Claimed By The Ruthless Mafia King

POV: Diana --- I know something is wrong the moment I step through the door ,returning from my waitress job. The apartment is too quiet. Rose is on the floor, clutching her phone, sobbing so hard she can barely breathe. "Seventy-two hours," she chokes out. "Diana, they said seventy-two hours or they’ll take us." $2.3 million. That's what our dead father owes the Shark empire. I have just $47 in my account which isn't even enough for our feeding talk less of paying a debt that was passed down to us. --- I drop my keys on the small table by the entrance and shrug off my jacket, still smelling like stale coffee and greasy diner food from my eight-hour shift, and I cross the cramped living room in three quick strides, sinking onto the floor beside her and pulling her into my arms. "Rose, breathe," I say, even though my own heart is pounding so hard I can feel it in my throat. "Tell me what happened. From the beginning." She tries, but the words come out broken, fragmented, tangled up in sobs and gasps and the kind of fear that makes it hard to think straight, and I have to piece together the story from what she manages to choke out between breaths. The Shark Loan House called. Our father borrowed money years ago, used our names, our address, everything, and now that he is dead the debt has landed on us, and the men who called said they will come to collect, and if we can't pay they will take payment in other ways, and Rose is only nineteen, she is just a kid, she doesn't deserve this, she didn't ask for any of this, and neither did I, but here we are, drowning in a debt we never borrowed, trapped by a man we have never met. "Okay," I say when she finally falls silent, her face buried in my shoulder and her body trembling against mine. "Okay. We'll figure something out." "How?" She pulls back to look at me, her eyes red and swollen, her cheeks wet with tears. "How are we supposed to figure this out, Diana? We don't have any money. We don't have anyone to help us. Dad left us with nothing but debt and a dead body, and now these people are going to kill us because we can't pay back money we never borrowed in the first place." I want to tell her that everything is going to be fine, that I will fix this, that I will protect her no matter what, but the truth is that I have exactly forty-seven dollars in my bank account like I stated before, a dead-end job that pays minimum wage, and absolutely no idea how to come up with the kind of money the Shark empire is demanding. "I don't know," I admit, and the words feel like failure. "But I'm not going to let anything happen to you, Rose. I promise." She looks at me with those big, terrified eyes, and I can see the little girl she used to be, the one who believed I could fix anything, the one who thought her big sister was invincible, and I hate that I am about to prove her wrong, but I force a smile anyway, pulling her into a hug and holding her as tightly as I can. "We'll figure it out," I whisper into her hair. "We always do." --- Later that night, after Rose has cried herself to sleep, I sit alone in the dark living room with my laptop open, scrolling through the Shark Loan House website for what feels like the hundredth time. The website is sleek and professional, designed to look like a legitimate financial institution, but I know better. Everyone in the neighborhood knows better. The Shark empire is a front for organized crime, drug trafficking, and loan sharking, and our father, Marcus Reyes, got tangled up with them years ago, borrowing money he could never repay and dragging our family into a nightmare that only got worse after his death. I scroll through the terms and conditions, looking for some kind of loophole, some way to negotiate, some way to buy us more time, but everything is ironclad. The contract is airtight. The debt is ours now, and there is no escaping it. I think about calling the police, but what would I say? That my dead father borrowed money from the mafia, and now they are threatening to kill us? The police can't protect us from the Shark empire. No one can. I think about running, but where would we go? We have no money, no car, no family to take us in. We would be on the streets by morning, easy prey for anyone who wants to hurt us. I think about giving up, about accepting that there is no way out, but then I remember Rose's face, her tear-streaked cheeks and her broken sobs, and I know I can't give up. Not yet. Not while there is still breath in my body. So I close my laptop, bury my face in my hands, and try to think of a plan. --- The next morning, I wake up before dawn, my neck stiff from sleeping on the floor and my mind still foggy with exhaustion. Rose is still asleep on