CHAPTER ONE

LUCA

My Rolex watch glitter as I comb my long fingers through my brown curly hair which fall at my nape. My honey eyes stare at me through the mirror, and I can see the excitement in his eyes, I'm preparing to go over to Smith's mansion to finalize the biggest deal of my life. The kind of real estate deal that can take a man from zero to a million, and since I'm already at billions, it's just going to get me wealthier. My broad chest rise in fall in excitement, with the level of anxiety and excitement I am feeling at the moment, I'm surprise my heart hasn't burst.

I can't remember the last time I felt this happy...like genuinely happy without demons from my past intruding my mind, without the image of my deadbeat dad clouding my thoughts, me watching him physically abuse my mother and doing nothing because what could I have possibly done? I was just a kid. But when he started sexually abusing her...

I clench my both fist at either side of me and tighten my jaw. The memory alone makes me so angry already, so much for the earlier excitement!

Still staring at my reflection, I unclench my fist and raise my right hand, adjusting the diamond stud on my both earlobes. I'm wearing a white shirt over a cartoon brown pants with a nick Jordan sneakers. Proudly standing at a height of 6.4, with an athletic build like ricochet, my muscles rippled abs bulge out, literally begging to be free from this civilized dressing.

I am supposed to be happy. I have billions of dollars rolling in my account. I have girls at my beck and call who would do anything I ask them to do in my room of pain no matter how painful, humiliating or depraved it may be. I usually chain their ankles and wrists to the bed frame and torture them the same way Mr Hyde and his wife defiled me for three years, even if those sluts have done more disgusting and terrible things with their bodies, I never stop until they are bleeding and filthy, before I throw their pay at them and force them out of my place.

But yet I still feel empty, like there's something I'm constantly searching for to fill this void. What is it? I don't know.

Every night, I disguise myself and storm the city of New York, slicing the throat of any person I see who resembles my father, Mr Hyde or his wife. I am a maniac but despite all the mayhem I have unleashed. I'm still empty, damaged and broken!

Still staring at my reflection in the mirror, I force a fake smile before turning my back and leaving my bedroom.

I cross the yard and stroll over to next mansion because there's no fencing. I don't bother knocking on the door before entering. Smith's family is like a second family and for the past years I had barged in and out of their house without knocking.

The moment I enter in, I'm greeted by the smell of Katherine's homemade cooking, decorations hanging from the ceiling with the inscription 'Welcome home Lily", the sound of a baby crying. I pause to take in everything, then I remember Smith's first daughter is returning home today. Mi eterna.

Lily, the Spanish names were her idea. Mi eterno is masculine and mi eterna is feminine meaning my eternal. Eternal, having no beginning and no end in time. Lasting forever. Existing at all times. Always true and valid. A smile almost curve on my lips as the pleasant memories fill my head.

Almost.

One of her birthday parties, I kept thinking of the perfect present for my girl...a single gift that would say a thousand words. I found it, matching infinity bracelet for me and Lily with the inscription 'mi eterno' on hers and 'mi eterna' on mine. The moment I placed the bracelet around her wrist, the joys and happiness I saw in her eyes were unmeasurable...She loved it.

Izzy, Lily's two year old sister is still crying. I quickly walk over to the couch and pick her up, she immediately stops crying and starts giggling. Yes, I always have that effect on ladies. I stare at the blue eyed baby in my arms and I feel a pang in my chest. The familiar pang I feel whenever I'm inside Smith's mansion, he has everything I don't have, a beautiful wife, two beautiful daughters, a family that loves him.

The only thing I can brag to have more than him is money, but well money is just money. I will forever be grateful to Smith for accepting me into his home when I escaped from the Hyde's, I never told him the abuse I suffered...I never told anybody.

"Hi Katherine." I put Izzy down and enter the kitchen to greet Kate.

"Luca." I can hear the excitement in her voice. "Our girl is coming home today!" She pulls me in for a tight hug. For her puny size, she sure does have a strong grip on me.

"Kat..." I start talking but she yanks a cookie in my mouth and I stop talking.

"How is it. How does it taste?" She stare at me through big round blue eyes that reminds me of mi eterna.

"Hmmm..." I make a crunching sound as I chew the cookies and pretend to think. "It's delicious as always."

"I feel like there's too much milk." She starts turning around, tasting and retasting and trying to find what is missing.

A frown curve on my lips. I steady her by placing my arms on her shoulders. "Kat, the cookie is perfect." That's the nickname I gave her, it's so funny how I gave every member of the Smith's family a nickname. I make her laugh before leaving her to greet Smithy. Yes, that's his nickname which I only use in my head.

"Luca." He pats me playfully on my back. "How is the real estate market favouring you kiddo." If you're not the same age as Smith or two years younger, he calls you kiddo.

Smith is a plump man with blonde hair and a sharp tongue, in a way he always reminded me of my father, only in appearance though. Smith is nothing like my deadbeat dad, at least he doesn't beat his wife or sells his youngest son to sex traders or did nothing when his two eldest sons whom he groomed were sitting in jail waiting for the death sentence.

"Luca. I'm happy I met you, see how quickly you've turned my fortune." Smith's voice breaks my reverie. Since I was eighteen, Smith always called me a lucky coin that fell into his well and changed his fortune.

"With a well experienced lawyer like you, the market can only get better." I brag about his knowledge of law, he laughs. Soon, we are sitting in the living room and talking business. With Smith, it's always business.

We are sitting in the living room, laughing and eating. Rephrase, Smith and Kate are laughing, and I'm trying so hard to fake laugh and share in their joke, but it does not working. I don't know how to laugh because I never laugh there's nothing amusing in this wicked world.

The door slowly creaks open and a tall blonde woman steps into the living room rolling in a box behind her. She is wearing a light blue dress that compliments the color of her eyes. As the player I am, I can't help but notice how plump her tits are, and how appealing her curves are beneath the dress. Smith and Kate jump up from the couch and hurry to hug her.

It takes me a while to recognize her. "Lily." I mutter. She is different, she's taller, her feminine curves are more defined, her blonde hair that's usually parked in a ponytail is loose and flowing on her shoulders, she's all grown up... she's a woman! No, no a girl! She's a child, she's just seventeen. Stop staring! I force myself to look away but my eyes keep returning to the luscious body before me. But she's turning eighteen this year, in just a few months right?

After the Smith's spent what felt like an eternity having a family reunion. Her parents enters the kitchen leaving us alone. Lily looks at me, there's a deep indentation on her cheeks from always smiling, I slowly stand up and wait patiently for her to walk towards me but instead she runs and jump on me, I would have easier caught her but she is heavier than she was the last time I carried her which was just a year ago.

Her weight push me down onto the couch and I fall in a sitting position with her on my laps. She's even more beautiful than I remembered, I see the infinity bracelet on her wrist.

"Mi eterno." She whispers.

"Welcome home." I just can't resist, I have to place kiss on her cheek, but she shifts her head and instead the kiss lands on her lips. We pause with her lips on mine, neither of us moving, we just stare at each other. Her familiar scent fills the air, maybe just my nostrils. Cherry mixed with strawberry.

"A welcome home kiss." I hear her say as she jump down from my lap, grabbing my arm and pulling me into a standing position with her. "There's so much I have to tell you about my adventure."

"Won't you eat, you're just returning. There will be plenty time to fill Luca in." Katherine calls out from the kitchen.

"No, there's so much I have to tell. We will eat when we return." She winks at me and I am trying so hard to suppress my laughter.

She's still the same little girl I've known for eight years, she just looks a little different...or a lot different, but that's all. I will get over it.