Chapter 4

All of them are eyeing the entrance of the doorway—waiting for Apollo to show up. But then a maid rushes inside to tell Mrs. Ramos that someone called over the telephone. After their quick whispered conversation, Mrs. Ramos immediately informed Emily.

"Ms. Trañilla, I am sorry to disturb you, but we have just received a call from your mother. She is worried why you are not answering her calls. She is expecting you to call her within minutes, Ms. Trañilla." her nervousness disappeared upon hearing that.

She only nodded to Mrs. Ramos then faces Simone who is now looking at her.

"You set your phone to "Do Not Disturb" mode again, didn't you?" Simone guesses with a playful smile.

"Well, I did. " she shrugged off her shoulders and laughed at that truth.

"Is it okay to leave you here right now? Or I'll just talk to mom after eating dinner?"

"It is totally fine. You should talk to her now. My brother and I would just wait for you here so that I would formally introduce you both to each other." she agreed and stood up to leave.

After pulling off the charger from the outlet, she walked towards their room's balcony and instantly dialed her mother's phone number. It did not take long 'cause she answered it right away.

"Hey mom, good evening." she heard a deep sigh from her.

"My goodness, Emily! Thank God you are fine. Why are you not answering my calls?" she is acting so dramatic, but Emily is not surprised by such a reaction because mothers really worry a lot.

"Well, mom. I am so sorry for making you worry. I actually set my phone from not getting notified of everything."

"I bet you are really eager to have a quality time with Simone to do that. Alright dear, I understand you. Mama is just missing you so much that I cannot help myself to check on you there."

"I am missing you too, mom. By the way, is dad already home?," she asks as she looks down at the garage. Someone is starting the engine of a car.

"Yes, dear. Your dad is in the shower room right now. We are gonna be eating dinner later."

"Okay, mom. Please tell him, I already missed him," her mother assured her that she would tell him after showering.

"Bye mom, take care," she bids her goodbye after a couple of minutes of talking.

"Who is driving that car?," she asked herself as the car moves out from the mansion's gate.

She is pretty sure that it is not Simone. That was not his car. After realizing that Simone and Apollo have been waiting for her downstairs in the dining room, she quickly goes inside and places her phone on the bedside table.

Walking down the stairs, her heartbeat is bouncing so fast. As she is close to the doorway, she hears Simone's laughs and the noises coming from the people inside. Before entering, she cleared the lump in her throat first. Her eyes automatically searched for him, but no one is a stranger to her there. She has met all the maids inside. Where is Apollo?

"How is Tita?," Simone asked as she sits next to him.

"She is fine. She was just worried, that was why she called."

"Where is your brother?," out of curiosity, she asked him.

"He left, but we have talked already."

"There is an emergency, he said. Daphne's family restaurant is being devoured by a fire. Daphne is his best pal here," Simone said with a tone of speculation. She just nodded.

"Let's eat now ."

After eating an awfully delightful meal for dinner, they stayed for a couple of minutes in the living room watching a local broadcasting segment of a Regional TV Network.

"I have never had a night this quiet and relaxing while in the city," Emily uttered as both of them are in the mansion's terrace looking up in the night sky.

"Party people are all around the corner in Manila," she added.

"Absolutely! At home, our neighbor loves hosting a party like it is almost every night," Simone said.

"So do our neighbors. But I love going to clubs, you know. It helps me a lot in relieving my stress."

"I remembered the night we first met at The Royals."

She looked at him trying to stop him recalling how crazy she was back then.

"How heartbroken you were to freaking do that?," she blushes at his question. That was the time when she personally caught her first boyfriend cheating on her. For months, she had already suspicions that there was another woman. She had observed how late he would reply to her messages. Then, she woke up one day realizing how unresponsive he had become and how he suddenly changed his treatment towards her. Nevertheless, she never let go of their relationship. But that heartbreaking night, fate had decided. She was not supposedly witnessing that disgusting public display of affection if she was not invited by her best friend to join her in that club. She was clueless that Braiden would show up there with another lover.

"Are we really gonna talk about that douchebag, like seriously!?"

Simone burst into laughter at her disgusted tone and eyes sparkling with fire. He raised both of his hands like a criminal submitting himself to the cops.

"I guess Taylor is right. You don't have to forget and you don't have to forgive to move on. You can move on without any of those things happening. You just became indifferent," he said.

"Anyway, people like him deserve that kind of treatment. I must say good for him?," he added with even a question-like line in which she answered by shrugging off her shoulders, but deep in her mind she's agreeing with his quoted line of Taylor Allison Swift from her Lover era interview.

The two went upstairs to their respective bedrooms after the news segment ended.

Early in the morning the day after, even before the sun rises, Emily woke up feeling the need to feel the water of the swimming pool at the backyard part of the mansion. She rushes to Simone's bed, who is still sleeping at the very moment to inform him of what's on her mind.

“Hey, sleepy mickie! I am about to start the day by checking the condition of your swimming pool here. Wanna join me?,” the thrill is evident on the way she told him that, but he only groaned as a reply. Clearly implying that he is resisting.

“Hey, hey!,” she taps his face to awaken him fully, but he just annoyingly covers himself with a pillow.

“Not right now, Emi, but make yourself at home. Just ask the househelpers of anything that you needed. I am really still asleep.”

She later withdrew persuading him to come with her. She just sighed and made her way down the ground floor then towards the swimming pool area.

No other person came in contact with her on her way down, maybe because aside from her, only the roosters are awakened. The crystal clear water of the pool coming from the fountain at the center with the loungers lining up at both sides of the pool excites the hell out of her.

She marches to the last lounger at the left side and decides to take off her April Cornell nightgown there—revealing her one piece saffron-colored bikini.

Warming up her muscles cross her mind which she did before taking a dive. As soon as the water touched her body, she felt the warmth and at the same time, the freshness of the water.

After reaching the other side of the pool, she goes underwater again and vice versa. When satisfied, she remained within the pool while collecting her hair strands and placed them at the left shoulder. Gently and gracefully, she caresses her face down to her neck to remove dirt if any, but  her heart indubitably jumped out when a voice of a man was heard.

“Are we supposed to be caressing our bodies in a swimming pool to dirt off ourselves, aren't we?,” sounds manly, but that authoritative and arrogant voice perfectly defines the man behind that insulting of a question.

She was stunned for a while by that sudden appearance of someone. Eventually, when she got over it and finally decided to face the man who ferociously said that to her, a tall, dark, and strong-chiseled chest man in just a black speedo underwear becomes clear in her vision. The view that blocks the rising sun is him, and he just makes her jaw-dropped for seconds.

Who the hell is he?