ᕙ༼Keifer's༽ᕗPOV
The blue light of the monitors cast a cold glow over my office, a sharp contrast to the furnace-like heat of the woman currently anchored to my body.
To the rest of the world, I was Keifer Watson—the man who controlled the pulse of the markets from Manila to London, the CEO whose name was whispered with equal parts reverence and fear. But right now, I was just a human shield. Jay Jay was wrapped around me like a koala, her legs hooked firmly around my waist and her face buried in the crook of my neck. My left hand was splayed across her lower back, holding her hip to keep her steady, while my right hand navigated the laptop.
The screen was a four-way split of the most overprotective men in the Philippines.Jaspher sir, Angelo, Aries, and Percy. We were deep into the Miles acquisition—a high-stakes play involving international logistics and a multi-billion dollar price tag.
"The London assets for the Miles deal are secured," I said, my voice the same flat, lethal baseline that had closed a thousand deals.
"But the local integration is stalled. We need the final executive sign-off from Mariano's department by end of business today."
"Then why are we talking to you, Watson?"
Angelo demanded, his eyes narrowing as he leaned into his camera. From their perspective, they could only see my head and shoulders. They had no idea my 'Boss' was currently fused to my chest. "Jay Jay's the lead on Miles. She's missed three check-ins. If she's dodging her responsibilities—"
"She isn't dodging anything," I cut him off, my hand instinctively tightening on her hip as I felt her stir against me. "She's unwell. I'm handling her workload alongside mine to ensure the Miles transition remains seamless."
"You're overstepping," Aries snapped, his dark eyes flashing. "That's her division. If she's too sick to sit at a desk, why isn't she at the family estate? Why are you answering her calls at 7:00 AM?"
"Because"i paused look down at my chest where she is currently stick looking small and delicate "she's with me," I said simply.
"Keifer," Jaspher's sir voice boomed, calm but dangerous. "Adjust your camera. Now."
I exhaled slowly and tilted the screen downward.
The silence that followed was absolute. For five seconds, the four most powerful men in the country just stared. They saw the "Titan" of industry, the woman they thought was invincible, reduced to a small, shivering bundle in my arms. Her messy hair was splayed across my hoodie, her legs were locked around my waist, and her hands were curled into fists, clutching my shirt like her life depended on it.
"Is she... hugging you?" Percy whispered, his mouth hanging open.
"She's burnt out, Percy," I said, looking down at the top of her head. My heart gave a painful thrum. I loved her more than the billions in my bank account. I just wanted her to be okay.
But then, the shivering turned into a violent tremor. Jay Jay's eyes flew open—wide, red-rimmed, and filled with a terrifying level of despair.
"Stop," she whispered into my neck.
"Jay Jay? Sweetheart, we're right here," Jaspher sir said, his voice cracking with sudden fatherly panic.
"STOP TALKING!" she suddenly shrieked. She sat bolt upright in my lap, her legs still locked around me, her body vibrating with a force that shook us both. "I DON'T WANT TO LIVE! AHHHHHHHH!"
The scream ripped through the quiet office, raw and agonizing. This wasn't a tantrum this was the sound of a soul that had been pushed past the point of no return.
"Jay Jay, baby, look at me—" I tried to catch her hands, but she was thrashing, hot tears exploding from her eyes.
"AAHHHHHHH! NO MORE! I HATE THE MILES DEAL! I HATE THE MEETINGS! I HATE THE PHONES!" She was sobbing her lungs out, her chest heaving so hard it scared me. "I DON'T WANT TO BE AN EXECUTIVE! I WANT TO DISAPPEAR! AHHHHHHHH!"
"Keifer! Do something! She's hyperventilating!" Angelo shouted, his face pale as he watched his sister break apart.
"I can't take it anymore!" Jay Jay wailed, burying her face back into my chest and screaming into the fabric. The sound was muffled but no less haunting. "Everything hurts! Why won't the world just stop?! AHHHHH!"
I didn't care about the Miles deal anymore. I didn't care about the four shocked men watching. I growled at the screen, my hand cradling the back of her head. "The meeting is over. Don't call back."
I slammed the laptop shut.
The room plunged into silence, broken only by her ragged, sobbing. I pulled her as close as humanly possible, her hot tears soaking through to my skin.
"I've got you," I whispered, resting my forehead against hers. "I've got you, Boss. The world is gone. It's just us."
The phone screamed again. I didn't want to pick up, but the persistent flashing of Jaspher's name made me growl. I hit the video button, propping the phone up.
"Enough!" Jaspher's sir voice wasn't booming this time, it was trembling. "Keifer, stop. We're done. We aren't talking about Miles. We aren't talking about the company. Just... let us see her. Let us see our girl."
