—08—

I pace around the room, then stop just to stare at the ticking clock.

Where is he when he said he wanted to talk?

I wonder if he still remembers. Maybe he forgets and will not bring it up again.

It's one thing to be curious and another to be nosy. But what if he thought I was being nosy?

Fuck, who am I kidding? He's not gonna give a shit about what I was doing anyway. The main point is I saw him ordering people around to kill a man!

"Cara?" One of the maids calls out.

I hummed loud enough for her to hear while biting my nail groggily.

"Mr. Reyes requested your presence in his office right this instant." Then I hear her heels clinking away.

I smooth my dress out and check myself in the mirror. Oh, yes I'm definitely nervous.

Walking out my bedroom door feels heavier now more than ever. I peek through the hall and didn't see anybody there.

I knock softly on the office door once I reach it, hoping he won't hear it.

But of course he did, he has ears of a bat.

"Why were you in my office and why did you mess with my things?" He asks straight to the point. I guess he meant the button I pressed.

"Uh, I was looking for you and-" He quirks an uninterested eyebrow at me, "I'm sorry for pressing that button, I didn't even mean to do it." I look down at my feet. "Honestly? You can't be mad at me! It's not me who locks an adventurous girl in a room for a whole month! And it's not me who doesn't let the adventurous girl do anything besides roaming around a house with nothing fun to play with! It's not me who blocks out a girl's card and now she has no money to buy or pay for anything!" I let out in one breath and only took in a sharp intake of breath when I finished.

He looks surprised, speechless, bamboozled, he's in a loss for words for the first time. I mean I would be too if I were him. "First off, it hasn't been a month." He stands up from his chair and rounds me like a predator. "Second, there are lots of things for you to do, this house has more facilities than most houses do. Third, it's not me who locks herself away in her own room not wanting to go walk around the house when she has the permission from me." He stops in front of me and stares at the ground between us. "And fourth, why the fuck do you have mud on your shoes?" He growls out and stares daggers into me.

I roll my eyes at his dramatic tone and take off the shoes, cleaning the dirty spot, he steps back and clears his throat uncomfortably. I look up from my position and see him with his back towards me.

Lucero starts, "What you saw back there, it's my job. You don't have a say in it." he clears his throat and continues, "just because you and I are gonna be intimate in a few weeks doesn't mean you can ju-"

I cut him off and shouted, "What?! A few weeks what?! Intimate? I-? Me? As in me? Cara and you Lucero?" I stuttered backwards in shock.

"I haven't told you?" He scrunches his brows adorably and I want to punch his face even more.

"Oh, you surely haven't." I fold my arms in front of my chest and squint my eyes at him.

"You don't even look scary." He shrugs and goes back to his seat behind his desk.

"Look, I-" I sigh and continue, "I haven't done it, ever, like I'm a pure saint, you wouldn't have such a fun time doing it with me you know, I mean I do remember I signed a contract with you and I'm willing to do anything to help you but having a child is just hard and not in my to do list, especially not this year when I'm supposed to be studying right now instead of conceiving a child and with a stranger nonetheless." I feel my eyes tear up, I should not cry in front of this man. He might use it against me.

"I see." He nods once, twice, before kissing his teeth and types on his phone. Lucero signals to the couch and secretly tells me to take a seat.

I do so slowly and wait for something. A knock sounds from the door and a thin, tall, brunette man walks in. "How may I help you Mr. Reyes?" The clanky man keeps his head down the whole time.

"I want you to bring me the best teacher from Keelo's School and tell that teacher that they got offered a better job, say I'll pay them double the amount to teach a girl in my house." My eyes widen at Lucero's words.

"What are you doing?" I chocked.

He puts up his hand at me, "I'm not done-" Lucero opens a drawer and throws a pistol at the brunette man's feet. "If they refuse, kill them." He then rushes out when Lucero tells him kindly to get the fuck out.

"Why?"

"You mean why am I giving you the education you want?" He rolls his eyes and starts lighting a cigarette, inhaling the grey smoke into his lungs and out from his mouth.

"This is not what I want! Not the kind of education I want!" I yell and storm out of the room.

At the end it's always gonna be his way of dealing with things that gets me shivering, scared, and back to the little girl with a traumatic past hiding in her closet with a small teddy bear in her arms, crying herself to sleep for a whole week with her parents' dead bodies right outside.