Introduction: Ashley moves on in the world of medicine. She’s learning about real life. Her father is suddenly in serious financial trouble. The impact on her life is something she never could have expected.

The story is not mine. It is based on a very old tale that might have been part of English/Irish lore, it might be French or German. It might even be Persian in origin. I’ll leave it to you to try to figure out what tale it is. If you think you know, PM me. Don’t spoil it for others.

Although there are characters from other stories who make brief appearances, this is a stand-alone story.

This work is copyrighted by the author and any publication or distribution without the written consent of the author is strictly prohibited. This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance of the characters to persons living or dead is coincidental.

Chapter 5

Recovery for Ashley was a slow process, not like what one might read on some of the more imaginative TG sites. She spent two weeks in the hospital gradually getting her strength back. She was lucky that there were no serious issues with bleeding that sometimes happen. Caitriona was at her side almost continuously. Her father visited shortly after her surgery. He didn’t stay. ‘Business’ required that he be elsewhere.

Everyone was extremely helpful. After all, they had a very special clientele and they had a reputation to uphold. Nothing was left to chance. What she had desired was finally a reality, and there was no way she was going to mess up the doctor’s fine work. The fact that she was a nurse, and Caitriona was a medical specialist just made her recovery that much more a sure thing.

The direct flight to Boston didn’t take long, and Niall was there to greet them.

“You look wonderful, Miss.”

“Thank you, Niall, I feel wonderful.”

Ashley had been ‘out’ to the organization for four years. After all, it was impossible to hide what was happening. Perhaps because her father was respected, and the fact that Ashley, and Asher previously, had stayed pretty much below the horizon in the organization, that no one gave her transition a second thought. For that matter many had thought that the redhead with long hair had always been a girl. Ashley could have just as easily been Ash until she started to mature. Few had a clue about what had really happened.

Caitriona had decided to stay on for a while. Sean liked his ex-sister-in-law; however, there was no romance in the offing. She continued to work as an on-call midwife in the Boston area. She and Ashley both had cars by this time.

Ashley’s work at the Boston Children’s Hospital was everything she had hoped it would be. Working with the unfortunate victims of diseases such as cancer, and victims of accidents was so fulfilling, especially when she could pass a healthy child back to its parents. Of course there were the tragedies where in spite of everything a life was lost.

Of course there were the young male doctors and residents who thought it was their right (not rite) of passage to take any young nurse to bed any time they chose. It was generally known when a new student nurse or recent graduate lost her virginity to some lothario. Some nurses felt it was a rite of passage, and there were the ‘devirginating’ parties when PGA was diluted with orange juice or other soft drinks, and they celebrated the loss of virginity of another young girl. They also celebrated when a shy young male student nurse lost his to a female seductress. That one worked out, and they were happily married.

Of course, a number of nurses felt it was a way to snare a young doctor, and be set for life. Sometimes things did not work out well. In fact a terrible tragedy occurred during Ashley’s first year. A nurse had married a medical student during college, and had basically supported him through two children, medical school and residency. The day he finished his residency she was served divorce papers. He’d been sleeping with a nurse, but not at the hospital. His wife discovered where they were, and blew them away with a shotgun before turning it on herself.

Ashley steadfastly refused to date anyone: doctor, nurse, or anyone else. As when she was at school, she would attend group parties, but that was it. The men thought she was a lesbian, the women assured the men that she wasn’t. Only Caitriona had an idea.

Ashley knew something was wrong. There was something wrong going on in her father’s business. The outgoing, loving father was becoming more and more reclusive and curmudgeonly. Ashley didn’t know what the problem was. Her father seldom confided in her about business matters, especially when she’d made it known she wasn’t interested in his business operations.

She’d been on the night shift and had received a text message from her father asking that she meet him at his office. Sean’s office was in the second story of one of the restaurants he ran. As far as Ashley knew, the restaurants were legitimate. Her father seldom bothered her these days, especially after she’d been working 12 straight at night.

The parking lot was basically empty. Her father’s car was there, as was the restaurant manager’s. Most of the kitchen crew took public transportation. There was also a large Mercedes sedan with New York plates, and based on the model number, it was one of those extremely expensive models.

Ashley made her way up the back stairs to the office.

“Your father’s with someone right now, Miss Finlayson. I’ll tell him you’re here.”

“Sir, your daughter’s here.”

“Fine, we’ll be right out. I want her to meet someone.”

She could hear that the conversation was drawing to a close. There was always that raise in volume as the closing farewells, or whatever you called them, were passed back and forth. Ritual was so important.

The door opened and a rather handsome middle aged man followed by her father exited the room. The man looked vaguely familiar to her. His dark hair had a few touches of gray, especially around the temples. There wasn’t a hair out of place. His suit was very expensive. It probably came from one of those exclusive shops in Manhattan. There was a perfectly folded handkerchief in his breast pocket. He was a rather imposing figure.

“Giovani, I want you to meet my beautiful daughter, Ashley.

“Ashley, this is Giovani Donatella. We’ve been working on some business matters.”

Giovani smiled and took her hand in his. She wasn’t even aware she’d offered it to him. She wasn’t aware of how she kept from fainting, much less shaking. He was obviously appraising her in her nurse’s uniform. It didn’t do anything to hide her rather beautiful figure. She had taken off her cap and unpinned her hair while in her car. Her hair hung in loose waves to below her shoulders. It was obvious that he was very appreciative of what he saw. He reeked of cigarette smoke.

“It’s a pleasure meeting you, Mr. Donatella,” she barely squeaked out.

