Chapter 3

"The corporation between the two companies is not something that you all should be concentrating on right now. Don't you all know how to do your damn job?" Santiago said angrily to his employees, who were currently in a video meeting and were stressing him.

Everywhere was silent as soon as he finished talking. No one was brave enough to continue because it looked like he was in a bad mood. He barely raised his voice at anyone. He was more of a quiet devil. A knock helped them out of the situation as Santiago ended the meeting to focus on who was at the door.

The person knocked three times, as Santiago always instructed before coming in. Whenever he had some secret dealings, he usually locked the door. As far as the door was unlocked, three knocks were enough to alert him to their presence.

Santiago's right-hand man, Jordan, came into his home office. "Don, the lady escaped," Jordan said. Santiago already knew who he was referring to. The one person who had made him frustrated all day. After her first very foolish attempt to run away from his men when they were in a moving car, he realised that she was a force to be reckoned with.

Punishing her was the first idea that came to his mind when they found her, but that thought flew over his head the first time he met her. He had seen her in different pictures but was taken aback when he saw her from a close distance.

She was still unconscious when he came into the room. He had gotten angry at his men for injecting her, but he knew that was the best thing to be done from what he heard of her struggles.

Then she woke up, and the way she stared at him sent blood flowing through him. She looked at him like a meal she wanted to taste, and her looking at his lips almost made him undone until she seemed to step out of her trance.

She was too preoccupied with whatever dirty thoughts she had to see how he was also looking at him at the moment, but he knew that nothing could ever happen between them. Even if he wanted it, it was simply impossible, as that would be the last strand of his morality.

She was now his to protect and fulfil his promise, as well as the guilt he had had all these years. "Was no one guiding her?" Santiago asked Jordan.

"Someone was positioned at her door, but she made her escape through that little space in the bathroom window. We did not bother about it because it was too far away from the land," Jordan said. "Is she a monkey now?" Santiago asked nobody in particular. "Don't, if I may talk?" Jordan asked, waiting for Santiago's response. With the nod of Santiago's head, Jordan continued. "Boss, I think you have been too lenient with her. This is not the first time she tried to escape, even though she is aware that she was used to paying back her stepfather's debt. She also threw that glass back then, which might have been threatening to you. I think she needs to be taught her place, and some punishment would be needed," Jordan said. "I know what I am to do. She is now mine, so nobody has any right to lay a single finger on her. Go find her now," Santiago said.

Jordan left, and as soon as he closed the door, he shook his head. The don was beginning to act differently after less than a day of meeting that girl, and he did not like it. The girl was too rude, had sharp tongues, and was violent, yet all the bosses could say was that she should not be touched.

Cecilia was found in no time and brought up to where Santiago was. The whole house was so big and confusing to her, so getting away was harder than jumping from the third floor.

"Don't think that you can leave here. You are in my territory," Santiago said to her before turning to Jordan.

"Lock her up in the cell room for one week until she learns her lesson," Santiago said. "Where are you taking me?" Cecilia asked, but they just carried her out. The place did not seem like a good place to be, as she could see that the scary-looking man had a small smirk of satisfaction when his boss said that.

She was sure that he hated her on a different level, especially because of the way he looked at her all the time. They took the elevator down to the place where she would be locked. Yes, the house was so big that it even had elevators. Cecilia spotted a metal door, and the man was moving towards it.

"Don't put me in there like a prisoner. You are all the real criminals, not me."Cecilia shouted, but he just kept going as if she wasn’t talking to him. Something that she noticed he always did. He kept her there and went ahead to lock the door.

"Let's see how you sneak your way out of this place," he said, jamming the big door. Looking around, the place was empty with no sign of life around, and the space was no bigger than a walk-in closet. It was also a colder temperature than normal, and she was just wearing a nightgown.

Something that she had been made to change into before she tried to escape. She folded her hands as the cold started seeping in, and she started feeling it. What she hates the most is staying in a quiet, lonely place, away from any source of life.

She was also claustrophobic, so her anxiety was acting up. "Mama, I am scared," she said, her voice reverberating in the room.

Remembering the technique her mother taught her as a child whenever she had a bad dream or was scared, she tapped her hands on her shoulders as she sang her mom's favourite bedtime song as tears streamed down her eyes.

All she had even been doing since she came here was cry like a little baby. She misses her mother so much now, more than ever.