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Chapter 10: Courtship in a Warzone
Dernière mise à jour:
2026-02-13 11:12:56
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Byline of My Heart Chapter 15: The Story That Crossed the Linep
I stared at the screen for a long time before I clicked Publish.Hindi dahil kulang ang ebidensya.Hindi dahil may mali sa kwento.Kung tutuusin, ito na ang pinakamatibay kong piece in years.Sebastian Romano. Connections. Money trails. Names people pretended not to know.Everything lined up too cleanly to ignore. What stopped me was simpler than that.Him.I remembered the way he chose restraint when he didn’t have to. The way he spoke to me like I was a person, not a pawn. The way he said he’d wait without asking me to give anything back.“Trabaho lang ‘to,” bulong ko sa sarili ko.I wasn’t betraying him. I was doing what I’d always done.Truth over comfort.Truth over feelings.My finger hovered over the mouse.Once this goes live, there’s no undo. Huminga ako nang malalim, then clicked.Publish.The page refreshed. The headline went live. Notifications started pouring in almost instantly. Alerts, messages, reactions I didn’t bother opening yet.I leaned back in my chair, heart pou
Byline of My Heart Chapter 14: The Morning After the Quiet
Isla’s POVI woke up annoyed. Not because something bad happened, but because nothing did.Same ceiling.Same apartment. Same city noise outside my window. Pero may something off, like my chest hadn’t caught up with my brain yet. I kept replaying last night, and no matter how I framed it, the same thing stood out.He stopped.Sebastian Romano could’ve taken more. He didn’t. And somehow, that stuck with me more than if he had. I reached for my phone without thinking.No message.I told myself that was good.Healthy.Responsible.Still, my grip tightened a little before I put it down.I went through my morning routine on autopilot. Coffee I barely drank, headlines I skimmed instead of read. My own article stared back at me on the screen, his name bold and unbothered.Sebastian Romano.Mafia boss.Man I should be dissecting, not remembering.At the newsroom, people were careful around me. Not suspicious or curious. Like they were waiting for me to either double down or disappear. My ed
Byline of My Heart Chapter 13: The Choice I Didn't Outsource
Sebastian’s POVI’ve kissed women before.In my world, intimacy is easy. Clean. Transactional. No promises, no consequences that last past sunrise. It’s always been controlled, mine, theirs, or borrowed for the night.What I felt standing in front of Isla Carter was none of that. We were walking without purpose, the city thinning out around us until the noise softened into something almost honest. No guards. No drivers. Just streetlights and the space she allowed me to occupy.That mattered.“You’re still here,” she said, like she was testing gravity.“I said I would be,” I replied.I meant it in the most dangerous way possible.She stopped. I stopped immediately, instinct, not strategy. When she turned to face me, I saw it in her eyes: not fear, not curiosity.Calculation.She was weighing the risk.I knew that look. I’d worn it my entire life.“You don’t get to play serious with me,” she said.“I’m not playing,” I answered.That was the truth, stripped bare.No leverage.No continge
Byline of My Heart Chapter 12: Terms and Conditions
Isla’s POV I didn’t trust the calm. After everything, after the article, the fallout, the way Sebastian chose to stay instead of disappear and the quiet felt suspicious. Parang bago ang bagyo. Parang may hinihintay na sumabog. Still, there he was. Consistent. Predictable in the most unsettling way. Hindi na siya basta anino sa gilid ng paningin ko. Hindi na rin siya panakot sa inbox ko. Sebastian Romano had become a presence, steady, unavoidable, irritatingly respectful. That scared me more than the threats ever did. We were sitting in the café again. Same place. Same hour. Different air between us. “You’re thinking too loudly,” he said, eyes on his coffee. “Occupational hazard,” sagot ko. “Journalists think for a living.” “And yet you’re here,” he replied. I raised an eyebrow. “You invited yourself into my routine. Don’t rewrite it.” A ghost of a smile tugged at his mouth. “Fair.” I watched him for a moment, really watched. No suits today. Just a dark shirt, sleeves ro
Byline of My Heart Chapter 11: Relentless, Not Reckless
Pursuing Isla Carter required a different rulebook.Flowers and grand gestures worked on women who wanted to be impressed. Isla wanted none of that. She wanted space, clarity, control, things men like me were never supposed to offer.So I offered consistency.I stopped sending gifts.Instead, I showed restraint.I made sure she got to work safely without knowing how. I made sure the men circling her apartment weren’t mine alone. Media, rivals, opportunists, but that none of them ever got close enough to breathe the same air.“Boss,” Matteo said one night as we watched security feeds from a distance. “Parang baliktad ata ‘to. Usually kapag gusto mo ang babae—”“—you take,” I finished. “I know.”“Pero ngayon, parang ikaw pa ang nag-a-adjust.”“Yes.”He shook his head. “Delikado ka na talaga.”I didn’t deny it.Isla didn’t answer my messages for three days. Not even to tell me to stop.That was intentional. Silence, in her language, wasn’t surrender but it was recalibration.On the four
Byline of My Heart Chapter 10: Courtship in a Warzone
Sebastian’s POVMidnight came and went. The city didn’t explode the way people imagine it does when a name like mine hits the page. No sirens. No fires in the streets. Just a quiet shift like tectonic plates grinding beneath polished marble floors.That’s how real damage starts.By 12:07 a.m., my phone was already ringing.By 12:12, three alliances were reconsidering their loyalties.By 12:19, one man who used to call me brother stopped answering altogether.I let it all happen.Because the first thing I did before calls, before damage control, before blood was checked on Isla.“Boss,” Matteo said as he entered my office, face tight. “Sumabog na.”“I know,” I replied, eyes still on the screen.Isla’s apartment.Lights on.Curtains open.She was pacing.“She published,” Matteo continued. “Buong pangalan. Buong koneksyon.”“Yes.”He hesitated. “Anong gagawin natin?”I stood, slipped on my jacket. “I court her.”Matteo blinked. “Boss… inexpose ka na sa mundo. Hindi ba dapat—”“I didn’t s
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