The Dragon King

Katharine stared down at her phone, thumbs numb from the string of texts that kept coming. She messaged her father, letting him know she was on her way, the engine humming beneath her, the city blurring past. It was a heavy message with finality—a silent vow that after today, she would never again bail him out, never enable his spiral into gambling and desperation.

Just as she set her phone aside, Mark’s name flashed on the screen—a number she thought she’d left behind when she changed it after the breakup. The ache of memory pulsed inside her; she let the call ring through to voicemail, refusing to answer. She guessed—correctly—that it was her father who had passed her new number along, desperate for someone to fix what he’d broken.

A moment later, a new message arrived from Mark. She opened it, lips pressed tight, reading the words that left her colder than before.

“Marry me or paid me back for the money I loan your father,”

“I will never marry you and the money that my father got from you I will pay it, just give me some time,”

“You got until the end of the month to pay it back,”

Katharine just turns off her cellphone, just looks out of the window to see that they are going into the original town where this place that her father is at. Once she repays Mr. Miller and returns the money to her ex-boyfriend, who cheated on her with a co-worker. Katharine was certain that Mark had been cheating on her with a number of women. Every time she walked, people would laugh at her. Like two years ago, women would point at Katherine, then whisper.

“She didn’t see that her boyfriend has been cheating on her with every female he sees,” said by standard

“I know, right? I wouldn’t show my face around town. She thinks he was faithful to her, come on now with these gifts, he just using her,”

She doesn’t want to keep remembering that breakup, just wants to go on with her life, so she just sits back. They pulled up to the back of the building as the driver opens the door for her. The bodyguard opened the back door as she entered and didn’t know where to go. The man who was in the passenger seat walked upstairs as, waiting for Katharine to follow him, the guard closed the door.

“Miss this way, follow me,”

Katharine just nodded, there are cameras in every corner so anything goes wrong, guards will come running. Why does she feel this weird sense coming from this place? The man opens the door into an office to see her father on his knee begging again for more money. She went up to her father to get him up from the ground just to look at Mr. Miller.

“Dad, I told you many times to stop this act. Do you really want to end up dead somewhere? I can’t always save you,”

“I know sweety I had it in my hand, but I got too greedy,”

Mr. Miller has this look on his face as he watches Katharine talking to her father, it brings a small smile to the corner of his mouth. Mr. Miller just stared at Katharine with long brown hair, for a small woman she knows how to take a single gambling and alcoholic parent. However, she must take care of her father with all his troubles.

Mr. Miller, please accept my apologies for the trouble my father has caused you. How much money does he owe you?” asked Katharine.

“He owes me 20,000 dollars. Thomas, tell your daughter what you told me that you were going to be sell her to me to clear any debt you have,” smile Mr. Miller.

Katharine’s eyes widened, a storm of disbelief flickering across her face as Mr. Miller uttered words she never imagined hearing. She turned toward her father, whose gaze avoided hers, heavy with shame and regret. For a moment, she simply stared, searching for something in him that could explain the unthinkable suggestion. With a slow, steady breath, she shook her head—once, decisive—and reached down to unzip her faded backpack.

Inside, neatly stacked and counted, was every dollar she’d scraped together over months of tireless work. Without hesitation, she pulled out the entire sum—twenty thousand dollars, crisp bills and worn notes all the same—and placed them on Mr. Miller’s desk with a quiet finality. Her hand lingered for a fraction of a second atop the money, as if imprinting her determination into the transaction.

She straightened, her voice unwavering, “This is everything you asked for. My father’s debt is paid, and I will not be sold off like property.” For the first time in the cramped office, Katharine’s presence seemed to fill the space, her resolve radiating outward, silencing the moment with dignity.

Mr. Miller regarded her, intrigued and perhaps a touch amused, while her father finally managed to look up at his daughter, respect mingling with remorse in his eyes. She turned to him, silent but firm, ready to lead him out from the shadow of his mistakes.

“If my father indeed said that I would never work for you, here’s your money. I’ll ensure he never finds himself in a situation like this again. I’ve been shouldering my father’s debt for years to prevent him from getting into trouble. I realize I should have let him be and moved on with my life, such as getting married and having children by now.”

Katharine doesn’t look worried, showing off her crystal blue eyes.

As she zips up her backpack, then helps her father out of the office until Mr. Miller says something that catches her attention.

“If I catch your father at any of my casinos, he will be throw out,”

Katharine said nothing just left his office once the door closed behind them. Mr. Miller closed his eyes to breathe in her mint chocolate that makes his mouth water. His right-hand man, Lucas, passed him a file about Katharine and her father; he opened it at once. Mr. Miller was surprised by her youth; she looked even younger than her 21 years. Forgoing her education, she's been working since she was fifteen to help her parents pay the bills. Katharine's excellent grades, combined with her restaurant job and extra credit, allowed her to graduate early and attend college. It shows that her mother ran off with another man, that when Thomas lost his job because of his drinking, which it led into gambling all the money that his daughter has been saving. She was getting her father out of trouble like paying for his bail, tapping at bars all over the town.

“Sir, are you alright?”

“My mate is going to be a handful, I want you to have one of the men watch over her when she works late,”

“Yes, sir. Do you want to mate with a human?”

“Don’t question me. She is special. Just do what I say,”

Lucas did as he was told and bowed to leave. Katharine and her father stand outside in the rain, thinking to herself it’s going to be expensive to get home if they catch a cab. Katherine was about to call a cab, holding her father's hand to keep him from wandering off. The familiar car approached, and the driver wound down the window.

“Mr. Miller told me to take you two homes,”

“Thank you, come on father,”

Thomas and Katharine got into the car, the driver closed the door with him getting wet in the rain; he got into the driver’s seat, closed the door to take them home. In the backseat, Thomas couldn't help but stare at her backpack. Thomas was curious about how his daughter came to possess such a large sum of money. Katharine hears her father’s stomach growling; she knows that he didn’t eat anything just drink liquor all day. You could smell alcohol coming out of Thomas’ pores that fulling up the car, because she also didn’t eat anything while working at the restaurant.

“Dad, why did you give Mark my number, which I told you not to?”

“I borrowed money from him, baby girl. I acknowledge my obligation to reimburse him. I asked him to give me a little while; I play a couple of card games.”

“Stop borrowed money from him, I don’t want to see or talk to him,”

When Katharine glanced at her father, she could tell he had no response to her question. She must convince him to stay home and install a security system. She pulled out her phone it’s 2:00 am. Lucky her boss gives her a week off so she can rest away from that place. The coworker will resent the identical workload. The driver pulled up to their place, but she didn’t give the driver the address. How did this driver know where they lived? Maybe her father wrote down his personal information related to the games he played. The rain drumming on the car is the only sound, then silence fills the car.