My lazy stroll down the long hallway in the direction of the kitchen is halted by the sight of my nightmare before me—Mrs. Mazur. Her arms are fallen straight down against the long floral dress that well accentuates her curvy figure. She is the perfect criterion of beauty and glamour, the qualities that her daughter Ana inherited. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that she was a supermodel at her early age.Not like she has aged anyway. Her skin is still glowing as if she were a sweet sixteen with no traceable wrinkles. Money is sweet."Greetings, Madam?" I greet with my head bowed down like a real servant in the wrong. I am afraid to meet her eyes."The morning would have been good if I didn't have to deal with incompetent rats like you!" She snickers, making me plunge my head deeper into the air downwards.Rats! She sees me as a rat right now. What more when she finds out that her beloved son has been screwing me? Will she still see me as a rat?"Where the heck have you been all morn
"Well? Check it already so that we can join the rest. We are about to be called to serve the guests." Julie pleads with me because I have been reticent to check the damn thing for a couple of minutes now.My heart is throbbing in a marathon pace inside its cage. I am growing weak every single second that passes by. I can't breathe properly. The anxiety and uncertainty of what lay ahead if this turns positive is killing me. I swear I have never felt this worried and skeptical in my whole twenty-one years of age. I am a nervous wreck, but as Julie said, we have no time. We just sneaked out as the Mazurs engaged in welcoming their guests, and I am sure they are done with the formalities and salutations by now.With a throbbing heart and feeble legs, I stroll a few centimeters into the bathroom where the kit is lying—the kit that holds the fate of my life from this moment on. My life from now on depends on what the results are. I would like to make a brief prayer, but aside from racing a
He takes a long blink and heaves out a very heavy sigh that worries me more. This seems so heavy. But what could it be?"It's not like anything I have handled before. This is different. It's...complicated." The heavy weight of his tone explains just how heavy this load is.I don't know anything about striking and closing deals, but I know he is good at what he does. If this is a deal, no matter how complicated it is, he will find a way around it."I don't know what it is, but I trust in your wisdom and capabilities. I know you will handle it well." I solace, hoping I can get a smile from him because I can't bear seeing him this way."What if I mess up? What if I make a wrong decision?" He queries.Huh? Since when has he ever made a wrong decision business-wise? I haven't heard of such a time."I trust you, Ray. You've never failed. This won't be your first. I am sure you will do great out there. And whatever decision you make will be the best. I believe in you." I say."Thank you, bab
The deafening clatter of the tray slamming on the floor halts the merry cheers of everyone at the table. Their eyes snap at me, his being the first to meet my teary ones.I don't mind the tears streaming down, which must be perplexing everyone. I also don't care to search where particularly on the floor the chicken pieces of chicken scattered on. I am focused on clenching the pieces of my heart together and trying to digest what I just heard.Everyone stands in awe of me, their confusion beyond words, while my eyes are fixed on only one person. Only he can understand my predicament right now. Him only."Irma?!" His voice echoes, and he attempts to walk to me. Perhaps to kiss my tears away like I kissed his worries away minutes ago, hug me tight, and tell me that it's not what I heard. That this is not true. That I am just having a terrible daydream that will never happen.But before he can take a step, his supposed future wife grabs his hand, halting his thoughts and strides!"Don't t
I yank my hand away from him the minute the door of his room bangs shut behind us. My face is all drenched in tears. I am barely seeing anything, so I take a moment to dry some of the tears. I need to have an explicit image of him this last time because I am certain that there is no turning back. This is it! He has made his decision, and I have made mine.It stings!It sucks!This is something I never dreamt of nor would I have ever expected to ensue. But this is the sudden reality now, and I have to embrace it. It's the end of our sweet love. Now I get what Christopher Martins meant when he said love comes slow, but it goes way so fast. I can't believe ours is gone. This soon. And in just a blink?"You are going nowhere until I say so, you hear me?"I snap my clammy, wet face to Ray, my eyes burrowing through his flaming ones. They are an inferno of fused, dreadful sentiments, blazing with redness. He seems like an enraged beast right now. Why? Who among the two of us should be seeth
"And you so willingly consented to sign away all your rights to happiness just like that?""There was absolutely nothing I could do. Believe me!" He says, and I glare at him in discord."Yes, you do, Ray!" I try to speak sense into him. "You have the freedom to choose who to love. You got the sole right to choose your life partner. The person who makes you happy should be your choice, and I am that person, right? I am the one you love. I am the one who makes you happy. The one who loves you so much. I should be the one...""Irma!" He cuts me off, and I obey and stop ranting. We lock eyes, and as early as now, I don't like the look in his eyes. It's like my words and pleas don't make sense to him at all. And as if to substantiate my thoughts, he speaks. "In this circle, Irma, it doesn't work that way. I am sorry, but we can't be. Not now! You can't fit in with this family right now. But we can find a way to be happy."Hello, my sweet demons? Please go easy on me right now. Don't stroke
