The Fairytale
The Beginning
When I was a little girl, my mother told me when I'd grow up I'd get married to a handsome prince and we'd live happily ever after. She told me we'd have all types of riches and I'd get everything I wanted.
The benefits of being promised to a prince only became apparent on my sixteenth birthday. My parents decided to rent out a private hall/room at a local restaurant, probably owned by one of my father's associates. Midway through the evening Adriano, Carla and of course their son Dustin made an appearance. Their gift; a brand new car. The price; one awkward dance with the dorky, eighteen year old, Dustin Sandro.
The whole marriage arrangement never seemed like a strict thing. Like those Indian pre-arranged marriages, if the girl dates someone else, she gets disowned. In high school and college I've had a string of boyfriends but no red flags went up. My father always told me I was going to marry Dustin but I was never completely sure if he was serious, nor was I ever completely sure he was joking.
While choosing my courses for university my father insisted that I should go into nursing. In all honesty I had no idea what I wanted to go into, so I figured I might as well make my parents happy, I could always change course in between semesters if I found my calling.
I was raised in a middle-class home, and I was more than excited to be staying in a dorm room. It was nasty and dingy and full of party animals, what more could a teenager ask for. Just as I was about to finalize my attendance at my choice university my mother told me I was going to be sharing an apartment with Mimi Orsola, the daughter of one of my father's associates, another daughter of a mobster, also in the nursing field.
Growing up in a mobster household isn't as horrible as it sounds. Sure, my father would get calls in all hours of the night and day and he'd have to leave. There was the occasional drop in from one of his associates to discuss business. Regardless, it was always very low-key, and I'd never see anything incriminating. Apparently everything happened at either my father's club or the Sandro house.
My brother Francis, was never initiated as a mobster. He ran the club. After high school he took a couple of managerial courses and a bar tending class and the club was pretty much his to run.
College is where everything that defines me today really happened. Its where my story starts.
The benefits of being promised to a prince only became apparent on my sixteenth birthday. My parents decided to rent out a private hall/room at a local restaurant, probably owned by one of my father's associates. Midway through the evening Adriano, Carla and of course their son Dustin made an appearance. Their gift; a brand new car. The price; one awkward dance with the dorky, eighteen year old, Dustin Sandro.
The whole marriage arrangement never seemed like a strict thing. Like those Indian pre-arranged marriages, if the girl dates someone else, she gets disowned. In high school and college I've had a string of boyfriends but no red flags went up. My father always told me I was going to marry Dustin but I was never completely sure if he was serious, nor was I ever completely sure he was joking.
While choosing my courses for university my father insisted that I should go into nursing. In all honesty I had no idea what I wanted to go into, so I figured I might as well make my parents happy, I could always change course in between semesters if I found my calling.
I was raised in a middle-class home, and I was more than excited to be staying in a dorm room. It was nasty and dingy and full of party animals, what more could a teenager ask for. Just as I was about to finalize my attendance at my choice university my mother told me I was going to be sharing an apartment with Mimi Orsola, the daughter of one of my father's associates, another daughter of a mobster, also in the nursing field.
Growing up in a mobster household isn't as horrible as it sounds. Sure, my father would get calls in all hours of the night and day and he'd have to leave. There was the occasional drop in from one of his associates to discuss business. Regardless, it was always very low-key, and I'd never see anything incriminating. Apparently everything happened at either my father's club or the Sandro house.
My brother Francis, was never initiated as a mobster. He ran the club. After high school he took a couple of managerial courses and a bar tending class and the club was pretty much his to run.
College is where everything that defines me today really happened. Its where my story starts.