The moment Ajie and Allie arrived home, Allie's parents met them on the door. Mary was holding Chloe and the child flailed her arms towards them excitedly. Her shallow happiness was contagious and Ajie got overjoyed. He took her up into his arms and played with her, forgetting that there were other people around.
Allie's mother then held Allie's arm and dragged her to their bedroom.
"Mom, what is it? " She asked, wondering why her mom. behaved oddly. There were glints of fear in her eyes and suddenly, she got hesitant on something she most likely had wanted to bring it up to her.
Allie's heart hammered loudly against her chest and her existing fear was aggravated.
"Allie, you're uncle Timmy is dead and your other uncles are cruelly battered. "
Allie's eyes widened and didn't need to be told why.
"What??? "
"A group of men arrested them and brought them inside a building. They were horribly mauled before they were interrogated. They were forced to speak who could be the possible source of all the informations inside the Kamelyo Lab. Since the group couldn't extract anything from them, they were forced to reveal who were those other workers they knew. "
"Then why Uncle Timmy died? " Her heart wanted to scream in protest. They did not deserve it.
"I really don't know. Your auntie called me up and informed me about the incident. Everyday, a number of people in Kamelyo are pulled out. They are miserably looking for the spy. They believed they couldn't possibly be caught because their security was impenetrable for years unless someone from their people would sell them out. And that's what they believed. "
"They were able to bribe one of the agents and that agent revealed that her group who were sent as spies in disguise of factory workers were not able to find any evidence. "
Allie almost fainted in fear. There were only two people who knew about all the secret passages into the underground lab, the passcodes, the facts about the mules and those many ways the drugs were transported. During the raid, Dino had already made a perfect plot for everyone in the team. Each one of them had already its special instruction, specific place to go and what they would expect to find. He laid their instruction as if he himself had been acquainted in the place.
Her greatest fear, among the four possibilities, was not the people from Kamelyo but the team of Dino itself. What if Dino and his men were the next target of Louise? Even if she could guarantee Dino's loyalty but under pressure and torture when one would hold on to his dear life, he could possibly sell her out.
Second, was Director General Alfonso's tactlessness when being drunk. He had already slipped his toungue during their wedding and how could she expect that he hadn't rant her out to his other drinking partners?
Third was Andrew himself. With that distorted way of his thinking and his illogical revenge , betraying her to the enemies was not impossible if opportunity would strike. He had heard everything that Mr. Lopez and General Alfonso talked about. Hurting her meant hurting Ajie himself.
Fourth was Mr. Lopez. Human as he was, his reasoning, no matter how firm, could also falter. The man who was aggrieved and suffered was not only his bestfriend but the one who trusted in his abilities and the one who helped him become what he was now. Naturally and reasonably, his sympathy was expected to go out to him rather than her.
"Ma, what shall I do? If I didn't do it, the wickedness of Kamelyo would have perpetuated. Many more would become victims and the future of many children would be ruined. What I did is for the greater good of the majority. " She said calmly but her lips were already quivering and her tears started to race down. She didn't want to die. Chloe was still very young.
Her tears turned into sobbing and her sobbing turned into wailing. What would she do to escape for her precious life? Her daughter needed her and Ajie wouldn't also be able to accept it.
"Go with Ajie to Japan. " Her mom's eyes flickered as she thought about it, embracing the idea as a lifeguard against a sinking ship.
She looked up and smiled bitterly. "It would be easier to trace me if I'm with him. "
Feeling hopeless, her mother wrapped her in a warm embrace. She rubbed her back as she allowed her to cry her heart out but she herself didn't know what to do. Squeezing her clouded mind to grasp an idea, a sense of despair overlapped it all that she lose her grip to hold back her own tears. She was their only daughter and their only priced treasure.
Stiffling her urge to sob more, she comforted her.
"Don't worry, dear. God is watching us and He will see us through all of this. What you did is for the good of many. He will surely find ways to protect you. " She assured her and when she did not react, she went ahead.
"Remember one of your favorite verses in Psalm 91:8. Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked."
When Allie came back to their apartment, her eyes and nose were already red and her eye bags were puffing. Ajie saw it and his heart sanked. His weakness was always a woman's tears, how much more that it was her. He hurriedly pulled her close towards him that her face rested in his shoulder. Feeling the warmth of his comfort and the coming loneliness once her plan would be carried out, she sobbed bitterly all over again.
"Why are you crying? " Ajie asked once her sobbing ebbed down. He felt bitter and guilty in thinking that perhaps it was again because of him. If only he knew that this was how gravely Allie cried, he wouldn't have gone away.
"I'm just sad that you are going away again. " She looked up to him and smiled tearfully.
He pushed back her hair which covered her face and looked lovingly into her eyes.
"I'm staying. "
"No. I'll be fine. "
"No, I can't bear to know that you would be crying like this. " He said firmly.
"I'll be fine. When it would be unbearable, I can always go where you are. "
"But it's more wonderful to sleep with you each night. Or to go home and be met by a babbling child. " He reasoned out.
"When Chloe is big enough to be left in a playroom while I'll be out for work, we will then live together. We still need to establish ourselves. You yourself doesn't know yet what kind of life you will have in Japan. "
When Ajie was finally convinced, she kissed him like there was no longer another time to do it, making them end up in bed, only to be halted by Chloe's cry for milk!
Early the next morning, she stared at Ajie's face, putting every features and every lines of his face into her memory. She then stood up and walked into the terrace, allowing the morning glory to flood into herself. She picked up her phone, typed her password and went through her contact list.
It did not take long for the name in the contact list she's searching for to appear in the screen.
BLACK LOGO