Chapter 2 I refuse to love this woman

At the same time, on the posh side of town, billionaire businessman Carlos Joy was having a business dinner with Chinese businessmen who wanted to launch an exclusive Joy Whills clothing line in their country.

Carlos, who spoke Chinese and five other languages to perfection, impressed the Chinese with his business skills, poise and resourcefulness, so he was able to close yet another advantageous deal for the company where he was chairman and majority owner.

Those who see Carlos today have no idea that he was adopted at the age of seven, taken from a life of poverty and abuse by the kind-hearted Joy family, who witnessed the horrific story of a malnourished little boy with black hair and blue eyes who, in an attempt to escape yet another attack by his mother's pimp, threw himself from the second floor of a dilapidated building in the poor part of the city of Detroit.

Priscila Joy immediately fell in love with the little boy she saw on television, and moved heaven and earth to adopt him. Paulo Joy agreed wholeheartedly with his wife and the adoption issue was quickly resolved because there was nothing the Joys couldn't do.

Carlos spent months in hospital, undergoing physical and psychological treatment, and Priscila never left his side, which caused a certain resentment in her biological son Rodrigo, who was only a year older than Carlos, and hated all the attention his mother and father gave to that strange boy.

Rodrigo always pretended to be a good brother in front of his parents, but when they weren't around, Rodrigo was cruel and vicious to Carlos, who at the time didn't say a word.

And the fact that Carlos was better at everything didn't help to improve the relationship between the brothers. Unlike Rodrigo, who was average at everything he did, Carlos was excellent, the best student in the school, he graduated with honors from college, and even in sports, music and the arts he surpassed Rodrigo.

The only problem was that Carlos was an introverted child, he didn't like being touched, especially by women, and he didn't speak a word until he was ten years old when he surprised everyone by saying loud and clear to a friend of his mother's to keep his hands off him.

When Carlos graduated from college he refused to join the family business, and took a job on his own using the unknown surname of his biological mother Whills.

That's when he met Tereza, a beautiful young woman, whose personality and beauty broke down all his barriers, and Carlos fell completely in love with her, until one day, he was surprised by Rodrigo's announcement that he and Tereza had fallen in love and were going to get married.

Carlos endured the job of best man at the wedding, and as soon as the party was over he left the Joy mansion, swearing that no one would ever take anything from him again.

Ignoring the pleas of his mother and father, he went abroad on his own, where he only contacted his mother and father to let them know he was alive.

And just six years later he returned to New York City, very different from the twenty-four-year-old he had been before.

By the time he was thirty, he was already considered the most sought-after bachelor in the country, and on his own merits he had become rich and powerful, even more so than the Joy family, but the price was that he had become a cold, arrogant and ferocious man, who despised women in general with the exception of his mother, which was known by everyone, but it didn't stop women throwing themselves at Carlos in an attempt to win him over.

What almost no one knew was that Carlos suffered from insomnia and when he slept he had horrible nightmares. He developed a strong aversion to women's touch, with the exception of when he had sex, but even in bed Carlos was cruel and distant with women, not allowing any kind of contact that showed affection.

Carlos was adept at practicing BDSM, so he could control women so that they wouldn't touch him without permission.

As all his relationships were under contract, and he hardly ever appeared in public with any woman, this generated a lot of speculation about his sexuality, which also didn't stop women from throwing themselves at Carlos.

But everything changed that morning when Tereza, now his sister-in-law, came into his office and threw herself into Carlos' arms, with the excuse that she was having problems in her marriage and needed help.

Carlos immediately closed his eyes and waited for the crisis of anxiety and aversion he felt every time women touched him without permission, but it didn't come. He had been having sex with Tereza since she broke into his house a few months ago, but she had never touched him without permission - this was the first time.

Carlos then firmly pushed Tereza away, saying he would think of something to help her and then dismissed her with the excuse that he had an important meeting to attend. This led to an hour in the office of his psychiatrist and personal friend Lucas Hux, who had a theory about what was happening that was taking Carlos' peace of mind away. First he asked Carlos to excuse himself and left the office, returning shortly afterwards with his secretary who, without warning, hugged Carlos, which caused a panic attack and revulsion at the time. After Carlos recovered, he said that he thought Carlos still loved Tereza and that was why he didn't have crises when she touched him.

As it turned out, Carlos refused to have any feelings for that woman.

And that's why now, instead of paying attention to the Chinese businessmen's conversation, Carlos was lost in dark thoughts.

He glanced at his personal secretary and friend, who understood that it was time to leave.

He pretended to take a call, then said:

"Sir, I'm sorry to bother you, but something has come up in one of the branches that requires your attention"

Carlos nodded and repeated his apologies in Chinese, saying that the next morning he would send his lawyer to find them to sign the contract.

Thinking that Pedro deserves a raise, after all, he is an excellent personal assistant, and he also knows all about Carlos' illness, so he takes every precaution to keep the women away from Carlos.