CHAPTER5"YOU STOLE MY WATCH"

The door opened and the whole temperature of the 45th floor boardroom dropped twenty degrees.

I was still standing, my arms crossed, my black Armani suit feeling too tight, my red lipstick smudged from crying, my CEO mask half broken because five minutes ago I whispered the truth I hid for four and a half years. "They are yours, Alessandro. Leo and Luna are yours."

And Alessandro De Luca, the Ice King, the billionaire who fired me without blinking five years ago, was still on his knees on the marble floor, his expensive black suit wrinkled, his dark circles deeper than Manila Bay at midnight, his shoulders shaking, his hands covering his face, sobbing like a child who just found out he has a son and a daughter he never knew existed.

That was the scene Vanessa Reyes walked into.

Vanessa Reyes. The woman who destroyed me. The woman who told the police I stole a Patek Philippe watch worth two million pesos from Room 2808. The woman who told Mrs. Reyes to give me bitter water that tasted like metal and regret. The woman who is now engaged to Alessandro De Luca and wearing a diamond ring bigger than my twins' fists combined, a ring that should have been mine if life was fair, but life was never fair for maids from Tondo.

She was wearing a red tight dress that cost probably my one-month salary as CEO, red nails, red lips, blonde hair extensions that cost 80,000 pesos, the look of a woman who thought she owned the whole Grand De Luca Hotel, the look of a woman who thought she owned Alessandro, the look of a woman who thought she owned me.

Her smile was perfect, plastic, practiced, the smile she gave to Forbes, the smile she gave to society pages, until her eyes landed on Alessandro on his knees, crying, broken, and me standing above him, also crying, my mascara running, my armor broken, my vendetta cracking.

"What the fuck is happening here? Alessandro? Why are you on your knees for this thief maid?" Her voice, high, sharp, loud, the voice that screamed at me five years ago at 6 AM in the staff exit when security checked my bag and found the watch. "You stole my fiance's watch! You cheap maid! You want to seduce my fiance! You Tondo rat!"

Alessandro did not get up. He stayed on his knees, his head bowed, his shoulders still shaking, like he did not hear her, like he was still in the moment when I said "They are yours." Like the world was only me and him and Room 2808 and bitter water and twins.

I wiped my tears fast, fast, with my hand, my queen armor back on, my CEO voice back on, because I would not let Vanessa see me cry, not again, never again. I am Elena Sinclair now, not Elena Reyes the maid. I am CEO of Sinclair Corp. I am mother of Leo and Luna. I am not a girl who cries on floors anymore.

"Vanessa. Long time no see. Five years. You still wear red when you want to look like a warning sign? Or is red your color because you have blood on your hands?"

Vanessa's perfect smile cracked, her eyes narrowed, her red nails dug into the folder she was holding, a folder that said "De Luca Hotel - Q4 Budget - Confidential - For Mr. De Luca Eyes Only".

"Elena? Elena Reyes? The thief maid? Oh my God, is that you? You look... different. You look like you stole money to buy that suit. Armani? Fake Armani? Did you steal that too like you stole Alessandro's watch five years ago? And what are you doing here, in my fiance's boardroom, making him kneel? Are you seducing him again? Like you seduced him in Room 2808? You desperate maid?"

Seduce. She said seduce again. Like I wanted that night. Like I wanted bitter water and blackout and to wake up with no panties and a missing watch and being called thief and being dragged by security while guests filmed me with their phones.

I laughed. I laughed cold, loud, the laugh Margaret Sinclair taught me when I was her assistant, the laugh that makes men in boardrooms shut up and listen, the laugh that makes women like Vanessa feel small.

"Seduce? Vanessa, please. I was a maid earning 15,000 pesos a month. Your fiance was a billionaire worth 80 billion pesos. Why would I seduce him when I could barely afford rice for my mother in Tondo? Why would I seduce a man who was crying because his father just died? You should ask yourself who drugged us in Room 2808 that night. Who gave me bitter water? Who gave him bitter water? Who planned the whole thing so I would be framed as thief and you would be the savior fiancée who comforts him after his father's death? Who, Vanessa?"

Vanessa's face went white, white as paper, white as the bleach I used to clean Room 2808 floors for three years, white as the uniform I wore that night, her red lipstick now too bright on her white face, her hand shaking, the folder shaking, her diamond ring shaking.

"I don't know what you are talking about, thief. You are crazy. You always were crazy. You Tondo girls are all crazy, you dream of marrying rich men, you dream of stealing watches, you dream of... Alessandro, baby, get up, why are you on the floor? This maid is crazy, she is lying, she is trying to ruin us again, like she tried to ruin us five years ago. Security! Security! Call security!"

