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Chapter 1

From the position between the legs of Aslan's partner, his face lifted as he heard countless loud knocks on his door.

"Shit!" Donna muttered irritably because she was left hanging, unable to reach her climax.

She was almost there. Women usually finish quickly, whether through oral, manual, or intercourse. During their one session, she had orgasmed multiple times, but today it seemed like she couldn’t even get one.

Donna Miranda had been his constant bed partner since college. She was four years younger than him. She was from the neighboring town, the daughter of a couple of entrepreneurs. Her family was the wealthiest in that town, aside from the Escobar estate, which he managed.

Yes, he is a caretaker. To put it simply, he’s a farmer, but he doesn't just tend to fifty hectares of land. He manages 6,823 hectares, spread across eleven villages. Their biggest crops were vegetables and sugarcane, which provided for the people under his care. The average net income from his vegetable plantation on just ten hectares was sixteen million a year. That’s not counting the sugarcane fields and other fruit plantations.

Managing a hacienda isn’t easy. He makes sure to pay attention to every detail. Along with that comes the responsibility of overseeing the workers. He ensures that they are properly compensated. He values good relations with his employees because their welfare is tied to the prosperity of the land. When it comes to modern times, he wasn’t left behind. He had already brought in well-known fast-food chains inside the Escobar estate. There were also famous shopping malls, but he only rented out the land. He hadn’t sold a single inch of it. He brought a city into his hacienda. He did this so the people of Tarlac wouldn’t be left behind in civilization. Hacienda Escobar is the largest hacienda in the world. Just from renting out the land, he had enough income to sustain generations of his descendants.

"Who’s that damn person, Aslan?" Donna asked irritably, but she sat up, wiping her lips with a white towel.

She wrapped it around her body to cover her still-erect manhood.

He walked straight to the door with a stern aura, as always. That was his usual expression, which made him so hard to read. No one could tell if he was happy, sad, or angry because his face always maintained the same expression in every situation.

He opened the door, and in front of him was the effeminate butler, Mang Kiko. He had been with them for so long. Since Aslan arrived at the estate, after being transferred from another province, Mang Kiko had been their butler. He was still young back then. He wasn’t the typical effeminate man. It was said that he had been hurt before and never loved again. The children he cared for were the children of his siblings who were farmers on the estate.

In terms of caregiving, he was just like a woman. He was also kind and genuinely trustworthy. Aslan considered him family because, despite his quiet nature—he wouldn’t speak unless spoken to, unless it was to share something regarding the work or the estate—Mang Kiko had taken great care of him.

Aslan's brow only furrowed. He didn’t need to speak; his facial expressions did all the talking for him.

Mang Kiko was holding the phone, with the mouthpiece covered.

“It's Alexa…” he said, and Aslan’s brows immediately furrowed in confusion.

Alexa…

His lips twitched slightly and curled into a subtle, almost sardonic smile as he licked them.

When was the last time he heard the name Alexa mentioned in Hacienda Escobar?

It seemed like a lifetime ago, and if he wasn’t mistaken, it was during Caroline’s funeral, their mother. That was seven years ago, when Alexa was only fifteen and he was twenty-six.

What could his spoiled brat of a sister want, remembering their ancestral land?

In front of the Escobar family's lawyer was the young Alexa, the youngest child of the Escobar couple. Beside her was her nanny, Guada, who had been with her since she was a baby. Alexa stared off into space, looking furious at the world, while Aslan stood by the window, his back leaning against the wall, arms crossed over his muscular chest.

He was already twenty-six. It felt like just yesterday when he had arrived at the estate from the province of Aklan, where he grew up in poverty, struggling without the protection of his mother’s love.

Life, indeed, was full of surprises. Who would have thought that Caroline would also be gone? She had been so kind to him and loved him deeply. That was the last message from his late father, Ferit Faik Erdemoglu, a Turkish man.

Caroline and Ferit had been childhood friends. He was shocked one day when Geronimo and Caroline arrived, bringing papers from the court stating that he had to go with them to be adopted.

He went with them, even though it was painful to leave his mother behind. Why? It was all because of his stepfather. There wasn’t a day from his childhood when he didn’t bear the marks of a beating or bruise. He didn’t understand why, but whenever his stepfather got drunk or lost at gambling, he would take it out on him, and he was only eleven at the time.

Alexa was just a baby when he first met her, but now she had grown up to be rebellious and spoiled. She seemed angry at him for reasons he couldn’t understand. She ignored him, and when she did speak to him, it was always with sarcasm. Perhaps it was because he kept forbidding her to hang out with the monkey, Lucas. Many men were interested in her. Even when she was in elementary school, men followed her around, which is why Geronimo asked him to watch over Alexa, worried she might go astray at a young age. But there was only one boy she seemed to like, Lucas Barrameda, who was three years older, a Filipino-American. She was furious when she told Caroline she was going to the fair with Lucas. Caroline allowed it, but he didn’t.

She threw everything back at him and said hurtful things.

Maybe it was because he was just an adopted son that Alexa felt she could treat him like that. He never had the power to defend himself from her foul mouth. It wasn’t a secret, though, as even the whole estate knew he was adopted and not a biological Escobar.

