Old Money || Shawmila [Completed]

1. Camila's dream

Since she was a child Camila had only one dream: to make a name for herself. At the age of five she believed she wanted to be a dancer, at twelve a famous singer, at sixteen a model. She didn't care how she would be able to make it, she just wanted her name to be remembered. But growing up in a modest, little house in New Jersey wasn't helping her. She had the feeling that her every effort was in vain, no one cared about a little girl who was the daughter of immigrants. And it was a real shame: Camila was full of life, with a strong and decisive character, jam-packed of ideas and talents.

At the age of eighteen, growing a little, she realized how she could really use her qualities. Growing up she had always idolized her mother's sister. Alicia Garcia, younger daughter, born and raised in Cuba, leaves the country to pursue the American dream and, it is not known how, manages to make her way through the politics of the country. She was definitely to be admired. So, Camila had decided to take her as a role model. She wasn't lacking the skills to enter a good school, and her sparkling and slightly manipulative character made her the perfect candidate for an aspiring politician.

There was, however, someone who didn't support her decision. Her mother was completely opposed to the career that the young woman wanted to pursue. She was convinced that in order to succeed among those corrupt people, Camila would have to give up her moral integrity. And her mother hadn't raised her that way! The relationship between the two had never been very peaceful and throughout her adolescence Camila had always found a wall between her and her mother, which prevented from communicating clearly. She was convinced that the woman was too strict and adamant, and that she partly despised her sister. Camila had always noticed a certain rivalry between her mother - a simple and traditional woman, a wife and a mother - and Alicia - a career woman who had given up the joys of the family to satisfy her thirst for power.

Luckily Camila had found some support from her father. The man had always made her feel like the most important person in the world, like the most precious gem of his treasure. He just wanted to see her happy. He was often in conflict with himself deciding whether to follow the endless love for his daughter or the loyalty for his wife. The man had seen in Camila's eyes the determination that would have pushed her to achieve her goal, whether she had received the support of her parents or not, and despite agreeing with his wife on the questionability of the actions that his daughter would have to make to succeed in her intent, he wanted Camila to be happy. And he knew that keeping her in New Jersey wouldn't have made her.

So, Camila began to study law just as she had planned, dividing her time between a part-time job and studying. It was tiring and there were times when she no longer felt like a real person, just a shadow of it, too caught up in the hectic life she was living. And then came an opportunity that she could not refuse. Her aunt, a candidate for Senator of California, wanted her on her team. She had been offered a job that she could handle as she saw fit, she would be paid much more than she was already earning, and she would have the opportunity to enter the world of politics with the advantage of being thousands of miles from home. For her this was synonymous of money, power and – possibly – glory. For the first time in her life, freedom seemed attainable.

It was only in the following months that she discovered how much that freedom would have costed her.

*

Senator Garcia's office was always crowded and chaotic, but there was some order within all that confusion. People talked animatedly and ran from one corner of the room to the other, but the noise was not deafening nor annoying. It almost felt like being in a library populated by hardworking ants. Camila was fascinated by it. Everyone had a precise task, and everyone worked at a fast pace, smoothly.

Camila had her own role too. Her aunt had initially hired her as an intern, given the amount of study she still had to take care of. Being at Alicia's side would have allowed her to make her way into the work she so coveted, an experience that also allowed her to enrich her resume. And now that she had finally graduated, she had been officially hired into the senator's team of lawyers.

At first sight her life seemed perfect, she had finally achieved everything she had always wanted. And yet, there was a void within her that she could not fill in any way. When she walked the streets, when she sat alone at a table in a bar, when in the evening she looked out the window of her new apartment, her heart tightened in a vice. She looked around and all she could sense was the deep loneliness that her broken heart couldn't let go of.

Very often she wondered if betraying and humiliating the man who had truly loved her had been worth it, if the choices she had made had actually brought her closer to the realization of her dream. And each time she did not dare to give voice to the answer that hammered in her head, aware that she had sacrificed perhaps the most beautiful thing that had ever happened to her. She remembered her mother's words and felt them burn in her chest like an ice bullet, painful, cold, sharp.

She hadn't heard of Shawn since they broke up almost two years earlier. Or rather, since he had broken up with her, leaving her alone with a reprehensible but fare truth. The words he had spat in her face had hurt her, but she knew she deserved them. She knew that the only reason she hadn't fallen into any form of depression was her involvement in Alicia's election campaign, which hadn't given her time to mull over what happened. But after her aunt's win and all the frenzy that followed, Camila had taken a moment to analyze everything that had happened. She was so ashamed of herself. That's also why she didn't dare to try to contact Shawn. He had been very clear with her: he had no intention of seeing her again, and Camila could only accept her will.

Despite this, once her family's scandal had gone into oblivion, Camila had tried to find out what had happened to her. Shawn seemed to have disappeared into thin air. His father had been confined to the state prison and although his lawsuit continued, his son had not been involved. Truth be told, no other member of the Mendes family seemed to want to deal with Richard. The man had been abandoned to his fate, and Camila felt no compassion for him. Instead, she was worried about Shawn who, as things seemed, had retired from college. Camila had hoped to be able to see him again in the university classrooms, or meet him in the bar nearby, but her hopes had been in vain.

Now all she had left was the memory of a past love and the regret of the decisions she had made.