Arabella’s Bargain

lla's

as it pulled up to our house. The recognizable sig

heart race. My dad had promised me a party to mark my seventeent

e smooth dark vehicles left outside our home. It struck me as odd,

strangely calm. Pushing the door open, I was welcomed not by inflatables and chuckling

ugh the passage, my strides reverberating on the wooden floor. The air

sat behind his work area, his shoulders drooped and his face colorless. Opposite him was a man I had never seen, radiating a demeanor of power and fear

se, there should

e man, Arin, reclined in his seat, a

ay," Arin answered, his v

ignificant, and they sh

hard, looking t

aw me makes it scary

ill ran down my spine. He enticed me in

fled out, his voice scarce

ing the heaviness of the men's gazes. My dad stood, hi

ecalled, the lines all over hi

my voice shaking. He took a full breath,

re since I owe him a large chunk of money.

to Arin, disarray and fea

me?" Arin stood, his tall edge crea

e agreed," he said, his

his debts, you w

, the words not com

our meaning could be a

less. "You will live with me and work for me.

k, the truth cras

this," I murmured,

you can't allow

in his eyes as he

ies, Arabella. I don't have a

nearer, his prese

you're mine" he said delicately, as th

ay." A virus fear got comfortable my chest

his man, and my life as far as I

dream, yet his crushed articulation told me everything. With shudder hands, I left

I had known and cherished, I felt like a ghost

cumulated my possessions. At the point when

dark vehicles. I looked back at my dad, remain

rmured, trusting he could hea

and as it pulled away, I felt

ious life and the start of an unsure, terrifying future. As we drove away, Arin's eyes flicked to me,

ently Arabella

through the window, attempting to figure out my viewpoints, attempting to understand the way that my life h

would sit under the old oak tree during lunch, chuckli

sparkling earnestly. I thought about what she would think when she figured out I wouldn't r

terson would ramble on about literature,her energy irresistible even to the individuals who professed not to mind. The manner in which we