ETB #1: Lost in Blank Stares

Chapter 36

Chapter 36

Lumabas muna ako ng kwarto para makalanghap ng hangin. Nasa loob sina Mom at Dad, kausap si Kuya—binibigyan siya ng lakas ng loob, habang ako naman ay pilit binubuo ang sarili sa labas.

But I didn’t expect to see someone familiar waiting in the hallway.

Stefano stood at the end of the corridor, still in his formal wear, looking completely out of place against the sterile white walls of the hospital. His eyes locked onto mine the second I stepped out of the room.

“Caspian,” he whispered, his voice cracking like it had been waiting for hours just to say my name.

I froze.

Not here. Not now. I couldn’t afford another fracture—not when I was still holding Kuya Aries together with the weight of my own grief.

“What the hell are you doing here?” I kept my voice low, but the sharpness in it sliced through the silence like shattered glass.

“I needed to see you. To explain.” Marahan ang hakbang niya papalapit sa akin. “I didn’t know they would announce it. I never agreed to it.”

“So you’re just passively engaged? Ganun ba?” I hissed.

“Caspian, listen to me—my parents arranged everything. It’s all for appearances. Business. Politics. It’s not real. I didn’t even... I never told them about you.”

“You never told them about us?” I echoed bitterly. “So you already knew all of this was happening, and you still kept courting me?”

Humakbang siyang muli, desperadong magpaliwanag. “I came here because you deserve to hear the truth from me—not from a microphone, not from my mother. I will fix this. I don’t want her. I never did.”

“Then why didn’t you tell me sooner?” My voice cracked, the weight of everything pressing against my chest like a dam about to break.

He swallowed hard. “Because I was scared… scared of losing you. And I was stupid enough to think I could protect what we had by staying silent—just until I figured everything out. But I’m figuring it out now, Caspian. And I’m choosing you—even if it’s too late.”

Kinuyom ko ang kamao ko, naghahalo ang galit at sakit sa loob ko. “So you thought this would be the perfect moment to clear your name? After everything that’s happened tonight? After what my family just went through?”

Stefano’s shoulders sagged. “No… I didn’t come here to defend myself. I came because I couldn’t stand the thought of you hurting and thinking I betrayed you. I came because I care about you—more than anything.”

His words should’ve been enough to heal me—to give me hope, to make my heart flutter like they used to. But tonight, they landed differently.

They didn’t bring butterflies.

They didn’t bring relief.

Just silence.

I stared at him, empty and unmoving, like I was trying to find meaning in a language I no longer understood. My thoughts blurred into static, and all I could offer him was a blank stare.