Call Me SHERLOCK

Dearest Diary

Pagkauwi ko, agad akong nagshower at kumain, pagkatapos ay naghanda ako ng mainit na tsaa at napagpasyahan ko nang simulang basahin ang journal ni Rhian.

Unang nakalagay na petsa ay Junuary 1, 2020.

... and it goes like this;

January 1, 2020
I remember one of my college profs once said that writing a journal was therapeutic somehow. I laughed then, thinking, I'm surrounded by friends, what could I possibly put in a book that I wouldn't just tell one of them? Of course, that was before Dad forced me to leave all those friends. He has never allowed me to have anything of my own. I am nothing to him but a prop...
Just like Isaac was. Today is the third anniversary of his death. Isaac died because Dad told him to join the PMA. But he always wanted to be an architect... Dad didn't care. He made him feel less of a man for wanting it. Made him feel like a disappointment for not joining up the academy. And so Isaac did what he wanted and died. I wanted to be away from Dad. I wanted to be away from both of them, from everything about my family and my life and I was, and I was...
Now I'll have to find another way to escape. I am left with just one friend, and I can hardly confide in her what I plan to do, but I can't stand to keep it only to myself. I've tried to do so since I returned from Scotland last November and it does nothing but eat away at me. Perhaps if I write it down, it will help... I have my doubts, but what is there to lose?

Napabuntong hininga ako matapos kong mabasa ang past na yun. I guess all that talk Bianca was spouting about her best friend being the perfect little daddy's girl was all bullshit. Isa lang ang malinaw sa unang naisulat ni Rhian sa notebook na ito; galit sya sa tatay nya and she wanted to get away.

January 3, 2020
I have thoroughly searched Dad's papers. It was easier than I thought it might be because in his infinite hubris, his desk was left unlocked. There was a safe that was secured, but I didn't even need to try to get into it. Everything I needed was in the files in his desk. He is setting up a little side business with a drug lord, Eddie Gutiérrez.
Eddie wants concessions from Dad, zoning permits, things that are far to mind numbing for me to bother writing down here, particularly since I am the only one who will read them and I don't wish to put myself to sleep. SoEddie is to give him kickbacks for the dirty business. And in a stroke of luck, that man has handling the numbers for him is Amit Borsok.
Amit has been calling me ever since I've been back in the metro, desperate to rekindle what he rather nauseatingly calls our "secret summer romance," which is a very... rose colored view of what had gone on between us. I had met him at one of Dad's fundraiser event. He talk to me the whole evening and I found him quite dull, but he was sweet and just intrigued enough, and a girl can't shy away from attention especially when she's having to spend the entire summer enduring her father. He was a decent enough distraction. Plus, he was a Jew, which means I had a legitimate excuse to keep him secret from my parents and everyone else. He's clearly still interested. Looks like luck is on my side.

My God! Hindi ko na yata kailangan pang pag-isipan ng malalim kung anong nangyari sa araw na yun. Kailangan nyang makawala sa tatay nya at obvious na kailangan nya din ng pero na hindi galing sa account nya or else matitrace sya nito. She then finds out Amit has got a sweetheart deal with Eddie, and that, as luck would have it, her ardent and boring summer fling is working the numbers side of that equation. It was a perfect set up. Reel Amit in, have him skim a little off the top, keep it up until she has a big enough nest egg to get the out...

Napailing ako. Sa una kasi inakala kong gaya lang sya ng ibang koliheyala at walang diskarte. Pero ang laki ng pagkakamali ko. She's fucking brilliant! Imagine, she had zero qualms about using Amit's  feelings in order to manipulate him into playing with some serious fire.