The Vicious Circle

Chapter 1

Sitting in my room for one hour straight was not really how I imagined my evening. I mean, I'm 19 years old, let me party with my bestfriend. Just for one evening.
But that's what I'm used to, being the daughter of the biggest cartel owner in the Netherlands, it's my everyday life. While other kids played with Barbies at the age of 9, I was trained how to fight, shoot and manipulate people to get my will. One year after I started to train, my mom died. Dad always told me it was an accident, but accidents don't happen in the life I'm living. I guess he just wanted me to focus on becoming a killermachine. Not that I would want to complain, I like the power I have.
Now im sitting here, staring at the ceiling, waiting, till my father finally finds the time to talk to me.
He's always busy but nobody said being the big Daan Luuk van Dijkstra is easy. He and my grandfather were the reason why the cocaine and in general the drug trafficing in Europe were and still are big. The Dijkstra cartel is the biggest cartel in Europe and one day I'm going to be the boss of it.
‚ Alani? Alani!', hearing my childhood best friend Vincent calling my name made me flinch for a second. It was the sign, my father wanted to talk to me, so I got up from my bed and went downstairs. I ran into Vince who waited for me right outside of my bed room. Since the way to my fathers office was quite a long distance, I had some time to ask my best friend, what my father could possibly want from me. Together we walked through the palace, I mean it is not really a palace but I liked to call it like that since I was a child.
So I started asking him: ‚How are you doing?' It might be a weird question to ask when you live on the same property as the other person, but when Vince started working for my family we stopped spending time together.
‚I know what you are up to, darling, I know your little tricks and you know, that they don't work on me.'
Well, he got me. He spent the rest of our little walk telling me about the cool new kick he learned in his fighting lessons.

When we finally arrived at my dad's office, I took a deep breath. Yes, it might not seem like it but I was a little nervous. My family always decided, what I should and should not do, so I was quite curious what my father would tell me today.
‚Hey dad!', I said while entering his office. ‚Hello honey. Have a seat, we have to talk.' I became even more nervous when I sat down on the other side of my father's desk. ‚As you know, our businesses are not going right these days.' Yes, I know. Did you find out why?' ‚Our men and I have finally found the reason for it. There is an Italian family, the Giordanos. They have built quite a big drug empire, their speciality is cocaine, but it seems like they are considering trying new products. Those fools! They are immitating us and we cannot let them succed!' ‚Well, what does that have to do with me?', I asked.
Someone knocked on the door. It opened. ‚Sir, you have visitors.' Vince said. My grandfather Hans Gabriel van Dijkstra and my father's counsellor Hendrik stepped in the room. There were two people behind them I had never seen before. A man and a girl, she must have been around my age. ‚May I introduce, this is Slavik Grigorjew and his daughter Anastasia. He is the head of a russian mafia family.' my grandfather said. ‚ They have a backstory with the Giordanos. I think Miss Grigorjew can tell you herself.' ‚ Thank you Mister van Dijkstra. You are right, we have a quite a backstory. I once dated the oldest son of the Giordano family. Adriano. I thought we were in love. Well one day I had to find out that he had an affaire with my own mother. Not just that. He killed her. That nasty son of a bitch killed my mother! I want to see him dead. I hate him so much!' Anastasia started crying. She took a deep breath and started to talk again: ‚I am sorry. I will tell you everything you need to know about him. I will prepare you properly, Alani.'
‚Prepare me? For what?' I hoped that the other ones would not see my insecurity. Now Mister Grigorjew started talking: ‚I believe it wolud be for the best if Anastasia and I  left you alone for a moment.'  

‚My dearest daughter, since your childhood you have been trained to manipulate and fight. Now I need you to show what you've learned. Starting next week you will attend the Abraham Ashkenasi Boarding School in New York. Adriano is a student there. He is about your age, I want you to break him. We need to make a move against those filthy Italians, so they will never intersect our businesses ever again! Do whatever it takes and bring honour to your family, Alani.'
Time stood still for a moment. What did he just say? In this moment I felt nothing. My own father really wanted to send me away to do something like this to some guy for the business?! I looked him dead in the eye and said: ‚No! Why would I do such thing? Are you out of you mind?' ‚Alani, that was not a question!' ‚But what use do I have fom it?'
My father clearly did not expect that reaction. ‚Well, I could buy you a new Tiffany set. I know how much you like them.' Instead of answeing I just pulled up an eyebrow. It seemed like he realized that he could not get me with some material stuff this time.
He took a deep breath and looked at my grandfather for a moment. He just shrugged with his shoulders. My father took another deep breath: ‚I can make you an offer. When you return I will include you into the family businesses. In this school you can not just do your job, you can learn some economical things, too.'

Well, that was not what I thought he would say but this clearly stated how serious it was. I took a deep breath and cleared my head. This was my chance to finally proove myself to my family. I had to do it. In this moment for the first time I had the feeling that my dad finally saw me as a grown up woman and respected me. ‚Alright, father, grandfather, I won't upset you.' I stood up and wanted to leave the room when suddenly my dad stood before me and took me in his arms. Did he really hug me? It must've been the first time in years. ‚That's what I expected from my daughter. I am so proud of you, honey.' To be honest, hearing his words, I nearly started crying.

But since I could not lose my face like that, I left the room without saying another word. When I closed the door I felt my emotions overcoming my in a big wave, but there was no time to cry it all out. Suddenly Anastasia stood before me. ‚I hope I did not catch a bad moment but I thought that I could tell you some things about Adriano.', she smiled at me cheeringly. I smiled back at her and said: ‚Yeah, yeah of course. Why don't you follow me to my room.'
After we arrived at my room, we sat down on the bed and Anastasia started talking. ‚There are some really important things to know about him. As you already heard, he is the son of the Giordano family. They have earned a lot of power and influence in the past. In front of other people he acts like his family or especially his family name is his whole pride. But to be honest, he does not really care. Of course he wants to make his parents proud of him, on the other side he does not rely on his last name. Adriano has a friend group with three other members. Nathan, Diego and Giovanni. They are called the Vicious Circle and believe me, they have that name for a reason. Those guys might look charming and sweet at first but they are all out for the same thing. They use their girls like their condoms, use them once and throw them away right after. The worst one is Diego. He is Adriano's best friend and he is pretty much the discription of insane. What ever you do, stay away from him. He will be your abyss.' Anastasia must have been talking for an hour straight. The rest was not really interesting. She wallowed in memories of the times when she and Adriano were happy. I really felt sorry for her. Well, I felt even more sorry for myself. Now that I knew more about those people, I really hated myself for saying ‚yes' to that deal.