The lawyer cleared his throat, causing both Aslan and Alexa to look at him.

The funeral had just ended, yet they were already in the large library, which also served as Geron’s office.

“You all probably know that Caroline left a last will,” the lawyer began, looking at Aslan.

Aslan nodded.

“This is what she had prepared, signed during the time when she knew her cancer was getting worse. Alexa, my dear, are you ready to hear your mother’s last words?”

Aslan glanced at Alexa again. Her beautiful eyes were blinking rapidly. She was sitting up straight, her thick, black hair flowing down to her waist. She wore a white headband and a matching white dress.

“I think I know what my mother said, but go ahead and read it,” she said, raising an eyebrow.

She sighed and Aslan lowered his gaze, staring at the marble floor beneath them. He sighed too, feeling as though a volcano was about to erupt.

The lawyer cleared his throat once more. “All the Escobar properties will go to Aslan.”

“What?!” Alexa stood up in anger, her sharp eyes glaring at him.

He knew this was coming. The storm had exploded.

“Please listen, Alexa, sweetie,” the old lawyer tried to calm her, but the young girl’s fists were clenched so tightly, it looked like she wanted to devour Aslan whole.

Unable to contain the tension, Aslan pulled out a cigarette and lit it.

“My daughter Alexa will still receive her share from Hacienda Escobar’s annual earnings, about thirty percent…”

At that, Alexa’s face turned an even deeper shade of red from anger. Tears began to form in her already puffy eyes. She was probably thinking that it was so unfair, even from her own mother.

The lawyer continued speaking, but Aslan doubted Alexa was still listening. It seemed like her focus was entirely on her frustration and anger.

“The earnings designated for Alexa cannot be accessed or spent without Aslan’s approval, unless she gets married.”

“That’s so unfair! Tomorrow, I’m marrying Lucas!” Alexa shouted, her sharp gaze fixed on Aslan.

Aslan simply took a drag from his cigarette and blew the smoke upward.

“You’re so arrogant! Thief! I hope you suffocate on your cigarette smoke!” Alexa spat, and Aslan just stared at her.

He still wore a blank expression. He didn’t even know if he was angry at those words. After all, he hadn’t stolen a single cent. Everything he had was given to him willingly.

Alexa ran away, slamming the door behind her. Both she and the lawyer stared at the door, which had lost a hinge.

"Take care of her, just like how her mother took care of you, Aslan," the lawyer said to him.

Aslan didn’t nod, but he didn’t shake his head either. He had always taken care of her, even though she had practically cursed him for being too overprotective.

It weighed heavily on Aslan’s chest as he looked at the suitcases on the portico. Was he really going to ask whose they were? It was almost laughable. The funeral had only been yesterday, and here she was, already packing her things. Where could she be going?

He glanced at the door when Alexa came out, but she stiffened when she saw him.

“Are you happy now?” she asked bitterly, while he just stood there, hands in his pockets.

“No one’s forcing you to stay here, Lexa.”

“Stop calling me that!” She snapped. “I don’t want to hear your fake endearments, thief!”

“There’s no thief here. I haven’t stolen anything from you. That was your mother’s decision.”

“A decision you could have rejected but didn’t! I can see through you, Aslan! You wanted all of this, so you did everything to take it from me! I can’t believe my own mother would give all of this to a stranger, to an adopted son! You’re not even blood-related! It’s so suspicious what you did to my mom! After Daddy died, here you are, acting like a haciendero on his behalf!”

He sighed and briefly raised one corner of his lip. “I didn’t do anything wrong. If that’s what you think, there’s nothing I can do. The moment you step out that door, I’ll forget you’re from here.”

“I don’t care!” She fumed with anger, her face almost turning red. “Shove this up your chest! Lucas was right!”

His temper flared at what he heard. What did Lucas have to do with this? That animal was probably filling Alexa’s head with nonsense, making her angry at him.

“Yaya, faster! I want to get out of this estate of thieves!”

Aslan clenched his jaw when the young girl shot him a glare.

She violently dragged her suitcase, hitting his foot, but he ignored it.

A white van, owned by the Hernandez family, pulled up in front of the house. It was rented out whenever people needed to go somewhere else.

Aslan wanted to ask where Alexa was going, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. He doubted she would answer without sarcasm. She'd probably throw the suitcase at his face if she could lift it.

"Will you make me carry this?!" she snapped at the conductor, who was staring at her.

He was probably stunned by Alexa's beauty.

"S-sorry, ma'am. I was just a little mesmerized," the conductor stammered.

"I don't care! It's so heavy, and you're just standing there!"

"Are you really sure about this?" he asked as she finished, noticing the sadness in his heart as he watched her prepare to leave.

Aslan had watched Alexa grow. He had seen her first crawl, her first steps, her first run, and her first play. He knew everything about her life, from being a baby to her fifteenth birthday. It was painful to think that the child who had been left to him to care for was now choosing to leave, all because of the wrong belief that he had stolen and manipulated Caroline.

He didn’t get any answer from the young girl, except a deathly glare.

Okay then. That answered his question.