The Blackmail Bride

Epilogue (1)

I just got home from another country. Hi. Hello. Byeee.

Dread

"Did you hear? One of our classmates is from a wealthy family, billionaires." A student sitting in one of the picnic tables of the open cafeteria was whispering to her companion.

"Really? You know we're just some nondescript state university, right?"

"It's true!" was the half-whisper half-shout defense.

"That's very unlikely. Where'd you get that story from?"

"I heard seniors talking about it in the library yesterday. Remember how we were just talking about the influx of prestigious professors in the business department?"

The second girl shrugged, "But you also remember they're more like guest speakers rather than full-time professors, right?"

"I heard there's a reason all those professors are here. Remember how suspicious the amount of expensive cars the business students are driving? I was even contemplating trying to date one of—"

The second girl shushed her friend, "Someone might hear you!" She looked around, "So who's the billionaire's kid among the freshmen?"

There was a dramatic pause.

"Lawrence Garcia."

"No way."

This was the conversation Sierra and I caught as we passed the said table.

Sierra made a disgusted face even before the girls were out of earshot, "Zeke Garcia's youngest brother? What are they trying to do now?"

For my part, I was vaguely aware that there was a Garcia enrolled for the same degree I was taking. But I paid the information no mind since I was already graduating and finalizing my thesis with the adviser.

Her reaction was understandable too. Sierra and I were more than aware of why all those professors came and started teaching in the university. Jace and my grandmother were to blame out of concern for the quality of my schooling. The information somewhat became an open secret between the elite circles, and they started enrolling their own children in the state university.

Another thing worth the mention in relation to those freshmen's conversation was that aside from the elite circles, I enrolled using my maiden name Isla Porter. I was never associated with Prestigio Hotel or my marriage to Jace Black—this was my grandmother putting pressure on the school especially during the first year when all news outlets were focused on the issues of Nero Hotels. Other than the solid GPA, I was pretty much unknown.

"Who knows," I glanced in the direction of the two girls and shrugged.

I had more important things to think about.

It had been more than three and a half years since Jace went to the other side of the world to work on Nero Hotels.

By now, I dimly remembered when he left. Six months turned to a year and now I was twenty-one and a graduation ceremony away from getting my degree.

For the whole duration that I was in college, he stayed in Asia, jumping from one branch to another. In the last forty-two months... never did he come home. During sophomore year, I expressed that I could go to him instead, Jace was against the idea, and I left it alone. It wasn't just me, even his parents haven't seen him this whole time. He never left Asia and I had stayed here, in our home.

It wasn't that we had no communication at all. In fact, we video-called daily, and he had a habit of calling at random times of the day. For the whole time he was away, there was never a day he didn't contact me. And I noticed, Jace always called first.