When I woke up the next day, I freaked out when I saw a man sleeping beside me. My scream woke him up.
“Who are you? What are you doing here?”
I jumped out from bed. I tried to grope something to use as a weapon in case the despicable man would try to touch me.
“Am I not the one who should ask you what you’re doing in my house?”
“Are you sure this is your house? It’s standing within our dominion so this house is mine.”
“I don’t care if you are the daughter of Don Esteban or the richest man in the world. I was the one who built this house so it’s mine whether you like it or not and you don’t have any right to claim it as yours.”
Technically, he’s right. My stay there was only temporary. I didn’t want to argue with him any further. In as much as I loved to thank him but my pride was too big for me to swallow. So I got up.
“Why do you keep on coming back to my house? Do you have a crush on me?”
The false accusation struck a chord in my veins.
“Excuse me. For your information I am the one and only daughter of the rich businessman, Don Esteban. I will never marry an uneducated farmer like you; not even in my wildest dream.”
I uttered those words out without thinking twice. I was unaware that it would choke me back someday.
“If you’re going to trespass in my house again, I’m going to rape you. So if you don’t have any feelings for me, do not come back in my house again.”
“Yeah right. Over my dead body!”
I turned my back to him and went out without another word. I swore to myself that I would never come back in his house ever again and he would never have a chance to ravish me because I would be running away. I would go to a place where nobody knows me and start a new life.
I went down. When I was already on the ground, someone grabbed my arms.
“There she is.”
A familiar voice called out to signal his colleague that they had found me.
In an instant, two men held both my arms. I was hurt by the way they held my arms so tightly to make sure that I wouldn’t escape within their grasp.
“Where have you been? Your father almost tear the whole hacienda looking for you.” Edgardo said, one of my father’s bodyguards.
“Please let me go.” I begged for mercy.
“I’m sorry, Señorita. Your father ordered us to bring you back to the manor. We wanted to help you escape but our family will starve to death if we will fail to do our job.” Juan said.
I pitied them both because they are compelled to do this despicable job to feed their families. I could tell it in their eyes that they didn’t intend to hurt me. I loved to cooperate with them but I needed to help myself first before I’d think about their family. My future was at stake. They left me with no choice but to shout.
“Help! Two men wanted to rape me!”
“Senorita, there’s no use of your shouting. You’re just wasting your energy. You better go with us willingly or else we might be force to hurt you.”
I didn’t take heed to what they told me. I continued screaming hoping someone would hear me and would come to rescue me.
“Rape! Rape! Rape!”
“If you will not cease from screaming, we will be forced to gag you.”
I never stopped screaming until I heard a clashing of fists. I didn’t expect that the man who owned the tree house heard my scream and rescued me.
He knocked the two men down. I didn’t expect him to defeat two burly men because of his petite figure. Amazing. He had a special knack of a prizefighter.
“That was impressive.”
“You’re welcome.”
He walked away from me and went up to the tree house.
“Wait.”
I followed him. He climbed so fast. I climbed as fast as I could to catch up with him. Before I was able to say another word to him, he banged the door on my face. That was rude but I couldn’t blame him.
“Look. I’m sorry if I was rude to you this morning and for trespassing in your house. I didn’t mean to invade your privacy. There’s just so many things that is going on in my mind right now. I almost forgot how to be polite. Thank you for your help. By the way, my name is Isabel.”
I almost jumped from my stance when he suddenly opened the door shirtless.
“You left this book yesterday.”
He handed me the ‘Pride and Prejudice’ book. I was so occupied I almost forgot about my book.
“Thank you.”
“You may go now.”
He banged the door on my face again.
“Wait. Please don’t slam the door on my face. I wanted to get inside.”
I knocked on his door. I didn't stop knocking until he opened the door back.
“What else do you want from me?”
“I need a place to hide. There are men who’s chasing after me. I’m not sure how many.”
He pulled me inside his house. He opened the window and pulled me to peer outside.
“Are they the ones chasing after you?”
I saw the bodyguards of my father below. It was obvious that they were searching for me.
“Yes, they are my father’s bodyguards.”
“Why don’t you show up yourself to them to stop the chase?”
“Are you crazy? I’ve already gone this far. I will never give up. Nothing’s going to stop me now.”
“I am afraid that you will only have two choices. It’s either you’re going to get out from my house now and surrender yourself to those men who’s looking for you or you’re going to stay with me here and give up your virginity to me. You choose between the two options that you think is the lesser evil.”
I wanted to jump out the window. This poor guy really had a nerve to ravish a rich girl like me. I had no choice but to swallow my pride and beg for mercy. I knelt down in front of him and put my hands together as if I’m praying to a pagan god.
“Please don’t rape me. I’m begging you. I can’t show myself to those men because they will hand me back to my father. I wanted to run away because my father was forcing me to marry someone I don’t love.”
Oh my God! That was the only thing I could tell him. I was ashamed to admit that my father was marrying me off to a man older than him.
“So the rumor is true.”
Oh my God! What rumor was he referring to? I was afraid that they already knew the horrid details of my engagement. I froze in place waiting for him to tell me what he already knew.
“They said that you were just engaged last night to this handsome Spanish mestizo. You were the talk of the town last night even until now. Almost all the girls in our town envy you. You almost have everything. Why do you have to make your life difficult by defying your father? Any girl will do anything to switch places with you.”
I was relieved that they didn’t know my engagement to an old man yet. It was very flattering to know that every girl in our town envied me. But they didn’t have any idea about the emptiness I felt inside. They were not aware of the pain that is gnawing me slowly. I was glad to know that a lot of girls wanted to trade places with me. If only I could switch my life with someone else, I wouldn’t hesitate to give up my prosperous life just to get away from marrying a dirty old man.
“You don’t have any idea what’s really going on with my life.”
That’s the least I could say. I was not yet ready to share a bad piece of my life to him.
“Can I stay here until their search operation is over?”
He didn’t respond.
“Please?”
“You can stay here but you must pay me tonight.”
“I don’t have money right now.”
“Then use your body.”
“You’re kidding, right.”
“No, I’m not. I’ll be back later to collect your due. I need to go now. I have to plough some fields so that I have something to eat.”