12: Elise

THE apartment building was a four-storey building with one unit on each floor.
My family owned it. My mother and stepfather privately invested in real estate—renting houses and apartment buildings—in many places. I lived here. Otherwise, I would be staying in one of the condo buildings/towers of the Von Schillers in Metro Manila.
My father’s side invested in real estate, too, in partnership with the Verrazzanos. But this particular building was reserved for the family when we visited Manila.
The first-floor unit was occupied by my cousin, Jason. The third-floor unit was for guests visiting from the province.
The higher level on the third floor was a semi-covered deck. I kept my plants there in container boxes and big pots. On my free days, I could be found tending to my plants or reading in my rattan hammock.
We also do our barbecues there, drink there, and generally relax there at the end of the day.
I was talking about me, my cousin Jase, and my childhood friend Alia who was also my housemate.
Alia still didn’t know about my “accident.”
She was working the night shift in a BPO company and had just started her shift two or maybe three hours ago and I didn’t want her to get so worried she couldn’t concentrate on her AHT.
So, I decided to just let her know when she came home in the morning, even if she would surely get angry about it.
I didn’t want her driving anywhere during the night. Not with the disappearances of young women going on. If she ever finds out, she would come home anytime she could be allowed to, no matter what.
As the car parked in the driveway, I felt drunk and sick with guilt.
If not for me, Gian would not have been forced to drag all those painful memories from the past.
I grimaced as I straightened to get ready to go out of the car. My head had started to throb.
Of course, that didn’t escape the eyes of the angry hawk on my left side.
“What is it?”
“I’m okay.” I slowly moved to take my seatbelt off and opened the car door. I could already see an anxious Jason running out of his unit. It felt like my head was going to fall off and roll away.
“Wait.”
He turned after turning the engine off and quickly got out on his side. He rounded the hood and was soon opening the door on my side.
He helped me alight the vehicle with as little head movement as possible, then he closed the door with very minimal sound.
I appreciated that.
And then, he carefully scooped me up in his arms.
Again.
I wanted to protest. My unit was on the second floor. Was he going to take me up there? For real?
The building had no elevator!
“Ahhh... I remember the doctor saying it was my head that got the concussion, and my feet were okay. I can walk, Gian.”
It was like I hadn’t even spoken.
I had to close my eyes to counter the dizzying feeling caused by him turning us towards the house.
“Complaining again. It would be easy if you weren’t such a whiner,” he grumbled as he saw that when he started to walk.
Jase was hovering and looking very worried. My cousin was extremely handsome—the tall, dark and serious type. And as he looked worried, he appeared stoic.
He didn’t come to the party with me because I was going to be with the Verrazzanos at their house, and it was supposedly one of the safest places for me to be in.
*Wro-o-ng!* me and my inner voice said together. I could have snickered with her if I could. I think she’s also drunk with my meds.
“Mang Karding called me while you were having your stitches. So, no hospital?” he said. He knew about my issues with hospitals. Then he frowned. “You got beaten up by his Ex?”
Gian seemed to trip. He just stopped, and then there was that growling sound. And then he sighed.
If there was anyone who could imply to Gian he had not been perfect about something, it was Jase. He just didn’t care or acted like he wasn’t fazed by Gian.
And Gian never ever got irritated or angry with Jase. Not really. Even if he would make appropriate sounds.
They’re kind of like two peas in a pod. They understood each other almost like… in the gut.
There you go… the sweet bullies in my life.
Jason was a policeman.
He was pulled from his service when I started my apprenticeship for Gian so he could be my civilian bodyguard.
And driver, most times.
If I happened to be with Gian, then he didn’t need to be with me. He also took care of the building for my mother, and he checked on the other caretakers on our other properties.
He was known in the office to be one of Gian’s personal staff, so there was an excuse for him to be seen at VerraCom.
Since he was kind of a woman’s man, every female in the building knew him by now, too.
All they knew was that he was someone who grew up in Puerto Galera, which was also my hometown, and that he lived in the same building I was living in.
That was the excuse we used about why he drove me to work before he went to his own workplace, which was supposedly the Verrazzano Tower.
He was single, and when I quizzed him about any woman he might be interested in, he said the woman he was courting lived in our province and was a school teacher.
I felt guilty that working for me took him away from the woman, but he said it was okay because they were also getting well through Messenger, and he was not rushing to marry right away.
“Sorry, Jason,” I was telling him now before he said something to the effect of how he wasn’t with me to defend me. “I know you feel bad, but this isn’t your fault, too.”
He opened his mouth then closed it again and threw a look at Gian’s scowling face.
The exchange of looks was full of meaning. It was like they were blaming each other, but also claiming blame at the same time? I did say they have their own bullshit, did I not?
Both felt responsible for what happened to me even when they couldn’t have done anything about it.
Both alphas.
*Stupid alphas.*
“You two make me crazy. It was the bitch that did this, okay? Or is it because she’s a beautiful woman that you don’t want to make her accountable? Is being crazy enough of an excuse? Is that it? Gaaahh! Men! Can I just get to my apartment?”
And of course, my rant only made my headache worse.
“Mang Karding will come here after he’s driven my mom home, Jase,” Gian told Jason. “But I might sleep on the sofa. I promised to watch for her myself in exchange for her not being confined.”
“What? Wait—”
“I’ll take care of Mang Karding,” Jason was saying, as if I hadn’t made a noise. “What else can I do?”
“Wait, you two—”
“Will you relax? It’s hard carrying a stiff body,” Gian complained.
“I said I could walk.”
“Be quiet,” he ordered in a growl.
I did, with my lower lip jutting out. The two idiots finished instructions about this and that and, finally, Gian carried me to the stairs.
While he was climbing up, I was thinking—what was the use of him diligently going to the gym if I couldn’t use his muscles for something like that?
And why was I being difficult, anyway?
Why did my chest feel so tight? Why—
The moment I laid my head on his broad chest, I felt ridiculously stupid to protest.
He tried hard to take care of me. Why was I even whining?
I felt flush climbing up my face to gather in my eyes. I felt the wetness that started to spill out from under my eyelids.
I remembered the party and Shiela’s hatred again, and how I still couldn’t believe I was beaten up by someone I hadn’t even laid a hand, not even a finger, on.
I thought about my family.
If they were here, my mother would beat that crazy woman up and her family besieged by the force of her anger. I didn’t even want to think about what my stepfather would think to do.
My parents didn’t care about wealth. But if they did, they had the backing of both the Verrazzanos and the Von Schillers.
And everyone would know who I was.
But my family wasn’t here with me.
And I really didn’t want to be exposed yet. That wasn’t the plan, and the fact that I wasn’t ready yet for that.
But I wasn’t really alone, was I?
A Billionaire's Dirty Secrets
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