I am a walking zombie as I ascend the damn stairs to my room. My room until morning. The betrayal and impudence that Ray and his family have smacked me with are still cutting through my poor heart like a sharp, double-edged dagger against the flesh. I am torn and shattered and hopeless. But there is not even a single drop of tear leaving my eye. I sucked them all when I turned my back on Ray, and there is no way I am letting even a drop slip.I have been insulted and humiliated. I am broken, yes, but I am stronger than this. He doesn’t want me? He was playing with me all along? Does social status matter to him? That freaking Tarah Pathetic Mauricio is better than me? I can’t fit in his freaking well-heeled circle. Fucking fine! So be it! This pain will pass, and the time will come when I will never remember it again. I just need to disconnect myself from this place. Tomorrow, when I finally say goodbye to this cursed place, I will start my journey to healing. And with all the curvebal
My vision is vague as I try to fix my gaze on her with one thousand thousands of mental rejections. My legs are losing all the strength, but I am fighting all the weariness with everything in me.I would love to think that this is just an awful joke. That she knows nothing because I ensured my secret was safe. But her dauntless composure and the look in her eyes are relatively adequate to stop me from deluding myself.She is not prevaricating it. She knows it. And now that I think about it, that was why she spoke to me with so much chilly detest back there. Her ground to fire me was not what she said back there—that I was being incompetent in my job, which was a very cheap lie. It was this. Now it all makes sense. That was why she was so audacious and minacious. But how did she find out? Her son alone doesn’t know, or does he?“I see that you are appalled. Brace yourself because we are going to have a very long talk given that this will be your last day here.” She speaks after noticin
“And I will do everything I can to make sure you will never succeed, Mother!” Bravo! God bless this man for me.His mother snaps her face at him. “I cannot believe that you and your father had the audacity to defy my orders and go for this woman. Are you happy now? She has been here only for a few seconds, and she is already wrecking Havok. See how she is disrespecting me in front of even these pesky servants!"Oh, is she crying this early? It sucks, but it is interesting in a way. I mean, seeing her this way is a very heartfelt picture. And having her own son and her husband take my side gives me so much hilarity. I wonder where Ana is. She should be here to add more fun.“The problem is not about her dissecting you, Mrs. Mazur. The question is, do you have any respect for yourself? Do you have any shame, because even up to this point, I am trying to analyze just how a woman who is supposed to be my real mother could be so cruel and shameless to do what you did? So tell me, Mrs. Mazu
The drive has been so short and quiet. There is nothing that has been said throughout the seemingly short journey. Everyone has been engrossed in their own thoughts, except for Angel, who has been throwing questions here and there along the way.Coming into contact with the gate, Ray hoots, and the door opens. We drive in together with the jeep that is carrying our luggage.Taping our feet to the ground as we got out of the car, Angel was about to shout her awe at the place she would be living, but her glee was held at her throat by the sight of the antagonistic eyes of Ray’s mother and Tarah. They are here, gawking at us like they have loaded guns and their fingers on the trigger, ready to shoot us and send us to our next lives. If they didn’t have their hands crossed on their chests, I would have been forced to check and be weary of every slight movement. But I guess we are saved since there is no sense of guns. The bullets from their murderous eyes are totally harmless since I am u
That day. How can I leave all those memories of that moment behind? I cannot. I do not want to. Just like him. “I am carrying that one too.” I say.“Does that mean that it meant something to you?” He asks. You should see the hope and desperation in his eyes. I never liked the word miserable, but I like how it displays itself in his eyes. It gives them a look that would thaw anyone.I would like to get lost in them and swim through their walls and try to scour what more miseries lay deep there, but I guess there will be time for this and much more. Later? Yeah. When we surpass all these obstacles. When we are free to love and cherish each other without any worries or roadblocks, “I will ask the same thing that I asked your father, Ray. I know your father does not need any form of stress, and heaven knows I want none for him. But your mother and your wife are probably having a grave dug for me and my child the moment we step foot in that mansion. And you know I will not take any sh*t fr
