Sweet Downfall (30 page)

“He threatened to come here! I couldn’t risk that so I met him up…on the street.”

“And why did you meet him up, pray tell?”

“Don’t put the entire blame on me!” she shot back. “I knew it was you who gave him my number! Who else would he get it from?”

Darry flushed. “He begged me. He said he just wanted to talk to you on the phone.”

She stood up. “I need to go.
Kuya
Rad called.”

Darry sighed. “I’m so sorry, girl. Call me later, okay?”

“Okay.”

Angie bowed her head and took all her father’s tirades.

There was nothing she could say to justify her reprehensible behavior. There was nothing left of her dignity. She had destroyed it all for her stupid love for Jaq Montero.

She thought she finally had a choice. When Jaq asked her to be with him again the other day, she thought she had something worth sacrificing her entire life for. Something so valuable she would give up everything for it. Just like she did eight years ago.

But it was all lies. Just a game that he played so brilliantly.

He took her to that motel fully knowing this would happen. He intended for this to happen, to totally destroy her reputation. Then he made her hope. Made her believe. Made her trust. He had seduced her into
forgetting his true intentions from the start.

His ominous words played clearly in her mind again and again.
“Why not? You deserve it. You and your father and your brothers deserve it. In fact, it’s not enough. You deserve more. You deserve a lot more.”

Indeed, this was the ultimate revenge. He played her, used her and put her in the middle of another vicious scandal and this time around, she was truly, absolutely guilty.

Manolo sat back on the chair massaging his chest. “You will be the death of me, Angelina.”

She bit her lower lip hard and closed her eyes.

“I’ll call Doctor Marquez,” Ram said.

“No, I’ll be fine.”

“Are you sure, Dad?” Ram asked worriedly.

“It’s better if you’re checked by a doctor, Dad,” Rad concurred.

Manolo made an impatient grunt for them to be quiet. “Fix this, Angelina. Talk to Jordan,” he said weakly.

She just nodded wordlessly.

Fix this? How could anybody fix this? The situation was irredeemable.

“Get out of here. I can’t stand looking at you,” her father said.

She fled the room.

Her past and future totally vanished, leaving her in this segment of her life where everything was broken and she didn’t know how to pick up the pieces anymore.

Jaq was working late alone
at the BJP editing room when Joey came in.

“Why are you here? Is something wrong at the set?” he asked, his eyes glued to his Mac screen.

“Is your phone off?”

“I don’t know. Maybe. I said I’ll be back there early tomorrow. Everything alright with the cast and crew?”

“They’re fine. Lulu has been calling you but she couldn’t get through. She asked me to come check you out.”

He sighed. Lulu had been billeted in a hotel for weeks now, watching over him like a hawk. He wished she’d fly back to LA and leave his ass alone. “Can’t you see I’m busy? What is it?”

Joey put a tabloid on his table.

He glanced at it briefly, caught sight of his and Angie’s mugs. Great. More smut. He turned away in distaste. “Put that in the trash.”

“Read it, cuz,” Joey said.

“Is there something new about my video scandal? That’s old news. They’re still using that to sell their shit?”

“This is new. Not about the video.”

He looked at the tabloid again.
Angelina Yulo in a Motel with Jaq Montero?!

Those fucking hounds scored a hit again. He crumpled the tabloid and threw it in the trash can. “Anything else?”

Joey shook her head sadly.

He couldn’t stand the pitying look in her eyes. “Leave me.”

Joey hugged him from behind and quietly left.

He leaned back in his swivel chair and closed his eyes. He itched to go to the mini-bar and grab a Jack and drink himself to sleep. But he didn’t want a fucking hangover at work tomorrow.

He still hadn’t slept a wink since yesterday, after watching that TV special of Angie and Jordan. Age had a way of magnifying pain. He’d been hurt like this in the past. He’d rebounded and moved on. But now...same woman, same shit, but the pain seemed worse.

He’d risked his heart with her again, stupidly asking her to be with him again.

She must have been laughing at him. He didn’t know how she could play the game so convincingly. He was the celebrated entertainer but he couldn’t hold a candle to Angie. She played like no one else and he was always the fool blindly licking the sweet lies from her fingertips. And now, with this new scandal, the public must be seeing him as the villain in Angie’s fairy tale romance with her prince, the one wrecking their happiness.

Dipping into his shirt, he fished out a pendant. He stared at Angie’s little ring. He’d always worn it all these years, never taking it off, except when he was meeting her. He didn’t want her to know he’d kept it.

Eight years ago, he’d thought that because he was the bearer of her ring, he was her prince, her husband. The man she would love for all time.

But he would never be that. Not then. Not now.

Not ever.

Chapter Eleven

IF THIS CHARITY EVENT
was not so important to the Yulo Foundation, Angie wouldn’t have attended it. But she was the representative of the program for the past five years now, in lieu of her dead mother who co-founded it with Beatrice DeLeste and Maristela las Marias. The country’s leading mavens of philanthropy alternately hosted the gala every year.

It was Beatrice DeLeste’s turn to host this year and she decided to tie it up with the birthday celebration of her daughter-in-law Monique, the wife of her only son, Duero Leon. The power couple were donating an eye-popping amount to the foundation tonight.

The gala was being held at the grand ballroom of the Empress Hotel in Makati.

She just had to finish this commitment and then she would disappear.

She didn’t know how long, but she had to go somewhere, where no one knew her. And maybe she will find herself again.

