Fifty-Three

TOMMY came home earlier than usual, and when he did, he went straight up to her room.
It was like he knew something already, because as soon as he got near, his face was at her face.
And when she tried to turn away, he held her head on both sides, and he saw what she was trying to hide from their mother.
“Ate…” he whispered in a strangled voice.
It was like he was the one who got beaten up. There was a wealth of emotions on his face.
Then he started to cry out of sheer anger, his handsome face crunching up before he brought his face down her lap so he could hide the noise of huge sobs trying to escape from his chest to reach downstairs.
She held her brother. “Sshh.. don’t let Mama hear you. I’m packing so we can leave.”
She could see Tommy’s huge effort to stop himself from crying. But he was shaking his head.
“We can’t leave! Kuya Eric isn’t here yet. He’ll think of something. Ate, we can’t leave until we’ve talked to him, or he’d be angry at you!”
“Tommy… the neighbors would know by now. How did you find out?”
“Chairman… he knew. Mang Julius and Mang Mael saw the señora and another woman hitting you, and they told him. The Chairman told the Don, and Kuya Eric had been informed, too. I was the last one they told so I could go home to check on you and see how they could come here and help without alerting Mama.”
“See? They know… ad it would spread and Mama will find out.”
“So what? Ate, you’re not a bad woman. And if the señor and señorito didn’t think bad of you, we shouldn’t care what the neighbors would think. I know Kuya Eric didn’t. He would protect you.”
“Oh, Tommy, what about you and Mama? You don’t need this kind of gossip about your only sister. And if Mama finds out about this and she gets sick again? What if her heart can’t take it?”
“I don’t care what they say, if they even dare say it to my face, Ate. And Mama will remain here. If we go, there’ll be no job and no money somewhere else, and we will not be able to maintain her meds and the right food and she will get weak again.” He was shaking his head. “If this is really to prioritize Mama, then we can’t leave, Ate.”
She stared at her brother because he made sense.
“And we really can’t hide this from her forever…” he said in a whisper as his shoulder sagged. “We have to tell her. It’s my fault more than anyone else’s and I’ll tell her. It’s better this way, Ate.”
He started to get up. I held his wrist to stop him. “No… Tommy, no!”
“If you don’t want me to tell her, then let’s wait for Kuya Eric. He will know what to do, Ate. He can do something to stop it from spreading and if he can’t, he can protect you. We can’t do this alone anymore, Ate. We can’t… I’m always scared and tired of hiding what I did. I’m always waiting for when it’s going to explode on my face.”
“Tommy… listen to me. Please. His mother doesn’t like me. She’ll find a way to spread rumors about that night. It is not going to be just the hacienda, it’s going to be Eric’s friends in Manila. It’s going to be friends of his father, of his family. His relatives. He’s going to be protecting me from everyone! I don’t like that. I don’t want to be a burden. What kind of relationship will that become? Do you understand?”
“And do you actually understand what you’re saying?”
Tommy and Yna turned shocked eyes towards the doorway.
Eric was standing there, angry. She didn’t know how long he’d been listening, but it looked like he’d heard enough.
“Kuya Eric!”
Instantly, Tommy was by his side, holding his arm, pulling him inside her bedroom.
Anna could only throw a deeply reproachful look at the little traitor as she slid down the bed to stand and face him.
And then she remembered her scratches and bruises, and it was too late to hide them.
“What the fuck did they do to you?” he snarled, and both Anna and Tommy jumped.
“W-What are you doing here?” Yna managed to ask after Eric had cursed Brad to death and promised he would kill him and would kick him between his mother-fucking legs.
Tommy was both wide-eyed and was trying very hard not to laugh.
“Are you okay?” Eric asked, his voice suddenly soft.
Yna suddenly found herself gulping back tears and wanting to throw herself at him. That was so unfair. She had meant to leave. He wasn’t supposed to be here this early. She had at least expected him to arrive about later in the night since he would have been busy with work the whole day. But it looked like he drove straight home right after it happened.
Brad told him. Yna was suddenly sure. Eric already knew before his father and the Chairman informed him about it.
And so, he was here right away. She could see him, and touch him. She missed him so much.
But she was supposed to escape with her mother.
She wasn’t supposed to turn into a marshmallow just by a few changes in the tone of his voice.
That’s exactly what was happening.
When he raised his arms and motioned him to go to him, she went.
His arms went around her in the most careful way he had ever hugged her, which was a considerable lot because she was already used to being hauled to him whenever he got the chance to hold her.
He lowered himself and lifted her up. She immediately just let herself relax in his hold, and he sat on the edge of the bed and let her down on his lap, still holding her securely.
She saw Tommy slipping out of the door fast and closing it behind him. She heard him say something to their mother, who was standing outside the door, and she heard the noises they made as they went down the stairs.
“You’re not supposed to be here,” Yna whispered as she fought not to cry still.
She would have burst into tears but as soon as his arms went around her, as soon as she felt the solidness of his body against hers, she just started to calm down.
“Try to make me leave,” he said threateningly.
She closed her eyes and turned her face towards the side of his neck, and drew his scent in, filling both her lungs with him.
His arms tightened around her and she felt him turn his head toward her and his lips brushed her cheek.
She withdrew her face and they looked at each other, and she let him observe her face with those critical eyes, and she sighed as she watched his nostrils flare and the color of anger bloom on his cheeks.
“Who told you?”
“The bastard.”
She took that in as Señorito Brad. “I didn’t think he’d meant it to happen like that. He couldn’t have controlled those two—”
“Don’t you dare defend the idiot! He left you there. He should have brought you to the hospital and left them there for my father and the police to discover.”
“You weren’t there! You didn’t see how easily your mother and your ex can both make the poor man panic—”
“Because you wanted me to stay away! And that is never going to happen ever again, so god help me, Yna! Neither one of us is going anywhere unless we’re together, and this is the last thing I’m going to talk about it!”
“You sure about that?” she asked in a trembling voice.
She saw him gulp his anger in as if swallowing whatever else he was going to say, and he closed his eyes and sighed.
Then he pulled her back to her former position and whispered near her ear.
“Yes, I am. You can cry now, baby. I’m here now. And I promise they can never hurt you again.”
“I’m not asking you to promise anything. You can’t control what people do,” she protested.
“Watch me. Just watch me. Why are you still protesting? Why are you not crying? It must hurt.”
“It does… but I’m fine now. You’re here.”