The rooster had already crowed, but Simmy’s eyes were still wide open. She hadn’t slept, and her eyes were red and repeatedly blinking, but she fought against her own drowsiness. She wanted to wait for Alibata and confront him about releasing the news that Azora had a mental illness.
How would her plan to imprison the woman work if the court believed Alibata’s words? If that happened, all her hard work would be in vain. She didn’t want that to happen.
She clenched her fists and looked again at the clock on the wall. In a few hours, the sun would rise, but Alibata was still nowhere to be found. Would he even come home?
Simmy sighed. “Get me some water,” she ordered the maid.
She looked out the window again. But she had been waiting for several minutes without anyone handing her a glass of water. She frowned and looked behind her, seeing the maid asleep while leaning against the wall. She was sure the maid was sleeping, so she grabbed the spoon from the cup and threw it, hitting the maid’s face. The maid quickly opened her eyes and jumped in surprise.
The maid looked at her with fear. Her eyebrows were deeply furrowed. “Water. Get me some water,” she said, annoyance in her voice.
The maid quickly nodded and ran to the kitchen. She was left alone in the living room. Her face soured even more. Where were the other maids, and why hadn’t they started cleaning the mansion? The roosters had been crowing for a while, but the lazy maids hadn’t woken up.
So she ordered the maid to wake the others and start cleaning the mansion.
And while she was yelling at the row of maids, she heard the sound of a car engine. She stood up abruptly and looked toward the large door with a smile.
The sun had fully risen in the east, spreading its light across the land. She clearly saw Alibata’s furrowed brow as he walked toward her.
Her smile widened. “Ali-”
But the man just walked past her and headed straight to the kitchen. Simmy was left rooted to the spot, unable to believe that he didn’t even glance at her. She bit her lip and glared at his retreating figure. She clenched her fists and wondered if there was any point in worrying about Alibata. He didn’t seem to care about her feelings.
Maybe what he said to Azora that night on the balcony was true, that he still loved Aurora. She exhaled sharply as her chest tightened. Why? Why couldn’t he forget that woman?
Even though she was hurt, she didn’t show it to the maids. She silently walked to the kitchen, followed by some of the maids who had witnessed Alibata’s disregard for her. Her vision darkened even more.
She saw Alibata sitting in one of the dining chairs, quietly sipping coffee and staring into space. A maid stood a few meters away, and when she saw Simmy, she quickly bowed. The corner of Simmy’s mouth lifted.
“Ali,” she called to the man. He didn’t even look up at her. She cleared her throat, trying to fight off the embarrassment. “Azora doesn’t have a mental illness. Why did you tell the media those lies?”
Alibata’s brow furrowed. “I had to.”
“But you know it will ruin the Briones name! What will people think? That all the Briones are crazy?”
“Shut up!” Alibata shouted, turning sharply toward her. “I don’t want to hear anything you have to say.”
“Ali!” she shouted back.
But it seemed like the man’s patience had snapped, and he stood up abruptly. He took large strides toward her, and she gasped when he suddenly grabbed her neck with one hand. “Be quiet!” he snarled in her face.
Simmy’s eyes widened, and her lips parted. She took several breaths, but the air wouldn’t pass through her throat because of Alibata’s tight grip. She stared at the face of the man she had longed for since she was in secondary school.
Suddenly, scenes from the past years rolled before her eyes as her heart began to beat faster and, along with it, the pain in her heart.
She saw before her eyes the young version of herself, along with the young versions of Aurora and Alibata. They were happily chatting under the shade of a narra tree.
She and Aurora were already friends, and on that day, Aurora introduced her new friend, Alibata.
When she first saw the man, her heart beat fast. At that moment, she experienced how time stopped and how she could only see Alibata. She gasped for breath. Her heart raced, and she almost went deaf from its loud pounding. It was as if she was reborn upon seeing the man.
So she promised herself that she would never let him go. She would study hard to improve Alibata’s perception of her. She would serve him more than he needed. She would dedicate her dreams to Alibata.
She fulfilled all those promises, but everything changed when she was called back to the province because her parents died in an accident. She was left with the responsibility of caring for her five younger siblings, but she couldn’t feed the responsibility her parents had left her, so she put her younger siblings up for adoption, except for her second sibling, who was just a few years younger than her. They worked together to feed themselves. They experienced every hardship and exhaustion, but she didn’t give up because she thought that once she saved enough money, she would return to the city to continue her studies, hoping to win Alibata’s heart when she graduated.
And it seemed that heaven took pity on her because one day, a wealthy man visited their shanty and brought her and her sibling back to the city. The man introduced himself as a distant relative. It was like reaching the heavens when she learned that her late mother came from the wealthy Clasiso family, a distant relative of Narciso Clasiso.
So, she returned to her studies and felt disheartened to realize she was two years behind. But she persevered. It wasn’t too difficult since Aurora was by her side, teaching her.
A happy memory from the past. She smiled bitterly.
Everything changed when she found out that Alibata and Aurora had gotten married while she was burning the midnight oil studying. She felt the sadness and pain in her heart when she saw the two of them happily eating together at their favorite hangout spot from their school days.
At that time, Alibata and Aurora were graduating college students, while she was nearly killing herself trying to keep up with professors who often hid in their offices.
Back then, she would always stick close to the two, especially to Alibata, hoping that he would notice her. But one night, as she was walking home to her apartment, she was raped. After that, she couldn’t face Alibata directly. She felt ashamed and disgusted with herself. But she didn’t tell Aurora or Alibata about what happened. She continued with her life and tried to push the incident out of her mind.
One day, she woke up feeling envious of Aurora’s life. Seeing her friend so happy, she repeatedly asked herself what Aurora had that she didn’t and why all the luck seemed to favor her.
So, a strange feeling began to grow in her heart. Her heart was gradually consumed by envy, hatred, and anger as she imagined herself with evil intentions toward Aurora.
When she learned that her relative, Narciso, liked Aurora, she tried to bring the two together. Narciso had fallen head over heels for Aurora, so she thought of adding a love potion to Aurora’s drink.
The two started a relationship, and she used this situation to bring them closer. She hadn’t expected the love potion’s effect on Aurora to be so mild, and sometimes Aurora would regain her senses.
So, she fed Aurora lies, whispering how much Narciso loved her, while occasionally still adding the love potion to her drink. Eventually, Aurora’s feelings turned towards Narciso, and they had a relationship for ten years.
But one day, Aurora suddenly woke up from the lies and confronted her. So, she had no choice but to hypnotize Aurora. She took that opportunity to tell Alibata about Aurora and Narciso’s ten-year relationship.
Unbeknownst to Alibata, she was the one who urged Aurora to escape with her daughter, Azora. She also gave them the car keys they used to flee.
A few minutes after the car disappeared from her sight, she called Alibata to inform him of his wife and daughter’s escape.
After that night, everything that Aurora owned became hers, except for Alibata and Azora. No matter what she did, she couldn’t cross the barrier created by the two. She thought they had accepted her over the years, but their true colors showed after Alibata killed Anthony Clasiso.
“A-Ali…” she weakly uttered, her voice raspy.