She screamed for security, like she screamed five years ago, "Security! This maid stole my fiance's watch! Check her bag!" And Mrs. Reyes, the head housekeeper, her aunt, opened my bag and found the watch, the Patek Philippe that I never touched, that Vanessa planted.

But Alessandro finally stood up. Slowly, heavily, like an old man, like a man who carried a mountain on his back for five years, his knees red from kneeling on marble, his eyes still red, his face wet, his stubble showing, his tie gone, his perfect Forbes image destroyed by tears.

"Vanessa, stop." His voice, low, cold, the Ice King voice, not the broken boy voice from a minute ago, the billionaire voice that fired me without investigation, the voice that said "You are fired, Miss Reyes, for stealing. Leave the hotel now." "Stop screaming. No one is calling security. Elena is not a thief. She never was a thief. You know that. Mrs. Reyes knows that. I know that now."

Vanessa froze, her mouth open, her eyes big, her folder almost falling, her red dress now looking cheap under the boardroom lights, her whole plan falling apart like Q4 Budget papers about to scatter.

"What... what did you say, baby? She never was a thief? But... but the watch... the Patek... you saw it in her bag... Mrs. Reyes saw it... we all saw it... the CCTV..."

"I saw nothing. Mrs. Reyes saw nothing. Mrs. Reyes gave us both drugged water that night. I remember now. I remember bitter water. I remember you told Mrs. Reyes to give me water because I was stressed about my father's funeral, you said 'Tita, give Alessandro water, he looks pale.' I remember you told Mrs. Reyes to give Elena water because she looked tired, you said 'Tita, give that maid water, she looks like she will faint.' I remember... I remember Elena came to clean Room 2808 at 8 PM, and I was already dizzy, and she was dizzy too. And I... I... I called her... I asked her to stay... and she... she smelled like bleach and lilies..."

He looked at me, pain, guilt, shame, love, all mixed in his tears, his eyes begging for forgiveness for five years of not knowing, for firing me, for blacklisting me, for letting Vanessa destroy me.

"I took advantage of her, Vanessa. I thought she was awake... but she was drugged too. We were both drugged. And you... you put the watch in her bag. You told security to check her bag at 6 AM next morning. You framed her. You told Mrs. Reyes to put the watch in her locker. You told security to film it. You destroyed her life so you could be Mrs. De Luca."

Silence. Again silence, but now worse, heavier, like a bomb waiting to explode, glass walls, Manila Bay outside, 45th floor, 9:15 AM, no one to hear except us three and the ghosts of Room 2808 and the bitter water and the Patek Philippe that started everything.

Vanessa laughed, high, nervous, fake, the laugh she uses when she lies to society.

"Alessandro, baby, you are... you are tired, you did not sleep, you are hallucinating, this thief maid brainwashed you, she is a gold digger, she wants your money, she always wanted your money, that's why she seduced you in Room 2808, that's why she is back now, look at her, she is wearing fake Armani, she is... she is nothing, she is Tondo trash..."

"She is not wearing fake Armani." Alessandro interrupted, his voice ice, colder than ice, the voice that makes boardrooms freeze, the voice that makes CEOs resign. "She is CEO of Sinclair Corp. She is worth 200 million dollars. She owns 15% of this hotel's competitor, Sinclair Hotels. She is richer than you, Vanessa. Her suit is real. Mine is the fake one now, because I am the thief. I stole five years of her life. I stole her career. I stole her being a mother without fear. I blacklisted her because I believed you. I am the thief, not her. I am the one who should be on his knees. I am the one who should say 'You stole my watch?' to you, because you stole my life, Vanessa, you stole my twins from me."

Twins. He said twins again. He said it out loud second time. My heart stopped. My blood froze. My queen armor cracked again because Vanessa heard it, Vanessa heard the word twins, and Vanessa's white face turned red, red with rage, red with understanding, red with murderous jealousy, red with fear that her engagement, her billion-peso ring, her future as Mrs. De Luca, her whole five-year plan, was crumbling because a maid came back with twins who looked like her fiance.

"Twins? What twins? What are you talking about twins? Alessandro, what twins? What is she telling you? She is lying! She is lying!"

Alessandro looked at me, asking permission with his eyes, asking "Can I tell her? Can I tell the world I am a father? Can I tell your enemy that I have heirs? Can I tell her that Room 2808 had a consequence that is four and a half years old and beautiful and brave like a lion and soft like the moon?"

I nodded, small, almost invisible, because I was tired of hiding, because my twins deserved to be called De Luca heirs, because Luna drew a family with a tall man and I wanted that tall man to be real, not dead, because Leo asked every night "Mommy, why do I have no Daddy? All my friends have Daddy."

