The Don : Sir Dante's fiercest obsession

Chapter One: ELara's POV The hum of the ICU unit was the only thing keeping the silence from swallowing me whole. It was a suffocating sound, one that, even after three months, hadn't stopped tormenting my nightmares. I pressed my forehead against the glass of the observation window, where I could see my sister laying completely still. Maya, she is nineteen yet looked fifteen. She suffered a severe seizure, one that the doctors claimed had been inevitable. It was a consequence of the head injury she got after the accident that killed our parents. But the cold, hard medical facts are irrelevant now. Only one thing mattered and that was the bill, well and the utter, terrifying lack of options to pay for it. The door to the waiting room opened, and Dr. Albright walked in. He didn't need to speak, I already knew where this conversation would go. I pulled away from the observation window and straightened my cardigan, trying my best to look put together though it felt like I was about to have a heart attack. "Elara," he began, his voice low and practiced, "We have stabilized her for now but the truth is the current medication is only delaying the inevitable. We’ve reached the limit of what standard care can do." It felt like the world was about to swallow me whole. "What are you saying? She’s getting better. Just last week she was awake." "She’s fighting, yes, I can tell you that. But the damage is getting progressively worse. There’s a trial in Boston. It's experimental, but it has shown progress in similar cases. It’s the only real chance we have to save her." It felt like all the air had been sucked out of my lungs, my sister, the only family i had left was in a life or death crisis and the only medicine that could save her has a 50 percent chance of working, and even with all that, all I could think about was the medical bill when my sisters life was on the line. "The cost, Doctor?" I force out the words through my trembling lips, to which he shifts uncomfortably, bouncing from one foot to the next. "I won't lie, the cost is pretty high, but that's only because it’s an early stage treatment. Your insurance has been denied and we've exhausted all appeals. The cost for the six-month program, not including associated care, is five hundred thousand dollars." 500,000 dollars?! The number didn't even sound real. It sounded more like a cruel joke more than anything else. My mind, usually a brilliant, fast moving engine capable of memorizing pages upon pages of financial reports, seized up completely. Five hundred thousand?! Where in the world was I going to get that kind of money? All my credit cards are maxed out. The sale of our small family home hadn't even covered the initial emergency surgery. Every dime of my savings, every penny I'd earned tutoring late night classes, every scrap of my inheritance, it was all gone. I was twenty-five, a prodigy who had dropped out of the country’s top MBA program to care for a sick sister, and sadly, life hadn't dealt me a good hand. I was drowning neck deep in debt. "I need time," I heard myself say, and even to me those words sounded meaningless. "I'll find the money somehow, don't worry." Dr. Albright's eyes softened with pity, the kind that made my fists clench and my stomach sink. "Elara, we don’t have time. The next window for the trial is in three days." He pats my shoulder with the detached sympathy of a man used to delivering crushing news, then walks out, leaving me alone to my own thoughts. I stumbled toward one of the worn-out hospital benches just under my sister's room window and dropped my exhausted body onto it. The laptop bag I carried felt heavy, filled with rejection letters from every bank and private lender I’d approached for money. On instinct, I reached for the small silver locket I always wore beneath my shirt. It was my mother’s, a plain heirloom that smelled faintly of the lavender perfume she always had on. I twisted it between my fingers, a nervous habit I'd always had since I was very little. Maya called it my "scared signal". Meaning I only touched it when I was scared or nervous. But I wasn't. "I am not scared," I whispered under my breath as I tightly fist the locket in my hands. "I'm going to get through this." I pulled out my phone, the screen had been cracked for several months now and the battery was constantly on life support. To my surprise there were dozens of new emails, though most of them were junk messages, a few were from collection agencies and the last one was from a job application I’d forgotten I’d even sent. It was titled: Executive Assistant Invitation - Russo Global Assets. Russo Global Assets. Even the name sounded intimidating. They were the conglomerate that had bought and absorbed almost all the city’s major companies in the last five years. They dealt in acquisitions and high finance, the exact kind of world I’d spent my entire life training to be a part of, yet the kind that I'd sworn off as a way to protect my sister. I opened the message, my heart racing in my chest as my eyes scanned over the contents of the email. They were offering me an interview with them for tomorrow morning. It was weird as it didn't mention salary and remuneration because I had applied for a merger role as an accounting clerk, not the executive assistant position. It felt too good to be true and right now wasn't the time to get scammed. This had to be the worst possible time for that to happen. But... I really needed a job and the image of Maya lying helpless in that bed was far more terrible than any fear of mine. $500,000 was a lot, but it was much more than money. Without it, my sister could take her last breath at any moment. I stood up once again to peer into the room where my sister lay unmoving, watching the soft rise and fall of Maya's chest. I couldn't bring myself to care who they were or what they wanted. If Russo Global Assets was offering me a job, then I had to take my chance and see what they had to offer. I typed out the confirmation as my fingers moved swiftly over my phone which I stated that I accepted their offer and would be there tomorrow. The decision was made and I was going to take the risk. My right hand tightened around the worn silver locket one last time. According to Maya it was supposed to be a sign of fear, but tonight, I was sure of my decision and was ready to go head first into whatever was to become of me. The locket grew warm in my palm as I stared at the confirmation message. The interview was set for 9:00 AM. All I had to do now was impress them, yet I couldn't help the nagging feeling that I was about to trade bad for worse.