Keifer's POV
I won't last a day without seeing her. This is so hard. It's so hard
especially for me. I badly want to see her.
I miss my Jay-jay.
I almost crumpled the paper I was holding as I glanced at the
cellphone I was using that only had one number saved.
Her number.
It probably wouldn't hurt to message her now. Keigan is
not here yet. I was about to pick up the phone when I heard my original phone ring.
I took it out of my pocket and looked. It was a text message from Mr.
Ryder.
From: Atty. Raider.
Message: Hanamitchi's only heir is no longer engaged.
I straightened my back as I stared at the message.
They're no longer engaged. A smirk form in my face. I finally heard a good
news.
I thought I had to kill the Hanamitchi just to ruin that engagement. Yuri's family was probably the one who
made a way.
In your face Angelo! In your face!
Jay-jay is mine. Only mine! No man can have her except me. This should
be a lesson to learn for Angelo.
I hid my phone again before turning back to what I was reading.
Somehow I had a new reason to keep doing what I was doing. One of my problems had spontaneously resolved itself.
But there's more! I still have a lot to deal with. My head is already hurting. But this is a good start."Brother, can I go home now?" Keiren asked me while playing with him
tablets.
"No. I told you we're staying here for a month."
"What about my school?" He put down his tablet and looked at me.
"My girlfriends will miss me."
I put down the papers I was holding. He just said girlfriend with an S.
"Excuse me? What girlfriends?" I ask emphasizing the S.
"The girls who give me gifts everyday. They're my girlfriend."
I rolled my eyes. He has different understanding about dating.
I heard the door of the suite we were staying in open. I
immediately took my secret phone and put it in my other pocket.
"By lunch you'll meet are relatives. Mostly our cousins from afar."
Keigan said before laying down on the long sofa.
I looked back at the papers. This is the brief information about
the Watson Enterprise and of course the latest happening inside.
This is complicated than I expected. It's more extensive than I expected. What if I'm inside the company?
This isn't really what I thought not even close. What's more painful is that
it feels like I'm really going through the eye of a needle.
"You will never become the CEO of Watson Enterprise."
Those words from my cousin Clyde suddenly pop up in my mind.
"You don't have a degree. No experience or understanding about the
company. You're under age."
I felt ashamed of myself when I heard those words from him.
Even though it was just the two of us in his office yesterday, I felt ashamed of our entire clan.
"So, how will you handle this position?"
I suddenly threw the paper I was holding away in annoyance. My two siblings immediately looked at me. I stood up and quickly walked towards the
balcony. I wanted to get some air. Keigan immediately stopped me
when I'm about to open the glass door.
"Don't Brother!" He shouts.
I frown and look at him. "What?"
"That's not a good place to die."
I hold the bridge of my nose. I almost forgot. We're in London and most
people here are dying to see me soaking in my own blood.I raise both of my hands as a sign of defeat. I just walked towards my room. I almost slammed the door shut. My body fell off the bed.
Fvck! I don't want to go home without all my suffering. I'll probably visit
Clyde again tomorrow. I need to find a loophole to get into the company.
I don't care if I'll get a small position, as long as I'm inside. I'll do it little by little until I get what's right for me.
I took my secret phone and messaged Jay but he didn't reply.
I didn't realize I had fallen asleep. I just woke up because of the strong shaking.
"Kuya! Wake up! Kuya Keigan said that you need to wake up now!" It
was Keiren.
"Stop... I'm awake!" I said and force my eyes to open.
He stopped and came closer to my face.
"What do you want for your birthday?" He asked that makes me stop.
He knew when my birthday is but we don't celebrate. So
I was surprised that he was asking about the gift.
"Are you giving me another gift?"
He shook his head. "Nope. I'm just asking."
I grew loudly while he laughed mischievously. I heard his footsteps
leaving. I got up and sat at the end of the bed. I searched for my phones to
check the time.
I found the secret one under my pillow while the original one is at the
bedside table.
I looked at both of them. I didn't know I would sleep for
long. It's already 11am. I also checked my messages. There's no message
at my secret phone.
Is he loading me? I'm too lazy to load that. So I won't be surprised if she doesn't reply because she doesn't have a reply.
Maybe I should put her number in line so she won't worry about contacting
anyone.
I checked my original phone. My forehead creased upon seeing Yuri's
name as the first message in my inbox.
From: Chickenhead
Message: You leave the country without saying goodbye to me.I immediately send my respond.
To: Chickenhead
Message: Don't cry. I'll be back soon.
I didn't wait for his answer. I stood up to go to the
bathroom. I took a bath.
