Chapter Fifty-Three

Tommy came home earlier than usual, and when he did, he went straight up to her room. It was like he knew something already, because as soon as he came in the door, his face was at her face.

And when she tried to turn away, he held her head on both sides, and he saw what she was trying to hide from their mother.

“Ate…!” he whispered in a strangled voice. It was like he was the one who got beaten up. There was a wealth of emotions on his face.

Then he started to cry out of sheer anger, his handsome face crunching up before he brought his face down her lap so he could hide the noise of huge sobs trying to escape from his chest to reach downstairs.

She held her brother. “Sshh.. don’t let Mama hear you. I’m packing so we can leave.”

She could see Tommy’s huge effort to stop crying. But he was shaking his head.

“We can’t leave! Kuya Eric isn’t here yet. He’ll think of some-thing. Ate, we can’t leave until we’ve talked to him, or he’d be angry at you!”

“Tommy… the neighbors would know by n