"Mommy why is daddy leaving?" An eight-year-old Asche asked with teary eyes.

Estelia, his mother, glanced down at her son solemnly as she held his hand, holding back pricking tears that began to flood her eyes and said, "Daddy is unhappy, baby. So it's just going to be you and me from now on."

Asche frowned, staring ahead at his father who was now collecting his belongings that were situated at the front door and carried them outside into the chilling night air.

He turned to face his mother with pleading eyes, "But mommy, daddy doesn't have to go. We all can be happy together. We can play hide and seek and other fun stuff that will make him want to stay."

Estelia couldn't hold the tears any longer, her eyes released them in parallel lines, trickling down her cheeks. "Oh, Asche darling, it's not that simple." She knelt down and encased him in a tight hug.

How can she explain to her son that his father no longer desired to be amongst them? To be a father to his son? A husband to his wife? That he's having an affair with her sister? A sister that she trusted? A sister whom she'd move the earth and beyond for?

But that same ungrateful sister deceived her, backstabbed her, and destroyed her marriage. Now Emilia was pregnant and expecting her husband, Deon's child.

She sobbed and clutched her child to her, feeling broken and agonized. Estelia was unemployed and she depended on her husband to pay all of the bills. It's not that she's not qualified to land a good job, her husband implored her to stay at home and be a housewife. She begged him to at least let her be a helping hand, but he flat out refused.

After all, she was the wife and she must obey him in all things. At this moment, she regretted ever complying to his selfish demands.

Now here he was striding out of their lives without a care, walking into her sister's arms to nurture her and their unborn child.

What about Asche? What about her baby boy?

That night, Deon left, Estelia sobbed the entire night. Asche's little mind couldn't contain the fact that his precious daddy left them permanently and not just for the day as he did every day, when he went to work and later down into Emilia's pussy, at his favorite spot in room 106 in the expensive hotel that Drakos owned.

Estelia was never the same, she changed drastically, her bright smiles were gone, her eyes were now dull and empty. She rarely paid Asche any special attention, leaving him to fend for himself. Asche never truly understood the strength of his father's infidelity, that his mother loved him to death, literally and figuratively.

Asche felt alone, neglected, and saddened. He needed love too. He was but a child, still clinging to his mother's love and security that was nearly nonexistent.

To add more hurt to his already weeping wounds, the other kids were bullying him at school. Each passing day was painful for young Asche who took lashings and beatings from insecure kids who considered him a misfit.

Why was he being picked on?

Because they're poor?

Because of his looks and soft features?

Because he had no father?

He cried internally and outwardly. Shouldering his pain on his own.

He grew to despise his father and his frustration with his mother grew until he reached the age of eleven.

That's when she committed suicide.

She hanged herself in her bedroom. Her body swung slightly and he stared in shock and horror, a startling scream piercing through his trembling lips.

He ran to the neighbor's house.

After the police and coroners came to investigate and remove her body, he just stood there staring blankly as his life shifted from bad to worse.

The autopsy stated that she was dead for more than five hours. She probably hung herself right after he left for school.

His mom abandoned him to suicide and his father to adultery.

He had no close relatives so he was placed in an orphanage and several months later, into a foster home.

Obviously, that didn't work out so he just went out on his own. Survived on the streets. With no parents and no guidance, he lived off of begging and stealing until he realized he needed to make an honest living, that was when he matured to the age of 17 and finally went back to the orphanage who assisted him in getting his education and going to college.

At eighteen, his innocence was taken. At nineteen, he thought he found love in a disdainful world, but he was wrong.

Love cannot be found in prostitution. When you're selling your body to these men, there are serious chances you are taking. Some of them can be serial rapists and murderers but money doesn't have a face. Money doesn't have no heart and money doesn't have no soul.

Yet, he thought Nathan was his fated one. His warm smile, sprightly personality and his whispered words of love and affection had Asche caught in his love trap. Or hate trap.

Nathan lied to him. Used him, conned him and it fucking burned Asche's soul to know that he fell a victim to Nathan's charms. Deceptively cloaked charms. For he was a wolf in sheep's clothing, preying on the weak and desperate.

And Asche was desperate for love because he was deprived of it at a young age. Was it all bad to look for love? No, but he searched for it in the wrong places, Nathan being that wrong place.

Nathan cleaned his bank account, stole his jewelry and personal belongings, he fucked Asche so deliciously and then left like a thief in the night. Asche woke up to an empty bed, empty bank account, an empty heart, and an empty soul. He did not believe in love. Love is an illusion. Love kills, love steals, love hurts and it changed him for the better. Or so he thought.

Because what Nathan did to him, he did exactly to Drakos. Not entirely, but partially and he didn't care.

All humans are alike.

Wicked beings.

***