by Claire Adams
“I hope you will.”
We hugged it out, and my father finally left. I was left standing in my million-dollar house, hoping I would be able to figure out some way to get my bills paid. The good news was that if I showed up to work and waited for my paycheck, I took home over $20,000 a month. The bad news was that wasn’t enough money.
I had been borrowing money from Jose Escabar lately, and I didn’t really want to get behind on those payments. He was tougher than any bank would ever be. I had heard horror stories about what he does to people when they don’t pay him back on time. And I definitely didn’t want to be one of those people.
My gut told me I should have told my father about my hard money loans with Escabar, but I decided he certainly wouldn’t think I was being responsible if he knew about them. Unfortunately, I needed to get the money together quickly to make a payment to Escabar.
I clicked through my bank accounts on my phone and quickly realized I needed to get dressed and show up for work. Escabar expected a $10,000 payment by the end of the month, and that only covered a portion of what I owed him.
Panic started to set in at the thought of not being about to pay him back. I needed to figure out a new plan to get him his money.
It wasn’t an option. Paying Escabar back had to be my top priority. Nothing else mattered as much as getting him his money. I had to get my shit together. I had to figure out a way to make my father trust me and quickly, before I ended up having my legs broken.
I walked into my closet and pulled out one of my custom suits. If I had to head into work, I was going to be dressed for the part. Work wasn’t that hard for me. The problem was more in dealing with my expectations. I always wanted everyone to be happy that I was there. It was such a letdown to see people look at me as if I shouldn’t be in the office. I understood what my father was saying, though, and I would have to show up to work more often if I wanted the people in the company to believe in my ideas.
If my father wanted to see that I could lead the company, then that was exactly what he would see. I put my tailored suit on, with my Hermes shoes, and called our car service to come take me to work.
“Mr. Foster, I’m sorry, but you are no longer an authorized user of this account,” the operator at Select Cars said.
“What? How am I supposed to get to work?”
“I’m sorry, sir. Your father removed you from the account.”
“Fuck!”
I hung up the phone and paced around my house. I had a car in the garage, but I hadn’t driven it in ages. I couldn’t even remember where my keys were. I was about to give up, but then, I remembered how Escabar had treated the last man that didn’t pay him back.
I had watched him tear off the guy’s fingernails, when he didn’t have enough money to pay back his loan. I wasn’t about to have any of my fingernails, or any other body part, removed. I needed to get things together so my father would give me his company, and I could have my financial stability back. Otherwise, I was going to be in big trouble with Escabar.
I needed to get my ass to work.
Why would my father take away the car service? It was how I always got to and from work. It was ridiculous. But, I wasn’t about to let that stop me.
I dug through the stacks of bills on my table and found the keys to my BMW underneath everything. My father was going to have to work harder if he was going to prevent me from proving that I deserved to be in charge of the company.
After a couple wrong turns, I finally arrived at work around ten o’clock, ready to take on my job and show my father just how responsible I was. It wasn’t the morning I had planned, but I was ready to kick some ass at work.
Chapter 4
Jordan
“Ana, I just don’t like the idea of you traveling to America when you haven’t even met this guy. It is how women get murdered.”
“Jordan, I’ve met him online. I’ve looked into his eyes and talked to him for thousands of hours. I know him. I just haven’t physically touched him.”
“Does he want to get married? Is that why he was on that website?”
“Yes, he does. He’s thirty-two years old. He’s got a great career and really wants to settle down and start having a family,” she said with stars in her eyes.
“You want to have kids?” I asked surprised.
Ana had never once mentioned to me that she wanted to have children. In fact, she had told me about a year ago that she didn’t know if she was ever going to want to have children. She had gone on and on about how they would tie her down and prevent her from living the life she wanted to live.
“I’m warming up to the idea. I really like Gordon, and I’m open to the idea of getting married and starting a family.”
“I think it’s all crazy.”
“Have you even signed into the website since we uploaded your profile?” she asked as she grabbed my phone from me.
“Ana, there is no reason to look at it. I’m not going to respond to any of those fake guys. They all seem way too perfect to be real.”
“Oh, so you did log in?” she said with a smile.
“Yes, but none of them seem realistic. They all want a wife, or a mother to their children, and they haven’t even met me yet. It’s creepy. The ones who aren’t creepy all seem to be rich and handsome, and I can’t see why they would want to date a woman from around the world. There have to be plenty of eligible women closer to them.”
“What about this one? Tall, blond hair, financial advisor, wants a thin model type to have his children.”
Ana cringed as she got to the last part of his profile.
“See! Why do you need a model type of a girlfriend if you just want to knock her up and make her fat with babies?”
“Well, I’m sure there are better choices. You just need to look through them. Maybe look at the profiles and respond to some of the people who aren’t sending out messages. Shy guys aren’t going to message you first. You’re way too pretty. They probably think you’re fake.”
“Me? Why would they think I’m fake?”
