Early morning, Teacher Maria woke up early and had her preparations before going to St. Mary's Academy. She is so excited to meet her cute pupils once again. She knows that they will enjoy their topic for today. She took a bus already.
She arrived at the school early as well giving her ample time to set up everything in her classroom. She will be having a Coco melon theme inside her room so that her students will have a playful mood while learning her lessons for today.
When the students arrived, "Wow ! Teacher our classroom looks so cool," one of her students shouted as loud as her eyes widened upon entering the room.
"Yey! I love our room Teacher Maria," the other one exclaimed.
"I'm so excited about our learnings for today," said the little boy coming in.
Teacher Maria smiled and felt so happy upon hearing her students' compliments.
"I'm so glad you all like and appreciate our room today. I make sure to give you more themes in the future my dear students," she said to her students while giving out their folders one by one for their workshop for today.
Her teaching skills were different from the traditional way of teaching execution. She always ensures that her students will always remember what they have learned and that they do enjoy it a lot. She calls her teaching method "Learning is Fun."
Before she ended the session, she divided her class into two groups. Group A will be boys and Group B will be girls.,
"Okay class, for Group A, you will be assigned to sing with action, Johny, Johny while for Group B, you will be assigned to sing with action as well Pussy Cat, Pussy Cat. I will play the song from our MP4 Speaker and you will all sing okay. The most active and energetic group will receive triple stars," she excitedly announced to the mechanics while the students are giggling to do the activity already.
"Yey," almost all the children get ready already. It's really fun and Teacher Maria was so overwhelmed seeing how her students enjoy her way of teaching. Other school teachers are simply watching them from their glass door as they are performing the task inside the room. It looks like they were having s great show or stage play inside. They also enjoyed watching them inside.
'Okay, Ready Group A," Teacher Maria played the music of Johny, Johny, is one of the most popular Nursery Rhymes on the list.
The little boys already did their best performance actively
Clap! Clap! Clap!
"Very good children," Teacher Maria clapped her hands for a well-performed task by Group A. "Now let's all hear from Group B," she looked at the second team who are well prepared and very competitive as well.
the little girls love to compete as well. They did the best performance too and almost everybody applauded.
Clap! Clap! Clap!
"Wow, very good Group B," Teacher Maria applauded Group B as well. "Now all together, Group A to sing Johny, Johny, and Group B to sing Pussy Cat, Pussy Cat," she said while combining the two groups. Her students were so engaged and enjoying their activity.
Clap! Clap! Clap!
"Great performance everyone. Because of that, I will give each one of you 3 stars upon exiting the room. Now sort out your things and get ready to line up," she said to them. The students are all going home with smiles on their faces. They truly enjoyed their class with Teacher Maria.
"See you tomorrow Teacher Maria," all the students bid goodbye to her.
"Bye class, See you tomorrow. Keep safe," she said while waving her hand to them.
Her unique teaching skills were already spreading in their academy as the majority of her co-teachers and faculty were so amazed at how she contained her students. The previous preschool teacher was dismissed due to her bad behavior toward her students. It's their first time having a preschool teacher in St. Mary's Academy who seemed to be so passionate in her teachings and getting positive feedback both from her students and their parents. It's a nice review of Teacher Maria's initial assessment.
"Congratulations Teacher Maria. You nailed it. How did you do it?" her co-faculty Teacher Roland asked her. He is a Grade 1 advisory class Teacher.
"Thank you. I do what I wanted to experience as well. I'm just sharing with my students the things I wanted to know. I want to see creativity and I do it with them.
It is as if I'm doing it with pleasure as well," she humbly said to Teacher Roland while smiling.
She is now sorting her things and getting ready to go home. She's a bit tired yet so satisfied with the result.
As she was walking along with the Bus terminal, suddenly she bumps into a hard wall with a masculine scent that lingers in her nostrils. She was captivated by the scent, making her lean more on the wall, and ignored her things which are already scattered on the floor.
