore, Lily, and you're a girl. In this world, girls are used as assets, and the time has come for me to use you."

I fall back down in the chair in disbelief.

An asset.

Used.

Is he even listening to himself?

I'm not stock or a piece of jewelry.

I'm a person, a whole human being with wants and needs. And I definitely don't want to get married at nineteen to some Vincent guy I've never even heard about.

Fucking asset my ass.

"I say no."

Pappa looks at me like I've grown two heads. The truth is, he doesn't know me. He didn't raise me, he sent me away because he couldn't deal with me and if he thought he's getting a docile little girl back, he has to reevaluate his choices.

"Jesus, you're more like her than I thought."

I spy a little smile around his mouth.

"We're not living in the fourteenth century anymore, Pappa." I make my voice softer, hoping this man that doesn't even know who I am as a person shows mercy on me. "If this is about an heir, I can be that for you."

That's a big, fat lie of course. I have no desire to do business in the underworld, but I figure it's better than getting married to some asswipe that won't even have time for me.

I know what these arranged marriages look like, and I don't want any part of it.

Pappa sighs. "I'm sorry, Lily, the order came from even above me. Our family has to unite with the DiCassio family in a binding oath so that we can do business together. My hands are tied."

Defeat like I've never felt before settles in my bones, and I slump in my chair.

"When?"

"The DiCassio family will have dinner with us

tomorrow

night. Make sure you look presentable."

There's no room for argument in Pappa's voice, so I get up and go to my room without another word.

Then I cry, for a life that will never be.