She cleared her throat and promptly looked away, pretending the floor tiles were suddenly the most fascinating thing she'd ever seen. She didn’t respond. She couldn’t. Because what exactly do you say when your childhood nemesis suddenly reappears, picks up your report card from the floor like it’s some treasure map, and looks at you like he’s the owner of this land?
Oh right, he really was the owner of this land. He owned the very fucking floor she had been lying on.
“What did you say?” Cayson asked again after a while.
Present time...“Thank goodness Mama and Papa didn’t ask too many questions about where we were headed. I always feel guilty lying to them.”She glanced over at Connie, who was seated right across from her. They were in a quiet corner of a cozy coffee shop with Jiggy. The three of them sat tucked away in the farthest booth, far from any curious eavesdroppers or nosy latte sippers.Today was the day—she was finally going to tell them about her situation. About what happened between her and Cayson Montemayor. Her sister deserved the truth
Despite already knowing the darkness that clung to their family’s history like smoke on skin, Rome continued to meet with Baron in secret. She couldn’t help it. He was a beautiful disaster she couldn’t turn away from— a storm she knew would wreck her eventually, but still, she stepped into the rain without an umbrella.Just a week after her parents’ voices had rung through the house like fire alarms, their anger scorching through the walls of her conscience, she was at it again— lying, slipping out the back door of truth just to see him.They met at a low-lit restaurant in a nearby town, the kind with tinted windows and the faint hum of cheap jazz bleeding from dusty ceiling speakers. Baron didn’t even bother with a proper greeting. The moment they sat down, his jaw already locked tight, he snapped.
Rome swallowed hard, the lump in her throat nearly choking her as she glanced at each of her titas seated on the long couch like members of a royal tribunal. Her mother sat silently on a single-seater, radiating calm disapproval. Her father stood like a grim reaper behind her, arms crossed, eyes throwing silent daggers. On the other side, her sister Connie was perched on another single chair, hands nervously twisting a tissue as if it held all the answers.All eyes were fixed on her. Waiting. Judging. Expecting an explanation for her latest "crime."And what heinous sin had she committed?She was caught on a date.Yes, that’s it. Just a date. With Baron. In the biggest mall in the city.To be precise, she told her paren
Years passed, yet Rome’s grudge against Cayson Montemayor burned as fiercely as ever. Not once did it fade. It clung stubbornly in her heart like an unwanted shadow that followed every step.She tried—really tried—to forget, to move on. But no matter how much she wished, memories kept sneaking back, especially those two encounters with Cayson that turned her world upside down. Those meetings were the reason her family now labeled her as “special,” which, in their language, translated to “dangerous” and “under watch.”From then on, she was treated like a high-profile prisoner rather than a college student. Every single member of her family was on full alert whenever she was around— eyes like hawks fixed on her every move, her every step. Speaking? Better be careful. It was as if any word from her mouth could leak state secrets or spark some sc
She cleared her throat and promptly looked away, pretending the floor tiles were suddenly the most fascinating thing she'd ever seen. She didn’t respond. She couldn’t. Because what exactly do you say when your childhood nemesis suddenly reappears, picks up your report card from the floor like it’s some treasure map, and looks at you like he’s the owner of this land?Oh right, he really was the owner of this land. He owned the very fucking floor she had been lying on.“What did you say?” Cayson asked again after a while.
Rome wasn’t sure if she should step into the MIC campus gate or turn around and bolt for her freedom. Her heart had been hammering like a construction worker on overtime since she left the tricycle stand. She had been practicing her speech for hours: how to tell her parents she failed to make it into the top ten honor students, how to explain the barely-passing Physics grade, and most importantly— how to survive without getting disowned.Three days ago, she had received the results of her make-up exam for Physics. And despite her prayers, the only miracle she got was a grade of 76. Not even a full five-point improvement—just enough to escape the dreaded red mark on her card. Anything below 75 would’ve turned her grade into a life sentence. Gosh.She could live with 76. Well, barely…But facing her parents? That
However, that wasn’t where Rome’s connection with Cayson Montemayor ended.Two years had passed since that incident. Cayson Montemayor, fresh from his Master’s degree in the U.S., finally came home to the Philippines—ready to settle down and take the reins of their family’s academic empire. He wasn’t just any balikbayan with a suitcase full of pasalubong; he came back fully loaded with plans, spreadsheets, and an unmistakable air of someone who now knew how to pronounce “entrepreneurship” like a native English speaker.He had taken over the family’s transport service business while slowly easing into his soon-to-be role as the School Director of Montemayor Integrated Campus (MIC), the prestigious institution his grandmother Althea Montemayor had been running for decades. Though her retirement was still
However, that wasn’t where Rome’s connection with Cayson Montemayor ended.Two years had passed since that incident. Cayson Montemayor, fresh from his Master’s degree in the U.S., finally came home to the Philippines—ready to settle down and take the reins of their family’s academic empire. He wasn’t just any balikbayan with a suitcase full of pasalubong; he came back fully loaded with plans, spreadsheets, and an unmistakable air of someone who now knew how to pronounce “entrepreneurship” like a native English speaker.He had taken over the family’s transport service business while slowly easing into his soon-to-be role as the School Director of Montemayor Integrated Campus (MIC), the prestigious institution his grandmother Althea Montemayor had been running for decades. Though her retirement was still four years away, the Montemayors were not the kind of people to be caught unprepared. They didn’t wait for the clock to strike twelve to run—they prepared like a military operation, fiv
“You need to apologize for what you did to Mrs. Montemayor’s grandson!”Rome sank so low into her chair she might as well have melted into the concrete. Her father’s voice boomed across the entire compound like a thunderclap—loud enough to rattle the neighbors’ windows and probably strong enough to rattle the angels in heaven, too. His bellow wasn’t just noise anymore; it vibrated through her ribcage and wrapped itself around every bone in her body. He had been hollering at her for what felt like the last six hours, and at this point, she was pretty sure she was going partially deaf.Literally deaf.And of course—of course—it all started because Dudz had snitched faster than the five o’clock news. The guy could win an Olympic gold medal for tattletaling. There she was, minding her own business in her room, miserably staring at her failed test papers, when she heard her father shout her full name. The kind of shout that made your ancestors flinch in their graves. She had nearly broken