I shifted the phone so the camera captured us. Jay Jay was a wreck, her face buried in my neck, her small frame shaking with sobs that sounded like they were tearing her apart.
"She's seventeen," I snapped, my eyes burning as I looked at the four men on the screen. "Seventeen. She took this CEO position with zero help. No mentors, no hand-holding. She worked like a machine, day and night, just to drag your family company to the top of the skyline. And look at her now. You pushed a child until she broke."
"I don't want to do it anymore!" Jay Jay shrieked, her voice cracking. "I'm tired of being the Titan! I want my life back! AHHHHHHH!"
"We know, sweetheart," Angelo whispered, his face crumbling as he watched his sister's breakdown. "We didn't realize... we thought you were fine because you never complained."
"Because she's jay jay," I growled, tucking her head under my chin. "She'd rather die than show you weakness, and you all just kept piling the weight on. Well, the machine is broken. I'm taking her home."
"Keifer, please," Percy said, his eyes wet. "Just keep the camera on. We won't say a word. We just need to know she's breathing."
I didn't answer them. I just kept my hand splayed over her back, feeling her heart rhythmically slamming against my chest. She was the most powerful girl in the country, a self-made prodigy at seventeen, and right now, she was just a kid who needed to be allowed to cry.
"It's okay, Boss," I murmured into her hair, ignoring the four men watching us with haunted expressions. "The sky can fall. I'll catch it. Just breathe."
ᕙ༼Keifer's༽ᕗPOV
The penthouse air was still thick with the residue of Jay Jay's breakdown, but the tension had shifted from corporate coldness to raw, family heartbreak. Jaspher sir stepped forward, his eyes softening as he watched his daughter—the fierce CEO of the Mariano's company—clinging to me like a frightened child.
"Jay Jay," Jaspher sir said, his voice unusually gentle, the voice of a father rather than a Chairman. "Come here, anak. Come to Papa. We're going to take you home. No more meetings, no more Miles deal. Just your bed and whatever you need."
Angelo nodded, stepping up beside him. "We've seen enough, Keifer. You've been awake for forty-eight hours straight taking care of her. You're human, too. Let us take her so you can finally close your eyes."
I felt Jay Jay's grip loosen slightly. She looked up at me, her eyes red-rimmed and swimming with a new wave of guilt.
"Keifer..." she whispered, her lip trembling. "You haven't slept? Because of me?"
"It doesn't matter, Jay Jay," I murmured, my hand still firm on her back. "I'm fine as long as you're breathing."
"No!" she suddenly wailed, her mood swinging violently back into a sob. "I'm a burden! I'm making everyone miserable! I'm making Keifer sick! AHHHHH!"
"Jay, stop, that's not what we meant!" Angelo said, his own stress finally leaking out. "I'm just saying he's exhausted, for god's sake, don't start screaming again—"
"DON'T YOU YELL AT HIM!" Jay Jay shrieked, turning her head to glare at Angelo while still refusing to leave my lap. "He's the only one who didn't make me feel like a machine! If you scream at him, I'll never go back to that house! AHHHHHHH!"
"Angelo, back off!" Jaspher sir commanded, placing a hand on his son's shoulder. He looked at Jay Jay with a sad, knowing smile. "He's not yelling, sweetheart. We just want you to rest, and we want Keifer to rest so he can keep being there for you."
Jay Jay sniffled, her chest heaving as she looked between her father's open arms and my tired face. The logic finally pierced through her hormone-induced fog. She knew I was running on fumes.
"Okay," she whispered, her voice tiny. "I'll go with Papa. But Keifer has to promise to sleep. If I find out you worked on the Miles deal while I was gone, I'll... I'll quit! I'll actually quit!"
"I promise, Jay," I said, my voice rough. I slowly helped her untangle her legs from my waist. It felt like losing a limb.
Jaspher sir reached out, gently lifting her from my lap. She looked so small in his arms, her head falling onto his shoulder immediately.
"Thank you, Keifer," Jaspher sir said seriously as he turned toward the elevator. "For seeing what we were too blind to notice."
"She's my heart, sir," I replied, standing up for the first time in hours, my legs nearly buckling. "Just make sure she has the heating pad for the cramps. And the dark chocolate from the pantry—she won't eat the milk chocolate."
"We've got her," Angelo said, giving me a respectful nod as the elevator doors began to close.
The last thing I saw was Jay Jay's tear-stained face looking back at me, her eyes already drooping. The silence that followed was deafening, but for the first time in weeks, the Titan was finally allowed to be just a seventeen-year-old girl.
The elevator was open, but I didn't let go of her yet. I held her for a few more seconds, feeling the heat of her feverish skin against mine.