At Jordan’s insistence, they went to the event together, a power couple blatantly ignoring the screaming tabloid and internet gossip. He was courting the DeLestes to invest in his multi-million dollar expansion project, the purchase of a Fashion TV franchise. It was as if Jordan was playing a game with the media and he intended to win it at all costs. At her expense.

They still hadn’t talked. She’d called him several times the past days but he’d dismissed her, saying he was too busy he couldn’t come over. She knew he was avoiding the issue. But the latest scandal couldn’t be swept under the table just like the first one. Not this one.

She’d had enough.

She couldn’t go on anymore with the farce. She was dying every day.

They were finished.

She was finished.

Clad in a hot pink Versace Couture off-shoulder gown, she looked every inch the future bride of Jordan Lavega. She could still play the role one last time. She owed him. At least, for tonight.

Glamorous and regal, she stood beside her fiancé, doing her best to stand by him proudly even if she was wallowing in shame.

She went through the motions. She delivered her speech, braved the cameras aimed at her face, endured the chit-chat with the guests, praying every minute that the night would end sooner.

Jordan asked her to dance some time in the night.

Last dance.

“Are you alright?” he inquired when they were locked in each other’s arms looking like an intimate couple outward, but inward, they were divided by differences so vast she knew it was hopeless and irreconcilable.

“What do you think, Jordan?” she answered tiredly, no longer bothering to hide her misery.

“Have you fitted for your wedding dress?”

His question sounded so strange she wanted to laugh hysterically in his face. “A wedding is still taking place?” She couldn’t help the biting sarcasm in her tone.

“The grandest wedding you can imagine.”

He had his poker game on. She’d discovered that Jordan was an expert at this. She almost couldn’t stand his blasé attitude about the whole thing. His detachment was extraordinary. He was not reacting like a normal human being. She felt his withdrawal, his silent rejection but he didn’t dump her like a typical man would do after those salacious scandals rained upon her. He still insisted on this charade. To what end, she didn’t know anymore. And she didn’t care.

She was so sick of it all.

“Aren’t you tired, Jordan?”

“What do you mean?”

“Pretending. We both know that marriage between us will be a total disaster now. Why don’t we just both move on with our lives?”

His eyes turned cold. “Are you breaking up with me here on the dance floor, Angie?”

She looked at him imploringly, holding on to the last threads of her decency. “It’s for the best, Jordan. You deserve someone better. It’s not me.”

He grip tightened on her hand. “You’re the best.”

“Please, give yourself a chance to find someone you can truly be happy with. I don’t deserve you.”

His expression did not change. Cold. Impassive. “Why do you think you don’t deserve me?”

“You’ve been nothing but kind and respectful and…” she sighed. “You’re such a good man, Jordan. Too good for me.”

He gave a short, mocking laugh. “You make it sound like I’m desperate for affection, my sweet. Rest assured, I’m not. You really think this is all about...love?”

She stood still, her legs freezing.

“Wrong. This is all about business. Always have been.”

He guided her to sway with him again. Like a robot, she followed his lead.

She was taken aback by his sudden admission. Yes, she’d expected this somehow, but it was still staggering to hear him utter those words with such pragmatic ruthlessness.

“I understand your guilt, Angie. Let me ease your conscience. You think I’ve lived a monk’s life all these years? I haven’t. I’m a man and I take what I want. I know what I want in life, in my future. I want you. There are a dozen women I can be with sexually for fun but none of them I’d like to marry. You’re the one I’d like to marry.”

She thought she was no longer capable of further pain. She was wrong. “I see.”

“Your father and I are talking about a new project. Bigger than the ones we’ve done before. I’ll be risking half of the Lavega fortune here.”

There. Now she knew the real purpose of their engagement.

She had actually hoped…Oh God!

“I’m not about to let some man in your distant past ruin it for us. You understand?”

It should make her feel relieved that he didn’t love her, after all. He never did. But she felt all the more battered and used, because she did love Jordan in her own way. Maybe not as deep and intense as she’d loved Jaq, but she was true and faithful to him. Until Jaq came back into her world. But what did it matter now? Nothing mattered anymore.

“So, don’t worry about me not being happy. I’m quite happy with you. You have the kind of beauty, brains, family and connection that I want in my wife. We will compliment each other. Our families will finally heave a sigh of relief once we’re married. This is the final signature needed on the merger, Angie and it’s long overdue.”

“You got everything covered. As always, I know where I stand in your life.”

He smiled. Unapologetic. “Yes, we will get married and you will give a child, my heir, right away.”

She wanted to slap his imperious face right there in the middle of the ballroom. She had wanted to be a loving wife to him, give him the children that would make him proud and happy, but she was nothing but a broodmare to him, a leverage to ensure the longevity of his empire. What had she subjected herself into? Had she worked so hard all these years just to be a pawn in her family and this man’s quest for more power and wealth?

“What about class, Jordan? Don’t you want that? I no longer have that.”

He was stone cold. “Leave that to me. I’ve got enough for the both of us. Mine will rub off on you pretty soon and you will be back to your old self. We’ll be great together, Angie.”

A means to an end. That was all she was to him from the beginning. A bitter pill that he would willingly swallow as long as he got what he wanted in the end.

“Don’t tell me you wanted us to fall in love?”

His mockery hurt, because he had always been a gentleman. She returned his icy stare. “No, of course not. Though at some point I thought we had something else going. Forgive me for my stupid presumptions, but thank you for making it clear to me now, what we truly are to each other. But lest I presumed wrong, I will spell it out for the both of us again so there will be no confusion anymore, especially on my part. Our families share a huge business interest and we are the additional legal instruments that would make the merger irrevocable. That is the only
raison d’être
of our marriage. Nothing more.”