The Engineer (Batchelor Series #2)

45

I did my best to cure Renz eyesight. Thanks to God after 3 months. It successfully, nakakita na ulit siya.

I sat in my office, the silence pressing in from all sides, staring at the small note on my desk—unsigned, like all the others. It had been months since the first one arrived, a simple message that threw my mind into chaos.

"He's closer than you think."

Every time, different words, but always the same meaning. Always from the same anonymous sender. I thought it was just some sick game, someone messing with me, until the truth hit me like a freight train.

Renz. Pati ang mga pera siguro na nasa gcash ni Mama ay pakulo n'ya rin. Ang isip bata talaga.

I leaned back in my chair, the weight of it all sinking in. After all these years, he had been behind it. Every message, every hint. It was all him. But why? Why now, after disappearing without a trace, would he start sending me these cryptic notes?

And then, I got my answer.

—

The moment he walked into the room, I knew something was different. Renz stood taller, more confident than ever. Hindi na siya ‘yung dating Renz na palaging masaya lang at pabiro. He carried an air of authority now, the kind you get from years of building yourself up from nothing.

He sat across from me, hands folded neatly on the table between us, his expression unreadable. For a moment, we just stared at each other, the silence between us heavy with the weight of everything left unsaid.

"Matagal na ‘to, Drakon," he started, his voice calm, measured. "I needed to disappear... to build something of my own."

I clenched my fists under the table. “You didn’t need to leave like that, Renz. No explanation, no nothing. You just vanished. Do you know how much that wrecked me?”

He met my gaze, unflinching. “I had to. I couldn’t stay in your shadow forever. I couldn’t just be the guy who loved Drakon but didn’t have his own life. I needed to prove something, to myself, to everyone. And I did.”

I frowned. “You think disappearing and cutting me off was proving something?”

"More than you know," he said quietly. "I didn’t just leave for me. I left because... I found out what my dad did."

His words hung in the air between us, sharp and cutting. I felt a chill crawl up my spine. “Your dad?” I echoed, the pieces slowly clicking together.

He nodded, his jaw tight. "He threatened you, Drakon. He was the reason you pulled away. Alam ko. I figured it out when I saw how everything changed between us. When you suddenly started acting like you didn’t care anymore. It didn’t take long to connect the dots."

I swallowed hard, memories of that time rushing back. The threat had been real, and I’d been forced to make a choice. Protect Renz or risk him getting hurt because of me. So, I pushed him away, told him lies to make sure he’d stay out of danger. But now, standing before me, it seemed like he had known all along.

“Why didn’t you say anything? Why didn’t you come back and explain?” I asked, my voice raw with frustration. “You knew the truth, but you still stayed away.”

Renz leaned forward, his eyes hard. “Because I had to become something more than just your lover, Drakon. I needed to build my own name, my own life. Graduating engineering, taking over my dad’s business—it was all part of that plan. I wanted to come back, but I had to come back as someone who was strong enough to stand beside you, not behind you.”

His words stung, but they also made sense. Renz was never the type to let someone else fight his battles. He needed to forge his own path, even if it meant walking away from the one person he cared about most.

I closed my eyes for a moment, processing everything. The anonymous messages, the way they had led me to this moment. It wasn’t just about him reaching out—it was him showing me who he had become.

“You were the one sending the notes,” I said quietly, more a statement than a question.

He nodded again, his expression softening. “I had to do it that way. I wasn’t ready for a face-to-face yet, but I wanted you to know... that I was still here. That I hadn’t forgotten about us.”

I exhaled slowly, the tension in my chest loosening. "And now? Why now?"

Renz sighed, his fingers tapping lightly on the table. "Because I’m ready now. Ready to face everything, to own up to the mistakes I made. To the pain I caused. But I’m also ready to fix it. Kung gusto mo pa."

His words hit me harder than I expected. This was the Renz I fell in love with—brave, determined, and willing to fight for what mattered. I didn’t know if we could go back to what we had before, but maybe... just maybe, we could find something new.

“I never stopped caring about you,” I said quietly, my voice almost a whisper. "But a lot has changed."

He smiled softly, a little bit of that old Renz shining through. "I know. But we’ve both changed, and maybe that’s not a bad thing."

I looked at him, really looked at him—this man who had built himself from the ground up, who had faced the darkness of his past and come out stronger. Maybe we could start again, not as the people we used to be, but as who we had become.

"Let’s see where this goes," I said, offering a small smile of my own. "One step at a time, Renz."

He grinned, that familiar teasing glint in his eyes. "Sounds good, babe."

“Puwede na ba ako mag pa cardio d'yan sa dibdib mo doc?” He teased me.

Fuck him.

Some things never change. But maybe, just maybe, that was okay.