Secretly Married (English)

Chapter 23

After the awkward dinner, Kent whispered to Phoebe, "I'll stay in the guest room with you, right?"

"What? No, of course not! It's so embarrassing to Tita."

"It's no big deal. I mean, we are married."

Tita Linda came back from the kitchen with a cup of after-dinner coffee. As she sat down, Kent got up and said, "I'm really tired from the trip. I'll be staying in the guest room with Phoebe." He then grabbed Phoebe's arm and pulled her toward the room, closing the door behind them before the aunt could say a word.

As Kent waited for Phoebe in the shower, he got a call from an unregistered number. Thinking that it might be the director, he answered it, ready with an apology. But alas, it was not.

"Kent, where the hell are you?"

"Elisa!" Kent had to lower his angry voice down so Phoebe wouldn't hear. It was a good thing that Phoebe was singing loudly in the show as he spoke. "Why are you calling me? I'm hanging up!"

"Direk's really mad that you didn't show up to work today. They had to push the schedule a few more days because of you, you know."

Kent felt guilty. Because of what happened the other day, he'd simply forgotten about his professional commitments. He's never done anything like this. "I know. I'm sorry. I'll call him."

"Don't. He's—he's in editing. He's really mad. Just tell me when you're getting back so I can tell him."

Kent and Phoebe had talked about going back to Manila the next day, catching the 3:00 a.m. bus so they could be in Manila before the afternoon.

"What? You're with her?" Elisa sounded angry.

"You don't know anything, Elisa. This is between us."

"Whatever. Okay. I'll see you on the set. You're a very foolish man. I mean, it's all over the Internet." With that, she dropped the call.

Kent wondered what she meant. He started to Google Phoebe's name on his phone.

"Who were you talking to?" Phoebe asked as she stepped out of the bathroom.

Kent jumped in surprise and turned off his phone. Phoebe laughed as she sat on the bed.

"What's up with you? Did you forget I was in the room?"

Kent tried to laugh, but it came out false. Good thing, Phoebe no longer asked about anything, except about what time they were getting up tomorrow to catch the first trip back to Manila.

As they lay down, with Phoebe trying to keep a safe distance from him on the bed, he said, "Phoebe?"

Phoebe turned to face him on the bed. "Yep?"

"Whatever happens, just trust me. I'll make this right."

Phoebe frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Just trust me. That's all I need from you." Phoebe was still frowning, but she tried to smile for him. Kent kissed her on the forehead and said good night. As soon as Phoebe was asleep, he took his phone from under his pillow and Googled her.

On the biggest gossip site in the country, theEnvoy.ph, the headlining story was "Phoebe Bernal—Playing with the Hearts of the Country's Biggest Heartthrobs." There on the page was the photo that Elisa had shown Kent with the doodle "All- around slut."

It was a nightmare. Kent continued with the Google search and the same photo had circulated all over the Internet. There are Tumblr posts with several speculations as to who she was and forum posts with some of Phoebe's own personal photos posted.