The power surge at the Watson estate happened at the worst possible moment.
Jay had been in the deep basement storage room, looking for a archive files for Mariano Corp, when the world went pitch black.
The heavy, soundproofed door clicked shut, the electronic lock engaging automatically as the backup generators struggled to kick in.
For Jay, the darkness wasn't just an absence of light; it was a physical weight.
The shadows felt the same dark in which that incident happened.
Her "CEO" mask shattered instantly, replaced by a raw, primal terror.
When Keifer finally burst through the door with a heavy flashlight, he was met with a sight that stopped his heart.
Jay wasn't just hiding; she was in the throes of a violent, regressive panic attack.
"Jay! It's me, I'm here!" Keifer shouted, dropping to his knees and reaching out to pull her into his arms.
But as his hand touched her shoulder, Jay reacted with a desperate, animalistic strength he had never seen in her.
She swung wildly, her fist punching him square in the chest as she scrambled backward, her heels skidding on the cold floor.
"No! No, no, no! Not again!" she screamed, her voice high and distorted by a terror that belonged to a much younger version of herself. "Mama, please! Mama! Where are you"
Keifer gasped, the air knocked out of him from both the blow and the sheer agony in her voice.
He didn't try to grab her again; instead, he stayed on the floor, keeping his flashlight pointed away from her eyes so as not to blind her.
"Jay, look at me," he pleaded, his own voice breaking. "It's Keifer. You're in the mansion. You're safe."
Jay was trembling so violently she couldn't stay upright, her breath coming in ragged, shallow hitches.
She stared at him, but she wasn't seeing the man who had held her the night before. She was seeing a monster from her past.
"Don't let him in," she sobbed, her fingers clawing at the floorboards. "Please, don't let him. Mama, I'll be good, I promise..."
Keifer realized then that the "Sunshine Girl" wasn't just a mask—it was a shield for a soul that had been shattered long before he met her.
He sat in the darkness with her, keeping his distance until her screams faded into hollow, exhausted whimpers, realizing for the first time that the woman he loved was still a prisoner of her own memories.
The basement was a tomb of silence, broken only by the sound of Jay's jagged, terrified breathing.
Keifer sat perfectly still on the cold floor, his heart shattering as he watched her.
She was no longer the CEO of Mariano Corp or the "Sunshine Girl" of MSU; she was a broken child lost in a memory that never stayed unlocked.
"Jay," he whispered, his voice thick with a tenderness that could melt stone. "I'm moving closer now. It's just me. It's Keifer."
He slid across the floor, slow and steady, until he was within reach. When she didn't strike out again, he gently pulled her into his lap.
This time, she didn't fight. She collapsed against him, her body so limp and trembling it felt like she was made of glass.
She began to sob—a deep, soul-wrenching sound that tore through the soundproofed room.
She buried her face in his neck, her tears hot and relentless against his skin.
"Darkness is coming back, The dark... it never ends."
"It ends right here," Keifer vowed, wrapping his arms around her so tightly that there was no room for the shadows to seep in.
He rocked her gently, his hand stroking the back of her head, ignoring the bruise forming on his chest where she had punched him.
"I am the wall between you and darkness. It has to go through me to get to you, and I'm never moving."
Jay continued to break. She stayed in that state of total collapse for what felt like hours, weeping until her voice was a mere rasp, calling out for her mother in a way that made Keifer's eyes sting.
He didn't try to shush her; he let her empty out years of silent suffering into the fabric of his shirt.
Slowly, the violent tremors faded into small, rhythmic shudders.
Her grip on his sleeves loosened, and her breathing began to sync with his steady heartbeat.
She stayed tucked under his chin, drifting in a daze, her mind still caught between the trauma and the sudden, overwhelming safety of his arms.
"I'm here," he murmured, kissing the top of her head. "I've got you, Jay. Always."
She got slept in his arms, he carried her to the bed and gently tuck the blanket on her and give a soft kiss on her forehead.
He himself sat on an armchair thinking about her, that how weak she was looking and what really is behind that sunshine mask.
When the morning sun finally hit the floor of their suite, Jay didn't wake up with the usual "Sunshine" mask.
She woke up with a cold, hollow dread. The memories of the night before came back in jagged fragments: the darkness, her screams, the way she had struck Keifer, and the way she had clung to him like a drowning person.
She sat up, her eyes landing on Keifer, who was asleep in the armchair by the window, still wearing the shirt she had stained with her tears.
She saw the faint, dark bruise on his chest—the mark where she had punched him in her blind panic.
I am a liability, she thought, her heart sinking. I am breaking him.
The survival instinct that had kept her alive for years kicked into overdrive.
She realized that the safer she felt with Keifer, the more dangerous she became to his "perfect" life.
To protect him from her own wreckage, she had to build the walls back up—higher and thicker than ever before.
By the time Keifer stirred, Jay was already gone.
She threw herself into her work with a frantic, obsessive energy.
She was at the University by 7 am and at Mariano Corp office by 3:00 pM and didn't return until long after dark.
When she was at the mansion, she stayed buried in files in the library or locked herself in the suite's office.
Cheska, sensing the tension, didn't miss her chance to strike. She cornered Jay in the hallway, whispering venomous remarks about Jay being "damaged goods" and a "burden on the Watson legacy."
Jay simply offered her a terrifyingly polite smile and kept walking.
She didn't tell Keifer. She didn't tell anyone. She absorbed the poison in silence, believing she deserved it for the bruise on Keifer's chest.
Whenever Keifer tried to approach her, she was a ghost.
"Jay, let's go to dinner," he said, standing in the doorway of the library. "You've been working for twelve hours."
"I have a board meeting to prepare for, Keifer. I'll just have a tray sent up," she replied, her voice pleasant but as cold as a mountain stream.
She didn't look up from her laptop. She couldn't. If she looked at him, she knew she would break.
"Is this about the basement?" he asked, stepping closer. "Because I don't care about the punch, Jay. I care about you."
"I don't know what you're talking about," she said, finally looking at him with eyes that were bright, wide, and completely empty.
"Last night was an unfortunate incident. It won't happen again. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm quite busy."
She was pushing him away with every "thank you" and every polite "no."
She was trying to become so useful, so busy, and so invisible that he would eventually realize he didn't need a broken girl like her.
She was determined to ruin her own happiness to save him from the ruin she believed she carried.
**Spoiler for next chapter:
Sophia ❤️