the sofa, her face peaceful for the first time in days, and I don't have the heart to wake her. Instead, I tiptoe into the kitchen, make a pot of coffee that we can't afford, and sit at the tiny table by the window, watching the sun rise over the city. We have less than seventy-two hours to come up with $2.3 million, and I have no idea where to start. I think about selling everything we own, but even if we sell the apartment, the furniture, and every piece of jewelry our mother left us, it won't be enough. Not even close. I think about taking out a loan, but no bank in their right mind would lend us that kind of money, and even if they did, we would just end up in the same situation we are in now, only with a different lender. I think about going to the Shark Loan House in person, about begging them for mercy, about offering to work off the debt in any way I can, but I know it will be useless. The Shark empire doesn't care about mercy or hard work. They care about money and power, and we have neither. I am still sitting there, staring into my cold cup of coffee, when Rose shuffles into the kitchen, her hair a tangled mess and her eyes still puffy from crying. "Did you sleep at all?" she asks, grabbing a mug from the cabinet and pouring herself some coffee. "Not much," I admit. "I was trying to figure out what to do." "And?" "And I don't know yet." She sits down across from me, wrapping her hands around her mug like she is trying to warm herself from the inside out, and for a long moment neither of us speaks. The silence is heavy with everything we can't say, with all the fear and grief and helplessness we are both trying to hold at bay. "We could go to the police," Rose suggests, even though I know she doesn't believe it will help. "Maybe they could—" "The police can't protect us from the Shark empire," I interrupt, not unkindly. "They have too much power, too much money, too many connections. Going to the police would just make things worse." "So what do we do? Just wait for them to kill us?" I reach across the table and take her hand, squeezing it tight. "I won't let that happen. I'll find a way. I promise." But as I say the words, I am not sure I believe them anymore. --- The first phone call comes at noon. I am in the shower, trying to scrub away the exhaustion and the grime of another sleepless night, when I hear Rose scream. I nearly slip on the wet tiles in my rush to get out, wrapping a towel around myself as I sprint into the living room, heart pounding and water dripping everywhere. "What happened?" I demand, and then I see her standing frozen in the middle of the room, her phone pressed to her ear and her face pale as death. "Rose, who is it?" She doesn't answer, just holds out the phone to me with a trembling hand, and I take it, bracing myself for whatever is on the other end. "Hello?" My voice comes out steady, even though I am shaking. "Is this Diana Reyes?" The voice is male, cold, and utterly devoid of emotion. "This is her." "You have less seventy-two hours to pay back what your father owes, or we will take payment in other ways." I hear him take a drag of a cigarette, the ember crackling through the speaker. "You're a pretty girl, Diana. Your sister is even prettier. It would be a shame if something happened to her." My blood runs cold, and I grip the phone so hard my knuckles turn white. "If you touch my sister, I swear to God—" "You swear to God what?" The man laughs, a cruel and hollow sound. "You have nothing, Diana. You have no money, no power, no protection. You have nothing except a debt that you can never repay. And unless you come up with $2.3 million in less seventy-two hours , we will take what we're owed, one way or another." The line goes dead. I stand there, phone in hand, my mind racing and my heart pounding and my entire world crumbling around me, and I know that we are out of time. The phone won't stop ringing, and every time it does, my stomach drops so hard I forget I'm hungry. We haven't eaten since yesterday, but we don't even notice — the fear is louder than the hunger. Rose stares at the empty kitchen, then at the buzzing phone, and neither of us moves to eat. --- Rose is crying again, and I am holding her, stroking her hair and whispering reassurances I don't feel, when the phone rings again. — The phone buzzes for the fifth time. After declining so many calls, I decide to pick this one. It's a different voice this time. Smooth and dangerous. "Miss Reyes, this is Bruno from Shark Loan House. Mr. Shark himself has taken an interest in your debt." My blood freezes. "What does that mean?" "It means you come to his office tomorrow at 9 AM. He has a proposition for you. And Miss Reyes — don't say no. You won't like what happens if you do."