Sinking Deep (GL)

CHAPTER 42

[Rhea's POV]

It had been a week since I last saw her, and during that time, she hadn't crossed my path again. Even my nights were spent watching her house, but her car remained absent, and I hadn't laid eyes on her for seven days.

"Goodbye."

A knock at the door interrupted my thoughts, and it was the maid my father had hired for me.

"Miss Rhea, you should have something to eat. Ilang araw na po kayong hindi kumakain." She suggested.

"Please, just leave the tray there," I ordered, my tone cold and detached. Seated at my desk, I tried to bury my thoughts of her in the pages of a book.

"Ma'am, I..."

"Go," I interjected, my voice firm.

I let out a heavy sigh and removed my glasses, rubbing my eyes. If only she were the one taking care of me, I thought, then I wouldn't have to go hungry.

I longed for her, her absence leaving a void within me. The day she bid farewell marked the beginning of my loss of appetite, and my father grew increasingly concerned as I continued to neglect my meals, unable to sate the hunger that had nothing to do with food.

I reached for my phone on the table and stared at the call history, finding an astonishing number - 500 plus calls to her since that fateful night. I had been frozen in shock when I saw her there, unaware of what's happening. I hadn't expected her presence, and I couldn't have foreseen the glistening tears in her eyes as she learned the truth. Seeing her hurt because of me shattered my heart into a million pieces.

Deep within, I prayed that she could somehow understand my predicament, but if I had been in her shoes that night, I knew I would have been furious with myself as well.

My nights were now spent in a somber procession of tears, longing for her to reappear. I yearned to see her, to talk to her, but I had no idea where she was. I questioned all her colleagues, but none had a clue about her whereabouts. My search for her turned into an agonizing pursuit with no trace to follow. It dawned on me that she had vanished, disappeared from my life.

"I miss you... Jael.." I murmured to the empty room, embracing myself tightly as the weight of my longing pressed on my chest.

My heart throbbed with an insatiable yearning for her.

"Where could you be..? Where are you?" I whispered to the quiet solitude, tears tracing a path down my cheeks as I held myself close.

I felt incomplete without her, as if living without her presence was unbearable.

My phone suddenly rang, sparking a glimmer of hope that it might be her, but my heart sank when I realized it was my father. I reluctantly answered, wiping away the traces of tears from my cheeks.

"Eya, Yna told me you haven't been eating again. Please, don't let yourself waste away," my father implored through the phone, his voice tinged with concern.

I had little regard for his words. My appetite had vanished along with her.

"Eya, ano bang nangyayari sayo? We discussed this, it was just a sham marriage to get closer to their family and uncover their secrets," he said, his tone laced with worry.

"I know... I just miss her," I confessed, my voice finally breaking.

"Why are you so attached to that girl? Didn't I instruct you to gather information? You already know that she had a transplant, and-"

I couldn't bear to listen to him speak about Jael that way, so I cut him off abruptly.

How dare him.

I was fully aware that our supposed marriage was merely a facade, a means to infiltrate the secrets hidden within the Montejo family. However, explaining this to her would be an ordeal. She remained oblivious to the truth, to who I really was, to why I had chosen this path. I wished there were another way, an alternative plan, but there was none.