Delinquency

Chapter 39: Tukso

Everleigh

"Billionaire smitten over his former professor."

"Shut up, Tommy." I said and he started laughing from the other line. Kasalukuyan akong narito sa second floor ng bahay, kung nasaan ang home gym ko. I was running on the treadmill, while the view of the blue skies and the clear, calm waters of Malibu was in front of me through the glass wall. It was still early and my daughter is still sleeping, so I managed to squeeze in some cardio before I had to wake her up and prepare her for school.

The news and the pictures from last night spread like a wildfire. I am the topic of gossip tabloids, even news segments but surprisingly, they didn't say anything nasty about me. Caelan's threat to them worked after-all.

It wasn't long until Tommy found out, and my Auntie too. Tommy being the chismosa that he is, he wanted to get the news straight from the source. So he called me even though it was already midnight in the Philippines.

Well, it's not like he's sleeping. He's at the hospital because he just told me that he's the on-call surgeon tonight.

"Gaga ka, bumigay ka agad. Look at that grin and red lipstick on his face." His face was on my screen and I could tell that he was scrolling through the articles written about me. "He looked silly holding a pink bag, while he's all macho and tough in a suit."

"I did not give in, okay. The kiss was like five seconds and I pushed and slapped him." Sagot ko. Sweat is covering my body as I let my limbs burn from running.

He gasped. "No, you didn't."

I also spat in his mouth and he liked that. I bit my tongue.

"Oh, gosh, listen to this, Leigh. Billionaire's baby momma's a tenured professor at UCLA. Jesus. You think that's an effective opening line, Professor Everleigh?" Nang-aasar pa niyang tanong.

I sighed and slowed down the treadmill until it stopped.

"I said, Shut up, Tommy!"

He let out a belly laugh. I stepped off the treadmill with a racing heartbeat. I put the face towel around my neck and held the phone in my hand before I sat on one of the weight benches.

"I mean, yeah. I will read that and probably give the writer an 'A'." Sabi ko na ikinatawa niya.

"All these years, I didn't know where he was." Tommy said. "I tried to ask around, but nobody seemed to have anything about him. We already know that Delios was caught with fifteen kilograms of coccaine in the airport in your first year in California. He was caught by the police and then he escaped and disappeared."

"Yeah, that's why I was scared and did all these security measures." I replied.

Somehow, to my core, when I found out about the drug bust, I believed that Caelan had nothing to do with that. I hired the security team more because of Delios. I remember as a young journalist, he was powerful in the underworld of criminals because of all the connections he had with these bad people. So when he escapes, being too careful is not a thing.

"I doubt that he's even alive. He has a lot of enemies, since he snitched on a literal criminal ring. He's probably out there gutted somewhere for years now."

When I found out that Caelan was having me followed, I asked his people if they ever saw him with his father, and they always said no, and had no idea that Delios and him were even related.

"Could be, but unless I see his dead body, I wouldn't be comfortable without security." Sagot ko.

He nodded.