The Sound Of Us (#Wattys2017)

chapter one

T W O    Y E A R S    L A T E R

Cherry sat in front of the mirror in her room, squinting at her reflection. She tilted her head, smiling at the way her curly hair bounced with the action. Growing up, she used to hate her full hair, endlessly wishing she could have straight blonde locks like the girls around her. Now, she cherished her hair as a reminder of something her mother gave her.

Yesterday was the two-year anniversary of her mother's death. Although Cherry had learned how to live without her, the hole in her heart was a burden she was yet to adapt to. Her father was never much of a parental figure to her growing up, and her mother did all she could to shield her from the ugly truth of their life. Cherry was involved with her father's empire, however, her mother was the one to draw the line of her involvement. Cherry was never allowed near the drugs, never allowed to be left alone with any of her father's workers. Her mother's priority was to keep her daughter safe, which she did right until her final day.

After her mother was shot, Cherry's father made little attempt to fill the missing void in her life. Instead, Cherry got more involved with the empire, and her father, now free of anyone to stop him, would ask his daughter to do more and more dangerous tasks. He watched his daughter grow up, and he would notice the lingering gazes of his employees on her as she obliviously paid no mind. After the first time that he asked her to seduce the politician, he notices her natural ability to have men fall under her spell. Cherry surprised him when she not only went along with the task but seemingly enjoyed the game. It wasn't long before he found more similar tasks for her to do, and in return, he provided her with anything she needed. Cars, pets, travel and an endless supply of money for her to do whatever she pleased with. He knew that she could handle herself, and he relished the way his daughter was following in his footsteps.

Cherry got up off the floor where she was doing her makeup, and stretched her arms up as she walked into her closet to find something to wear for the night's event. Her father held an annual meeting with other heads of the international cartel, all meeting in his lavish home to discuss events and strategies. The meetings had never been canceled, except for the year that Cherry's mother died. Then, it was moved to a week later.

Cherry attended the meetings every year, which were more like extravagant parties than meetings. The first part of the night was spent discussing, and the final part was spent with hundreds of people filling the house, drunk and high off their minds. Cherry's mother would always lock them in her bedroom after the meeting, trying her best to shield her daughter from the wild party.

This was going to be the first year Cherry would attend the party as well as the meeting, and she wanted to it to be a good night. Flicking through her clothes, she decided on a short backless red dress, with thin black heels. Most of the clothes in her closet were new with the tags still on, but she had worn this dress before, at a friends party. After her mother died, Cherry threw herself into her social life as well as her father's business, and she spent any free time with her friends that she had made through her father's friends.  

After getting dressed, Cherry walked downstairs to her father's office, where the meeting would begin in a few minutes. As she walked down the stairs she glanced into the living area, where her father's workers and friends were lounging around, drinking and smoking, waiting for the meeting to be over so they could begin the party.

Opening the door to the office, the smell of expensive men's cologne overwhelmed her and she looked around the table of which her father was the head of. She ignored all the stares of the men who were wide-eyed gazing at her, and she walked over to the empty seat beside her father's chair. She was used to the male gaze, and she used her sexuality to her benefit when her father sent her to seduce men. Out of that though, she ignored the lusty stares men would give her, uninterested in sex. Sex was a tool for Cherry, and not something to enjoy.