Romancing Dominance [BL][COMPLETED]

Chapter 5

CHAPTER 5 - Smells Like Trouble

At such a young age, I have already grown accustomed to how people perceive me.

Everyone assumes na madali lang ang buhay ko simply because I carry the Sandoval name. That because I was born into luxury, life must have handed me everything on a silver platter.

But the truth? It's far from being easy. It's nothing like they imagine.

Dad has been cleaning up one mess after another for our family. Even my mess. Siya ang laging naglilinis ng kalat ko, covering up everything just to maintain the perfect image we're forced to display.

I hated that—how we pretend to the world that everything is pristine and flawless when in reality, our lives are anything but clean.

If they only knew.

The truth is, I am bedridden by my own responsibility. Hindi lang ako—kami lahat. Every member of the family is chained to this heavy, invisible burden. There's no escape, no matter how much wealth or power we possess. Life, with all its twisted humor, plays no favorites.

The people surrounding me? They only stayed because they had something to gain. They used my name, my influence, the opportunities I could provide them with.

I learned early on how the game is played.

I played it better.

I toyed with them, watching them squirm, pretending to care while plotting their downfall. I ruined them before they could ruin me.

And because of that, people hate me.

And you know what?

I can't blame them.

Because at the end of the day, I know I'm not the hero in anyone's story.

Above all, I accept it—I am a scandalous person.

News, issues, rumors about me—about my antics, my relationships, my so-called "failures"—they spread like wildfire across social media. At first, the backlash, the hate, the gossip—it petrified me. It shook me to my core.

But after countless sleepless nights and anxiety attacks, after waking up one random morning, I realized... I felt nothing.

Wala na akong maramdaman.

The scared little brat was gone. The desperate people-pleaser was dead.

Society molded me into something else. Into someone even my father barely recognized.

But make no mistake—I'm not evil.

I still care. Deeply, even if I hide it.

When the world saw glimpses of who I really was beneath the masks, they didn't hesitate to destroy me. The stories they spun were vile, exaggerated beyond recognition. They painted me as a monster.

I'm not a monster.

I'm Ishie. A Sandoval.

Or at least, that's who I was supposed to be.

But that's all gone now.

It's easier to be hated than to be loved by liars.

As the only heir to the Sandoval name, perfection was expected of me. Demanded. Required.

So I strived. I worked harder. I built higher walls. I made sure no one could touch me.

Tonight, I was determined to show that nothing—not even being discarded for weeks by the Buenavistas—could break me.