(Anj’s POV)Before reaching the driveway, I could see Dylan pacing and Anya laughing as if she was making fun of him.How long has it been?I cut my ties with my only two friends for almost six years, communicating secretly only with Sister Grace and Aunt Rose so they would not worry about me after Father Jesse had to go to Italy. If only Sister Grace had not gotten confined in the hospital, I would not have come back yet.When I stopped the car, Dylan and Anya dashed to the driver’s side and waited for me to go out. I glanced at my company, which had finally fallen asleep after long hours of talking, complaining, fighting, and crying. I opened the door and smiled.“Oh, my God!” Anya’s eyes widened, and she screamed excitedly as she saw me.“Anya!” I cried as we hugged each other. She was still the same Anya, only she looked mature now, bolder and sexier. She moved away and looked at me from head to toe. “Where’s my cousin? What have you done to her?” She laughed, smacking my arm lig
(Anj’s POV)“Good morning, mommy!” Leyanne greeted, her eyes still closed as she walked toward the dining room.“Good morning! Just mommy?” I had to come to her to ensure her head would not bump the edge of the table. Smelling my scent, she raised her arms, wanting me to carry her. I took her and sat her at the table.She opened her eyes, blinked her round eyes, and still sleepy, she greeted the others. “Good morning, Aunt Anya. Good morning, Uncle Dylan.”“Good morning, Selene,” Anya greeted sweetly as she placed plates and cutleries on the table.“I’m not Selene,” Leyanne mumbled. “I’m Leyanne,” She corrected, adjusting the brim of her eyeglasses.“Hmm,” Dylan knitted his eyebrows as he placed the scrambled eggs he had just made. “I thought Selene wears the eyeglasses?” he asked amusingly.Before I could explain that the three of them had eyeglasses, Selene came out of the bedroom, wearing the same pajamas.“Good morning!” she greeted cheerily and sat on the chair on her own.“Mommy
(Sky’s POV)“You really don’t have to go to the office, Dad,” I told my father, glancing at him seated at the back.He scoffed. “Pfft! I’m getting bored at home. With Olivia becoming busy in school, I have no one to talk to at home. Elenita’s only making me anxious,” he smirked as he looked outside the window. “My treatment had helped me prolong my life, only to die in boredom.”Frank pursed his lips, suppressing a smile as he glanced at my father in the rearview mirror.I heaved a sigh, swiping the screen of my tablet to check the schedule Catherine sent in my email.“When are you marrying Lalaine? Good heavens, I wanted to see my grandchild before I die, Sky,” He grumbled.“Next year. I just proposed to her, right?” I reminded him. Leo and Jake teased me that for a man who was head over heels with Lalaine, it took me six years to propose after my crazy marriage with a teenager.Dad opened his mouth to say something, but we were startled when Frank suddenly hit the brake to stop the
(Sky’s POV)“I saw an ice cream shop in front of the school. Would you like to have ice cream?” My father asked the girls when their activity was over.“Dad,” I hissed, meeting his eyes, telling him to stop it. We might have solved their problem for the day, but we don’t want their mother to be hysterical just because an old stranger invited them for ice cream.“I love ice cream,” One of the girls exclaimed.I bit my lip, wondering if it was Leyanne, Selene, or Lyra Helene, and thought of how to stop my father from bringing them to the ice cream parlor. I heaved a deep sigh as I sat in their small chair. “We don’t want your mom to worry,” I said.“But if we ask permission, can we go?” Another girl asked.“Oh… kay!” I said, my eyes following her as she ran outside the classroom. “Where is she going?” No one from the girls answered me. Instead, they put their small backpack on their back and sat, waiting patiently for their sister.When she came back, she was pulling the hand of their s
(Anj’s POV)No one asked me why their father did not come today, and no one from my three girls dared to ask what happened to my call. I went home early today to pick them up from school, and when I asked them how their day was, they all answered the same thing.“It was okay.”No... For me, it was not okay. I knew something went wrong today even if they didn’t tell me, and I could feel the pain in their eyes as if I did really bad to them.Before leaving the bedroom, I gazed at my three little angels. Leyanne and Lyra Helene would always sleep sideways facing right, while Selene on the left. I have only seen Sky sleep twice, but like Selene, he would always sleep sideways, facing left.I padded to the living room, sitting on the couch as I stared blankly at the TV.“You requested tea?” Anya gave me the cup. “Tea-quila?” She chuckled softly when I glared at her. “Just kidding. How’s your day?”I raised my eyebrows at her. “That’s a first. Now, I’m really worried that something happened
(Anj’s POV)My three girls may be five years old, turning six, as Selene would always correct, but they talk and think like adults. In Sta. Louisiana, where I gave birth to and raised them, we lived in a dormitory where they got to interact with university students and young adults.Always wanting to be practical, I did not think of needing to live in an apartment where I had to find a nanny, pay a rental cost, and worry about myself and my children. Mrs. Salvador, a retired schoolteacher, looked after my daughters while I worked and studied. Most of the time, my housemates volunteered to take care of them.Only when I came back that I realize their need to interact with kids their age when Sister Grace reminded me why she made me join in Anya’s classes before, but I guess I was too late. Looking at them, I didn’t want to think I had stolen their precious childhood.“Mommy’s free today. What do you want to do?” I asked them while having breakfast. Dylan glanced at me, probably wonderi
