Chapter 2 WHO IS CARLOS CRUISE

CHAPTER 2 Carlos has never had a stable sense of security ever since he was a kid. He always got into one trouble or the other. His mum was a mistress to the rich billionaire Mr. Cruise and had Carlos for him. The legitimate wife of Mr. Cruise, Jasmine had no child for him and that made Mr. Cruise take more interest in the mistress Emma, well mostly because he wanted a child. He asked her to move into the house.

Mr. Cruise was strict on Carlos; he knew he was going to hand over all his wealth to him and wouldn't want him to throw away all that he toiled to build. Later on, Carlos's mum had another child, a daughter about 4 years younger than Carlos.

Carlos had a complicated life growing up; he was used to getting all he wanted but his dad was always been hard on him. When he grew up, he became rebellious, he loved his mum and sister Harley. They were the two most important people in his life. He rebelliously chose to study political administration as his major but his dad made him transfer back to business, he wanted him to be a remarkably business-oriented man, both educationally and practically.

“You will do as I say and that is not open for discussion.” His father bellowed when Carlos tried to argue about his decision to have him change his course of study.

Lately, Mr. Cruise had considered transferring Carlos to another school outside the country where there was more knowledge on how the business World works so he could manage some of their companies outside the country and gain more experience. Carlos was not keen on the idea of leaving the country especially leaving his mom alone in the mercy of Mrs. Jasmine. He wanted to protect her at all costs, Mrs. Jasmine treated his mom as a servant and it extremely annoyed him, more especially because his dad acted like it was nothing.

“It’s for the best Carlos,” his mother would insist whenever he reacted to the older woman’s icy demeanor to his mom. “It’s a sacrifice I am happy to take for you and your sister’s sake.”

Emma was way younger than Mrs. Jasmine, she had Carlos when she was sixteen, she was young and naive when she got entangled with a rich billionaire who coerced her to have a child for him with promises to leave his wife for her. She had two kids for him but he never left Jasmine, in fact, he and Jasmine planned to have her bear kids for them.

“You are such a naïve fool to think he would leave me for you.” Jasmine had mocked her when she threatened to leave after she realized they had fooled her. “You are just the machine we need to preserve the continuity of our prestigious family. If you must leave, you must leave alone without the kids, they belong here.”

When Emma realized what was going on, she decided she needed to endure for her children so they could have the best of the life they deserved and not leave them alone with a heartless woman like Jasmine.There was no other way than to remain in the mansion and endure. Mr. Cruise was even ready then to take the children from her.  “You should be grateful Jasmine let you stay here,” He countered one evening when Emma protested and threatened to leave. “If you must leave, you will go alone. My kids belong here, they are mine.”  Emma knew the only way she could stay in the picture and remain relevant to her kids was to endure whatever suffering and humiliation that came to her.

On-campus Carlos had always been the guy who got the girls, most were ready to strip at the snap of his fingers. They all wanted to be associated with him and he had always taken advantage of his fame to get all the girls he wanted. He realized Cathy wasn't like the rest of the girls when he met her. At first, it infuriated him, how could a simpleton like her ignore him, then later on she became an addiction to him, he would stalk her all day, follow her to the restaurant she worked, and stay nearby to observe her. He got to realize she was single and she didn't have any friends apart from her roommate Jesse. He was surprised she wasn’t the social type; she didn't go out to parties and stayed up pretty late at night. She had no social media account so he couldn't stalk her online which would have been much simpler for him. He found himself falling for her as he observed her every day. Her innocence appealed to him and he became fascinated by her, for the first time in his life he wanted to know more about the lady that caught his heart skip, he wanted to partake in her life, not just to have sex with with her, he wanted to get to know everything about her.

That day when he invited her to go out with him, he took her to a garden. They walked to a garden with a beautiful view of the city; it was more like a valley with beautiful flowers and grasses. They sat down and Carlos stared at Cathy, for all he cared, she was the beautiful scenery because he could not take his eyes off her. "This place is fascinating," Cathy declared, fascinated "Yes, it is, I discovered this place when I was a kid, and ever since then it had always been my favorite spot" he responded. He hesitated, he wanted her to say something but the way she seemed relaxed and at peace held me back. "Why do you hate me, Cathy?" He asked instead, curious to know why she had avoided him like a plague.  Cathy looked at him, surprised by the question, her eyes wrinkled with laughter and she laughed. It was the first time he had seen her laugh in such a manner, the way the wind blew her ravine dark hair across her face made him want to tuck her hair behind her ear. Carlos felt his heart yearn for her love. "I don't hate you, why do you think I hate you?" Cathy asked "Well, the first time I talked to you, you were rude and indifferent to me.” Carlos explained. Cathy shook her head, "I don't hate you, well I knew exactly who you are and I would rather keep my distance from you" she replied honestly "Interesting," he said and reclined his back to rest on the floor, “have you heard the saying, don’t judge a book by its cover?” "Well for my safety, I would rather not find out if it were true or not " she answered with a shrug.

He knew she had said the truth but something in him wanted to prove her wrong, he wanted to let her know that there was more to him than what she has heard. "Cathy, I know I don't have a good reputation, I am far from perfect, but that isn't completely true, there is more to me than what you have heard." Carlos said after some silence. Cathy said nothing and stared into space; her face expressionless. Carlos wished he could read her thoughts. "There is more?" She asked, still staring at nothing "Yes Cathy, there is more" he answered, his eyes shut. If only she had known that there was more indeed and it came with a lot of pain.