Deceptive Chains: My slave and my Unspoken love

Delaine felt so happy that she felt like she would almost burst with delight. She’d been staying with her grandma for the past 6 years due to all the financial problems her parents were facing. So Delaine’s mother convinced her father to send her off to live with her grandma who lived in Texas. Unknown to Delaine, the reason her parents had shipped her off to Texas was because they considered spending money on her and her education a waste of their hard-earned cash. Their only priority was to provide excellent education to their son so they got rid of Delaine. Whereas naive eighteen-year-old Delaine thought that her family’s financial conditions had finally improved and that’s why they’d called her back. If she knew the real reason as to why they’d called her back home, she would’ve crossed continents to escape them. Delaine almost jumped out of the cab when it finally pulled over outside her house. Ringing the doorbell, her mother opened the door. “Mom, I missed you so much,” Delaine says, hugging the life out of her mother. When she pulled back, her mother gave her an evidently forced smile but Delaine was too happy to pay any heed to her mother’s brusque behaviour towards her. “Where’s dad? And also where’s Dan? I wanted to catch up with him before he went off to college. Gosh! It’s been so so long since I saw my own brother and…..” Delaine chirped, eager to meet her brother as ever. She’d always shared a very strong bond with him and couldn’t believe it’d been eight years since she last saw him. They were practically babies when they last saw each other. “Oh Delaine, you’re just the same as ever. Come inside first, your father and Dan have been waiting for you for hours. It's been so long since we saw you.” Her mother says, trying to show some affection but failing miserably as instead of sporting a kind smile, her nose crinkled up into a frown. Delaine didn’t mind her mother’s less than welcoming tone, the only person she cared for was her brother, Dan. And she couldn’t wait to meet him. Her eyes lit up when she saw her brother and her father seated at the little dining table placed right in front of their kitchen. Delaine was in a daze for a moment, just taking in everything, she was surprised as to how the house she’d grown up in could look so foreign to her. “Dan, Oh my god! You’ve grown up to be such a handsome man.” She says, flinging her arms around her brother’s shoulders as she bent down to engulf him in a bone-crushing hug. Dan hugged her back with just as much love and adoration. When she pulled back, she expected her brother to smile at her warmly just as she was smiling at him but instead of that, she was faced with a torn expression on his face. When the looming cloud of happiness lifted from her eyes, that is when she noticed the grim tension in the room. “Delaine, please sit down. There is something we need to talk about. “ Her mother said in all seriousness. “As a family.” Lines of worry crossed Delaine’s delicate face when she noticed how distressed both her father and her brother looked. “Dad, is everything ok? I thought all our financial problems had been resolved but if they aren’t, I can go back to grandma’s….” Delaine starts as she takes a seat next to her brother when her legs turn weak. She was always willing to sacrifice her life and enjoyment for the happiness of her family. “It's not that honey.” Her father says, avoiding eye contact with her, “You know how college is so expensive to pay for, there are the tuition fees and the lodging fees and the dorm bills….” Her father explains, frowning as he stops mid-sentence. “But I thought you were going to take a loan to pay for Dan’s college,” Delaine replies, confused as she looks from her father to Dan. “What your father meant to say was that the documents we had weren’t enough for the bank to grant us a loan.” Her mother interjects, realizing her husband wasn’t going to explain the situation to Delaine anytime soon now. “So we had to go with another alternative.” “What other alternative ?” Asks Delaine, now very confused. She looked to her brother for some explanation but he kept staring at the ceiling as if it was the most interesting thing in the world. “Well, there’s this man who agreed to help us pay Dan’s college expenses.” Her mother explains. “What man ?” Delaine asks, wondering why anyone would help them. People in this generation wouldn’t lend a penny to their family knowing their financial conditions. “Carlisle Santiago.” Her father anxiously says, letting out a sigh, gripping the glass in his hand so hard, that Delaine was half afraid it would break. “B...but..” Delaine starts, too shocked to form coherent sentences. She couldn’t for the world of her come up with a reason for the most feared mafia in Mexico, the biggest dealer of slaves in the world, his connections were so widespread that he was at the top in most businesses, legal as well as illegal. Every man in Mexico was afraid to even think of doing him wrong for he knew he would be murdered in his sleep if he tried to cross Carlisle Santiago. The President of Mexico was like a lap dog compared to Carlisle Santiago in power. But now the question remains, why in the world would a mafia leader who owned riches she couldn’t ever even dream of help out her middle-class family, Delaine thought, her mind swimming in confusion. As if he’d read her thoughts, her brother spoke up for the first time, his voice hoarse, “He approached us himself when he heard of our conditions and offered to pay us upfront in exchange for something.” Gripping the hard, sandalwood table, Dan looked at his mother. “That's it. You’ve been looking at each other, asking one another to tell me something that you supposedly think I won’t be able to handle. Just come out and say it.” Delaine grumbled, frustrated with her family. “And what do we have that the Santiagos would want? They can practically buy half the states in the country. ” Delaine adds, her tone incredulous as ever. Just then a loud rumbling of engines was heard outside, it was like the sound of multiple cars coming to a stop. “What the heck is that noise?” Delaine yelled, trying to get her voice across over all the rumbling. “I’m so sorry, Delaine.” Dan hoarsely says, a tear escaping his downcast eyes. Why was her brother crying, Delaine thought. “Mr. Santiago assured us that we would get the money and he is a respectable man. Remember Delaine, you are doing this for your family. ” Her mother explains, getting up to open the door when a loud, banging sound was heard on the door. “No...y..you couldn’t have…” Delaine says, her voice not more than a whisper as her face turns white as a sheet when it finally dawns on her what her family had been trying to tell her all along. Four men dressed in suits with white earpieces walk into the house as her mother unlocks the door. She hears her giving a faint reply to one of the men who looked like UFC fighters, “She’s here.” Delaine felt like passing out when she joined the pieces. The Santiagos were slave dealers…..sex-slave dealers….Oh God!