FAESarah: Please, Fae. I know I don’t deserve to ask favors but I need help. I need to get away from Tom. He’s gone crazy. I will do everything you’ll ask me to do. I’ll tell them all what he’s done last night to Jigo. I will testify. Just please, save me.Sarah: Meet me downstairs, at the beach. The spot near the open bar. It’s closed now and I’m hiding there. Please don’t bring anyone with you and cover yourself. I don’t want him to see us. He’ll just hide and escape!Sarah: Please come as soon as possible. I’m so scared!Those were the messages I found on my phone from Sarah’s number. God! She almost admitted she was the one who’d touched my husband when he was drugged. The DNA was not conclusive, but the fast test at least was definite about the gender. The saliva was of a female’s. I could suspect no one else.I was blinded by anger. I admit I didn’t give myself time to think about it. I even thought it was silly, after I successfully left the suite while the men’s backs were tu
JigoI woke up into a nightmare.It was Mark and Theo who had hauled me up from bed telling me that something happened to my wife and the helicopter was about to rush her to a hospital in the mainland— the same one where I was just a few hours ago. Carl was with her. As I dressed like a madman, they also told me that Tom and Sarah were both in custody. That the investigators and the police came in time to catch Tom before he could do more damage, and the son-of-a-bitch told them that it was Sarah who’d invited him to go to the island to take revenge on Fae. That it was all her fault. However, it was Tom who’d hurt his wife. And Sarah was the one who’d screamed for help in a way that those who happened to be near were able to check on what was going on and mobilized first aid help.Fae had been stabbed.There was a part of me who couldn’t comprehend what that whole concept meant. She was safe. I fell asleep with her in his arms, soothing me with her hand rubbing my back as she held me
FAEI was home by the end of that week. I was healed enough that I could continue mending at home.Days later, as I moved easier around the house, we still have no word about where Sarah went. Nobody could tell where she was now. Her place was still intact, according to Carl. He had paid for a private investigator to look for her, as far as I knew. But it wasn’t like we were going to continue to file a case against her. It was the farthest thing that I wanted. As far as I was concerned, whatever quarrel we had had been evened out when she had not only saved me from r*ape that night, but also from being killed by Tom. And I had a feeling the two men in my life, my surrogate brother and my husband, would defer to me regarding that decision. They did, eventually.Meanwhile, there was enough evidence for Tom to get convicted and live many, many years in jail. Carl had just started with him. His lawyers would make sure he would pay not only what he’d done to me, but to the other women he’d
JIGO The moment my phone rang, I knew it was trouble again. I didn’t even need to look at the screen to know it was from another one of the clubs. And it was, after I heard the voice. It’s the manager of Incubus I now, Ryota. He would usually report and take care of problems himself. But in the last three weeks, he’s been reporting disturbing happenings in the club, too. I took the call. Someone tried to start a fire in the warehouse at the back but it was found out in time. The CCTV caught a recording of a man in a mask but he wasn’t identifiable. He got in through the delivery entrance posing as one of the delivery boys in a busy hour and hid, waiting for an opportunity to do what he was there to do.I was sweating a little after the call. If the warehouse was hit, the nightclub could have been in ashes and rubbles by now. Things were escalating. I needed help.So I called Carl.“Hey, Carl. Something’s been happening. I think I’ll need to ask for your friend’s help about this. D
FAEI could hear the argument of two male voices when I opened the door to the Study late in the afternoon. I knew my husband arrived with Carl and Atty. Estanislao—a house staff told me—so I went down to greet them both. I paused, reluctant to go in. What was this about? Why were Jigo and Carl raising voices at each other?“It’s stupid. You don’t have to do this, Carl. He’s a criminal so we use the law on him. You don’t have to go there and try to talk with your Ex expecting it will do any good. It’s just going to make the situation dangerous for all of us.”Ex? Which Ex? There could be other women who’d been involved with Carl aside from Sarah. They couldn’t be talking about her. Besides, as far as I knew, they hadn’t found her yet. “Law? He’s a criminal—he doesn’t respect the law in the first place. We’ve got to do something else to back us up while our lawyers do the legal stuff. I’m telling you, Jigo, I’m doing this. He’s already tried to harm you. This is beyond what the poli
FAE“So how are you doing with all this?” he was asking me now. It had become a routine. He would check on my emotional make up while we wrapped our day up. I used to love this, too. But for some reason, these recent months, a despondency had started to creep up on me. I knew he loved taking care of me. But why, lately, had questions started to make it seem like I was so weak?I turned away and didn’t answer, though I still felt the need to tell him I was alright so he would worry on less than what was already on his plate. But it didn’t seem to be working. Him continuously checking up on me made me feel like I was a burden more than a relief on times like this. Why wouldn’t he let me take care of myself once? Why wouldn’t he let me worry about him? Why couldn’t I be a part of that space where he could vent without worrying it might hurt someone?Of course, he noticed it. He came near and made me turn to him with a hand on my shoulder. “Hey, what’s up? You’re suddenly very quiet.”I
