A gift.
**Chapter 4****
All day long Cassie couldn't feel comfortable, she couldn't just tell her father that she had seen the Beast and not only had she seen him, but she had spoken to him, this seemed to want to eat away at her thoughts, while her father tried to reach an agreement with Muriel to give him back his wife and not make her one of his lovers, at that, Muriel mocked the man saying: ¿Do you think I would want as a lover an old woman who has no teeth and is more used than any latrine?, No Mr. Leon, I may have bad taste in business, but I like to admire and savor beauty, my lovers are all young, none can be over 25 years old, because she would no longer be a lover and would only be a worthless object.
Then, Mr. León calmed down and said: having taken my wife as part of the payment, I suppose I no longer owe you anything, but Muriel laughed and said: you still owe me a large sum of money, I confess that you have paid almost everything, but you are still missing something. Just then, Brittany, Cassie's younger sister, came skipping into the house with a smile, not noticing the men's presence, and Cassie was coming behind her with the basket of dry clothes... Muriel, seeing both young girls, marveled at their beauty, because he had never seen Mr. Leon's daughters wandering around the town. The skin of both looked like porcelain and the features of the older one were delicate, they were diamond-shaped and her pompous lips invited sin. Her amused look said it all: she was a virgin, you could tell by the carelessness of her walk, while the younger one was a very beautiful girl, she needed to grow, but that didn't take away from how delicate she looked, almost as if she were as fragile as a glass doll... Mr. Leon, noticing that Muriel wasn't paying attention to him as she spoke, followed her gaze, and realizing that his eyes were fixed on his daughters, his heart almost plummeted to the pit of his stomach and a chill ran down his spine dorsal, he knew that Muriel would ask for one of his daughters as part of payment... and almost as if he had read his mind, Muriel spoke to him and said to Mr. León: I will bring your wife back home if you let me take your oldest daughter, then your debt will be settled and you will not owe me anything; at that Mr. León refused and stated that his daughters were not for sale, that they were not negotiable, at that response Muriel became furious, and raising her voice almost as if he wanted the young women to listen he said: I am saving you from an unwanted death and yet you deny me the simplest form of payment that I am giving you, it almost seems that you want to get rid of your wife, I wonder how you will finish paying your debt, ¿will you sell yourself to me?, That being the case, I must desist from your offer because I do not like men, however, I will be open to the possibility if you agree to give me one of your daughters, think about it carefully and tomorrow morning I will be here to receive your answer, I hope you do not play any tricks with me, you do not want to have to go visit the beast, ¿do you Leon?, At those words, Leon was devastated while Muriel left the house with his chest puffed out, simulating a rooster entering the henhouse. The girls immediately went to the living room and spoke to their father, who was crying about the misfortunes of his life, it was as if he were paying someone else's karma... and regaining his strength, he hugged his daughters and told them: he won't accept no for an answer, unless one of you really wants to go to his side. He promised to bring mom back and he wouldn't charge me more for this pigsty of a house where we live. Those words echoed in Cassie's mind, who was understanding the hint of his words. Then she told him: I'll pick up my things and I'll be ready to go with him tomorrow only if that solves your problems, but don't ask me not to come see you from time to time, because I'll miss you being so far away, father. The man did nothing but cry. He didn't want his daughter to leave. On the other hand, her little sister didn't understand the situation very well. She was a little girl, fragile and innocent and she was not able to understand what was happening.
That day, she felt it go by so fast, that when she realized it was already night, she could not sleep, she was so scared because she had heard many stories about Muriel from her father and mother and she was afraid of what could happen to her, then for some reason, she remembered her encounter with the beast, and although she was nervous seeing him for the first time, her fear was much less compared to what she was feeling at this moment, it is not that she did not want to help her family get out of that debt, but she did not know what would happen to her once she arrived at one of Muriel's properties, ¿would she be a slave in the stables or a servant in the kitchen?, If she was very unlucky she would have to serve him in his chambers and only that made her crying in the silence…
The night passed and it was almost dawn when she fell asleep, but she would swear that in the middle of her daydream she had seen the beast again staring at her while she slept, and only then when she woke up, she found that he was wearing wristbands that she had never seen before and that had the name of Bastian embroidered in leather and surrounded by gold thread; and no matter how much she thought about it, she knew that her family could not afford such a luxury, it was at that moment, that she remembered her hallucination, but realized that it was real, that the beast had been in her room last night and this was a gift from him that she had to hide, but when she tried to take it off she realized that she couldn't, it seemed that it could only be removed with a key, then she remembered the Beast's arm when he tried to help her by giving her hand and she realized that it was not a key but the beast's claws that opened those wristbands, so she had to hide them well so that no one would notice them and make wrong guesses...
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