“Jordan, come on! You’re tall. You have the type of hair women spend thousands trying to get. Your skin is flawless. And your figure is insane. You are easily the sexiest nurse I know. Those guys would be stupid not to message you, or they are too shy and think you’re out of their league.”
I had to blush at her comments. She always told me I should have gone into professional modeling. But in Liechtenstein, model scouts always picked girls up and took them overseas, and then we never heard from them. Many of their families would get worried that something bad happened to them, and a couple had even found out that their daughters had been sold into prostitution. I wasn’t about to have something horrible like that happen to me.
In fact, the whole situation with Ana and Gordon made me think that something bad was going to happen to her. I genuinely wanted to be happy for her, but deep down, I felt like it was some sort of scam.
“You make sure and call me the second you arrive in Miami. No excuses! I don’t care if Gordon is the man of your dreams and you want to jump his bones right there in the airport. You stop long enough to call me. Do you understand?”
They had called for boarding of Ana’s flight, and I was freaking out. I didn’t want her to leave. The combination of having my mother get married and head off on her honeymoon and having Ana leaving was overwhelming. I wasn’t a super dependent person, but I did value my relationships with both my mother and Ana. It was going to be really hard to be alone and without them as they moved on with their lives.
“I promise, I’ll call you. Here’s a copy of Gordon’s information he sent me, so you know you can get in touch with me if you need to.”
We hugged each other, and, of course, we both started to cry. It was a new life for the two of us, and I felt like I was getting left behind. We had done everything together for the last few years. Having her go off on her own certainly hadn’t been part of our plans. I really did need to get over
to the United States so we could at least see each other again. Plus, I had always wanted to visit America. And at least after Ana went there, I would have a good reason to go visit.
I watched as she got into the line, and I realized there were an awful lot of young single women heading to Miami on that flight. Every horrible thought about sex trafficking started to rush through my head, and I couldn’t stop thinking about the possibility that Ana was being purchased by this guy in Miami.
“Ana!” I yelled out and ran over to her. “Are you one hundred percent sure about this?”
“Yes, Jordan. It’s going to be all right. Get on OK Love and find yourself a man in America, and we can see each other again soon.”
We hugged each other one last time, and she boarded her plane. I watched with tears in my eyes as she walked down the corridor. I didn’t know if I felt so extremely sad just because Ana was leaving, or if the combination of Ana and my mother both leaving was just too much for me. The transition into being an independent adult seemed inevitable for me now.
I cried. Not like a sweet, cute cry that happens to normal people. I cried like a baby as I stood there and looked at the empty corridor. My life felt so empty. In that one moment, I felt lonelier than I could ever remember feeling. It wasn’t as if I didn’t feel comfortable being alone, I actually really enjoyed my time alone. But I always knew that Ana and my mother were close by. Now, they would both be far away, and I would be officially alone, like a real adult.
I sat and watched as the other people got onto the plane. I counted at least a dozen girls that were around our age who were going to Miami with Ana. I really hoped they weren’t all going to the same guy. I couldn’t help but wonder if I had just sent my best friend off to some sort of international prostitution ring.
“Was that your sister you were saying goodbye to?” an older woman asked me.
She also had tears in her eyes and a look of concern, when she saw just how badly I was crying. I probably didn’t look like I was fit to drive, and I didn’t intend to leave the airport anytime soon. My chest was beating hard, and my vision still blurry from the tears. I had to sit tight in the airport near Liechtenstein for a while.
“My best friend. Were you saying goodbye to someone?”
“Yes, my daughter. She met a man in the United States, and he paid for a ticket for her to come and visit him.”
My stomach sank as I thought all my fears might be coming true right at that moment. I didn’t want to make the poor woman nervous, though. I really didn’t have any distinct information, only a lot of suspicions. It just seemed very suspicious to me that all these young, beautiful women were taking the flight to Miami together.
“Where was she going?” I asked as I held my breath a little and waited for her response.
“Seattle. He is a nice man and has plenty of money to support her. I just don’t have enough to feed her and her five siblings. I’m happy for her, but sad that she is leaving us.”
I didn’t have the heart to tell her that I thought her daughter and my best friend might be on their way to America because of some sort of sinister agenda. There was no actual proof, and I wasn’t about to put that kind of fear into a mother without knowing for sure. For all I knew, there really were rich men in America that wanted women from overseas to come and marry them. I didn’t know all that much about American men. Perhaps Liechtenstein women were just what they were looking for.
It was entirely possible that our little country just happened to be where men looked for their online brides. We were a novelty country, and I could see men might click on our profiles to just see what we looked like. Then, of course, the gorgeous women of Liechtenstein would win the men over.
“Is she staying for long?” I asked.
“Well, she is planning on a couple weeks, but she said she might just stay if things are going well.”
“I hope things work out for her,” I said as I walked toward the glass window and watched Ana’s plane pull out of the gate.
“Your friend, too,” said the woman as she turned and left the gate area.
My stomach churned at the possibility that she wasn’t actually going to meet a nice, new boyfriend. I hoped I was wrong, and I couldn’t wait the eight hours it was going to take for her to land and call me. My brain swirled with all the ideas of what might happen when Ana and the other girls landed in the United States.
