Chapter 34 Abducted

SANDRA was fixing her files in the drawer when the door to her office opened.

“I’m going home early, Heidie. Please cancel all my meetings and reschedule them tomorrow.”

She dusted off her hands. Got some more files to add to the pile of documents on her desk.

“Doc…”

“Why?” she asked.

Sandra was stunned when she lifted her head and saw that aside from the nurse, a man she just saw in person but knew well was standing by her door.

ELAINE didn’t have the courage to go back and face Tan again but found herself parking her car in front of their rented house in Makati.

She hasn’t been herself. She cannot erase what Janine told her from her mind. She was sure she knew about her past and hasn’t told Tan yet.

Of her many secrets from her husband, which one does the doctor know? If she really wanted Tan for herself, she should have told him everything. That could have stopped him from marrying her again.

Elaine inhaled deeply after a few moments of hesitation. She was about to start the vehicle when somebody knocked on her car window. She lifted her head. She saw Gigi’s smiling face. She waved at her and signalled for her to step down.

Elaine hesitated once again. But in the end, she rolled down her car window and prompted the teen to get in.

They went to the nearest convenience store. It was three in the afternoon and she hasn’t eaten lunch yet. Gigi chose chips and ice cream. While she got steamed bun and mineral water.

They sat by a table for two after paying the cashier. They were silently eating at first until Gigi opened her mouth.

“I didn’t see for a few days here in our place. I thought you and your husband separated because of my cousin,” she said, licking her slowly melting chocolate ice cream.

“Marco and I are just friends.”

Eyebrows furrowed, Gigi turned her stool around to face her. “Marco doesn’t consider you as just a friend. And if I’ll have my way, if you’re not married, I’d like you for my cousin.”

Elaine shook her head. She was a typical teen. She opens her mouth without thinking. She drank from her bottled water.

“See here,” she said and she passed her cell phone to her. Elaine's eyebrows raised when she saw Marco’s picture in bed. He looked serious, holding and staring at the screen of his phone.

“It’s Marco? What about this picture?”

“If you’ll browse through his phone, there’s just four pictures in it. They’re all of you. When he’s in his room, all he does is stare at those.”

Elaine smiled slightly. She felt awkward but even then, she found it cute that Gigi was such a supportive cousin.

“And you know what…”

“Hep!” She raised her pointer finger and pressed it on Gigi’s lips. “Your cousin is getting married and I already have a husband for myself. You are not supposed to play matchmaker on me and him. It isn’t nice to hear and isn’t proper.”

Gigi turned her face away. She won’t stop. “Who’s marrying who? My cousin isn’t looking at other girls after he saw you then. He is always worried that you’re sad so—”

“Gigi…” she cut her. At the back of her mind, she wanted to strangle Marco. Did he just make up the part that he was about to be married? “This is my final treat if you won’t stop.”

Disappointed, Gigi sighed. Flipped her cell phone over on the table and leaned back on her chair.

“Marco's always too late. When he first saw you, you were married. When you separated from your husband, you didn’t get together still- for a reason I don’t know yet. After three years, you still cannot be with him because you’re married to your husband again.”

Elaine was stunned. She nervously stared at Gigi. Had she met Marco from way back? Where and when? Why does he know about her and Tan’s separation? In the past three years, has he been around her?

“Can’t you remember?” Gigi asked Elaine when she saw her surprised expression. “Well, me too, at first. Good thing I heard their conversation. I mean, he and my father had a conversation. I think it was 2017 in a hospital in Parañaque, that’s where I saw you first,” she continued in an excited voice.

She hasn’t noticed the colour from Elaine's face fading.

===FLASHBACK====

August 30, 2017

Elaine exhaled. She was pacing back and forth in the room. She felt restless.

His husband’s medical mission in Mindanao lasted several weeks. He just arrived early this morning but instead of coming home, he went straight to the hospital. It was already late at night and he still hasn’t made it home.

Elaine was disappointed. She wanted to give him a call but she stopped herself. He might be in the middle of an operation. Until a while ago, she still couldn’t decide what to tell him.