JIGOI shouldn’t have left her like that. I shouldn’t have panicked. She would think that there was something really wrong now. But the thing. The feeling, came so suddenly. The need so strong, and she was there. I couldn’t stay.I was in the grounds, walking like a madman as I tried to shake off the dirty feeling that engulfed my body, the mad images that haunted my mind. How could I think of her like that? How could I think to do those things to her, of all people? What would she think of me if she knew?There was an anger… a madness… that steadily creeped on me in the months following what happened to me and her in the island. The anger was so strong I couldn’t even visit the resort now. Tom might be inside a cell now, possibly going to rot in there until he died. I should feel a sense of justice.But no… I still couldn’t believe he was able to get to me—to us. Sometimes, this anger extended to Sarah. Understandably. I couldn’t trust the words that came out of that bitch’s mouth. I
CARLI didn’t see the difference the first time. I knew there was an existing problem. He was already worried about the arson that happened in one of the nightclubs. He already decided to close the establishments temporarily because concern about security and anticipating another attack had been consuming his people and he thought there was no price that was enough for peace of mind. Jigo’s mind was now going through details about where to transfer his employees for the mean time while he consulted us about putting up a new business. But it took almost an hour before I realized his distracted air wasn’t about his workers but about something else. The guys that were physically present—Joel, Ivan and Cleo—started to notice, too, and had exchanged meaningful looks with each other. And I thought, if there was anything that could trouble our friend like this other than the business and his employees, it was family. So it was either Lola Leah, or it’s about his wife.My back straightened at
JIGOFae looked like she was about to bolt, but she stayed put. I had to look at her first before I opened the doors. I saw her square her jaw before she nodded. I reached for the brass door handles to the knobs and turned them.Music blasted us from the inside. And… well, giggling bunnies greeted us in the foyer in blood-red lipstick shades and sexy bunny suits.“Hi!” Joana. “Come in!”“Hello, gorgeous couple!” That’s Pam.“Welcome to the House of Love where your wet dreams await to be realized!” And that’s Kacey, delivering an obviously scripted spiel that sounded painful to the ears. Another giggling fit followed as Fae recovered from her nervousness quickly to tease her friends about their outfits. They were all flushed as they cackled there like witches.Before I knew it, we were ushered in. Fae stared slack-jawed in the hall when we got there. I shook my head but I couldn’t control the grin that split my face.The idiots designed the hall like a Las Vegas strip club. But it wasn
JIGOThe wedding day was fast approaching and the grandmothers were in full-blown acting mode about panicking when I knew all along they were pinnacles of ice hearts inside those wrinkly, talc-perfumed bodies. Of course, it was to make sure everyone around them panicked the way they did. That’s how I knew this wedding would be perfect.Fae humored them, too, but her eyes had become honed. After being exposed to administering a transition house of about thirty homeless or orphaned female teenagers by now (after a month-and-a-half after Vivian walked in to the first dormitory building) and in active negotiation of buying a second building, she could see how organized the lolas (grandmothers) were and that everything was running smoothly and on schedule.A public wedding was pretty much a moot point, really, as anyone who would care to notice would know in multiplying sources that I had been married to my wife for months now. In fact, a month
FAEBefore she walked through the entrance to the lobby of the dormitory, I knew who she was. No, Carl hadn’t let me see a picture. It’s just that her face might be different, but the way she stood, the hunch of her shoulders before she remembered keeping them squared, the tilt of her head, the way her hair fell on her shoulders. She kept her long hair. Her elbows had a shape that wasn’t the same as the others, tilting a little bit in the corners. Her butt and waist were also shaped like Sarah’s butt and waist. She’d lived with me for two years. In all that time, I learned to love her like a sister. If she removed her shoes, I could tell if the toes were hers or not. But I saw enough to know that this five-foot-six-inched woman who walked through the door holding a cane and who walked with a slight limp was Sarah.Now Vivian Arnaiz. Carl told us her new name.Her eyes roamed the lobby before they landed on mine. Then she
