Page 83 of Jordan

“I need to know what happened.”

He’s silent for a beat and says, “Enzo didn’t tell you?”

“Some of it, but he won’t tell me all of it. Daddy, I need to know why I’m here. If I’m ever going to accept this, I need the truth. Please, just tell me.”

He sighs, and I can picture him shaking his head. Pleading never did go over well with him, but that’s probably because I never really had to. My father gave me everything I wanted, so when he said no, I accepted it. There were few times I begged for something, but his answer was always his answer. No is no. That’s that.

“I got deep into debt.”

I wait to see if he’s going to say more, but seconds tick by and he says nothing. So I speak.

“From what?”

“Gambling.”

I hold back a sigh. I know my father enjoyed gambling, but I didn’t think it was a problem. Not like this. We always had so much money, so many nice things. If he was gambling all our money away, how were we surviving?

“So you owed some people money and couldn’t pay them back?”

“Yes, but I also owed Enzo money. From years ago, for—Christ,” he growls. “For the same thing. I’ve had a problem for years, and I’m working on it, but it’s so damn hard, Jordan.”

I furrow my brow. That’s so hard? What about being forced to marry someone? What about being used to pay off a debt because of that gambling problem? What about being forced out of the house you’ve lived in your whole life and brought to a strange place where everything is dictated for you? What about that?

Of course I don’t say any of those things. Instead, I yell at my inner voice to shut the hell up.

This is my father, and he loves me.

“So then what?” I force the words out.

“It got really bad, and Enzo reached out to me to say he’d strike a deal with me. These people I owed money too? They were ready to kill us, Jordan. Both of us. I’m sorry this was the only way, but I couldn’t have you hurt.”

I already knew this. Everything he’s told me, Enzo already explained. There’s something else. There’s more. There has to be.

“What else?”

“That’s it,” he says.

It’s quiet. So quiet.

Enzo said there was something he wouldn’t tell me. Something I needed to hear from my father.

“Are you sure that’s all?” I hold my breath as I wait for him to answer me.

“Yes, sweetheart, that’s all. It was a lot of money.”

Why don’t I believe him? Everything in his tone tells me he isn’t lying, but in my gut, I know he’s lying to me? He’s holding something back.

Enzo is the one who took me, the one who is keeping me here. He’s the one I shouldn’t believe. I have no reason to trust anything he says.

Yet, it’s my father who has me questioning his trust.

He isn’t telling me the truth. He’s keeping something from me. I know this because Enzo said there was more. My father has information he doesn’t want to share with me. Why?

“Why didn’t you tell me Enzo was in the mafia?” I ask instead. “That you were tied up with them?”

“It wasn’t something I wanted you to worry about, sweetheart. That’s adult business. Men’s business. Enzo was a close friend, and I didn’t want you to fear him.”

“What about the clubs? What about you?”