"So what's the plan?" Nat was on a call with Alice and Karine. It had been about 5 months since Nat and Jamie had left for the Philippines.
"I don't know..." Nat shrugged as Karine rolled her eyes at her brother's answer.
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DON'T KNOW? YOU HAVE A DAUGHTER AND A GIRLFRIEND WHO HAPPENS TO BE THE DAUGHTER OF THE VICE PRESIDENT OF THE PHILIPPINES AND YOU DON'T KNOW? I FEEL LIKE STRANGLING YOU FOR GOD'S SAKE!" Karine yelled through the phone. It was no secret that everything coming out from the 15 year old's mouth was right.
"How long are you going to stay there?" Alice spoke up after lightly smacking Karine.
"I don't know about that either...I'm happy here for now. Jamie likes it here too..." Nat sighed. He really didn't know.
"You should be glad that Dad allowed you to continue working for the company...Or Mom and I would have flown over to kidnap you and my baby niece home." Karine let out an exasperated sigh.
Nat knew it was irresponsible of him to leave the headquarters without giving the board of directors a good reason and was thus prepared to bite the bullet to ask his father for permission to join the Philippines branch. However, Nat's father had beat him to it and sent his current personal assistant right to his doorstep 3 days after he and Jamie had arrived.
"Don't remind me about the hour long lecture that I got...although I deserved it." Nat admitted.
"Count yourself lucky that the Philippines branch is doing well or the board would be freaking out at the fact that our dear heir to the throne isn't here..." Karine folded her hands in annoyance.
"Enough, Karine. Let me talk to your brother alone." Alice sent Karine out of the room after the girl muttered a goodbye to Nat.
"I'm sorry..." Nat let out a loud sigh as he ran his hand through his hair.
"What for?" Alice asked.
"Everything. I know Dad is still angry at me and you have been stuck in the middle because of me..." Nat knew that a big reason that his Dad was tolerating him was because of his stepmother's intervention.
"Silly, you're my son and Jamie is my granddaughter. What's there to be sorry about? Anyways, how's the search going?" Alice assured Nat as she gave him an assuring smile.
"I've heard some things here and there. Apparently she's in Manila but..." Nat hesitated.
"But you don't know what to do if you find her?" Alice completed Nat's sentence.
"Like, am I supposed to just approach and confront her? What if she wants to see Jamie? Or even worse, wants to take Jamie away?" Nat scoffed.
"Fair point, but you do first need to decide whether you're going to continue with the search. The problem isn't going to disappear with you being indecisive." Alice knew she sounded harsh but she also knew that Nat needed this push.
"I hate that you're always right..." Nat fell silent for a second.
"Also, does Aika know?" Alice threw another curveball at Nat.
"If you're referring to the fact that I initially came to search for Aly, then yes. If you're referring to the fact that Aly is literally in the same city as us, then no..." Nat avoided looking straight at the screen.
"And I assume that you are planning to tell her soon?" Alice raised her eyebrows at Nat.
"I should...Anyways, let's stop talking about that for now. Please tell me that Dad doesn't know about me and Aika?" Nat bit his lip nervously.
YOU ARE READING
Beneath The Surface
RomanceAika Robredo was a poster child: with a Masters from Harvard, a respectable career trajectory and dependable eldest daughter of the Robredo family. Everyone was telling Aika that all she had left to do was finding her 'dream guy' to settle down with...