What comes first? Would she admit about her mother’s existence, the reemergence of her father, or should she tell him first about a large amount of money she withdrew from their savings account? How about her being pregnant?

She decided to tell him everything now. It would be better if she didn’t hide any secrets anymore as Mang Chito advised. Now that her father appeared in her life again, she wanted to make everything right. Her conscience has been bothering her for betraying her own mother.

She hated Bettina then when Tan asked her to marry him, her quick acceptance was partly because of Bettina. She wanted to escape her mother’s shadow. For seventeen years—physically, mentally, and emotionally she was abused by her. If she didn’t learn to retaliate and stand on her own feet, maybe she would’ve continued abusing her even at this age.

But since she left home and married Tan, and she has seen how he gave his parents importance, slowly she opened her heart. She would just like to think that Bettina became abusive because she went through a lot growing up.

Until one day, she read the result of her mother’s general check-up. She has bone cancer and was already in stage four. And Bettina's been hiding it from her for years. Bettina suffered alone while she was living the good life ever since she became a part of the De Marcos.

Elaine didn’t know what to feel. The resentment she had been carrying for her mother for almost two decades just vanished into thin air.

Elaine stopped pacing. She sat on a couch, worry still in her eyes. She needs to speak to Tan. He was a good surgeon. He might still save her mother even though the doctor already said her mother's illness was terminal.

She was still in that situation when her cell phone rang. She hurriedly picked it up from the centre table thinking it was Tan. It was their neighbour in Parañaque who called.

Bettina has been rushed to the hospital a while ago and she didn’t want to inform her. Worried, Elaine rushed to the garage while calling Tan. Still, he wasn’t answering her call.

She saw a weak Bettina in the hospital in Parañaque. She was sitting with her back leaning on the headboard of her bed. She felt like crying in pity and worry for her mother but she tried to hide it.

She knew how much her mother despised drama.

“I’ll transfer you to another hospital, I’ll call Tan. They have better facilities in AMM Hospital. If I ask him to fly you to America, I know he’ll let you.”

“Have you told him about me?”

Elaine wasn’t able to reply.

Bettina inhaled deeply. “This is for the better. At least it wouldn’t be hard to back your claim that I’m already dead.”

Guilt surfaced in her eyes. “I have decided to tell him the truth, Ma. He can help you.”

“I know I haven’t been a good mother to you, Elaine. I know my shortcomings and mistakes. I am not asking you to bring me to a better hospital or for you and your husband to spend a large amount of money on me. I just want you to live in peace. Love your husband and your future children. Don’t follow in my footsteps. And most of all, Silver, your father… do not let him ruin your life. Stay away from him while you still have time. He is just asking you for money now, how about next time, do you have any idea what he’ll ask for?"

“Ma…”

She shook her head making her silent.“ I would only rest in peace, Elaine when you follow these things I’ve told you.”

It was almost midnight when Bettina convinced her to go home. The smell of the hospital wasn’t good for someone in her first trimester of pregnancy according to her. Elaine hired a personal nurse to look after her mother and promised to return the next day. She can’t convince her to transfer to another hospital.

It was dark and no one was around the car park when she went outside. She was about to get in the car when she remembered to check her phone. She checked many times but up until she went out of the hospital, she hasn’t heard it ring. Still, just maybe, she was hoping to get a text or chat message from Tan or even a missed call.

But there was none. With a heavy heart, she put the phone back in the handbag. She sent Tan a message before she drove to get to her mother. She told him to call her as soon as he read the message. She was gone for five hours and still nothing from her husband. Was he still in the operating room or was he home by now?

She took a deep breath. She doesn’t want to entertain the budding resentment and jealousy she has for his profession. He loved what he was doing and she knew his heart is in healing those who are sick. As months go by, their time together gets less and less. He spends more time in the hospital than at home.

She wanted to understand Tan and reprimand herself because she can’t support his husband’s passion. But all she was asking him was a very little bit of his time. He was gone for weeks, he couldn’t even manage to pass by their house.

She let out a deep sigh. She was opening her car door about to get in when the black car next to hers also opened its door.

She wasn’t able to scream when two tall guys went down and forcibly took her to ride with them in their parked car.

===END OF FLASHBACK====