(Anj’s POV)I peeked at the Excelente Café after stopping my car at its parking area. Perhaps it is still early, that’s why I don’t see many cars in the parking lot. Whenever I go to the university, I always see this place packed, but today, it seems the café had fallen asleep despite the lustful scent of the brewing coffee.My daughters excitedly unfastened their seatbelts in the child seat, and when I opened the door, Leyanne jumped out first, Lyra Helene went out on the other side, while Selene, for the first time, did not complain about going out of the car last, raised her arms to me.“Argh!” I said, chuckling as I carried her. “My baby’s getting heavier every day. What’s Aunt Anya feeding you?”She giggled, wriggling her body to go down. She joined her sisters as soon as her feet touched the ground, and they all waited patiently at me as I took the paper bag with our samples and closed the car door.They held hands as they walked toward the café and chatted about what they wante
(Anj’s POV)“Sky found them really interesting.” He laughed, shaking his head as if finding humor in why Sky found my children interesting. “He may not say it, but he enjoyed yesterday’s activity in school. He even got to know some dads,” he said, glancing at the staff.The staff, whose name was printed on her name tag, came back with our order. Emily, the young woman, smiled at my triplets, and like others, when they saw how they all looked the same, they could not take their eyes away from them.“How about we sell the perfume to Emily?” The old Mr. Mars suggested. He looked at the staff as his eyes told her to cooperate in his little game.She smiled at him, nodding in agreement. “I’m sorry, but I’m kinda allergic to perfumes. I sneezed a lot, so…”He nodded and sighed, but not showing disappointment on his face. “We lost one customer already,” he propped his elbow on the table, cutting her right away, and looked at the worried eyes of my children.I could not understand myself beca
(Anj’s POV) Two years later… I glanced at Anya as she rubbed her baby bump. She hissed as she continued to touch her belly. “Dylan was so ecstatic about having a boy that I wanted him to carry our baby. This little one seemed to practice taekwondo inside my belly,” she complained. “I’m not sure if he’s practicing for the Olympics too early.” I chuckled, looking at my girls as they listened to Olivia playing the violin in the pavilion, and then my eyes went back to the three children playing on the sand. “Dayana!” yelled Anya at her daughter, startling me. “Good lord, don’t eat that!” “Relax, Anya. She was only smelling the shell,” I laughed. “Cloud, Rain,” I called my boys, shaking my head at my twins. They giggled and stood up, walking toward their sisters, leaving Dayana as she continued to play with sand. It has become our tradition to visit the Angela Island every year. Although this year was different without Steve, leaving us all last year just before his birthday. “I onl
(Sky’s POV)“I want to marry the Mighty Sky,” I remembered Angela saying dreamily.I looked at Frank, and as he smiled, I recalled telling him that night, ‘I’ll marry this lovely angel today.’“Are you ready?” Father Jesse asked, his eyes wandering at the small chapel I asked to build for this celebration before looking at me.I turned my gaze to him. “Yes, but Father Jesse, I have a question.” Not giving him a chance to talk, I asked him, “I came to you and asked for Angela, but you said you didn’t know her.”He chuckled softly. “You were looking for an Angela with red spots on her face, and you were describing her to me as if she was ugly. I didn’t know any ugly Angela. I only realized she was the same person you were looking for when I opened the envelope.”“My bad,” I smiled nervously, and Father Jesse patted me on my shoulder before entering the chapel.Olivia sat in front of the piano organ and began playing. The wedding organizer smiled at me, giving us the cue, and I walked on
(Anj’s POV)“Aren’t you scared of being on the plane with me?” Sky asked when his new private plane took off.I shook my head.“Then why do you have that long face?” he asked me again, pulling me to him.I placed one arm on his waist and rested my head on his shoulder. I felt him kissing my hair. “I convinced Anya and Dylan to go with us, but I guess she was having difficulty with her pregnancy.”“Have you experienced that with the girls?” he tilted his head to see my face.I craned my neck to look at him. “In my first trimester. It was hell,” I chuckled. “I couldn’t even make my own perfume, but after that, I could study and work again.”He heaved a deep sigh. “I should have been there. You shouldn’t have carried them alone.”I raised my head and reached for his lips, kissing him. “What would you do? Get one baby and put her inside your belly?” I teased him.“I wonder if men will like that,” he laughed at me, then he pouted, looking so cute. “I’m still mad at you. Why didn’t you want