FAE “You’ve gone very quiet,” he said after a moment, his tone asking me something else—did he get me upset? Was I angry at him? “Have I gone too far?” This time, his voice sounded more than worried. He sounded scared.I raised my eyes to him again. “I want to know why.”“Why I want something like that? I have been trying to understand myself since I started feeling it. It was different when we were young… in college… dreaming about having you even if I had to share you with him. I thought that was how it was going to be if I had a chance for your attention. That if Carl didn’t really care about you, I could try and woo you and have you even if I knew you wanted him. I could live with that.”“Wha-aa-t?!” I was so surprised by this confession that I raised myself from the bed and sat there and stared down at his guilty face. I couldn’t believe what I just heard.He nodded. “I had wanted you so much I could stand just being the second choice.”“Oh baby, baby—are you crazy?! You ca
FAEHe pulled me to him and there was one of those mind-numbing kisses again. I was quivering after he’d released my lips. He moved with me near the window ledge, and it had just enough edge for me to be able to lean on to as he placed me where he wanted me. With his eyes on mine, he lowered himself on his knees between my open thighs and slowly slid the hem of my dress upward my thighs until my apex was exposed, still covered in sexily cut cotton panties, but with a spot already dewy with my arousal.I had to look just casually sitting there from whoever could see outside while my husband slid that cloth to the side so he could tongue my quivering pussy. And if I wasn’t of stronger stuff, I would have melted right there on the ledge to the floor. But the game was up, and my back was erect and my head was tilted to the side a little, as if I was conversing with someone, while my thighs twitched at every damn flick and slide of that wonderful, flexible tongue. I couldn’t help my moan w
SARAHI could hear his voice. For days now, I have been able to hear him talking to me. I couldn’t open my eyes. They had something covering them. I couldn’t speak but for a few moans. I thought I lost some of my teeth when Vega beat me up. My face didn’t feel like my face. I tried to raise my hand to touch it, but it was on a cast… I wasn’t sure but they told me later. There was a kind nurse who told me what she thought I should know about my injuries. She called Carl my husband. She told me he stayed by my bedside at all hours and when he would leave, it was only for a very short time. She told me I was lucky to have a husband like him. She didn’t know the full story and that we were getting our marriage annulled, but what the hell. It hurt too much to try to speak. It hurt worse to think. A good thing I was always asleep. It weakened me so much to plan. Sometimes I would also hear Fae’s voice. She told me she was staying in the same private hospital and that she had her leg inju
SARAH The door opened with a crash and the next thing I knew, someone had hauled me off the day bed with a hand clutching my throat.“Akh!” I tried to pry the hand off, but he wouldn’t let me. It was Vega. I could smell him before I could see his face. And his hand on my throat wasn’t anything new.Except this time, I thought he would actually kill me. His face was blotched with red patches of rage.“What did you do? What did you do, you bitch!”Thankfully, he threw me on the bed after that because I could breathe. I wasn’t dead yet. He’d found out. But I knew he would. I was ready.“What do you mean?” I turned to him with tears in my eyes. Having your throat on a vise grip could do that. “I didn’t do anything!”“You were with that husband of yours! He’s been coming to our sauna and you’ve been entertaining him and fucking him without telling me!” He was fuming with anger, his voice like a thunderclap inside the room.“Carl?” I scoffed. “I have been playing with him… been playi
FAEThey’re trying to break the windows. I could see Klyd starting to move where he fell unconscious after our vehicle was upturned from the crash. It was his body that protected me but his head hit something and he lost consciousness after that. Ben was still crouch over me, as bloody as he was, trying to protect me. His phone was still on and I knew Jigo was still on the line, listening as I was hoping others moved on his end quickly to help us get out of here alive—or me from getting kidnapped.I heard Ben say the men outside were after me. They were going to take me. I could see Mang Chito’s head as he swung from the seatbelt that still strapped him to the chair. I thought he was dead. His neck… I closed my eyes tightly and clenched my jaws to fight off vomiting. I must think. I must calm down and think. I couldn’t die here or have the other two men die because of me. I couldn’t even get past thinking what would happen if those men outside were able to kidnap me. I would rather di
FAEWe’ve fucked twice and he’s insatiable. We hadn’t even left the office and noone had disturbed us since we came here. I was too happy to worry about the embarrassment I would feel once we went outside, and I could see the faces of the guys and the employees here. I got my husband back. And it wasn’t just our honest fuck life, but his worries and fears.In the last hour, he told me everything he was holding back about the problem with the clubs. He also confessed the plans he and his lawyers plus the investigators came up with to eliminate the problem once and for all in the coming months—by setting up a trap for this druglord, dismantling his organization, and either putting him in jail or eliminating him forever in a legitimate operation.I listened and did not feel any judgment at all about everything he’d confessed. Years of listening, deliberate or not, in the background as her father conferred and negotiated for his clients and listening to what wasn’t being said by discussing