Crown of the Empire

Chapter 34

Chapter 34

When we landed back in Manila, it was almost like the city itself sighed in relief. Or maybe that was me. Madrid had been a battlefield, Singapore a spectacle. But here—here was where the fight mattered most.

ME Bank headquarters in Makati glittered like a crown jewel, but that wasn't where Nikolai led me first. No, he had other plans.

"Where are we going?" I asked, sliding into the backseat of the car, my heels clicking against the mat.

He didn't look up from his phone. Typical Nikolai. Calm, stoic, infuriatingly unreadable. "To see what your money actually does."

"My money?" I raised a brow.

"Our money," he corrected without missing a beat. "The one thing that will make them choke harder than your bank's numbers. Proof."

I arched a brow. "You sound like you're planning another press ambush."

"Not press," he said, finally meeting my gaze. His eyes had that glint—the one that made me both want to slap him and kiss him. "People."

And so we drove, away from Makati's glass towers, through traffic that smelled of gasoline and sweat, past jeepneys painted with saints and superheroes, past alleys where sari-sari stores leaned on cracked walls.

When we arrived, I almost didn't recognize it.

The sign read: House of the Angels.

I'd heard about it before—Travis Javierres had been funding it, I knew—but seeing it now was something else. Children laughing, their voices rising above the noise of the city. Gardens where vegetables grew, tended by small hands. A schoolroom with chipped walls but bright drawings taped to every surface. And nuns—actual nuns—walking around like generals in habits, orchestrating the chaos into life.

The children noticed us immediately. And apparently, I was recognizable even in this place.

"Tita Mariya!" one of the girls cried, running up to me. She couldn't have been older than eight, but she looked at me like I was an actress stepping out of a screen. "We saw you on TV! You fight with numbers!"

I blinked, then laughed, crouching down to her level. "That's right. Some people fight with swords. I fight with numbers. Want me to teach you how?"

Her eyes widened, and suddenly there were ten of them, all circling me, tugging at my hands, firing questions.

Nikolai stood a little distance away, watching. Of course he was. Always watching.

The head nun approached, bowing her head slightly. "Mrs. Takedo, we're honored by your visit. And grateful for your support."

"My support?" I raised a brow.

She smiled knowingly. "Anonymous donors rarely stay anonymous when their wives walk through the door."

I turned to Nikolai, who shrugged as if funding an orphanage was the same as picking up groceries.

"Of course he did," I muttered under my breath, then turned back to the nun with a gracious smile. "Then let's stop calling it anonymous. This is the kind of thing people should know about. Not to glorify us. To show what's possible."

The nun's eyes softened. "You sound just like him."

I laughed. "God forbid."

The rest of the day blurred into laughter, stories, small hands clutching mine as I walked through classrooms and gardens. It wasn't glamorous, but it was grounding. For once, the cameras weren't flashing, the microphones weren't demanding. For once, I wasn't the heir or the founder or the CEO. I was just Mariya.