Chapter 9. Love Over Family

I’m trying to control the bursting of these various emotions all at once. Pain. Sadness. Love. Fear.

One step outside the castle’s huge oak doors, and I’m gone here. Forever. As long as my mamita lives, I am not welcome in the Blythe Castle even if it bears my last name.

“Oh my dear, Cassidy…” she breathed, stopping at the middle of the stairs. “You don’t even know what love is!” I turned to her, unbothered by any words she'd say to convince me not to go. But I ended up gasping, something in her reflection made the hair on my arms rise. “Mamita, there’s something at your back.”

“It's scary,” she resumed, ignoring what I just said. “He's going to crush you into pieces, not just your heart but the entirety of you.” Her palm folded, clenching and unclenching. “He will break your heart, trust me—”

“I don’t trust you in terms of my feelings.”

She smirked. “He is just on the hunt for women who will languish the beast inside him. Women who will satisfy his nee