Sweet Downfall (13 page)

“I thought you wanted my blood, old man?”

Manolo’s nostrils were flaring as he chased his breathing. “Do not push it, boy.”

“Do you ever wonder who helped me out of prison eight years ago?”

Manolo paled.

He smiled perversely. “That’s right. Keep guessing. But I will tell you this, Yulo. I go down, you all go down. Your entire clan. Take heed, old man because I really hate your guts. Don’t push me.”

He spat to his side and walked away.

Chapter Three

WHY DIDN’T SHE BURN
all these a long time ago?

Angie's tears rolled down her cheeks as she opened the box that contained assorted silly stuff that only a teenager in love would think to keep. Empty chocolate boxes, used gift wrappers, ribbons, creased candy wrappers, dried roses. The only thing not silly in there was a CD entitled Always.

She picked up the CD and stared at it. It had been in her keeping for so long.

How could Jaq do this? Despite everything that happened, she would never have thought that he would exact his revenge on her and her family in this manner. He was a good, decent man. But what did a teenager know about men? She didn’t know Jaq, after all.

She angrily stuffed the mementos back inside the box and put it back in the closet. Soon, she would incinerate the damn box and everything in it! She changed into casual clothes and called her bestfriend. “Darry?”

“Ange, are you okay, girl? You haven’t returned my calls! I saw the tabloids–”

“Listen, I need to talk to…I need to talk to Jaq.”

“Tonight? But it’s 9 PM.”

“So? Tell me where he lives.”

“But…are you sure you wanna do this, Ange? Wanna talk about it first?”

“No, Darry. I really need to do this tonight.”

Darry sighed and told her. She knew the address. Several of her friends lived there.

Darry and Jaq had remained in touch all these years. Darry’s parents who were famous movie directors in the country had struck a close association with Jaq when he ventured into directing and producing movies. Time and again, she’d gotten bits and pieces of information about Jaq as Darry would sprinkle their conversations with her ex’s achievements, his blockbuster Hollywood movies, his business ventures, his various prestigious awards, his latest girlfriends.

As much as she didn’t want to care about the latter, Jaq’s relationships had been well-documented by the local press. Though he’d been mostly in LA the past eight years, people had not forgotten his successful rock star days and everything about him fascinated the entire nation, especially his love life. He’d been romantically involved with various Hollywood celebrities over the years. An actress would make a movie with Jaq and she’d end up in love with him. By premiere day, they were a couple. But his relationships didn’t last long. He was a player and couldn’t hold a relationship for a year. She didn’t know if she would feel happy or sad for him.

She’d learned to act indifferent whenever Darry would talk about Jaq. When she and Jordan started seriously dating two years ago, she asked Darry to finally stop mentioning Jaq, which her bestfriend respected.

“You want me to go with you, girl?”

“No, I’ll be fine.”

“Call me if you need me, okay?”

“I will, thanks.”

Jaq stared at the series of colored
pictures splattered on the sheets, contemplating suing for libel. But these cheap tabloids were mostly fly by night. The big ones knew how to play with semantics to avoid getting sued, hence the question marks on the headlines. They’d say it was a mere quest for truth, not a statement of fact.

Libel was about the truth and that video was true. He shot it himself eight years ago.

But that video was long buried with the memories of his past. Who would be interested to dig it? He was sure, whoever leaked it wanted to hurt the Yulos, not him.

His life had been relatively peaceful since he came back here.

In the past three years, in between making Hollywood movies, he was in and out of the country discreetly setting up his local businesses in entertainment— a movie production company and a music recording and promotions company. With his accumulated experiences and connections from years of working in the US, he planned to turn the local movie industry into a haven for quality movie-making in Asia that could compete with Hollywood standards.

He would start his mission with his latest flick, a project he’d fought hard to get a huge budget from DreamWorks, his home studio in LA. The movie required a tropical terrain for its elaborate battle scenes along white sand beaches and under thick forests. The Philippines was the perfect location for his cinematic vision.

For the fist time in eight years, he willingly allowed the public to know he was back in the country to shoot a big-budget Hollywood movie. He was received with warm welcome by the people and the movers of the local film industry. After all, he used to be a famous rock star here.

He kept his public appearances at a minimum, even if he got dozens of invitations to appear on TV shows and lifestyle magazines. He was here to shoot his movie and he didn’t want distractions. Except for the press and paparazzi flocking his set to get pictures of his lead stars whose scenes he shot first during the first month of filming here, his set was relatively peaceful.

He had been here for two straight months without trouble. He should have known it was too good to be true. Trouble had always been his middle name, but this kind of trouble, he could do without.

Yulo shit was the last thing he needed right now.

THAT family. Fuck them! All of them!

He couldn’t stop the memories from rushing back. Bad memories. Yes. He’d prefer to remember the bad segments of the past. They far outweighed the good ones anyway. When all had been said and done, he was the one at the losing end with a shitload of bitterness, hate and pain that would have made a lesser man commit suicide.

It wasn’t easy to accept that he had lost in such magnitude. It was hard to move on when his heart cried for justice and retribution.

But he did. It was the only way to survive. To live.

He must admit now that coming back to the Philippines was a huge test for him. A test of will and self-control. He wanted to find out if he could again exist in the same place as the Yulos like a normal person, breathe the same air that they breathed without wanting to commit murder, go on with his life without feeling like the biggest fool all over again.