Jaspher sir and Angelo stood there, watching me with a mix of gratitude and awe as I began listing the instructions for my 'Boss.'
"She needs the heating pad every two hours," I said, my voice gravelly from exhaustion. "And don't even try to give her the milk chocolate from the kitchen. She'll throw it at the wall. She only wants the 80% dark cocoa from the top shelf of my pantry—I already put a box in her bag."
"We can handle chocolate, Keifer," Angelo said softly.
"You don't understand," I countered, my eyes narrowing. "When she's like this, her cravings get... weird. If she asks for green mangoes with peanut butter at three in the morning, just give them to her. Don't ask questions, and for God's sake, don't tell her it's gross or she'll start crying again."
Jay Jay let out a small, watery sniffle against my chest. "I like the peanut butter... it makes the cramps feel better."
"See?" I looked at Jaspher sir. "And she needs the heavy weighted blanket, not the silk ones. She feels like she's floating away when she's stressed the weight grounds her. Also, no bright lights. Keep the curtains drawn."
Jaspher sir stepped closer, reaching out to stroke Jay Jay's hair. "You've really been paying attention, haven't you?"
"I have to," I whispered, finally easing her legs down so she could stand, though I kept my arm locked around her waist because she was swaying. "Since she refuses to take care of herself."
"I'm not a baby," Jay Jay murmured, her mood swinging again as she pouted at me. "I just... I want the mangoes. And I want you to sleep, Keifer. Your eyes look like a raccoon's."
"I'm going to sleep, Jay," I promised, pressing a final kiss to her forehead.
"Come here, sweetheart," Jaspher said, gently tucking her under his arm.
As they walked toward the elevator, I called out one last thing. "Angelo! If she asks for spicy ramen with a side of ice cream—just do it. Don't argue. Her stomach is a war zone right now, just let her win."
Angelo gave me a tired thumbs-up. "Got it. Spicy ice cream ramen. We're on it."
The doors slid shut, and for the first time in forty-eight hours, the weight was gone from my lap—but my heart felt twice as heavy.
Once the elevator doors hissed shut, the silence in the penthouse was suffocating. I stood in the center of the living room for a long time, my arms feeling strangely light and useless without her.
I walked toward the bedroom, my footsteps heavy. I wasn't actually sleepy—not in the way people usually are. My mind was racing, still calculating the Miles merger and the look of sheer agony on Jay Jay's face. My body was wired, addicted to the specific weight of her body against mine.
I missed the way her legs felt hooked around my waist, the way her hair tickled my chin, and the rhythmic, soft puff of her breath against my neck. Without her warmth, the penthouse felt like a walk-in freezer.
I collapsed onto the bed, burying my face in the spot where she had been laying earlier. It smelled exactly like her—a mix of expensive vanilla perfume, chamomile tea, and that faint, sweet scent that was just her.
I reached out and grabbed her favourite silk pillow, dragging it into my chest and locking my arms around it. I held it with the same intensity I held her, squeezing it until the scent of her hair filled my senses. Only then, with the ghost of her weight pressed against my ribs, did my heart rate finally slow down.
The "Titan" of London and Manila was finally defeated, not by business, but by the absence of a seventeen-year-old girl. With my face pressed into the pillow that smelled like my Boss, I finally drifted into a deep, dreamless sleep.
⎯⎯⎯⎯At Farnandez mension⎯⎯⎯⎯
°♡˖꒰Author's꒱˖♡° POV
The mansion was supposed to be a sanctuary, but for Jay Jay, it felt like a cage filled with people who didn't understand the manual.
"No! Not that one! It's wrong!" Jay Jay's voice cracked as she shoved the silk duvet off her legs, her face flushed with a fresh wave of feverish frustration. "It's too light! I feel like I'm floating! I told you, I need it to be heavy!"
"Jay, it's the finest silk in the house," Percy said, his voice laced with confusion as he held the expensive fabric. "It's soft, it's breathabl—"
"I DON'T WANT BREATHABLE!" she wailed, her hands clutching at her hair. "And the lights! Percy, your vanity lights are leaking in from the hall! It hurts! Everything hurts!"
Aries marched in with a bowl, his brow furrowed. "I brought the mangoes, Jay. Stop yelling. You're going to give yourself a migraine."
Jay Jay looked at the bowl and let out a sob that sounded like a physical break. "They aren't green! These are yellow! They're sweet! I need the sour ones... the ones that bite back..." She collapsed against the headboard, her chest heaving. "You don't know. None of you know anything! You just want me to be the 'Titan' and sit in a chair, but I'm falling apart!"
