Love Thy Neighbor (Completed)

Chapter 13 - Pains of the Past

Obispo Residence

The next morning Sunshine was not able to wake up as early as she wanted too.  She tosses and turns the whole night because she had a hardtime to sleep.  Her brief conversation with Benji brings back painful memories that she has been trying to forget for the past years.  But she could not deny that she got affected too with Benji’s confession. 

She admits that it gives the same effect as the first time she read the letter she thought was from Benji and she got thrilled when she heard it from him last night and she could not understand that part of herself.  Despite all the angers she has in her heart for Benji, a small portion of it still longs to know if Benji still feels the same way for her after all this time and she was able to get the answer in no time, though the bigger portion of her heart always dredges up the pains of the past. 

She took up an IT vocational course with Katrina as their family could not afford the college expenses.  She took care of her sick mother while studying.  When her mother’s condition deteriorates, she was advised to stay in the hospital. Their expenses shoot up to the point of skipping their monthly amortization of their loan in the bank.  Sunshine’s mother still died in spite of their effort to provide all her medical needs.  And due to their delinquency in payment, their loan in the bank increases because of the huge amount of additional interest and penalties. 

After finishing their vocational course, Sunshine and Katrina took their luck in Singapore where they work as an IT assistant.  But in the first few months, they were given a different assignment as an office clerk and janitress at the same time instead of the job offered to them.  Only when her superior notices their good performance as an office clerk that they were trained to do the job that they applied for.  In her entire stay in Singapore, she barely had a decent sleep.  Oftentimes, two to three hours of sleep for a day was she has because she worked as part-time house cleaner, cook, nanny and other work that would give her an extra income in order to update their bank loan.

Until they met Beverly, an agent for ramp and fashion models who recruited them and brought Katrina and her in Paris.  Her life was not as easy as she expected it to be, though it was not as hard as her experiences at work in Singapore, her lament was on dealing with her co-workers.  She and Katrina have experience a lot of discrimination being a newbie in their brand new world and a citizen of a third world country.  But all those struggles and hardships did not stop her and Katrina to fight for their brighter future in the fashion industry.  Through their hardwork, perseverance and patience the universe sided on them and makes them one of the sought after ramp models in Paris.  

But for her, her successful career will not merit the fact that she was not the one taking care of her father.  She was not able to help him with the business wherein 25% of it was sold to the Rosales. According to Tatay Teddy, he needed someone he could trust that would help him manage their business and the proceeds for the selling of the shares was used to fully pay their bank loan.  She didn’t like the idea but she was not able to stop her father in selling the shares of Sinagtala Grocery Store.

When Tatay Teddy had an attack, she was not able to get permission to come home to Quezon because of her commitment for a big event which falls on the same date as her father’s operation.  The attack triggers the selling of the additional 20% shares of Sinagtala Grocery Store to the Rosales again.  Her father knew about her objection on selling the business to Benji’s family but they needed the funds immediately for her father’s operation.  In addition, her guilt of being not with her father’s side during his attack gave her no other choice but to accept her father’s request for her to manage the business while he is recovering from the his attack and operation.  She tried to persuade Tatay Teddy to just completely sell their business and lives with her in Paris but the old man rejected it.