PROLOUGE

Eros Castillo is a monster," Cassandra overheard a girl saying behind her. The market was busy, but she strained her ears to listen to the two girls following behind her.

"He is a sexy monster, though," replied the other girl.

Cassandra had heard a lot about Eros Castillio. She had heard about him from her father, she had heard about him from her mother, even from friends, strangers, market women, priests, and kids, and none of the things she heard were good. He was a living terror to the people of the town, and the worst of it all was that he owned half of the city. No one had ever messed with him and gone scot-free. She had not seen him before but shivered whenever she heard his name. This time, she not only shivers, but her heart also flies whenever she hears his name.

Her father has become Eros' victim. Eros had visited them twice, but her father was always quick to hide her, and she had never gotten to know why. Her father had borrowed money from Eros for her mother's medical treatment when her mother was so ill, but now, he couldn't pay back, and Eros had made life a living hell for him. She looks at her father these days; he seems so old and frail that she doesn't know what to do.

She would have saved her old man by getting married to a rich man and paying off that debt, but her heart had fallen for Apollo, the son of her father's best friend, and her father, who was a content man, never had issues with it. Apollo and his family were just as wretched as they were. That was why he had not married her after engaging her for two years. She knew the young man loved her and would do the needful if he got the means, and she was okay with that.

Eros had enough money to forget the amount her father had borrowed easily, but he was too heartless to let anyone breathe. He was a devil in human form, yet people say he was very handsome.

"Right now, he is at Mr. Orion's house," the first girl said. "Rumor has it that he borrowed some money from Eros for his wife's treatment. Poor man, the woman still died, leaving him in huge debt and at the hands of the deadly Eros. He might kill him this time because Ethel said he is wrecking chaos in the whole place, or he might even carry him away and make him suffer with hard labor."

The bag of vegetables Cassandra was holding dropped from her hands.

"He has a beautiful daughter. Why not marry her off and pay back the debt?" the other girl asked.

"Have you forgotten she is engaged to Apollo?"

The girls' voices sounded like echoes in her head as they went in a different direction from her. Orion was her father, and those girls just said Eros would take her father away. She blinked and shot off, pushing other people out of her way as she ran. She didn't mind the gruff expletive that escaped their mouths, the stare of disdain the people gave her as she ran, or the constant reminder in her head that she shouldn't be seen around home when Eros was there. Her father wouldn't want her anywhere near the house at that moment. But they can't kill or take her father away. He is all she has.

She ran all the way home, ignoring the strong warnings in her head to stay away from home. She barged in from the back door and heard her father's voice pleading and whimpering.

"Papa!" she cried when she barged into the room. She was panting profusely from the run and was sweating.

The men torturing her father stopped, and every eye in the room turned to her. She rushed to her father on the floor, covered in bruises and whimpering in pain.

"Cassie, why did you come?" Her father whispered.

"I heard from the market that they would take you away."

"Who is this?" a deep male voice asked.

Cassandra followed the voice and saw a man she had not seen at first, seated on a chair by the corner, his face hidden. Could that be the almighty Eros Castillo?

"Take me instead!" her father wailed.

Cassandra's brows knitted together in a scowl. She can't let them take her father.

"Papa, they can't take you away," she whispered.

"Oh, Cassandra, why did you come?" her father asked in a grief-stricken voice. "He is heartless."

Cassandra looked at the man again. Smoke was whirling around his hidden face.

"Cassandra run!" her father said.

Without a second thought, she stood and bolted from the back door before the men could do anything.

"Get that ***** alive!" she heard the deep male voice yelling.

That must be Eros. Her heart kept hammering, and tears ran down her cheeks as she ran. She didn't know where to run to, but she wanted to run far, far away from the monster she had heard so much about from people. She was almost at the farm gate when she heard gunshots behind her. She turned her back, looking at their farmhouse, almost breaking down, wondering if her father had been shot.

But she decided to keep running. When she turned her face forward again, she saw the figure in front of her, and before her brain could process who it was, she was struck in the face. She saw stars, her head spun, her vision blurred, and she crashed to the ground. She tried to open her eyes, but darkness enveloped her. Before her eyes closed and her mind went blank, she saw the shoe of her attacker. He had a big foot.

"Lo siento, papa," [I'm sorry, papa] she muttered and slipped into unconsciousness. 

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