Chapter 2

Kathleen Jane Pajate had applied the way any ordinary person would.

No secret recommendations. No family influence. No whispered calls from executives. She submitted her résumé online late at night from the small condominium unit she rented in Quezon City, then forgot about it the next morning while rushing to buy groceries and catch a ride through traffic.

To her, Colitz Holdings Philippines was simply one of the biggest companies in the country—a place with stable pay, career growth, and enough prestige to build a future on her own terms. She wanted work, independence, and the dignity of earning something without the shadow of the Pajate name following behind her.

She did not apply to meet Victor Colitz.

In truth, she barely thought about him.

Everyone else did.

Across the Philippines, Victor Colitz was admired the way powerful men often were—through distance, rumor, and fascination. Business magazines called him brilliant. Television anchors called him visionary. Investors called him unstoppable. Socialites called him irresistible.

Women posted edited photos of him online. Employees whispered whenever he entered a building. Young executives dreamed of impressing him. Heiresses attended events hoping to be noticed. Even actresses and models were said to compete for an invitation to one of his private functions.

Tall, composed, devastatingly handsome, and impossibly rich, Victor had become the kind of man people desired before they ever met him.

Kathleen found all of it exhausting.

She had grown up around men exactly like that—wealthy, admired, worshipped by strangers, and hollow in private. She had no interest in another powerful name wrapped in expensive suits.

While her friends once showed her photos of Victor and sighed over his looks, Kathleen only shrugged.

“He’s handsome,” she had said once, uninterested. “And?”

To her, beauty without kindness meant nothing. Wealth without humility meant less.

She wanted ordinary things. Morning coffee bought with her own salary. Commutes no chauffeur planned. Coworkers who liked her for herself. Love that was honest, not negotiated between families. A life where nobody introduced her as someone’s daughter.

So on the morning of her interview, Kathleen walked into the headquarters tower in Bonifacio Global City with no excitement about meeting the famous Victor Colitz.

She only hoped she got hired.

What she did not know was that somewhere above her, the man everyone admired had already noticed the one woman in the building who did not care who he was.

Kathleen stepped into the marble lobby with a folder tucked neatly against her chest. Around her, employees moved quickly in polished shoes and tailored suits, each carrying the tense energy of people who worked inside an empire.

She kept her head down and joined the line at reception.

Two young women beside her whispered excitedly while pretending not to stare toward the private elevators.

“Do you think he’s here today?” one asked.

“I heard his car arrive ten minutes ago,” the other whispered back. “If I see Victor Colitz in person, I might faint.”

Kathleen almost smiled.

People talked about him the way teenagers talked about celebrities.

When her turn came, she handed her ID to the receptionist.

“Good morning. Kathleen Pajate. I’m here for an interview.”

The receptionist typed quickly, then straightened.

“Yes, Ms. Pajate. Please wait a moment.”

Kathleen moved aside and sat in one of the leather chairs. She opened her folder and reviewed notes she had prepared—market trends, logistics forecasts, questions about company culture. She focused on breathing evenly. This was what mattered. Preparation. Skill. A chance to start clean.

Not the whispers around her.

Several employees suddenly stood straighter. Security shifted near the entrance. Heads turned subtly toward the glass doors.

A black luxury sedan had stopped outside.

The lobby atmosphere changed instantly, as if the building itself had inhaled.

Victor Colitz entered without hurry.

Tall, impeccably dressed in a charcoal suit, expression calm and unreadable, he crossed the lobby with the quiet confidence of a man who never needed attention because it arrived on its own. The staff greeted him nervously. Some lowered their eyes. Others stared too long.

The two women beside Kathleen nearly stopped breathing.

“Oh my God,” one whispered.

“He looks even better in person.”

Kathleen glanced up once, briefly.

Yes, he was handsome. Strikingly so.

Then she looked back down at her notes.

Victor walked past rows of staring employees—and paused almost imperceptibly.

Among all the eyes following him, only one person had already dismissed him.

A woman in a cream blouse, reading spreadsheets as if the most talked-about man in the Philippines had not just entered the room.

Interesting.

Without turning his head, Victor continued toward the private elevator.

But for the first time that morning, he was no longer thinking about meetings.

A minute later, the receptionist approached Kathleen carefully.

“Ms. Pajate?”

“Yes?”

“Your interview room has been changed.”

Kathleen stood. “Changed to where?”

The receptionist swallowed.

“The executive floor.”

The folder nearly slipped from Kathleen’s hands.