(Sky’s POV)The luminance of the glow-in-dark stickers in the bedroom still shone vividly when Angela and I collapsed on the bed, panting and catching our breath as I pulled her closer to my body. The thought of dying in the plane crash still made me shiver, and I couldn’t imagine leaving Angela alone, raising our kids, and hating me for the rest of her life for not coming back to her. I kissed her again, not wanting to stop, but I knew she wanted to know what had happened.“I hate you, Sky,” she whispered as her fingers traced my cheeks down to the hollow of my throat. Her hand slid down, stopping her palm on my heart and closing her eyes as if to make sure my heart was still beating. “What happened to you?”“Frank and I didn’t expect it to happen. I was about to enter the cockpit when Leo called and reported someone saw Leonard escaping to Macau. I didn’t need a plane to catch him, so Frank and I got out of the plane but gave my pilot and his co-pilot a go when he asked me if he c
(Anj’s POV)Don’t blink!Don’t disappear!Sky claimed my mouth before I could say his name again. If this were a dream, I would probably hurt anymore who would dare wake me up. It was an intense kiss and hungry as if there was no tomorrow.I could feel the tears rolling on my cheeks, and I cried when Sky stopped kissing me and moved slightly away from me, pressing our foreheads together. It was one long second that I thought my heart had stopped beating again.“I love you, Angela!” He whispered, his lips reaching mine and planting a quick kiss.My mouth opened, hoping to utter words, but no sound came out except my sobs. The mixed emotions stirring in my heart and mind made me dizzy, and all I wanted was to be in his arms. Slowly, I raised my hand, placing my palm on his chest, feeling his beating heart.“Say something, pumpkin,” he sounded begging, but I was more afraid to speak.If only Sky knew the news almost killed me and broke my heart. If he only knew that the days without info
(Anj’s POV)“Angela!”My hand stopped from opening the door, and I turned to the female voice I rarely hear in this place. I saw Jocelyn smiling shyly at me, and behind that curve in her lips, there was tenderness in how she looked at me.“Yes, Jocelyn?” I asked, wondering what she wanted from me.“I wondered if our granddaughters could sleep in our room tonight,” she asked.Our room? My eyebrows raised. With Olivia? With Finn? With Steve?“Steve -” She heaved a deep sigh, blushing like a teenager. “Umm… He wanted to ask if the kids could sleep with us tonight.”“Ah!” I exclaimed, opening the door and finding my children, now in their pajamas, jumping on the bed as Anya read them a book.“Mommy! Mommy!” Lyra Helene called me.“Please, girls, stop jumping. You’re making me dizzy,” I smiled softly at them, stopping at the edge of the bed.The girls stopped jumping and ran to me.“Yes, baby?” I asked, brushing their hair with my fingers, starting with Leyanne, then Selene.“Mommy, Aunt A
(Anj’s POV)The large clusters of clouds had been hiding the beautiful and perfect blue sky for two days now. As I leaned my back facing the garden, I noticed that even the flowers were gloomy about the weather, and sadness loomed in the mansion.Elenita shared with me that it has never been this busy in Mars’ residence except when Freya died. In the kitchen, as she claimed her kingdom, the maids seemed to have never stopped cooking. It was only yesterday when Jocelyn came, hysterical with the news about his son was missing and could be dead somewhere. Steve, though looking tired, remained the strong head here at home, but when he saw his ex-wife, I saw him break into tears for the first time.After seeing Steve cry, I understood what he meant when he told me not to break down because when everyone saw him and Jocelyn crying, it was like looking at the top of the tower falling to the ground. All I wanted was to sit in the corner and wept, wanting to scream for Sky.Finn and Leo have n
(Anj’s POV)“Sky is alive!”It was what I wanted my heart to believe.After Sister Grace left, Aunt Rose came, giving me her warmest hug, and for a while, she cried with me. She sniffed as she moved away from me, her palms on my face as her thumb softly touched my cheeks, wiping the tears.“Have you eaten already?” She asked, and when I shook my head, she forced a chuckle. “I’m not asking you, Angela. I’m asking that little Sky in there,” she took my hand and placed my palm on my belly. “He might be hungry and tired. Or should I say, they might be hungry?”“They?” I released a brief laugh, tears rolling again. “Aunt Rose!”She smirked. “What? You’re a Mars now. You should have known the rumors about them.”“Rumors?” My eyebrows raised at her.Aunt Rose grinned at me. “They were wealthy because someone in the family always produced double. Steve has twin brothers, and you knew he has twins, too, right?” She pursed her lips. “I guess you broke the tradition of producing only two. They s
(Anj’s POV)After giving birth to two babies, the doctor asked me to push again. I remembered glancing at my sun and bright star before nodding to her. She was expecting another girl to come out, but she said it was as if my moon goddess helped me push her brother, but despite that, he still didn’t survive, and Selene almost didn’t make it.When I heard Selene’s first cry, I sobbed, wishing Sky was here. With three babies on top of my chest, I told my children that the sky was almost complete. My heart ached for Cloud, but with three babies, I had to live and wake up. They needed me, and with the thought of me being an orphan, I swore to my children that they would not lose a mother.“Mooommmmyyyyy!” My children wailed, crying as they tried to get into the bedroom. Nina has been stopping them because she thought I needed the time alone.I blinked, and my head turned, following the cry of my girls. My lips curved a sad smile as I opened my arms to them. I saw Nina wiping her tears, ste