"Hey, what are you doing?" a gorgeous handsome man is now pushing Teacher Maria who bumps him and yet still leaning on his wide chest. Teacher Maria is at a loss and almost sniffing his chest. He feels loathe with this dumb woman on his chest who's still pinning herself to him.
Teacher Maria came to her senses when she felt the hard grip of two big hands on her shoulders making her pain.
"Ouch!" she murmurs. She slowly raised her head to look at the one who was in front of her. She was about to give a sharp look at him, but suddenly when her eyes met his, she almost drops her jaw.
"Oh, my God. Thank you for sending me this Good-looking man in front of me," her lips were slightly opened as she continue to stare at Mr. del Fuego's handsome face. He is Mr. Jericho del Fuego, the owner of del Fuego Brokerage and Realty Firm in Batangas City. He was going to meet his client at Starbucks Caffe and Resto near the Bus Station when this dumb woman who doesn't look her way suddenly bumped him. He is in a hurry and a bit annoyed already when he stared at this woman and saw her parted lips, he slowly put his hand under his chin while staring at her eyes and closed his lips. He was already annoyed with this woman's presence and it seemed that she doesn't want to let go of him the way she stared at him.
"Hey, aren't you satisfied already with my looks?" he told her while having a smirking face.
Teacher Maria then blinked her eyes and said apologetically said to him, "Oops, I am sorry. My fault."
Mr. del Fuego then said, " Alright, next time please look at your way to avoid bumping into someone else." He left her when he felt that the woman will protest.
Teacher Maria just looked at Mr. del Fuego's back while he is leaving. He is wearing a black suit and he looked so decent. He seemed to be in a hurry based on how he walks.
"Hmmph. I just thought God sent me a man already, he's so annoying," she murmurs while picking up her things on the floor.
" I had a great day the whole day and he just ruined it. I wish him bad luck. Hmmph!" she was so furious.
A bus came already and she took her trip already.
When she came to her apartment, she just put all her things on her computer table and started to make dinner for herself.
She is thinking of the man she bumped into a while ago. Even if she is furious about him, she can't deny the fact that he owns a very striking feature, hunky, sexy, and magnanimous... She almost dropped her jaw when she stared at him and how she wished him to hold her waist and hugged her tight at that moment. She smiled upon having these thoughts.
Meanwhile, Mr. del Fuego is also thinking about that dumb woman too. Even though he felt so annoyed with her, he remembered how soft her body was when he bumped him and how his member reacted when he stared at her parted lips, it looks so soft and sweet that he wanted to taste them at that moment. "There's something in her," he thought so. She's not that attractive and pleasant in his eyes but then he finds her different from other girls who used to bump him and flirt with him easily.
"Hey, what's in your mind Mr. del Fuego," his client Carlito Montreal, a realtor, asked him when he saw him not listening.
Mr. del Fuego collected himself and said politely," Oh nothing. I just thought of someone who made me annoyed a while ago. Let's proceed with our collaboration then."
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Hmmm, will Teacher Maria and Mr. del Fuego meet again?
