The sunlight streamed through the open window, traveling to the part of the bed where Simmy lay still, staring blankly. Alibata had left a few minutes ago, but Simmy remained in the same position. She couldn’t believe that Alibata had threatened her. Her fists clenched tightly. She could still feel the sting on her skin from when he had mercilessly torn her clothes.
Ungrateful bastard!
He had threatened and treated her like a dog and garbage? She, Simmy? How shameless!
She stood up abruptly, her eyes sharp as she glared at the door Alibata had passed through earlier. Her fists clenched even tighter, and a sinister smile formed on her lips.
Simmy laughed. She remembered Alibata’s troubled face when Azora confessed. “Let’s see where you’ll ask for help, Ali!” she said, her voice filled with bitterness.
She harshly wiped away the tears that suddenly fell from her eyes and sniffed.
Since Aurora’s death, Alibata hadn’t sought out another woman. She thought the man would finally be hers after she succeeded in killing Aurora.
But who was loyal to Alibata? Who was hurt every time she saw Alibata, unaware that Aurora was deceiving him? Who was pained when genuine smiles never returned to Alibata’s lips after learning Aurora had just been fooling him? Who was there by his side when he cried secretly the night he found out about Aurora’s affair with Narciso?
Wasn’t it her? Wasn’t it only her? Where was Aurora? Locked up in a room, too ashamed to face anyone!
But she had the courage to approach Alibata and listen sincerely to his every lament.
And who provided the information about Aurora and Azora’s escape? Who informed him about the mother and daughter’s accident? Wasn’t it her? If she hadn’t told Alibata, Aurora’s daughter, Azora, might have ended up in the grave with her mother!
And who took care of Azora all these years? Who supported Alibata and Azora when Aurora was gone? Wasn’t it her? Only her!
And then, she found herself betrayed by that father and daughter? Ungrateful! She gave everything for them, never even considering her own dreams just to replace Aurora. She did everything to be loved by the two, but was this how they repaid her?
They scorned her and even tried to banish her to Oslob? Damn it! She wasn’t deaf. She knew what the two discussed on the balcony. She knew Alibata planned to exile her to his resort in Oslob, at the request of his precious daughter, who did nothing but make her life miserable.
That’s why she didn’t hesitate to poison Azora. She immediately conspired with Narciso to execute their long-standing plan. But because she had felt pity and still had some care for Azora back then, she strongly opposed poisoning her and asked Narciso to think of another plan, as poison was too dangerous for Azora.
But after what she heard, she met with Narciso without a second thought to get the poison. She fed Azora poison for several days without her knowing.
She also went to Alibata’s study room and searched for the autopsy report of Narciso’s child’s corpse. She didn’t immediately tell Narciso about what she discovered that night because she planned to use the autopsy report to blackmail Alibata if he decided to leave her.
But she didn’t expect that Alibata knew about her search. That’s why one night, she saw the autopsy report on his desk. Without hesitation, she took it and hid it in her room. She didn’t realize it was Alibata’s trap to discover her motive for entering his study room, as he never questioned her about the paper.
So, when Azora was hospitalized, and Alibata assigned her to watch over the girl, she was overjoyed. She thought she would finally have Alibata to herself, but she was wrong. The man never came home to the mansion, and when she left for the hospital, she would only find out from the servants that Alibata had returned.
She wasn’t suspicious at the time because she thought the man was just very busy with work, and they often missed each other. So one day, she didn’t go to the hospital to wait for Alibata, but he never came home. She found out he went to the hospital to visit Azora.
For several days, she chased after the man and was thrilled when they finally met at the hospital one day. He had just visited Azora, and when she was about to greet him, he coldly nodded at her and passed by. She didn’t think much of it and busied herself teasing Azora.
But since Azora escaped from the hospital, Alibata had become cold towards her. Even when they were together in the mansion, she was like air to him. He couldn’t even look her way.
She was annoyed. Furious. So she confronted the man, but he almost hit her. She was hurt by what he did. And in revenge, she gave the autopsy report to the police without revealing her identity.
When the news spread, Narciso called her to confirm if the autopsy report was true. She couldn’t help but laugh because she was the first person he called. It seemed he suspected she was the one who gave it to the police. She wasn’t surprised because she had already told Narciso that Azora had a connection to his child, so it was likely Narciso would turn his attention to the Briones family.
She told Narciso about Alibata and Azora’s conversation on the balcony. Narciso wanted to confront Alibata, but she stopped him and said that the Briones were partners with the De Lapaz family. She advised Narciso that if he wanted Alibata to confess, they needed to use Azora as bait. In other words, they had to follow their original plan to destroy Azora’s sanity to get revenge on Alibata, but now to make the girl confess what really happened that night while Narciso searched for more evidence against the father and daughter.
And it seemed Narciso had succeeded. Azora had been missing for weeks, and she knew Narciso had her. She heard that Azora escaped from the man who was with her. She laughed again. That woman really liked to escape, and the last news she got from Narciso was that Azora had confessed face-to-face that she killed Anthony.
Drunkenly, she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. She stifled another laugh. The woman couldn’t do anything. It seemed she had put in too much poison. She thought she would have to wait a few more months before the symptoms fully appeared.