So far, he was doing okay. His movie kept him very busy everyday the past months he hardly had time to think about her. He’d heard news about her. She was getting married. Finally, a closure. Their story had run out of pages to write it on. It must finally end. As it should. For good.

But some unscrupulous bastard provided new blank pages to write on.

As the perverse fates would have it, his and Angie’s story was still far from the epilogue.

Angie slowed down her car in front of the tall gate.

Normally she had a chauffeur to do the driving for her but tonight, she decided to go solo, conniving with some of their house help so she can leave their mansion undetected.

The gate was made of black painted steel, severely geometric in design. She knew he was expecting her. The guard at the main gate called Jaq’s residence to inform him of a visitor. She was expecting to be rejected but he gave the guard permission to let her in.

She breathed deeply then got out of her car. She approached the gate slowly and punched the buzzer. She jumped in surprise when the small door at the side of the gate immediately opened.

Jaq came out.

Their eyes met. Connected. Locked.

In the dim lighting of the street lamps, he looked so formidable, tall and solidly built.

Seconds ticked by and they continued to stare at each other. She lost her tongue. Her heart was suddenly beating so fast she had difficulty breathing. He always had that effect on her which she used to love but now hated.

“Come in,” he finally said and entered the small door again, holding it open for her.

She had to be careful not to touch him when she stepped inside his property.

“This way.” He walked up the driveway leading to his house. She followed him hesitantly. Even from behind he looked so intimidating, his shoulders broad, his arms delineated with lean, hard muscles. His long legs ate up the steps with the sure strides of a sleek jungle animal.

Jaq had been gorgeous as a younger man and she was a teenager on the verge of discovering her womanhood when she met him. She was no match to the reckless allure of his wild youth. Like a helpless moth, she was drawn to the raging fire, willingly. But now, in his early thirties, he was simply devastating. She had to be careful.

His house was huge and the illumination outside perfectly highlighted alcoves of great architectural details. Her sophisticated eye knew it was designed by a top-shelf architect. She could make out the Zen garden and the austere, modern structure of the house.

They went up the stone-paved steps of the wide portico. He opened one of the double-paneled, hardwood doors at the main entrance.

“Come in.”

It was his domain, his territory and it looked as solid and imposing as its owner.

She only hesitated for a few seconds then stepped inside.

He jaw dropped in shock. “Oh my God! W-what happened here?!”

“Impressed? That’s courtesy of your brothers.”

“My brothers?!”

“Uh-huh, your brothers and whoever thugs they were with,” he said, his eyes, dark and serious.

“But…but…why would they...? You don’t mean…I can’t believe…”

“Don’t be surprised. You know damn well they’re quite capable of doing this.”

She couldn’t argue with that but she wasn’t about to let him slander her family in any way. “My brothers are decent people. But not when they’re wronged.”

He leaned on a post and crossed his powerful arms in front of his chest. In his black, sleeveless basketball shirt, gray track pants and black sports slippers, he looked as magnificent as when she first saw him manning that DJ booth at Hysteria years ago. Still as arresting. Still as commanding. And more. So much more.

“Did you come here to discuss decency with me, Angie?” His voice was hard-edged, mocking.

She swallowed. “No.”

He went to a sofa and cleared the mess from the seat with a swipe of his hand. “Sit down.”

She sat down only because she didn’t think her legs could support her for much longer.

He dropped on an armchair opposite her.

Neither of them spoke for some time. They stared at each other. The silence in the room was only punctuated by the beating of her heart and the sound of running water from an oriental fountain nearby. His huge living room seemed to have shrunk into a small box, where only the two of them existed.

“Can I get you anything to drink?” he asked her casually, like a host would to an invited guest. Only, she was hardly a welcome guest in his house.

She shook her head. “No, thank you.”

Silence.

His whiskey-colored eyes bored into her, beautiful, sorcerer’s eyes that used to melt her defenses the moment they rested on her. They were still framed by impossibly thick, long lashes that a woman would kill for. Those intense, penetrating gazes could put her in a trance anytime he wished to. They were doing the same now...

No! This was closure, not reminiscing time, she reminded herself.
Be done with it!
“So, tell me, Jaq. I want the truth. Did you leak the video on the internet?”

Despite the great probability that he did it, she was still hoping that he didn’t. Better some unscrupulous bastard did it to make money than Jaq. That was easier to accept no matter how badly it had damaged her reputation.

But he sneered. “I think I’ve had this conversation this morning with your loving family. Didn’t you talk to them?”

“No. I want to hear it straight from you. The plain truth. From your own lips.”

He let a few seconds pass before answering. “What does your instinct tell you, Angie?”

She wondered why their voices were hushed. There was no reason for that. The vast living room was empty save for the two of them. “I’m asking you. I want a straight answer,” she said in a louder voice, attempting to sound like her normal self.

“Suppose I did, why do you think I did it?”

Please, dear God. Don’t let it be the truth.
“Money?”

He laughed, a hollow sound in the stillness of the night. “Look around you. You should have seen this place before it got trashed. You wouldn’t think I was having money problems. Sorry, honey, it’s not that. I’m quite liquid, now, thank you.”

“Publicity?”

He leaned back, draped his powerful arms on the sofa and propped his ankle on one knee. It was a lazy masculine pose, but it only emphasized his superior strength.

“Let me see. I babble mushy bullshit to some society princess for thirty freakin’ minutes on cam, make ridiculous cow eyes at her, declare my undying stupid love for her and then I proceed to show my skinny butt for all the world to see, and all for what, hmm? Publicity?” He shook his head in amused incredulity.