"Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage"- Lao Tzu

JEWEL's POV

After the bell rang, the kids went out of the room to go home. I stayed at the room for a couple more minutes to arrange my stuffs and then went to the faculty room. The other teachers were preparing to go home already.

"Hey Jewel, do you want to come with us?" Lovely asked me when she came out of the teacher's toilet. She wasn't wearing her uniform anymore.

"Where?" I asked her curiously.

"To the mall. Helena and I are planning to go shopping since it's still early. She's going on a date on Friday night so she wants to buy something to wear" She said as she called for Helena who was talking to another teacher. 

When she heard Lovely calling for her, she approached us. I noticed that she wasn't wearing her uniform either.

"C'mon Jewel. You told us that you just moved in here right? You must come and explore the city with us then" Helena said enthusiastically.

"Sorry girls but I don't want to go out with my uniform on" I reasoned out which is the truth. I didn't have any change of clothes with me. Lovely rolled her eyes.

"Where do you live? We can drop by to your house so that you can change" She suggested. I heaved a sigh.

"Okay. My house is just 10 minutes by car from here. Let's go then" I said which made them giggled.

We were about to go out of the faculty room when I heard Mr. Rowland calling for me. He just came in.

"Are you going home now Ms. Morrison?" He asked me. His stares made me uncomfortable. I saw Helena and Lovely smiled to each other meaningfully.

"Yes. See you tomorrow" I answered politely and proceeded walking to the hallway with Helena and Lovely following me behind.

"Jewel, I think Mr. Rowland likes you" Helena teased me and I almost rolled my eyes of what she just said.

"Hello? We just met today and we just talked twice!" I cooed with a hint of sarcasm.

"Well, I noticed that too" Lovely interrupted and then they laughed together. 

I just ignored them and decided to just stay quiet. We were almost at the gate when my eyes suddenly caught someone sitting alone on the top of the slide. There were still a few children playing around, waiting for their parents or relative to pick them up.

"Can you wait for me for a second?" I asked Helen and Lovely but before they could answer me, I already turned my back to them and walked to the direction of Camila.

"Hey. Aren't you going home yet?" I asked her. She snapped her head to my direction and shook her head.

"Nanny hasn't arrived yet" She said. I noticed that she was now wearing the necklace but her uniform was hiding it. I was about to say something when she suddenly slid down the slide.

"Nanny is here" She said and ran to the gate. 

I heaved a sigh as I walked after her and saw that she went inside a sleek black car with her nanny. I don't know what's with me today feeling like this towards one of my students. If my baby's alive, they might be of the same age right now. Maybe she would be as healthy and beautiful as her.

I felt the familiar painful feeling in my heart as I remembered about my daughter. No! Don't go there!

"What did you say to her?" I heard Helena's curious voice behind me.

"Nothing. C'mon, let's go" they just exchanged glances and shrugged their shoulders before they followed me to the parking lot. We decided to just use my car and leave their cars there.

****

"Wow, you live here alone?" Lovely asked me in awe as she walked inside my house.

 I almost laughed at her reaction. I bought this house 2 months ago. It was a two story house with a pool and a garden which has a lot of flowering plants. It was a modern house with all the things I need.

When I reached my 21st birthday which was 2 years ago, I finally got the trust fund which my grandparents on my mom's side reserved for me. They went back to Germany when I was just 5 years old but I used to spend my vacations there which I enjoyed the most because I got to get away from my father for a while.

But the most surprising thing was all my mom's assets transferred to my name. My dad said that it was what my mother told him before she died at the hospital. According to my dad, it was her way of saying sorry she couldn't be here for me.

She died giving birth to me because she had a heart disease which she wasn't aware of until she was pregnant with me. It was dangerous for her to be pregnant but she insisted on keeping me and I was go grateful to her because she sacrificed her life for me to be born in this world.

My father told me about all that just two years ago. I snapped out of my thoughts when I noticed them staring at me.

"I have a maid with me. Anyway, make yourself at home. I will just go upstairs to change my clothes" I said and they nodded. I left them sitting on the L-shaped couched at the living room.

After I finished prepping myself, I went back downstairs and saw Helena and Lovely having a snack. Tina, my maid, probably served it to them. I saw the sandwich and I felt hungry all of a sudden so I ate one.

After that, we went out of the house and drove to the mall. We went straight to the stores to find a dress for Helena. I find the two of them nice and enjoyable to be with. We were laughing at Helena because she doesn't know how to pick up a nice dress for herself so Lovely and I decided to help her.