The Del Fuego estate had always been a place of quiet transformation. The vines grew in disciplined rows, the soil rich with memory, and the wind carried stories that had never been spoken aloud. Maria often said the vineyard was like a mirror—it reflected what people brought to it. Some arrived with ambition. Others with grief. And some, like Maria herself, with silence.It was a Tuesday morning in late October when the knock came.Maria was in the nursery, humming softly to Celestina while Rafael played with wooden blocks on the floor. The twins had grown quickly—now toddling, babbling, and demanding attention with the full force of their personalities. Jericho was in Manila for a meeting, and Celeste was hosting a leadership seminar in Tagaytay. The house was unusually quiet.The knock was soft. Hesitant. Almost apologetic.Maria paused. Visitors didn’t arrive unannounced—not anymore. The estate had become a sanctuary, protected by gates, security, and layers of discretion. But som
The vineyard was quiet in the early hours of dawn. Maria sat at her writing desk, the windows open to the scent of ripening grapes and the distant hum of workers preparing for the day. Her fingers hovered over the keyboard, her heart steady. She had written the final line of her second book.She titled it The Unspoken Harvest.Unlike The Quiet Vine, which had been a gentle meditation on motherhood and legacy, this new work was bolder. It was a reckoning. A collection of essays, letters, and fictionalized vignettes that explored the invisible burdens women carry—expectations, silence, sacrifice—and the cost of performing perfection in a society that rarely asks what lies beneath.Maria didn’t write it to provoke.She wrote it because she couldn’t stay silent anymore.The book opened with a letter to her daughter:“Celestina, if you ever feel the weight of being everything to everyone, know that you are allowed to be something for yourself.”From there, Maria wove stories of women she h
A fully developed continuation of the Del Fuego saga, written in immersive prose and crafted . This chapter explores how Maria’s literary success begins to draw national media attention, and how the Del Fuego family—especially Jericho and Celeste—must navigate the sudden shift from quiet legacy to public scrutiny.The Del Fuego estate had always been a sanctuary. Nestled between the hills of Batangas, it was a place of quiet elegance, where vines grew in disciplined rows and the rhythm of life followed the seasons. For decades, the family had cultivated not just wine, but privacy. Their legacy was whispered about in business circles, admired in agricultural journals, but rarely splashed across headlines.Until Maria’s words changed everything.Her debut book, The Quiet Vine, had launched quietly, like her essays before it. But the resonance was immediate. Within weeks, it climbed bestseller lists. Book clubs across the country began dissecting her prose. Influencers quoted her lines.
The Del Fuego estate had always been a place of quiet dignity. Nestled in the heart of Batangas, it was known for its sprawling vineyards, its elegant stone mansion, and the legacy of a family that had weathered generations of storms. But now, the estate was no longer just a symbol of heritage—it was becoming a symbol of something else.Maria Del Fuego’s words had changed everything.Her debut book, The Quiet Vine, had begun as a private act of reflection. A collection of essays and poems written in the quiet hours between feedings and vineyard walks. She hadn’t expected it to resonate. She hadn’t expected it to be published. And she certainly hadn’t expected it to become a national bestseller.But it had.And now, the world was watching.The success of The Quiet Vine was swift and organic. It began with book clubs, then spread to social media. Readers quoted her lines, shared her essays, and wrote blog posts about how her words had helped them feel seen. Her reflections on motherhood
The Del Fuego estate had always been a place of quiet beauty—vineyards stretching across the hills, the scent of ripe grapes in the air, and the soft hum of life unfolding in rhythm with the seasons. But inside the mansion, tucked away in a sunlit corner of the nursery, something else was blooming.Maria Del Fuego sat at her writing desk, a cup of chamomile tea cooling beside her, her laptop open to a blank document. Celestina and Rafael were napping nearby, their tiny breaths rising and falling in sync. The house was quiet, and for the first time in weeks, Maria felt still enough to listen to herself.She had started writing again not with intention, but with instinct. It began as a way to process the whirlwind of motherhood—the sleepless nights, the aching body, the overwhelming love. But soon, her thoughts spilled beyond the personal. She wrote about legacy, about silence, about the invisible labor of women who hold families together without applause.She didn’t know what she was w
The Del Fuego estate was quiet in the early hours of dawn. The vineyard, still cloaked in mist, stretched endlessly toward the horizon. Celeste stood at the edge of the terrace, coffee in hand, watching the sun rise over the hills. It was a view she had come to cherish—constant, grounding, and deceptively peaceful.But peace, she knew, was rarely permanent.Inside the mansion, Maria was nursing Celestina while Rafael slept soundly in his crib. Jericho had returned to work, balancing fatherhood with boardroom battles. The estate was thriving. The Del Fuego Group had just secured a major partnership with a European distributor, and Celeste’s initiatives were being hailed as visionary.Yet beneath the surface, a storm was brewing.It began with a phone call.The offer,Celeste was in her study when her private line rang. She rarely used it anymore—only a handful of people had the number. She answered, expecting a routine update.“Celeste Reyes?” the voice asked.“Yes.”“This is Anton Vil