*the next day*

Cesar looked up the stairs in confusion and anger. He faced his wife angrily, pointing up the stairs.

"She had been in there since yesterday. Won't she come out of there? What if Don comes here asking for her? Cesar asked Alexa who was frowning hard at her daughter.

"It will take time to digest all these Cesar. This was just sudden. Give her time okay?" Alexa said to her husband.

"Time to digest? She should have digested it yesterday. She is just acting all arrogant and I don't like girls like that," Cesar said angrily.

Yes, it was her husband, Cesar who went to collect the money all in the name of expenses.

Yesterday, she had traced her husband to that particular place.

She saw her husband trying to carry a bag to a particular gambling area, looking around in fear. He was holding the bag around his body like the bag is going to run away.

"Cesar?!" She yelled out his name. Cesar looked at her in fear. She walked up to him, staring at the bag in confusion. What's in there and why is he carrying it like that?

"What's in there?" She furrowed her brows.

"None of your business,"

Alexa frowned at his response. How is it non of her business when he is all acting like a rat in the day? "What is in there?" She asked again and her husband frowned.

"It's none of your business Alexa,"

"Let me see that!" She tried to snatch the bag from her husband, who also struggles with her.

"No! No! Don't check it here. Let's check it at home," he quickly said in a panic

"At home. What's in there that we can't check here?!"

"No, we can't check it here. I will show the content at home," he said holding the bag rightly, fearing it will fall off his hand and disappear. He just wanted to use the money to gamble, if he can win more than this and now his wife had caught him red-handed.

"Okay,"

The wife and husband arrived home that morning.

Cesar first looked at his wife anxiously, then began to open the bag slowly and it revealed a whole lot of money.

"Oh my God!" She screamed and immediately, Cesar covered her mouth.

"Shut up!"

"Where the hell did you get this kind of money from Cesar? Did you steal? Did you?!" She questioned anxiously, cause she know her husband can't even afford a fifty-dollar talk less than twenty and now she is seeing a whole lot of thousand dollars in front of her.

"Cesar, please tell me, where did you get this?! Did you rob a bank?!" She said, softly scared the neighbors would hear her.

"No, I didn't. I got that money."

"What do you want to use this kind of money to do?"

"I...I...want to pay off my dept of two million,"

"Two million?!" Alexa widened her eyes in shock.

"Yes! And I never burrowed it from a loan shark, but from a Mafia instead,"

"Cesar, are you okay?! You burrowed two million for what?! In your life, you had never brought in here a thousand dollars,"

"Yes, I know. I used it all to gamble, just to have more cash," Cesar said the truth to his wife.

"And you lost the money?" Alexa asked widening her eyes in shock.

"Yes! Yes! I lost all the money! Satisfied?!"

"You lost two million dollars in a day?! What kind of man are you?!"

"Stop asking me stupid questions and let us use this money,"

"Whom did you burrow this money from?"

"From a Mafia,"

"The same Mafia?! Cesar, are you that stupid?! You know Mafias are dangerous people and you borrowed money from one of them?!"

"No, it's not from the same Mafia okay? And his name is Don Hendrix Santos. He is another man and he collected it for an exchange,"

"In exchange for what?!" She asked angrily.

"In exchange for Mahalia!!"

"My daughter?! What did he want to use my daughter for?! She is just twenty-one. He wants to sell her or what,"

"You should be happy he is making her life for the better. I think he is marrying her okay?"

"How rich is he?"

"As you can see," Cesar points to the bag in front of him. "He just ordered his men to give me the bag and immediately, they rushed in to give me without blinking twice, he is super rich. Mahalia is lucky,"

"Yes, we can't die of poverty," Alexa said nodding her head in response. She could see some sense in what her husband was saying.

"So, are you in hand with me?"

"Why should I be in hand with you?! You wanted to gamble this money off before, if I hadn't seen you earlier, this money would be gone with your foolishness,"

"Oh common, I just wanted more cash," he said softly.

"Some cash? Some cash can then to nothing."

She zips up the bag and carried it.

"What do you want to use it for?"

"I am keeping it myself. I don't trust you,"

"You never did,"

"Yes! I never did," Alexa walked away with the bag.

***

"Mahalia!!! Mahalia!!!!" Alexa screamed out Mahalia's name. "Come out here now!!" She screamed out.

Mahalia was in her room thinking. She had a sobering expression as her eyes were already swollen due to the tears. She could hear her mother's voice but she chooses to ignore it.

Her parents sold her off to some Mafias. She won't be able to have a better life now. She won't be able to know love. She won't be able to experience love. Is this her destiny?

She sniffed hard, cleaning her nose. If it is her Destin, would she gladly accept it? But she is just twenty-one. She hasn't experienced something like this before.

"Oh, God!" She shook her head crying softly again.

"Mahalia!!"

She threw the pillows to the door in anger.

"I hate you, people!" She said loudly. "I hate you," she said again, with her fingers through her hair.

"Mahalia, come out of there!!" She could hear her father's voice. Well, this is her destiny. She wished it wasn't like this.

She wiped off her tears and hopped down from the bed. She walked towards the living room bear footed.

Immediately Alexa saw her, she frowned, then walked up to her.

"Why did you lock yourself up?! Go pack your bags, you are going to the villa,"

"What villa mom?"

"Your husband gave your father the address you should be dropped at. So be grateful for him,"

"Why should I be grateful when you sold me to a Mafia?"