Caroline Riviera stood at a dressmaker's shop and sighed. Lord knows she wasn't really the festive type, but she couldn't abandon Cassie either. Her sister may be a not-so-normal and annoying piece of crabmeat but she was still family afterall. And that was the only reason she sat there in boredom and halfheartedly watched the dressmaker do her job. Finally after what felt like a million years, he handed her the 'all-important' piece of fabric and asked her to go try it on in the changing room.
Caroline pouted but did what she was told. A few minutes later, she walked out and said goodbye to the tailor.
As soon as she stepped out of the suffocating shop, Caroline took a deep breath. Her eyes wandered around, not looking for anything in particular but just taking account of her surroundings.
And almost immediately, her wandering eyes stopped abruptly and her gaze fixated on one thing.
One name.
Automatically, Caroline couldn't help but feel slightly nauseated.
There was only ever one name on the walls of the town, painted in every crevice as if he owned the town itself.
Rodney Casimero. The star of all the town's graffiti.
For Caroline, living in a small town was not the dream she wanted, not by a long shot but after her grandma bequeathed all her fortunes to her and died of cancer two months ago, Caroline was forced to move to the old Southern town and man the ranch. A huge responsibility that carried feared would only backfire because she had no idea whatsoever how to manage a ranch. Even though she barely knew a thing about growing grapes and ranching, she was grateful for Franko, who was her right hand man and an expert in managing the ranch.
Franko had a son, very handsome and obviously the town's womanizer. It was rumoured that Rodney was out to get him for sleeping with his woman Bethany. However, few months after that incident, Bethany had drowned mysteriously in the town's river. Wild rumors flew about, some suspecting that Rodney had dealt with her for cheating on him. Others claimed Bethany had felt so ashamed of her deeds that she'd committed suicide. No one not even the sheriff had dared to investigate or question Rodney, because they were obviously afraid of him. So to this day, the death of Bethany Laurent still remains a mystery.
Caroline sighed, and threw the letter into the fireplace. The past few months were just too hectic especially with the constant proposals from the men in the town.. She sighed and took a sip from her glass of wine.
Just then, Guilliermo walked in, grabbing the glass and taking a sip without bothering to ask.
"I don't care if you're Franko's son, honestly you're beginning to get on my nerves", Caroline deadpanned.
"hopefully this will turn into a love-hate relationship", he countered smugly making Caroline smile.
"not in your dreams boy, how old were you again?.....16?", she asked.
"I'm actually 18. I'm an adult", Guillermo provided.
"yeah ok, and I'm bored", Caroline said with a yawn.
She gave up and retired to her room feeling drained from her conversation with the young womanizer. As soon as she closed the door behind her, she felt an indescribable sense of fear which made her gulp. A cold shiver suddenly ran down her spine and she turned, quickly spotting her window open. She took a deep breath, heading towards it when something pulled her through the window. Caroline landed on the soft grass with a thud and turned to find her attacker.
The person in front of her was clothed in all black, flashing a set of white teeth
"don't worry princess, I'll take good care of you", he whispered
"I am ...."
Everything turned dizzy before she could finish her retort as she felt strong arms wrap around her middle securing her even though all she wanted to do was protest and scream her lungs out. The lightheadedness was making it difficult to take a single breath, hence even a shout felt like lifting a 50kg weight.
Caroline gave up trying to struggle and dizzily look around as her attacker flipped her onto his shoulder and began walking away from her window, away from her ranch.
...
Caroline woke with surprisingly no headache. She looked around to find herself chained to a really huge bed and a glass of water by the nightstand. How is a person with bound hands supposed to drink water?, she wondered briefly.
"great, you're finally awake ", came a deep voice.
Instinctively, she turned around to face the voice.
"I really wanna make this simple and easy. The land where your family built your ranch originally belonged to us, the Casimeros and I want it back"
Caroline stared with a confused expression at him.
"don't play dumb I'm talking about the Riviera Ranch", the voice continued.
"but my family owned it since a long time ago. My Grandma bequeathed it to me so now it's mine. I own it and I'm not selling", Caroline replied.
Rodney bit his lip at her innocence. Back in the day, he would have found it adorable, now it just plainly annoyed him.
"you're obviously an idiot. I never said I wanted to buy it, I said I wanted it back because it rightfully belongs to me "
"do you know this is kidnapping....?", Caroline suddenly asked while lifting her chained hands.
"and who will you report me to ?. The sheriff?...myself?...Baby, I own this town!"
"fine, at least be a good host then. would you please get me something to eat?", Caroline asked humbly.
"No, since you slept and missed breakfast, you have to wait for lunch. No food before then.", he answered curtly.
"bad enough that you kidnapped me, and want to take my land from me, now you're trying to starve me?", Caroline retorted
"complain all you want, no food before then", he said matter-of-factly. He smirked and with that he walked out.