Drift asked very curious. I could see in his eyes he wanted to hear the story and he would pay close attention.

I was 17 years old back then. My dad found a Spanish company/business who could help us with some services, such as driving us to places or buying groceries and sometimes do gardening things. The owner of the business was called Rodas. He can only speak Spanish, but his men can talk English and Spanish. Me, Deadfire and my parents went to meet him at his house. He had his own office there. We talked and it was a nice man. He was about 51 at that time I think and he had a brother ,who speaks Spanish and English as well, who was 48 years old. He was his only family member left but he preferred not talk about the rest of his family. I was okay with that.

Later we met the men who would work for us and also his brother. It would always be random who would help us when we called Rodas for a service. We would pay about $350 monthly, which was a pretty good deal. Rodas, his brother and his men became kind of our friends. Sometimes Rodas invited us for a tea or the other way around. He was like an uncle to me. He even helped me with the time when I broke up with my ex because he cheated on me. I was so heartbroken, that I cried for days. But Rodas knew how to cheer me up and help me forget about him. I eventually forgot my ex forever. I also heard he moved away and to be honest, I was very happy about that.

One day the monthly bill came in. I grabbed the envelope from our mailbox and opened it. $1200! How is this possible? We didnt even hire the guys to let them do a lot of work! They only bought groceries and deliverd them 2 times!

I immediately brought this bill to my dad, who was watching TV. I said as I speed walked towards my dad. I sat down next to him and gave him the bill. He inspected it closely and realized this indeed wasn't right. My dad said surprised. He grabbed his phone and called Rodas. Hello, Rodas?) My dad said as Rodas picked up. I heard a grumpy/irritated voice trough the phone. He didnt sound like the Rodas I knew.I just got the monthly bill and I noticed a mistake. We only asked for 2 services this month but the bill is $1200, which is incorrect. It shouldn't be this expensive.) My dad explained in a calm voice.

(Well we decided to make things expensiver because my company needed more money. I almost cant pay my men anymore, and I can only buy a limited amount of food for me and my brother.) Rodas explained. Well you should've told us earlier that you were going to raise the price of your services. I am not paying for this because I had no idea of your decision.) My dad began to get a little frustrated now. I'm sorry Rafael, but you will have to pay it. You can stop hiring after this one but you need to pay this months bill.) Rodas really wanted that money, but why?

He was wealthy enough I thought because I've seen him wear expensive clothes and stuff. He also has a really expensive car. I'm actually not buying this. (No Rodas, I will not accept this. If you dont scrap this one of, I will go to court!) Now my dad was really angry.You can go to court, but I bet they will tell you to pay the bill. No doubt.) I heard Rodas was pretty confident. I was kind of getting scared of what will happen.

My dad hang up on Rodas and rushed to his office upstairs. I didn't knew what he was doing there, but I thought I should leave him alone for now. My mom asked worried as she came back from the backyard with Deadfire. My mom and brother were outside chilling together.

I explained about what just happened and my mom and brother were pretty shocked, just like me.

My mom started walking to the stairs. I grabbed her arm and she faced me. I said with a fearful face. My mom said as she kissed my cheek. I smiled at her and she went upstairs. I saw it was almost 20:00 so I decided to go upstairs to my room.

Once I entered my bedroom, I changed into my pajamas and laid in bed and pulled the blanked over me. I grabbed my laptop from my nightstand and turned it on. I watched 2 episodes from my favorite series. By now it was 21:45 and decided to go downstairs and see if my mom was still awake.

When I got downstairs I saw she was doing the dishes. I got over to the kitchen and helped her. I was very curious by now. My mom was kind of upset about all of this. I asked. My mom finished her last dish and so did I. She smiled and gave me a kiss on my forehead. I gave her a warm smile and went upstairs in my room, closing the door.

I went in bed and put away my laptop. I pulled the blanket over my body. Then all sorts of questions popped up in my head. Why was he acting so weird all of a sudden? Why wouldn't he tell us about the prize raising? Who will win the lawsuit? Will there be more consequences if we lose the lawsuit? Even more questions were on my mind, but I decided to get some sleep and forget about it for now. I closed my eyes and fell asleep quickly.

Me, my parents and Deadfire where at court. It was THE day we would hear if we needed to pay that insane amount of money or if it will be scrapped off. The judge sat in the middle. On his right hand sat my dad with his lawyer. On the left hand of the judge sat Rodas with his lawyer. This took like an hour or so, but It was finally done.And to my suprise, we won the lawsuit! We didnt have to pay the $1200.

But something that was kind of bugging me was that Rodas shut down his business. At least, the judge told him to do so because he sort of went against the law. But I was worried. Even though he did something awful, I was still worrying about him. I know I shouldn't do that but I just can't... It's hard. Especially when he was very close and felt like family.

I was done finishing eating breakfast and went to my room to change into my stage 2 clothes. When I finished buttoning my blouse, I heard my phone ring. I saw it was Rodas and wondered if I should pick up or not. I was thinking hard but I decided to answer. I said. (Calamity, I need to talk to you about something VERY importantHe said pretty anxious. Okay, clam down. About what exactly?) I asked, kind of getting worried about what is going on. It's about why I raised the prices. I was threatened!) Rodas sounded very scared right now. What! By who, and whyI was super shocked at the moment.I cant tell you on the phone. I need you to meet me at the lake in the forest with the small house next to itAfter he said the last part, he hung up.

Shit.. He was threatened all this time. Poor guy. I went downstairs and noticed my parents were already gone to their work. My brother was taking a shower so I left him a text message for when he gets out of the shower. As I was 10 minutes away from my house, Deadfire sent me a message and said he was okay with it, and that I should be back home before it was dark. I sent him a simple 'okay' and put my phone away. As my town slowly faded out of sight, I entered the forest. This wasn't a forest with millions of trees and branches laying on the ground. This forest was very clean and neat with a lot of trees but it wasn't ruining your sight I could say.

I saw the lake and the house in front of me. And there I saw Rodas... Standing between the house and the edge of thee lake, facing the house. He looked upset and stressed. As I approached him, I gave him a warm hug. He hugged me back and I heard him sniff a little. He broke the hug and looked at me.

He didn't look scared anymore, infact, a smile was creeping up on his face. It wasn't a kind of smile I liked to see. He looked past me, so actually behind me. I wondered what he was looking at. As I heard the door of the house behind me creak, I wanted to look behind me to see who was there. Before I could turn my head around, a man already grabbed my wrists and held them behind me, on my lower back and with his other hand he held my waist. I got cut off as Rodas rapidly pulled down my bandanna, and covered my nose and mouth with a cloth. As I noticed there was a smell, I realized this was chloroform.

I tried to scream for help but I couldn't, because of the cloth pressed against my mouth, only muffled screams came out. Sshhh. There is no point of screaming right now. No one can hear youRodas said. If he wanted to kill me, he shouldn't worry about that. I already almost felt dying because of how extremely scared I was.