Water was still dripping from my hair when I came out. I glance at my
phone before picking it up to check his message.
From: Chickenhead
Message: Don't return. Stay where you are. Jay-jay will be mine.
I almost chuckled bitterly.
To: Chickenhead
Message: Keep dreaming. It's free anyway.
I didn't get a response from him. I just
did better continue what I was doing. I changed my clothes to something
appropriate.
I was about to go out when I met Keigan who was almost running towards
me.
"I thought you sleep back again."
"Why in a hurry?"
"Our cousins are waiting for us."
I nodded and walked after him. Their plan when they get here is to
face our relatives. I already faced the others yesterday when we arrived. As usual they don't like my presence near them or the
company. I have cousins who are clearly just sucking up.
Most of them live in Scotland or Ireland, some live in the province side
of England. Only those who work or are interested in our company live here in
London. I know I have cousins who are abroad and
just visiting here.
The Watsons are a big family. They have as many children outside. I'm
not surprised. Despite their size and wealth, only a few are recognized by the main family.
Unfortunately, I'm not one of them. Despite being the grand
child of my late grandfather. I don't know if it's because of my Monster
Father or because I didn't grow up with them.
I was in the lobby when I heard people talking in different languages. They're everywhere. Everywhere I turned, I saw my cousins and other relatives.I know, at first glance I can tell already. That's how obvious the
appearance of a Watson is.
"Gordon Bennett! It's you!" A man walks beside me with amusement
expression.
His accent is deep. He clearly grew up here. I almost asked who Gordon was. I almost forgot that it's an expression and I was the one talking to.
He grabbed my hand and arm to shake hands. Even though
I was confused, I did it. The others immediately noticed us and approached
me.
Keiren and Keigan are watching just behind these people. They are all
excited to talk to me. While I'm just observing them.
"Jemelle Ruth, I'm from Slovakia." A woman with a weird accent
approaches me. "We're third cousins."
"Hi, I'm Miracle!" Another woman introduces herself. "My Dad is your
second cousin but his not here."
I forced a smile at them. Another woman approached me.
She kissed my cheek.
"Francheska Grace, half Filipina. So if you want to talk in
Tagalog, just call me." She said and smiled sweetly.
"Excuse me!" Another woman interrupted us. "Martina Carla from
Spain." She said with a weird different accent.
I noticed that most of them were all women. From
different countries.
Martina pulled a woman and forced her face towards me. The woman with her smiled shyly.
"H-hi, I'm Irene Flores. I'm from Spain like Martina." He said and
smile. "We're second cousins."
I force to smile at her. I chose to turn them away. I was about to
approach Keigan who was talking to someone else but someone else
approached me to introduce themselves.
"Bonjour, I'm Zrapyire. I'm a fashion designer from France."
He kissed me on the cheek and hugged me tightly.
I wasn't surprised by what he did. French are known for being
sweet and intimidating.
"Nice to meet you." I said before walking again.I saw that Keigan was talking to a woman. As I approached them, Keigan immediately introduced his companion.
"This is Franchezka Reigne, she's from Finland and she's a lawyer,"
Keigan introduced her.
She offered her hand for a handshake. I accepted it and smiled.
"If you need help about your rights in this family, just call me." She
said in her hard accent.
I simply nodded before facing Keigan and pulling him away from these people—
I mean from our cousins.
"Where are these people from?" I asked in Tagalog.
I knew that the people standing near us would listen. It would be better if they didn't understand us.
"They're our cousins. They want to get to know us."
I shook my head. "Do you believe me? They're no different from our other cousins."
"So take advantage of the opportunity. Use them to
have many allies in this family."
What good are many allies if they are fake?
I could do nothing but let Keigan do his thing. He knows more about what to do than me.
He introduced me to our cousins again. This time,
men approached me. Most of them were from the
upper part of Europe. Some were also from Germany and Poland.
If there was anything noticeable about my male cousins, it was their
actions that were not far from me, which probably also brought the
Watson blood to them.
Some of them no longer carried our surname. Others were
not really usable because they were illegitimate children who were not recognized by the Main Family.
We looked at one of our cousins who suddenly clapped.
We looked at him and the others immediately fell silent.
"I know, we're all excited to meet Keifer but let's continue our
conversation... With a nosh!" He said with a very hard accent.
My cousins immediately clapped their hands and walked towards the
hotel restaurant.
I saw Keiren frowning as he approached me. "What is
nosh?""It means food." I ruffled her hair. "Do you want to eat?"
"Yes, I still haven't eaten lunch." She turned her back on me and followed our cousins.
