CarLy

Regrets

"Lily Hidalgo! Lumabas ka na dyan at sumuko ka na, napapalibutan na namin ang lugar!", Major Basco said through the megaphone, she heard it, of course.

She stays still, watching the from the window, staring at them as if she were superior who was watching their every move.

"Lily Hidalgo! Binibigyan ka namin ng sampung segundo para lumabas ka! Isa! Dalawa!",

It was only her inside the house, she managed to send Augustus to Singapore, where he'll be living the rest of his life. She's made up her mind.

"Lily Hidalgo! Lumabas ka na riyan!", Major Basco shouts again and continued his counting.

Policemen and some Agilas started moving forward and invading her property. Cardo, she saw him leading them inside.

And there, right behind a police car was a reporter, so this was being televised? She then saw another, and then another until she figured that this was being shown live on TV.

She wondered if he's watching. Maybe in a house that he owns in the province, like he promised Marissa. Maybe he's with Aurora now. He must think she's crazy. Crazy for money and power that is, he'll never think that she has a heart after everything. After all, she's never going to let her feelings tell her what to do, she will always follow her marvelous and evil mind.

Then her phone rings. Her personal one that she's owned ever since she started her 'make-Oscar-fall-in-love-and-marry-me' agenda of hers.

And, Asawa Ko it read.

She laughed to herself, why would he be calling her, and the other mystery would be how?

She picked it up anyway.

Him breathing. Just his breathing is what she hears on the other line. She waits. She wants to know why he called. The long waiting on either side made them both patient and anxious.

"Hello", he starts. She welcomes that simple word lovingly in her ears, she's missed it so. A sigh of relief was her only reply. "Talk more", she would have loved to tell.

"Maaari ko bang malaman kung nakanino ang cellphone na ito?", he still stands with his Filipino huh? "This is my wife's actually, gusto ko sanang mabawi."

Wife. He called her wife. How joy filled her heart when she heard him call her that. She celebrates, never minding the fact that policemen were already inside her property, carefully and skillfully making their way to where she is.

"Hello?", he says with a soft voice. She wakes up from her daydream with that. She made another peep through her window and realized that they had long entered her lands.

Well then, if she must die today, she wants to hear his voice one last time. She wants it to be the last thing she hears before that happens.

"Hello? Sabi ko gusto ko sanang mabawi. Importante kasi ito sa kaniya", she walks towards the other side of the room where his framed photo was. She was looking at it intently while listening to him speak. He wanted the phone back because apparently, it was missing, not stolen, and his wife wants it back. But she is his wife? She laughs to herself once again.

She heard him sigh heavy sighs every now and then, every second after she wouldn't respond or cooperate. She just listened while adoring his photo, trying to figure out what he looked like right now, because obviously he is already frustrated with the receiver.

"Lily Hidalgo", she turns her head to the side. Cardo Dalisay, she wasn't wrong after all.

She casually turned to them hiding the framed photo behind her, as if protecting Oscar Hidalgo himself. Though she did not need to, she was the target after all, but maybe she was just protecting her ego, what will Cardo think if he sees Oscar's photo in her personal home?

"Lily? Lily ikaw ito?", Oscar's confused and betrayed tone made her want to laugh. Not in front of Cardo and his friends of course, maybe in her deathbed.

"Lily, sumuko ka na", Cardo said. "Ibaba mo na ang telepono at itaas ang dalawa mong kamay", she smiles softly at him, her should've been response to Oscar if he was here. He was also asking her to surrender.

Maybe Cardo realized that she wasn't going to budge that's why they made their way to her and just took the phone away.

"Sino itong kausap mo Madam Lily?", Major Opeña asked. She was no longer first lady, but they still respected her spot in society.

She pressed the speaker button. Behold, Oscar's pleading that she should surrender fills the entire room.

"Sige na Lily, sumuko ka na. Wala ka nang magagawa, napalilibutan ka na nila. Nanonood ako ng balita. Nandyan na sila Cardo, pag hindi ka sumuko agad maaari ka nilang barilin. Lily, please", they all turned their heads towards one another. Even Cardo was confused, was the former president aware of the former first lady's situation even before they got ahold of her?

Cardo handcuffed her anyway and walked her towards the exit, or where the grand staircases were. Oscar was still on the line, he listened. He tried to listen, maybe looking for her cries, but no. She was silent. They were very silent that he could only hear their footsteps on the staircases. Not even light whispers, which is very normal for the group.

Flashes and flashes were everywhere as they exited the property. Question after another, she was irritated. Entered the police car and they sped away after the clearing of people in the front.

She was fine. Refused to talk to anyone on her first days. She received special treatment and had a different cell from the others as she was high profile, and because she was a former first lady.

But then came Oscar's greatest fear, or just his greatest nightmare. Not only because she had not talked about her illegal businesses but because he hadn't visited her, yet.

09-26-22 'Former First Lady Lily Hidalgo, found dead. Hanged herself inside prison cell' made the headlines.