“I assure you the pleasure is all mine, Miss Finlayson.

“Sean,” he said turning to her father, “I think everything we discussed can be worked out. I will get with my lawyers and get back to you as soon as possible. Have a pleasant day.

“And, good day to you, Miss Finlayson.”

As he left, she could hear him humming an Italian song that she couldn’t remember the name of.

She heard the downstairs door close, and then could see the big Mercedes silently leaving the parking lot.

“Daddy, what the hell is going on?”

“We need to go back to my office.

“Sit down,” he said after closing the door. “This may take a while.

“Things are not going well. Remember when that freighter went down off Hawaii?”

“Yes.”

“We had a huge shipment of electronic equipment on that: all sorts of stuff: computers, I-Phones, games, and crap like that.”

“What did you lose?”

“About ten million our cash. The trouble is there are investors who are wanting their twenty million.

“That’s only the beginning. The Feds intercepted a couple of our liquor shipments and pharmaceuticals.”

“Daddy, you’re not dealing in drugs, are you?”

“No, I don’t do that shit. These were just generic drugs that people need, stuff like statins, blood pressure meds, antibiotics, cancer meds. We had a good underground going. The feds busted it wide open. Fortunately, nobody was caught. People are going to have to go back to paying exorbitant prices for things that should be cheap. We lost another five million on that, and the investors won’t accept the losses.”

“So, what do you have left?”

“The five restaurants, the car dealership: that’s about it.”

“Cash?”

“A few hundred thousand. That’s for taxes and keeping the restaurants going. This fucking economy is killing us. Trickle down, my ass.”

“So, what does Johnny Donatella have to do with this?”

“Nothing as far as I know. I don’t think he sank that ship, and I’m pretty sure that he didn’t interfere with the pharmaceutical business.

“Word gets around, and he knows we’re in trouble. He’s offered to bail us out. Of course there’s a cost. He wants the restaurants and the dealership. We’ll still run things up here, but me and the boy’s will just get a salary, a nice one, but a salary none the less.”

“That should be the boys and I.”

“I know that, I guess I’m just trying to make light of a bad situation. I must be getting too old for this business.”

“You’re not old, Daddy. You are only 52.”

“When are you going to bring me grandchildren? I don’t want to be too old to enjoy them.”

“Someday, Father, someday; the right person just hasn’t shown up.”

“Johnny said he’s going to go over things with his lawyers. Everything has to be on the up and up. I think I’ll retire.”

For some reason a curtain of dread seemed to hang over Ashley. Her father and associates’ ways of life were going to change drastically. She’d been picking up details here and there, but nothing too substantial. Other than the restaurants and the dealership the remainder of the property would stay in her father’s hands. He would be paid amply and would overlook several operations. They would still be comfortable.

“I’m scared, Trina. I just have this horrible feeling that things will go south for Daddy. Things just don’t feel right. What am I going to do if Mike shows up? I don’t know if I can handle it.”

Things did get worse, far worse than she ever expected.

There was that early morning phone call. That should have warned her right off the bat.

“Sweetheart, we need to talk. Something has come up that we can’t talk about over the phone. Please stop by the office on your way home.” This was bad. He never called her ‘Sweetheart’.

The office was empty except for her father. “Please have a seat. This is going to be tough.

“All the paperwork is essentially done. All it requires is our signatures and all the money problems will go away. He’s thrown one more thing into the deal, though.”

“What might that be,” she said fearing the worst.

“He wants to marry you. He asked me for your hand in marriage. I agreed.”

“You what!” she was shouting by this time. “How could you do this to me? I don’t love him. I don’t even like him.”

“Baby, please, it’s the only way I can get out of this mess.”

“So, you get out of this mess, and I get stuck with an old man I don’t even like. A man who smokes like a chimney. That’s some deal. You pimp your only daughter off to the Mafioso so you don’t have to worry about paying your bills. That’s a hell of a deal.

“Does he know about me?” she suddenly asked, her voice dropping a bit.

“Of course not; if he did that would probably ruin everything.”

“What if I told him?”

“Please don’t do that. Let’s not do anything rash.”

“Don’t do anything rash! You fucking sold me like chattel. I’m nothing to you. Well, I guess that’s not entirely true. I must be worth twenty or thirty million.”

“Don’t be that way. Those people I owe money to are threatening to kill me, and they probably will. Johnny’s not that bad. Besides, he could die. He is older than I am.”

“He’s the same age you are.”

“How do you know that?”

“I have my ways.

“So, if he dies I inherit everything from him?”

“That could be.”

“If he died, I wouldn’t take a fucking cent. Let his son have it.

“God, I hate you!”

How she didn’t have an accident on the way home was a mystery. All she remembered was slamming the door to her bedroom, and sobbing herself to sleep.

Caitriona found her there later that afternoon. “What’s happened that has you so upset?”

Ashley told her the whole miserable story.

“I could leave. I could run away. They would kill Daddy if I did that. As mad as I am at him, I couldn’t do that.”

“Marry him. I will go with you. I have my ways. I can make a potion that will kill him. It is quite painless, but it looks like a heart attack.”

“You would do that? Where do you get a poison like that?”

“You would be surprised at what I can do, what I have in my medical bag.

“Let’s stick together. There will be a way to get you out of this mess. I will find it.”

Ashley is very upset, and I don’t blame her. The father she loves so much has ‘sold’ her to Mike’s father. Guess who is sent to Boston to return her to Johnny Donatella. Ashley is desperate enough to consider suicide. Hopefully, it won’t come to that.