I did the same. The restaurant concept is old-fashioned, probably because of the hotel's preserved looks. They were confused about what to eat. I could hear different languages.
"Jahzara! Alexandra! Sit here!"
"Hannah Lois! Call your brothers now!"
"Stop shouting Jay Belle!"
I stopped when I heard my name. Remembering her now
suddenly makes me want to contact her. I want to know if she's eating
properly. Maybe she's still asleep. I wanted to text her to answer my
worry but Keigan was in front of me. Maybe she'd notice and start asking questions.
The waiter arrived with the menu in his hand. I ordered the same as Keiren. Keigan was very happy chatting with them. While I just listened.
They mostly talked about our lives in the Philippines.
"Do you have a girlfriend?" One of my male cousins asked me. "We heard
this news that you're going crazy because of a girl."
Their voices changed. Most of them whispered to me in
another language but I could tell what they were getting at.
"You know what exactly happened to a Watson—."
"There's no such thing. It's not real." I said and looked at them deadly.
If this was just an ordinary person, he would probably avoid me but because he was a Watson, he just laughed at me while shaking his head.
"It's real Keifer. What do you think is the reason why most of us are
single?" My female cousin said with her French accent.
Like I care why.
"Because they leave us. Most of the people we love leave us," One of
my Male cousin said. "Our possessiveness is the reason."
I almost rolled my eyes. Excuse me, I'm not possessive. Yes, I easily got
jealous but that doesn't make me possessive.
"Even Clyde has been left by his ex-fianceé." They added.
"He was left because his an idiot." I said and they laughed."But seriously Keifer. It's like a curse, a real curse. And only those
whose lucky has the ability to overcome it."
I look at them confidently. "Then I'll be one of those lucky bastards."
Most of them smiled at what I said while shaking their heads.
They laughed and went back to their own stories.
I looked at Keigan who clearly disagreed with what I said. But he can't do anything about it. I can't hide the truth from them or even the Elders of the family.
They just don't make the mistake of taking advantage of him. I'll consume them all.
"There will be a game on Saturday! Let's watch it!" Someone
suddenly shouts.
Everyone looked at me as if waiting for my decision. I
simply nodded before they cheered up. Endless stories and laughter at what they did. We were already at lunch.
To be honest, I felt different about these people compared to my previous cousins who introduced themselves. It was easy, because like me, they were not accepted by the Main Family. It was amazing that they were okay with that. They had rights to many things but they didn't fight for them, was it because they were happier with what they had?
I want that to!
But it's not possible. I have a lot to lose, a lot of wasted suffering. Mom's death would be wasted.
It took a few hours before they even thought of leaving. Some of my male cousins even stayed behind to have a drink.
"See this? She's my girl!" One of my cousins said while showing a
picture to us.
"She's out of your league!" Answered by another.
Our other cousins immediately laughed when they saw the annoyance on her face. The conversation turned to showing the picture.
"Can we see the picture of your girlfriend?" One of them asked me.
I stopped myself for arching a brow. I had no intention of showing them
Jay-jay. I didn't want them to be interested in her. As long as I knew she was pretty,
I didn't need anyone else's opinion!
"I don't want to," I said and took a sip of my drink.
They shook their heads as they understood what I meant. It was a good thing I didn't have to explain to them what I was thinking.We've already consumed 23 bottles but they're still not drunk.
It's true that the Watsons have been drunk for a long time. It took us until the afternoon before they even thought about going home.
I took them to the hotel lobby where Keigan was waiting for me. We said our last goodbyes before they finally left.
"They never ask," I said and Keigan looked at me. "They never ask
about the company."
They didn't even ask me to let them work for the company.
Not like the cousins I met before.
"What do you think about them?"
"I noticed their connection to each other. Even though they're from far away, they're like neighbors. Things that I never saw from
the main family."
Keigan nodded briefly. "I like them."
"Me too," I said before walking back to our suite.
There's still a day left but I'm already feeling heavy. I wanted to
lie down and close my eyes. When I entered, Keiren was the first thing I saw, holding the tablet.
I just let him go and went to my room. I sat on the
bed and rubbed the back of my neck. I felt like it had been a very long day
and I was so tired.
I took both my phones. I looked at the one that only had one
number saved.
I miss Jay-jay. I miss her so much. I feel like I want to go home to
the Philippines even if I just want to see her for a moment. I just want to hear her voice.
Out of no where I notice my phone. It was dialing Jay's number. I didn't know that I had already pressed the call button.
I immediately canceled the call. I held my chest because of nervousness.
She couldn't hear my voice and she might recognize me.
My phone popped up a message from....her.
