Taken by the Heartless (HEARTLESS, Book 1) (NOW EDITING)

GOODBYE

The tension between Eros and Cassandra was not ignorable. Cassandra stayed with Grandma Adella, but she refused to tell the woman what went wrong, and Grandma Adella let her be. Eros too refused to speak to anyone about it, not even Javier. He was always by himself, either slugging down glasses of alcohol or staring at something on his phone. They remained like that until the morning of his birthday.

Cassandra woke up that morning, with her mind made up. Eros made it clear that he didn't want to see her, and she respected that. She couldn't bare staying in the same house with him and not speaking with him. She didn't know what was going on in his mind and he was ignoring her. They had bumped into each other in the kitchen last night when she had gone to take water he had behaved as if she wasn't there. It hurt her even more than it would have hurt if he was punishing her. He wasn't punishing her; he wasn't ready to talk either and she was dying of heartbreak. She decided to stay for his birthday and leave immediately.

She went over to Grandma Adella's balcony to look at the decorations for Eros' birthday and was surprised to see girls huddled together in the compound. Eros' men surrounded them with machine guns in hand.

What was going on?

She quickly went inside the room, grabbed her night robe, and wore it as she went down the stairs. Once she was in the living room, she saw Eros, Javier, one other man, and a woman she didn't recognize standing by the porch. Eros was in a grey, long sleeve t-shirt and blue jeans, his hair was a bit messy, and his arms were folded across his chest. His back was to her, but she stood for a while admiring the fine specimen of a man he was, before what he was saying became clear to her.

"If you want to stay here, it would be at your will, and any work you decide to do here, you will get paid for it." There was murmuring among the girls. Cassandra's jaw dropped.

Was he letting his hostages go?

"I set up a foundation for you, for those that feel their time to achieve anything in life has passed. For those that want to start schooling or go back to school, I will take responsibility." The girls cheered and clapped.

Javier turned and saw Cassandra standing behind them. Cassandra's face stretched into a smile as he approached her. She clutched her hands demurely in front of her.

"Hey, Cassie, how have you been?"

"I am good and you?" Javier nodded and they turned to look at Eros and the others. "Is he letting them go? Why? What happened?"

Javier took a deep breath and folded his arms across his chest. "You." Cassandra stared at him. "You happened to him. Just last night, he was telling us how those girls did nothing to him and how he should let them go. He said it's a birthday present to himself." The gesture touched Cassandra so much that she felt tears pooling in her eyes. "Did you say anything about it to him?"

Cassandra had not really said anything about releasing the girls, but she had hinted at it. The feeling overwhelmed her, and she couldn't even control the tears that started strolling down her cheeks. "I didn't say anything exactly, but I am glad he is doing this. He is really trying his best."

"This is going to cause a big uproar in the mafia world and Eros is going to be seen as vulnerable by other dons, that was the reason he never wanted to let them go. He used to be so worried about his reputation and he wanted to remain that formidable man to his rivals, but he doesn't seem to care now. It's a great step." Cassie concurred by nodding and wiping away the tears with her palm.

Eros turned and started approaching them, their eyes met and locked. He stared at her for a while and removed his eyes. The man and the woman standing with him on the porch walked up to them too. Eros didn't stop when he got to them, he passed her as if he didn't see her and it broke her heart the more. She swallowed the hard knot that had formed in her throat and blinked away the tears that were threatening to break loose from her eyes.