"We're trying, Jay Jay!" Angelo snapped, his own stress finally bubbling over. "We're doing our best to take care of you, but you're being impossible! We aren't mind readers!"
The room went deathly silent. Jay Jay's lip trembled, and then, the floodgates opened. She didn't shriek this time; she just slumped down, huge, silent tears tracking through the salt-stains on her cheeks.
"I know," she whispered, her voice broken. "That's the problem. You don't read me. You just see the Chairman's daughter. Keifer is the only one who actually looks at me."
The brothers traded a look of stinging guilt. Jaspher stepped forward, waving his sons back. He sat on the edge of the bed, ignoring the way she flinched, and simply pulled her into his lap, rocking her like she was five years old again.
"We've been so focused on making you a leader that we forgot to let you be a daughter," Jaspher murmured, his voice heavy with regret. "We've treated you like a project to be managed instead of a girl to be loved."
Jay Jay sobbed into his chest, her small hands clutching his expensive suit jacket. "I'm so tired, Papa. I'm so tired of being strong. I just want to be allowed to hurt without everyone being disappointed that the 'Titan' is broken."
"You aren't broken, anak," Jaspher said, his own eyes misty as he looked at his three sons, who stood in the shadows of the room feeling smaller than they ever had. "You're just human. And we've been very, very blind."
He pulled back just enough to look at her, wiping a tear from her chin with his thumb. The room was quiet now, the anger replaced by a deep, aching clarity.
"He didn't just give us a list of instructions, Jay Jay," Jaspher said softly. "He gave us a map to your soul. He sees the parts of you that we were too proud—or too busy—to notice."
Jay Jay sniffled, looking up at her father. "He's the only one who stays when I'm ugly. When I'm screaming and crying and my stomach is turning inside out... he doesn't look at me like I'm a burden."
Jaspher smoothed her hair back, his heart heavy with the realization of how much he had almost lost. "He loves you with a devotion that most men don't achieve in a lifetime."
He leaned in closer, his voice a gentle whisper. "Tell me the truth, anak. Is that why you can only rest when he's there? Do you love him?"
Jay Jay closed her eyes, a single tear falling as a small, genuine smile touched her lips for the first time that night.
The room was finally dim, the only sound being the soft hum of the air conditioner. Jay Jay sat huddled under the blankets, her eyes wide and glassy, staring at a fixed point on the wall.
"Are you feeling any better, my baby sister?" Percy asked, leaning against the bedpost, his usual arrogance replaced by genuine worry. "Does your head still throb?"
Jay Jay gave a tiny, slow nod. "It's fuzzy. Like my brain is full of cotton candy and needles."
"Do you want us to leave?" Aries grunted from the corner, though he didn't move an inch toward the door. "Is it too loud in here?"
"No," Jay Jay whispered, her voice sounding small and youthful, stripped of all the "Titan" authority. "Don't go. It's too big in here. I feel like I'm drifting away."
Angelo reached out, awkwardly patting her knee through the blankets. "Are you hungry now? Or just... okay?"
"I'm okay-ish," she murmured, hugging a pillow to her chest. "Just... heavy. My heart feels heavy."
Jaspher sat at the foot of the bed, watching her. He noticed that despite her exhaustion, her eyes weren't closing. She looked wired, her fingers twitching against the pillowcase.
"Why are you not sleepy, anak?" Jaspher asked softly, his heart aching at how fragile she looked. "You've been awake for days. Your body needs to rest."
Jay Jay didn't blink. She stayed stared at the wall, her expression completely blank, as if she had zoned out into a different world entirely.
"He kisses my forehead so I can sleep," she said suddenly, her voice flat and robotic, devoid of any reaction. "He presses his lips right on my head, and the noise in my head stops. I can't sleep now. The noise is too loud."
The brothers went stiff. The silence in the room became heavy with the realization of just how much Keifer was her anchor. They had provided the bed and the room, but they couldn't provide the peace.
Angelo looked at Jay's father, then back at his little sister. He saw the way her eyelids stayed stubbornly open, fighting the fatigue that was clearly crushing her.
Taking a deep breath, Angelo leaned over. He was the strict brother, the one who usually lectured her about spreadsheets and deadlines. But now, he gently brushed her messy bangs aside. He leaned down and pressed a firm, lingering kiss right in the center of her forehead.
"Go to sleep, Jay," he whispered, his voice cracking slightly. "We're right here. I've got the watch now."
Jay Jay's eyes finally flickered. A soft, shaky breath escaped her lips. She didn't say anything, but her tension seemed to melt into the mattress. Her head lulled to the side, her breathing evening out almost instantly as she began to drift off.
Jaspher watched her closely, then looked at Angelo with a sad smile. "It's working."