Ten

The room was lit with candles, there were only two chairs opposite the very long table. A feast was arranged on the table and Diane heard her stomach rumble as she walked into the room. Beatrice had told her she would be having dinner with Ricardo in his personal dinning room, Diane had no idea why Ricardo wanted to have dinner with her but she knew she wasn't going to like it.

"You look so beautiful" someone whispered in Diane's ears as she stood admiring the room. It was still painted with black but there were roses on the tables and walls, it looked so beautiful it almost made her relax, almost.

Diane mumbled a stiff "Thank you" as she inched closer to the chair backing the entrance of the room and away from her captor. Like a lioness stalking her prey, Diane watched as Ricardo walked to the opposite chair maintaining eye contact as he went. As he sat down, Diane tore her eyes from him and settled down into her own chair. She had intentionally chosen the chair that was close to the entrance just in case she had to fled.

"That dress looks perfect on you" Ricardo said with a lazy smile. How could a compliment sound so offensive? Maybe it was because of the way his eyes swept over her as he gave it.

Diane was uncomfortable, "You've said that before" Without waiting for him to start eating, Diane dug into the bowl of pasta and started her meal. The faster she finished eating, the sooner she would be able to leave the room. Diane couldn't place why she felt so uncomfortable near Ricardo, she knew she hated him so much and wished he would just die but-

"You'll choke if you keep eating so fast" Ricardo's voice dragged her out of her thoughts so fast she actually choked. As Diane scrambled for water on the table, Ricardo stood up and almost ran across the table to where she was sitting. Diane flinched as his hand rested on her back, she drank the water in a gulp, stood up abruptly and almost ran out of the room.

As soon as Diane closed the door of her new room, she dragged out the breath she had been holding. She was right in thinking Ricardo Alvarez had ulterior motives. The dress and the dinner were proof enough, Ricardo Alvarez had set his eyes on her and he wasn't going to stop until he got her.

Daniella had raved about how lucky she was to be a guest of Ricardo Alvarez and more than anything Diane wanted to let them know she wasn't a guest, she was a prisoner.

"We saw the way he looked at you the day he brought you here" Beatrice and the other maid nodded their head in agreement. The way he looked at her? Diane was livid, she had arrived at the mansion, gagged, blindfolded and in binds.

"I think Mr Alvarez likes you, miss" Beatrice added and Diane felt sick to the stomach. Ricardo Alvarez wasnt capable of liking anything and even if he was, it most definitely wasn't going to be her. Her father was owing Ricardo, he was holding her against her will until her father was able to settle the debt. That was all there was to it but as long as she was in Ricardo's custody, there wasn't anything stopping him from taking advantage of her. Besides, the Mafia boss always got whatever he wanted.

Diane sat on the gigantic bed and watched the sun set through the window of her room in the Alvarez mansion. She had finally decided the only option she had to rid herself of the torment that waited her was for her to find a way to leave the mansion. The maids had made it clear to her about the way Ricardo Alvarez treated his guests. But Diane knew she wasn't a guest and what power did she have over the boss of the Mafia?

Ricardo watched as Diane skipped out the door of the dinning room. He had planned to make her comfortable enough to let her guard down but he saw how she shot him daggers with her eyes as soon as he got into the room. The red dress had suited her more perfectly than he had hoped and for the first time since he took Diane from her house, Ricardo felt he had made the right choice. She was going to serve him well, he just had to tame her first.

The maids he assigned to her had told him she was still timid and adjusting to life in the Alvarez mansion. Diane had not shown any signs of fear or timidness in front of him since she got to the house. Ricardo was sure everything would change with time, besides, there was still no news from Luiz Sanchez.

The conversation with Eric had ended well, M.I.T had accepted him and Ricardo was very happy. Ever since he met Eric back when the kid was still in highschool, all Eric had talked about was how much he wanted to go to space. Ricardo saw it as a child's dream but seeing how serious Eric was about it, he started encouraging him just like the way his uncle Anthonio had pushed him to further his education.

The next day came faster than Diane had hoped for, she had spent most of the night tossing and turning around in the bed. She wasn't safe with Ricardo Alvarez, that was clear to her and she had no idea what had happened to her father. Luiz Sanchez had swore that Ricardo would kill him if he didn't meet the deadline, Diane was a 100% sure her father wasn't able to meet the deadline. Had the Mafia boss killed her father? Noone was giving her any information.

The women kept on coming to her every morning with food and a new bag of clothes for dinner every night with Ricardo but he hadn't shown up for anyone since the night she ran out of the dinning room. Diane noticed Ricardo was almost never in the mansion and Beatrice confirmed it when she asked.

Three days passed in a blur and Diane saw less of Ricardo and more of the house. Since Ricardo Alvarez was never around, Diane took out time to befriend the maids and gather necessary information she would need for her escape.

"There are guards everywhere" Beatrice had said when Diane asked how the security in the mansion was. Beatrice, very eager to share her knowledge, had then gone ahead to tell her about the different sections of the mansion. According to her, Ricardo's room was located somewhere around the far end of the east wing and Diane's was located at the north side.

The mansion had three exits, the main front door on the south, the back door at the end of the north wing which the servants and guards used and the last door around the east wing, which was only accessible by Ricardo and his right hand man. There were over four guards at all the entrances and it looked almost impossible to get past without their notice but it didn't matter to Diane, she had to try. Escaping the Alvarez mansion was her only option if she didn't want to end up dead or worse case scenario, becoming Ricardo Alvarez's mistress.