Mister Villain

CHAPTER SEVENTY-TWO

The day Enzo first met Gab, he had absolutely no idea how big a deal she was.

It was at a charity event for Habitat for Humanity and he was assigned to her team.

She wore a shirt, pants, sensible shoes, and had her hair in a ponytail. You wouldn't have thought she was an heiress.

She did her load of work, laughed along with everyone, didn't complain, and sat and ate with all of them. He just casually asked her out for coffee afterwards.

They exchanged numbers.

She used her mother's maiden name and when he tried to look for her on Facebook, he worried a little when he couldn't find her.

But she showed up on their first official date and Enzo would find himself taking her out more and more, bringing her to restaurants that she seems to have never gone to before.

She couldn't relate to him on a lot of things but he found pleasure in explaining all of it to her and didn't really question why that was.

He would eventually discover that she was the first "regular" guy she dated and she had made every effort to conceal her true identity from him.

Once, in all the confusion, he wished na hindi na lang sana niya nalaman ang totoo about Gab or kung posible na regular na tao lang din sana ito na tulad niya.

Malamang hindi nangyari ang gulo sa kanilang lahat kung nagkataon.

For the longest time, Enzo fought his attraction for Louise because he really did love Gab.

Being with her opened up new things for him because she often thought differently than him.

Gab didn't recognize obstacles.

She just called them hurdles.

She also made him appreciate a lot of the things he had taken for granted because her genuine curiosity and happiness about the most commonplace drew him in.

He knew how easy it must be for others to judge him and tell him he never really loved someone he replaced so easily.

It is true he did replace Gab but it wasn't easy.

It wasn't easy despite the fact that they were on different ends of the spectrum. It wasn't easy even though he was the Robin Hood to her Lady Marianne. It wasn't easy though he was the earth and she was the sky.

It wasn't easy to replace her though they were so far.

It wasn't easy to replace her even though they were so different.

It wasn't easy to replace her even though loving her was so inconvenient.

It wasn't easy because he never even thought of those.

He just loved her then.

Pag nagmamahal ka, marami kang nakakalimutan.

Pero siguro hindi talaga sila ang iginuhit nang langit dahil lahat nang bagay na nakalimutan niya, dahan-dahan niyang naalala nang magkasakit si Gab.

It frustrated him to no end that when she was on the verge of losing her life, he could not go to her because he is too "limited".

To feel that she could go where he couldn't follow her, to feel that he could not be there for her when she needed a hand to hold, to feel so helpless and so useless... it broke him down and made him despair.

Was it natural to turn to the one person who might be able to understand?

Enzo would never know because when Louise offered a listening ear to all his woes, he just found himself pouring all of his heart out to her without even thinking of that.

She understood everything because they both come from the same place.

He didn't need to explain too much to her.

He didn't need to bridge a gap at all.

And he appreciated it so much, he became afraid of it.

This was not the time to involve himself with another woman. Gab needed him.

But the chains around his heart dragged him closer and closer to Louise and the guilt consumed him too much, he eventually hurt her too.

Eventually, he realized that the amount of opposition he has had to face for every woman he loved went higher and higher as his love for them went deeper and deeper.

If Gab opened new doors for him, Louise showed him roads.

She hurt as much as he did but she never made him feel like he would go through all of it alone.

She was going to be there every step of the way with him.

Louise was not going to go away.

His love for her grew and he knew then he had to say goodbye to the sky – no matter how beautiful it was.

He belonged to the earth.

The sky could only be but a dream.

Every day he would wish he had done things differently when he ended things with Gab but the truth that only he shared with Maine was that he feared then that if he didn't hurt her enough, she might not hate him and he might be tempted to chase after her again.

He needed to remind himself where he belonged and it wasn't by Gab's side.

Enzo did it so thoroughly that he put RJ Faulkerson on his path and all hell broke loose.

With his newfound determination to love Louise, he fought RJ with everything he had.

He never looked back and found that this woman might not have been his first choice but she was the right choice.

Gab was right to call him out on it.

"You have to trust in Louise because you went through hell together. Ikaw, higit sa kahit kanino man ang dapat nakakaalam nang sakripisyo nang asawa mo para sa'yo dahil magkasama kayo sa simula pa lang..."

Louise picked him up when he fell on his knees and felt he was a waste.

Louise believed in him and no force on earth shook it away from her.

Louise stood by his side and never left.

How he could have forgotten all of that he would never know.

Hours after Gab left him, full of forgiveness and understanding that it almost crushed him inside out... he found within him the determination to make things right once he is given the opportunity.

It's ironic that when he was on the verge of losing Gab, Louise gave him strength.

Now... on the verge of losing Louise, Gab was the one giving him strength.

"Thank you Gab" he whispered in prayer "I will make things right."