"My twins. Elena's twins. Leo and Luna. Four and a half years old. They are mine. Conceived in Room 2808, October 15, 2020, the night you drugged us. They are De Luca heirs. My son and my daughter. My children I did not know for four and a half years because of you. Because you framed their mother as thief. Because you made me blacklist her. Because you made her run to Cebu pregnant and alone."

Vanessa screamed. Not a scream like in lobby, not a scream for security, but a scream of pure hate, pure jealousy, pure fear, pure evil, the scream of a woman who realized she lost.

"No! No! That's a lie! That's a lie! She is lying! She slept with someone else! She is a maid! She sleeps with drivers! With gardeners! With... with... Those twins are not yours, Alessandro! She is trapping you! She wants your money! She is a gold digger! Like her mother! Like all Tondo girls! They are not De Luca! They will never be De Luca!"

She ran to me, red nails raised, like she would slap me, like she slapped me five years ago when security checked my bag and found the watch and I cried "I did not steal, Ma'am, I did not steal!" and she slapped me hard and said "Thief! You stole my fiance's watch! You stole my future!"

But Alessandro moved faster than her, faster than I ever saw a man in a suit move, faster than any security guard, he stepped between us, his body blocking mine, his arm catching her wrist mid-air, hard, tight, his ice king strength, his De Luca strength, his father strength.

"Don't you dare touch her. Don't you ever touch her again. You touched her five years ago, you slapped her, you framed her, you drugged her, you destroyed her, and I let you because I was blind and broken and grieving my father. I will not let you touch her again. Or her twins. Or I swear, Vanessa, I will make you disappear from Manila like you made her disappear five years ago. I will make you beg for 15,000 pesos a month like she did."

Vanessa cried now, real tears, crocodile tears, the tears she used to make Alessandro comfort her, the tears that worked for five years, but Alessandro did not comfort her now, he held her wrist like he would break it, his eyes cold, no love, no affection, only hate, hate for the woman who stole his children from him for four and a half years, hate for the woman who made him a father who was absent.

"Alessandro... baby... you are hurting me... I love you... I did everything for you... I drugged you because you were sad... I wanted to help you... I wanted you to forget your father died... I gave you water to sleep... I gave her water to... to... to make her leave you alone... I did it for us... for our future... for our engagement..."

"You did it for your future as Mrs. De Luca. Not for me. Never for me. You never loved me. You loved my last name."

He let go of her wrist, she fell back, onto the scattered Q4 Budget papers, her red dress wrinkled, her perfect hair messy, her diamond ring catching light from Manila Bay, the ring that was now worth nothing because the man who gave it did not love her anymore, because he loved a maid who became CEO and gave him twins.

Vanessa looked up at me, from the floor, like I looked up at her five years ago from the floor when she slapped me and security dragged me out while guests filmed me and called me thief, and her eyes said "This is not over, maid. This is not over. Your twins will never be De Luca heirs. I will make sure they never are. I will make sure they suffer like you suffered."

And I looked down at her, from my standing position, my queen position, my CEO position, my mother position, and my eyes said "Try me, Vanessa. I am not a maid anymore. I am Elena Sinclair. And my twins are De Luca heirs. And my vendetta is just starting. And this time, I have 200 million dollars and a mother who taught me how to destroy women like you."

Alessandro turned to me, his hand reaching for mine, hesitating, asking, begging, his big warm hand shaking, the hand that held Luna's drawing yesterday, the hand that held me in Room 2808 five years ago, the hand that signed my termination letter and blacklisting order, the hand that now wanted to hold my twins and me.

"Elena, please, can I... can I meet them? Properly? Not in lobby chaos. Can I meet Leo and Luna? As... as their father? Please. I know I don't deserve it. I know I was nothing for four and a half years. I know I said 'You stole my watch?' when I should have said 'Are you okay?' But please, let me meet my son and my daughter. Let me say sorry to them for not being there. Let me say sorry for missing their first steps, their first words, their first birthdays."

I looked at his hand, and I was about to answer, I was about to say yes or no, I was about to decide if my vendetta ends or continues, when the door opened again.

This time not Vanessa. This time Mrs. De Luca, Alessandro's mother, old, elegant, white hair, pearl necklace, Chanel suit, holding two small hands, Leo and Luna, my twins, wearing their school uniforms from BGC International, Leo frowning like Alessandro, arms crossed like Alessandro, mole under left eye like Alessandro, Luna smiling like an angel, holding a new drawing, a drawing of a family, but now the tall man was not grumpy, the tall man was smiling.

"Mommy? Why is Mr. Grumpy Handsome crying? And why is the red witch on the floor? Did you push her, Mommy? Good job, Mommy! Can we push her again?"

Luna said it, loud, clear, innocent, and the whole boardroom, the whole 45th floor, the whole Grand De Luca Hotel, held its breath, because the heirs had arrived.