"Jolo has nothing to do with this, it was me", she admitted without blinking, looking directly into his eyes. She did not want the relationship between the two brothers to shatter because of this so she recklessly admitted the crime. For just a split second, she saw the pain in Joseph's eyes but was immediately replaced with hatred and disgust.
" I am not surprised. I heard a lot about you and I could not believe it but you just showed your true color", he said and his face getting darker and darker, he slowly closed the gap between him and Christine. She wanted to step back and run away from him. She was felt so little in front of Joseph who was burning with rage.
"Christine", Jolo said faintly. He felt guilty as hell for letting Christine take all the blame but he was also scared as hell of what Joseph might do to him. He doesn't want their relationship to be tarnished. He has no one with him right now except his big brother. He clenched his fist and looked at Marlon, his eyes begging him to tell the truth and take responsibility. But Marlon just ignored him and pretended to know nothing. VJ and Raffy were the same, they turned away from him and let Joseph continue to believe that it was Christine's fault.
Joseph was not aware of the glances that the boys were exchanging because he was so focused on Christine, and he was trying to suppress his emotions. He wanted to hurt her, physically hurt her but at the same time, he felt an urge to protect her. He wished they are not in this situation.
"You .. get .. out ... of my house", he said almost shouting and held her shoulders and shook her.
Christine flinched. She was physically hurt because Joseph's grip is very tight almost crushing her shoulders. But what she endured the most is the emotional hurt. She felt betrayed..... betrayed by Jolo, her best friend or she thought he was. She felt hurt inside because no matter what she says, Joseph will not believe her. She was already judged. From the start, she was already seen as a bad influence and she doesn't know where it came from.
A solitary tear fell down her cheek and will all her courage that she can muster, she looked Joseph straight to his eyes and said, "I don't want to belong here anyway. I hate this place, I hate everyone in this place. I despise the days that I have spent here. This place is despicable and I felt like I am in hell", her voice quivered since she was trying not to cry.
She met his eyes, not afraid anymore. She felt hurt, she was judged and no matter what she does, he will never listen to him, so she doesn't care anymore. She is no longer scared of him. She mockingly stared at him as if saying that he was so stupid for jumping into conclusions and judging her without even getting her side of the story. She slowly took his hands off her shoulders.
"I will leave this place, you don't have to chase me away", she said with a stern face and she slowly stepped back and went out of the room. She went to her room immediately, packed her things. After packing, she sat on the edge of the bed staring at the wall. She felt so aggrieved and she missed her mom and her dad. When they came to the mansion, she slowly lost her dad. She is not able to talk to him because he is always away with Celine. If they are in the mansion, Celine is always there to interfere. The longer she stayed at the mansion, she felt that the people started to talk behind her back and she did not have any idea why. They eventually changed their treatment toward her except but not to the extent of hurting her. She just felt like they distanced themselves from her. Only Jolo was there for her, to entertain her when she felt lonely.
Now that she thought about it, she realized that Celine must have brainwashed the people around her. She often hears her say words like a slut, incest and immoral directed at her. She did not mind her at first and just shrugged her shoulders. But thinking about it now and connecting to what Joseph said earlier, she finally came to realize that it was Celine who spread malicious accusations against her. She just wonders why the people would believe her completely without hearing her side of the story. So far, she was not put in any compromising situations that will prove Celine's claim against her...or so she thought.
But what about the time when she massages her dad after a long day's work? Celine would often give her dagger stares whenever she sees her talking to her dad, giving him head or foot massage or when she simply wanted to talk to her dad. But it was impossible. She was close to her dad and it is a normal thing for them to play around, hug each other and spend sweet moments together. But eventually, she just noticed that her dad has distanced himself from her.
There was this one afternoon that her dad was complaining pains on his left foot. Celine was on a business meeting in town so she volunteered to give his dad a foot massage. They were inside the master's bedroom. Her dad was sitting on the edge of the bed while she was on the floor, her back facing the door. The door was opened and came Celine and accusingly asked what they were doing. Dad explained that he was having a foot massage. Celine's voice was so loud that 2 of the maids who were bringing with them Celine's things from the meeting rushed inside to look at what happened.
Christine was surprised at Celine's reaction, she thought she was overreacting or something. She insinuated that she and her father were doing something that they should not. The maids exchanged glances and looked at her accusingly. Her dad stopped Celine and explained that she was only giving him a foot massage. Celine shooed Christine away thus making her look like someone who committed a serious crime.
From that time on, everybody started talking behind her back, and everybody especially the boys tried to avoid her except Jolo, Gary, and some random workers on the farm. So she became more and more isolated and alone.