Chapter 5

"You take care of your wife, Luis, we're going to sleep now."

Mama was helping Papa, who was almost completely out of it because he was so drunk. After dinner, they decided to have some drinks, and my relatives, who were all equally drunk, were all for it, except for Lola who had already gone to her room to sleep. And just like Lola said, they did celebrate, but I hardly felt any joy.

I helped Mama support Papa to their room. He's a heavy drinker, just like me, so don't even ask who I inherited my being a drunkard from.

"Oh, where are you going?"

I noticed Mahana heading towards the main door of our house as I was going down the stairs.

"I'm going home."

I followed her until we got out of the house. She just kept walking, and I was just tailing her.

"Why are you following me?"

She stopped walking and faced me, her face showing suspicion because I was following her.

"We need to talk."

Mahana laughed dryly and then looked at me with a smirk.

"You're crazy! Your face is a talk." She hissed at me, which annoyed me. "You're just going to pick a fight with me. So before we get into a rumble, I'm going home."

She continued walking, but I quickly grabbed her wrist to stop her.

"I'm fucking serious, Mahana." I replied authoritatively, so she angrily pulled her hand away from me and raised an eyebrow at me.

"Oh, I thought you were annoyed with me? You don't even want to feel my presence, right? Anyway, your family is asleep, and my job as your WIFE is also done." She emphasized her words.

I sighed in annoyance. I can see that we both just don't want to feel each other's presence. But I want her to know that I need her help.

"I need your help."

"Wow! A miracle! The playboy Luis needs help. Gosh! This is the first time I've encountered this. The great playboy, asking me for help?" She even pointed at herself and laughed loudly.

"I don't have time to joke with you," I replied irritably.

"Excuse me, okay? My name is Mahana, not the founder of 'Sagip Kapamilya', hmm?" She retorted at me and adjusted her shoulder bag. "I'm leaving."

"I'll pay you, fifty thousand a month, just be my wife."

She stopped walking, a few seconds passed before she turned to me. She crossed her arms over her chest and looked at me with a raised eyebrow.

"Even if you offer your soul as payment, I don't want to! After what you did to me in high school, you think I'll agree that easily? Well! You can rot." She said haughtily and rolled her eyes at me.

"What's wrong with you, Mahana? How can you just chill like that? Can't you see, I'm going crazy thinking of a way to fix that wedding? And you're just calm?"

"I don't care, that's why I'm calm, okay? Besides, it's okay with me if we get married, no problem with me since we both didn't want it anyway. It's okay with me because we'll only be considered married on paper, not in real life," she defended.

"If it's okay with you, it's not with me. It's even worse now because you showed up to my family, of course, they'll be looking for you now."

"Well, you figure it out on your own. You're smart, aren't you? You can do it. I'm a busy person and I don't have time for your trips, hmm?"

"This isn't just a trip, Mahana, this is a serious situation."

"Oh really? What you're really saying is, you're thirsty for that reward your Lola mentioned, am I right?" Her eyebrow went up and down as if teasing me.

I looked away because she was right. That's really what I'm after, that's why I'm convincing her. It's my dream for a long time and I don't want to waste this opportunity.

"Don't worry, I'll even share it with you if that's what you want, okay? Just fucking help me." I blurted out.

Even if it's against my will, I'll do it just to get her to agree. My Lola has a lot of money, with just one snap of her fingers, what I ask for will be in front of me.

"Tsk! Really now." She replied with a smirk.

"We're going to pretend that our relationship is good and happy while I'm working on our annulment. While we're pretending, we'll take care of our annulment, plus, you'll even get money. So what, deal?"

I put out my hand to shake hands with her. She fought me with her gaze until her eyes landed on my hand that was outstretched in front of her.

"Psh!" She shook her head, which made me frown.

I moved my hand in front of her to convince her, but I was surprised by what she did.

"Ptooey!"

"Son of a-- yuck! You're so disgusting! What the?"

I frantically wiped my hand to remove her spit that landed on it. She was laughing while staring at me because of what she did. My eyes were glaring at her.

"Your deal is your face!" She rolled her eyes at me before finally leaving and getting into a taxi that she flagged down. She got in there without any difficulty, leaving me with my blood boiling in anger.

"Son of a bitch! I'm really going to kill that woman. I'm already trying my best to be nice to her, but look what she did. So disgusting."

I washed my hand for the seventh time with soap because of her spit. I washed my hand three times because I was so disgusted by what she did. My friends did nothing but laugh at me.

"That's exactly how annoyed you were with her when we were in high school, dude," Kenneth commented, which the other three agreed with.

"You're just like that because you're so thirsty for the reward from your Lola. How do you know if they're just fooling you to become a good husband to Mahana?" Chris replied while busy typing on his phone, even blushing like an idiot.

I glanced at him and casually threw a cornick at him that I was about to eat. "You know my Lola, even if you ask for the world there, she'll give it to you without any difficulty. Don't include my Lola in this, you're crazy."

"So, what's your plan?"

I've noticed that Rhaiven has been joining our hangouts more often. It seems like he's getting better. I'm happy for him, but I still have a bit of worry. Maybe he's just acting like he's okay when he's not.

"What else, I'll keep bothering her until I get her to agree. I don't want to waste the opportunity, dude, that's my dream restaurant. But, damn it, that woman is testing my patience," I said angrily while gulping down the canned beer I was holding.

"The question is, do you know where to find her?" Kenneth asked.

Damn it! I don't even know her address. Why am I so unlucky today? Here I am, almost unable to feel sleepy anymore. It's all Mahana's fault.

"What's the point of having detective Conan as your cousin if you're not going to use him for me?" I retorted at him because, among all of us, he's the most knowledgeable about background checks. His hands are nimble when it comes to computers.

"Tsk! He couldn't even find Haila, what more with Mahana--- So-sorry. Hehe, I'm so talkative."

I threw the can at Chris because of his talkativeness. He brought up Haila in the conversation even though Rhaiven was there. And because of what he said, Rhaiven walked out, probably because he remembered Haila again.

"Damn you! You saw that the guy was getting better, and you still reminded him."

Chris received a barrage of curses from Kenneth and me because of his stupidity. It was difficult to ask Kenneth for a favor about searching when Rhaiven came back. Kenneth decided that we'd just talk about it on a call.

"Dude, Luis, come here, you need to see this."

I ran to the living room of my condo when I heard Kenneth calling me. I was busy cooking the dish he requested. Since I needed something from him and I could benefit from it, I gave in.

"What is it?"

I wiped my hand with the tissue I grabbed from the center table and then sat beside Kenneth on the sofa who was busy pressing something on his laptop.

"According to what I searched, she's living alone and she keeps moving addresses, but I got her current address."

"Good job!" We high-fived and then got up from the sofa.

"But this is the crazy part, dude, you'll be really surprised and you'll explode with anger."

"Huh? Why?" I went back to sitting on the sofa, beside him.

"Maybe it's okay with her that you're married and the reason she doesn't agree with what you want, which is to pretend to be a happy married couple, is because she's been working on her papers, since last year, she's going abroad, it doesn't say here what country, but she can't leave the country because of some personal problems." Kenneth shared, which shocked me.

"What personal problems could that be?"

He shrugged. "It doesn't say here, but she's leaving the country as soon as possible."

"Fuck! No way!" I rubbed my face in extreme stress. "I need to stop her."

"Then, good luck! You'll be fighting a dragon like you."

I glared at him and he just made a peace sign so he wouldn't get hit by me. He looked back at his laptop while I was just stunned.

Damn it! What is she going to do in another country?