It is that awful day. That day, I am closing yet another chapter and opening a new one of my unknown future. That day, we are saying goodbye to this house that has been our home for the last about six years. Sad, somehow.Darting my eyes around this house and this particular room, I won’t deny that I will not miss this place This is where I started my life all over again. Another phase of my life unfolded. I came into this house about six years ago. My heart was bleeding. I was torn. I was so broken and so lost. So confused. And most importantly, I am so bitter with myself, the world, and everything in general. The graph that depicted my fur was so obscure. I could not tell where I would end up with my baby. All that I knew was that I was a pregnant woman. A broken and broken potential motherI was a pregnant woman whose baby daddy had just toyed with and betrayed me in the most cruel way. That is what I knew back then. I was made to believe that, and I embraced that lie. I was about
“Mommy! Mommy! Mom!”Damn!I kick my duvet aside and get out of bed at a light speed. I hike to the door and open it as fast as I can ever do that, and Angel’s face greets me.“Angel? What is the problem? What happened?” I ask as I pull her inside, looking around for anything that is chasing her.“Nothing, mommy!”Nothing? She came all the way to my room, running and screaming my name this early morning, all for nothing. What time is it? I don’t have a wall clock on my face, so I grab my phone from under the pillow and check the time. Huh? Just twenty minutes past six in the morning? This is early, and she is awake? It's not even a school day.“Why are you still sleeping, mommy? What if Daddy comes to get us and we are not ready?” She asks.Ooh, that is it? The excitement? The glee. The enthusiasm and everything within the margins of that for the idea of living with her dad is what woke her up this early. My goodness! We have everything packed. Even the beds have been garbled, and we
“Okay. I suppose you have bought a gun, then? We really will need one unless you want to die in the hands of Mrs. Mazur and Ray’s wife, Irma. Goodness! I don’t like the kind of feeling that I am getting. We are technically throwing ourselves to the wolves.” Here comes Julie, the lamenter. The fear-freak little bitch She is scared to hell by this news that I just gave her.I know. I know. Yes, believe me, I do understand her. Everyone would look at this scenario from her perspective. Almost everyone would share her sentiments right now about this madness. All this is wrong. All is risky. Wait, risky, yes. Tick that one. But wrong? What exactly is wrong? Me granting an old, ailing man’s plea? Is my daughter getting what she truly deserves? What am I entitled to? Or the possibility of me and Ray perhaps just reuniting? Or is Ray performing his duties as a father to his only child?What exactly is wrong there? Nothing wrong with the above, right? We are just rewriting all the wrongs here.
“First, I need at least about three days to sort things out. I need to prepare my daughter for this first.” I say.I know she will be over the moon with the mind-boggling news of living with her father. I know how much she longs for this—to have her dad close. This will surely blow her mind off. And as early as now, despite the fights that await us ahead because of this, because I know it will evoke a catastrophe, I am happy for my daughter. And I will not deny her this golden chance, nor will I let anyone hinder her from enjoying this new life that she is so entitled to. It is her right. Nobody should stand in her way of this.“I understand. You can have the three days, but please, my dear, don’t take too long. I want to sort things out as early as possible.” Mr. Mazur says:I don’t understand what is chasing this man. Why does he want to speed up things like this? All the same, maybe it’s the need to clear his conscience. If that is the case, I will make sure he gets the peace that
“I was a very vibrant man when you last saw me, Irma. I was the man of the house. I held the sole authority to make you marry my son, and you two could be living happily with each other. No one could have dared go against my word. You wouldn’t need to sneak your hands under the table just to hold each other like your heart wants.”Shieeet! Damn! How does he know? I told you this man is so sharp-witted. I try to yank my hand away from Ray now that we have been caught, but I guess he is glad that we have actually been caught because he does not let go. He pins me more on him, and since I don’t want to arouse any more suspicions, I just let him have his way.I blush as I gaze I look back at Mr. Mazur, though. This is so embarrassing. The old man might be thinking about what we would be doing if there was no one around. But if only he knew that we had already sampled that sin. Sigh!“Instead of choosing what was right, which was my son’s happiness, I put my interests first, my legacy, my
So,their name had no stain, until I decided to stain it. They were stainless untill Irma decided to show up and now she is dragging their name into the mud. And they can not allow that. He is here to ask me to stop this war that I have started because it will stain their name more than it has already done.“I would like to know, do you have any proof of what you are accusing my wife of? Because if you don’t…”“I do have.” I cut him off, nicely, though, after remembering Ray told me not to abset him. “I would also like to let you know that I was not planning on causing any trouble for your family. I was minding my business and doing perfectly fine with my daughter without you all of you in the picture. Believe me, there was no way I would have chosen all this mess over the peace I had.” I explain.“I know. But now you are in this mess. What do you plan to do?”He asks.“I am sorry, Mr Mazur, but that I can not tell you. All I know is that your wife and your daughter-in-law will not leav