Green Harbor

CHAPTER 13

Two months have passed. The small electric fan rested on the table keeps flipping the pages of Zelena's notebook. Annoyed, she puts an arm over it. She wondered where her mom was at the moment, she promised she'll go home early with a cake and a few snacks.

Zelena Luka may have given up writing for Luka Publishing House — now named Villamor Publishing House — but she had signed up for an online writing platform in which she had uploaded 3 e-books that are receiving huge numbers and attention. Zelena was always a romance writer, and living in a city with so much romance around gave her so much advantage. There were readers from Luzon and Mindanao coming to Bacolod for her signing events. This was the life she lived in for so long — only better.

That's why Victoria, who she now calls 'Mom', called Zelena earlier to tell her she was buying cake and snacks. To celebrate Zelena's success, and to remember Katha. Moving on didn't mean forgetting. Months have passed and Zelena could still picture her twin sister's eyes. They were larger than Zelena's.

Zelena created a thought that moving on is, well, literally just moving. Moving with how the Earth rotates and the sun crossing the sky. Moving with weight from something you have lost. Did Zelena and her mom move on from Gregory Luka's case? No. Maybe.

That's the problem. That's the only weight Zelena had been carrying these days. It horrified Zelena how she was being careless especially now that she knows Gregory was not her father. It surprised her how there was no apology or closure whatsoever, but she was able to forgive him after all this time. From the murder of her true father, the history they had been hiding from her, and to the abuse he had put her through.

It scared Zelena maybe once, but not anymore. That's what moving on is, sometimes. Sometimes things that once scare you are less scarier when they're not anywhere near you. They're all behind you, in the past.

Just in time, though, Victoria was home. When Zelena climbed down the stairs, the housekeepers were rushing to help her with the snack and the cake. "Mom," Zelena stood behind Victoria, arms crossed. Her mother turned around and smiled. "You shouldn't have."

"Don't be so silly, Zelly Bean, it's your day!" They sat on the couch together and bickered some more before eating.

The next morning, Victoria went to work like she always did. And Zelena, aside from household chores, was busy with continuing a novel she had been working on. Last night, they ate and celebrated so much, Zelena threw herself on her bed, forgetting she had writing duties to do. She wrote a thousand words before going downstairs to have breakfast... And then write another five hundred words on her phone.

Her manager — Manager? She should really stop calling Thomas that — called. Zelena answered. "Hello?"

"Zelena, I'll be sending an address to you after this call, and I want you to go there."

"What?"

"They told me they were desperate to meet you, and that they were interested with your works."

"And who are they?"

"Uh, someone from LC Publishing House? Their building is just a few streets ahead Villamor Publishing House, I'll have a driver take you there. Bring a manuscript, prepare a main character speech or something."

"I have some work to do, Tom, can it wait—"

"I can, but they won't."

——

Zelena got out of her car and climbed up a few steps to the three-level building in front of her. LC Publishing House. She opens the door to see Keone Caballero, who was in a phone call.

"I'll call you back." Keone said on his phone, his eyes not leaving Zelena. He put his phone in his pocket before he smiled. "Zelena. Just in time."

——

Meanwhile, miles away, Victoria was standing in front of the window. She was on the phone, trying to suppress her sobbing. "I don't know what to do. I've been trusting you for so long but you still haven't told me why you did it. Why we did it."

"Hold on tight, Victoria. I know what I'm doing."

"And Zelena? Doesn't she have the right to know this?"

"She does, and she will thank me for this." The voice answered. "I've got her just where I want her to be."