I sat down in the chairs and watched until I saw her plane take off, and I couldn’t see it in the air any longer. Sadness filled my heart completely. It was the kind of sadness you felt when you were really happy for someone, like when a friend got married. I knew that I wasn’t going to get to see Ana as much, and I had fears about what might be going on when she arrived in America. But deep down, I was also sad because she had a happy future that she was moving on to, and I didn’t feel like I had any of that going on.
Finally, I was all alone. My mother and Ana were gone, and I was stuck to fend for myself. Part of me wanted to stay in Liechtenstein and build a quiet little life for myself. It would be easy to keep my little apartment and just work a couple jobs. I was sure, sooner or later, I would meet a local guy, and we could start a life together.
It didn’t have to be a big life. I knew I could be happy with a quiet life. The problem was I also knew I would be much happier if I lived in a big city and had the hustle and bustle of that kind of lifestyle. I had been to London and loved it. There was always something to do, always people around. It was an exciting life, and the possibility of having that was a big draw.
Reluctantly, I opened the OK Love app on my phone and scrolled through the people who had messaged me. None of them looked remotely like someone I would normally go on a date with. If I was going to meet a man from the United States, I wasn’t about to settle for some old, ugly guy. There had to be some sort of attraction with him.
I scrolled through the profiles to see if there were any men that caught my eye at all.
Tall farmer looking for a woman to help around the farm and keep me company at night. Must be willing to have at least four children. No way! I wasn’t going to be stuck on a farm in the middle of nowhere.
Executive man in search of my queen. I’ll treat you lovely and buy you gifts. Looking to find a woman to live with me and my wife. Double no way! I wanted a man who was actually looking for a partner.
Young tech firm CEO just looking to see what’s out there. I’m shy and quiet and have a hard time meeting women. Would love to chat with you. That one looked promising. I clicked the button to save his profile.
As I continued through all the profiles, one thing seemed very obvious – there were fake profiles on there. I had no doubt that some of the people that had profiles on OK Love were not legitimate people. But I hoped that I would be able to weed through them and figure out who was real and who wasn’t.
The real men seemed lonely and like they really wanted a partner. They were more than happy to email or talk on the phone to get to know their potential date. But they were not offering to buy plane tickets right away or fly you out within a week. The latter profiles made me nervous. Guys who said just message them and they would fly you to America were dangerous.
I decided to see if Ana’s guy, Gordon, still had his profile on the site. Surprisingly, I found him pretty quickly, just by searching the thirty-something guys in the Miami, Florida area. His profile seemed pretty normal. He seemed normal, and his pictures made him out to be a really handsome man. I could see how Ana fell for him.
His profile seemed pretty legitimate, although it somewhat concerned me that it said he had logged in only five minutes before. I wasn’t exactly sure why he would need to keep logging into his profile if Ana was already on her way to be with him. But who was I to judge him? Maybe he was saying his last good-byes to other women he had talked to on there.
Still, it gave me a rotten feeling, and I worried about Ana. I always worried about Ana, though. She looked at the world through rose-colored gl
asses. She never thought that people were going to hurt her. She was trusting – sometimes too trusting. She fell for guys and the lies they told her all the time. I really wished she would have let me talk to Gordon via Skype before she had decided to run off with him.
I clicked the button to save his profile, too, just in case I needed to come back and check him out. I wasn’t sure if Ana had talked about me with him in any of their conversations, but I hoped he wouldn’t know who I was. If he didn’t know who I was, I could find out more from him later if she ended up going missing.
I hated that my mind kept thinking about all the horrible ways that he might not turn out to be the right guy. I really did hope that he was a good guy and would treat Ana right. I hoped she would have all the happiness with him that she could possibly have.
Reluctantly, I filled out my profile with the rest of the information Ana and I hadn’t given, and I closed my app. As much as I didn’t believe that it was possible to find a man that would be a good match for me, something deep down still had me hoping that I would be able to find him.
I decided to text some of my friends from work and see what they were doing with their night. I just couldn’t tolerate the idea of going home to an empty house and no one to talk to. My friends from work were all a little crazy, but they would be better than nothing on a lonely night.
Chapter 5
Chase
A half-day of work was better than nothing. And by three o’clock, I had to leave. There was nothing for me to do, and I really didn’t know what to do with myself. I hadn’t shown up to work on a regular basis in a very long time, and all of the jobs I used to be responsible for had been given away to other people in the office.
It did make me feel like crap that everyone always seemed so surprised when I showed up for work. It was as if they expected me to be a slacker and when I tried to prove them otherwise, they were disappointed.
My job was mainly in managing our facility locations, but I tried to work on some marketing and social media when my father would allow it. His idea of business and mine were vastly different, though. He thought that as long as you put out a good product, there was no reason to market or advertise anything. My thought was that it was a new age, and marketing was an essential part of that new world. People used social media to find out about companies and without it, some people would never know about your organization or what it offered.
