Promiscuous (Who's the slut?)

Chapter Twenty Nine

The maid received me immediately. At least they hadn't instructed them to boot me out if ever I came back. Well, maybe they hadn't thought I would get my butt in here again.

I sighed as I looked around the grand mansion. Who am I, really?

"So... the illegitimate daughter has come back. Couldn't spread your wings?" Laina was striding down the staircase like a regal queen. Whatever. I smirked.

"Aren't you happy to see me, Laina?" I smiled. "Why don't you come down so that I can kiss my dear little...." devil of a... I twitched my lips on one side. "sister?"

She smiled at me while tracing the elegant carvings of the staircase. "Sister?" She laughed aloud. She looked exactly like a witch in my eyes. I was staring at her... with her short hair, to her creamy white complexion. I didn't find any resemblance between the two of us to think we shared the same blood from our father. Oh... that must have slipped off my mind, she's not really of my blood.

"Of course, you hated it, me being your sister. From the start... you wanted me ruined." I squinted my eyes. "Or gone.. forever?" A slip of the tongue, that was all I needed from Laina to shed some light about my assailant.

"Yes... I wanted you gone. And I'll do anything... just to make that possible." The last words were silently threatening. It was spoken casually. But I knew better. A cold shiver ran down my spine at the disdain written on her face.

"You bore with your speech Laina. So where's father?" I was asking despite the obvious answer. He was in his library, poking through documents. I breathed out a whooosh. I walked past her but I deliberately banged my hips to hit her on the side. She almost slipped had she not grasp the railing. "Oh... sorry, wrong step." I smiled sourly as she gritted her teeth.

I tapped at the door, nobody answered. I pushed it open to peek inside. The stinking smell of alcohol and tobacco welcomed me as I got inside. It was dark... so I fumbled the lights. I arched my brow at the sight before me. Father was slumped on his desk, arms outward. Alcohol beverages were scattered on the floor. Some were staining the rug. The ashtray was full of ashes, and cigarette.

This was not the Rick Enrique I've known.

I gulped. "Wh-ho i—sh thhhere?" He sat erect. He blinked many times before smiling at me.

"You came." But something wasn't quite right here. I could feel it. Why did Mamita and Laina just let father like this? It wasn't... like him... He seemed ruined. Defeated. Destroyed.

"Of course." I forgot the lines I was thinking to tell him. The questions I was about to ask him.

"Yes. Of course... What do you need?"

"Why are... you like... that?" My expression was one of... astonishment. The proud son and senator Enrique was pulling himself down.

He laughed hoarsely. "This? I was like this... before, since time immemorial" He laughed harshly. "Worst. Been to heaven. Yeah, when I met your mother." He smiled to himself, he was cherishing the past. His eyes were getting misty. Or was it my imagination?

"You abandoned us." I said accusingly.

"Been to hell, when I chose... to follow your Mamita's orders. You see, I was reforming myself. I need to be... who I am right now. I couldn't be... an alcohol addict." I stared at his face. He looked like a hermit now with all the shadows underneath his eyes with the growing beard.

"I don't get it." I was getting confused. If he was a great actor I would have believed him. But that was a cliche... too damn unrealistic. Just like in the movies, he left her mother because of his family's fortune, of his parents bullying. And what? He married Laina's mother!

"You're a coward."

He smiled bitterly. His head was now covered with his hands. He was weeping like a child. It was the piercing sound of pain and... regret.

"I am sick. I'd been addicted to alcohol when I was younger... I'd been... rehabilitated out of the country. It was the family's scandal. My father died because of it... I couldn't stop. I was drowning. Then I met your mother..." I was crying silently watching him, like this. He deserved it. I shouldn't be feeling this overwhelming pity for him.

"She's fresh from a broken engagement. I was there, posing as her hero." Funny, how he was using sarcasm for himself. "When all along I was the villain..." He whispered just as I hadn't noticed the gun that was now out on his hand.

My eyes went wide. He caressed it repeatedly.

"Someone was blackmailing me. Ready to make public the secret the family had been hiding. An alcohol maniac of a Senator. No cure for it. I even gambled the fortune away..."

I couldn't quite comprehend what he was saying. Gamble the fortune? Blackmail? He was rehabilitated because of this sickness of him? that was it... when I found him in the library the day he disowned me.

"Just one question. Are... you really my father?"

He was not sane anymore. I could see that clearly, the alcohol was affecting his senses to the point of madness. He was laughing now while crying. He pointed the gun at me. I was nailed to the ground.

"You..." He uttered it softly. "are my only daughter in every way that I knew." Then he pointed the gun at his temple.

I mouthed no. Just as I envisioned what was going to happen, the door opened. It didn't take my eyes off at the gruesome scene unfolding before me. But I heard Laina gasped. A shot rang through the four corners of the room. The sound was so final. Blood splashed on me. Smearing down my face.

Death. Blood.

I closed my eyes to freeze myself from the world. It wasn't everyday you see someone commit suicide. And it wasn't everyday... you witness death yourself. Not just any death... but your father's.

There was no doubt in my mind now about the truth.

I heard Laina crumpled to the floor. Then the door screeched. Mamita screamed. I wasn't certain how long I was frozen in my place. Standing there with eyes closed. I heard the shrill sound of the ambulance outside. There was pandemonium inside the house. Somebody wrapped me with a blanket.

He held me against his side while whispering soothing words to me. I was numb with disbelief. The authorities were everywhere now. Investigating. Questioning. They were moving and taping the place where the scene had taken root. There was blood everywhere.

"It's okay..." It's far from okay! I wanted to shout at him. But I couldn't snap out of the trance I'd placed myself in. How could they say fine when it's not? It's a cliche. "I'm here for you." I don't need anybody else. Needing is a weakness...

"Ms. Marie Claire Enrique you've witnessed your father's death? Why do you think senator had done that?"

The hell do I know! I wanted to scream. It's a good thing someone had grabbed my hand and led me to the staircase eluding the camera's flashes.

"It's your fault. She's the one to blame!" That stopped me dead on my tracks. I turned around and looked over at Laina. She was hysterically weeping, shouting at me. She was pointing at me while the videos caught the unnerving scene. The reporters were swamping around her like bees.

She stood there like a regal queen while tears were brimming down her face. The victim. And me? The suspect. Our eyes locked. Her gaze was fixed on me when she announced to the world.

"She is responsible for our father's death. She gave him drugs."

Everybody gasped. Thanks to Laina that long ago gossip about my pills, or better termed, drugs was liven up again.

At that moment, I loathed Laina right to the very core of her being.