From: MyFutureMrsWatson
Message: Crazy!
I smiled. At least she texted me first. I immediately typed an answer.
To: MyFutureMrsWatson
Message: Is that me? Yes, of course!
I know she'll answer me with her usual curses and profanityFrom: MyFutureMrsWatson
Message: what's wrong? How long is your trip to the world! If you're just a trip away, can I still
get it? I don't have a problem, I don't know what to do. Don't
join.
I'm quite surprised. The message is so long that I can't
understand it anymore. She really likes this kind of text.
I tried to read it, word for word. Few minutes after I understand it. She
have a problem and I have this feeling that it's about the cancellation of
engagement. She needs someone to talk to about it.
Should I talk to her?
I can't. If she heard my voice she'll recognize me. If she does, she will no
longer answer my messages.
What should I do then?
I stood up and walked around. She needed to talk. She can talk to me but I can't talk to her. Then it's not talking at all. Maybe she doesn't like talking to someone who doesn't answer.
My hair is messy because of the irritation. It's probably okay. I just shouldn't speak.
I dial her number and waited for her to answer it.
["H-hello?"] I heard her voice.
I close my eyes to feel it. How I miss hearing her voice. I badly want to
speak and say how much I love her.
["Hello? Is there a person there? Is there an animal there? Alien? Fairy?
Impact? Is there a Tarantado? Idiot?"] She said and I almost laughed.
She always seems to be challenging.
["If you don't talk, I'll kill you."] She said sounds
pissed.
I'm expecting that already. Who wants to talk to someone who doesn't
speak? But it's better to be this way.
["Hey! Can I? Stop it! Don't be mysterious
there! It's not funny! It's annoying! You're just adding to my already
many problems!"]
I ended the call. I can't tell her over the phone. I composed a message and
sent it immediately. I imitated her way of texting so she can
understand me easily.
To: MyFutureMrsWatson
Message: I can't talk but I can listen. Tell me ur problem. Alteast mbwasnyour skin is so damned tight.
I gave her a few seconds before calling her again. Just one ring and she
answered it. I didn't say a thing and waited for her.
["You idiot..."] She said and my forehead creased. ["...I don't know you because I don't know you. That's why I called you Gago."]
Seriously? She is really a weird woman. She doesn't know me but she
have the audacity to call me Gago. I smirked and tried my best not to make a
sound.
["I can't really get your trip in life. You can introduce yourself, why are you doing this? You're probably really behind me—you're so big that you're embarrassed to show your face."]
Yes. I'm really behind you. You're so big!
["I have so many problems. With family, at home, at school, with my classmates and with that love-love trap. Including those idiots, I guess that's where I'm really going."]
She looks like she's having another fight. I will contact Rory about this.
"Hhmm..."
["I don't know if you know my whole personality. I'm from a broken family. My mom gets married to different people, I can't be with my dad. I feel like I've caught all the pain of both of them."]
I know she's been carrying that. Probably her whole life. I wouldn't be surprised if she finds someone to talk to about that.
["At home, I was just living with them but they really considered me
family, but of course not all the time. They set me up with my classmate's daughter, their business-keneme.
They tried to get me married—but they backed out, only to have the company completely collapse."]
I know that. It's also my fault because I let Yuri go with his
plan. I guess we have our own planned back then. I'm so confident
that I will win.
["My problem at school is probably the students' problem.
The long graduation!"] I simply chuckled. ["To my classmates"] I
became serious. ["They believed me. I thought I was one of them. I was just a toy for them, gambled on and
took apart as if we had nothing in common."]Yes you are. You're Jay. You're us. You're part of our
Section ever since you stepped your foot inside that room.
["The person I love is gone. He's in trouble! He likes to
slap me back to back. He plays with me—does he look like Barbie to play with? He's so good at it. He's a faggot!"] Did he just
call me gay? I almost reacted. ["That's gay! Do you know that Mark
Keifer Watson? That's gay! Gay!"]
And she really did call me that. Just wait and when I get home I'll
prove to you that I'm a man.
"Tss..." I said and immediately regretted it.
What the hell! In my panic I missed the call. This would drive me crazy!
What if he recognized me because of that? I silently prayed that she didn't.
A message came from her.
From: MyFutureMrsWatson
Message: I'm not done talking... can I hear you?
Shit! It's probably better if I just stay away. I might not be able to hold it in anymore.
To: MyFutureMrsWatson
Message: sorry, I have to go.
I said and put my phone under my pillow. I pulled myself together.
Next time I need to concentrate to make sure it doesn't happen again.
So stupid Keifer!