After Helena finally bought a dress, we decided to eat out for dinner. We were on our way to the food court when I saw a very familiar person came out of the toy store. I gasped for air as I felt like I was glued to where I was standing. My heart was beating fast. I couldn't be wrong. He's here!

"Hey! What are you doing? Let's go" I heard Lovely shouted for me. 

I looked at them and raised my hand to shush them up. When I looked back at the person I saw earlier, he was gone. There was a lot of people around and I couldn't get a glimpse of him anymore. I walked to where Helena and Lovely were standing with my mind still occupied. What is he doing here? Is that really him?

I shook my head and shook off the thought away. Why would I even care if that was really him?

After eating, we decided to go home because it was already almost 7 pm. I dropped the two of them at school to get their car and after that, I went home. After I took a bath, I prepared my lesson plans for tomorrow. I was busy writing something when my phone rang. It was an unknown number. I was hesitant to answer it but I decided to answer it anyway.

"Hello"

"Jewel..." I was shocked for a moment when I heard his voice.

"What do you want?" I asked coldly.

"Please come back--" before he could finished what he's about to say, I hang up on him. 

My breathing hitched because of anger that I even blocked his number right away. I won't ever let him managed my life like before. I had enough of being his puppet. He is my father but I've had enough of his lies. I followed his every decision for me but I won't let him dictate me this time.

My happiness is at stake here and I can't let him take away that from me too.

****

ZANDER's POV

I heaved a frustrated sigh when the telephone rang for the nth time. I haven't had any sleep at all because I was working for a big project. I could just gave the work to my employees but I couldn't do that. 

This client is very particular and strict about everything. It's not that I don't trust my employees but they too have their own work and maybe they couldn't give this particular project the attention it needed.

My eyes were already so heavy. After about 5 minutes, I finally finished it. I looked at the clock and it was already 7:20 am and all I wanted to do was to hit the bed right away.

The telephone rang again. I decided to answer it.

"Hello" I said while massaging my forehead to ease the headache I was feeling.

"Sir, Camila doesn't want to get up and go to school again. She's crying and asking for you" Rita, the nanny of my daughter, said in a worried voice. I groaned inwardly.

"Okay. Tell her I'll be there" I said and put the telephone down. Thankfully that I decided to just work in my office at home and didn't stay at the main office. I rolled the blue print and my other stuff then went out.

My working office is at the last floor of the house. I went inside the elevator and pressed the 2nd floor button. When the elevator opened, I quickly went out and walked to my daughter's room. While I was approaching, I heard her cries and screams.

"No! I don't want to go to school!" She yelled and then continued crying. 

She was even hiccuping now. I got worried and opened the door. I saw her crying in her bed while hugging her big teddy bear. Rita was trying her best to persuade her into getting up.

"Rita, can you leave us for a while?" I asked Rita. She nodded and went out of the room.

"Sweetheart, what's the problem?" I asked my daughter gently. She quickly sat up and hugged me tightly.

"Daddy, I don't want to go to school" She cried. I stroke her hair gently to calm her down.

"Why? Is there any problem at school?" She didn't answer and just rested her head on my shoulder.

"Sweetheart, you know you can tell daddy anything. Tell me the problem" She pulled away from me and wiped her tears then sat on my lap.

"My classmates are making fun of me because I don't have a mommy" She said and started sobbing again. My chest tightened. I didn't know this was happening to her at school. I was so busy with my work that I didn't even notice. I cursed myself.

"What about Vanessa? Don't you want her to be your mommy?" I asked. She shook her head furiously.

"No! I hate her!" She yelled and began sobbing louder that it made me worried. I made her face me and wiped her tears with my thumbs. It pained me to see her like this.

"Okay. You can rest for today but promise me that you'll go tomorrow" I said tenderly and kissed her forehead. She nodded but she still looked unhappy.

"Daddy, where is mommy? Why isn't she here?" She asked all of a sudden. I knew this day would come that she would be asking about her mother and until now, I wasn't still ready to answer that question. I took a deep breath and tried to smile at her.

"Do you want to go out this afternoon, sweetheart? Daddy will go home early so that we can go wherever you want" She looked at me like she didn't hear what I've said to her. 

She was staring at me, waiting for me to answer her question. I know she's a smart girl and she's the type to give up easily until she gets the answer she desires. 

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