thirty-four

"What?" she almost whispered in shock, her hand's trembles "Do you know it from the start?" she bit her lips as she hopes that he doesn't know it at all.

"Yes," he nods at her "I knew it from the start" he saw the betrayal in the golden-brown eyes of Aliyah "But I fell for you, Aliyah. I love you." he tried to hold her trembling hands placed on the table, but Aliyah immediately pulled her hands.

Pulling her hands and placed in her lap trembling, she eyed him "You approached me with a hidden agenda?" she gulps as her eyes went watery "You try to revenge on my family, right? You made me fall to execute your revenge, right?"

"Ali" he softly mutters "It's true but I tried to correct it, alright?"

She narrows her eyes "Correct it?"

"Nung nakipagbreak ako sa'yo I tried to suppress my feelings for you, but you told me it was alright. I thought you already knew"

"All I knew was that your father a murderer!" she insisted "And I didn't mind it at all and that is the dumb move I did" she laughed weakly "Bumalik ako sa'yo to fix my broken heart but I didn't think that I kept on opening the scar that my parents keeps on covering for a long time" she eyed him "I was not regretting loving you but what I regretted is I didn't listen to my parents and still pushed myself to you" she stood up

"Ali" he softly mumbles as he tries to grab her hand, but she dodges his touch "I want us again, together" he declares looking into her eyes.

She blankly stares at Gio "I want us" she said as she looks at the direction of Adam before gazing back to Gio "Not to meet in the future" she said with finality as she walks towards Adam's table leaving Gio behind.

Adam put down the utensils in his hands and eyed Aliyah, "Are you done?"

Aliyah rolled her eyes "Obvious ba? Enjoy ka sa pangangain dyan ah?"

Tiningnan lang siya ni Adam bago punasan ang tabi ng bibig nito, "Let's go" he said and grab her hands before dragging her out of the café.

Adam moves his gaze from the road to the petite woman beside him, "Anong iniisiip mo?" he asks stopping the train of her thoughts

She looks at him, "Did you have the recording you gave me back then?"

"Why do you ask?"

She narrows her eyes "Feeling ko may mali talaga dun sa record na yun eh! Nang dahil din don binalikan ko si Gio which is a dumb step of mine!" she claimed

"Kasalanan ko pa?" he asks in disbelief "What's wrong with the recording that I gave you?" he added

Aliyah scanned him with a narrowed eye "You edited it! Feeling ko you left something behind! Are you sure na mga sinabi mo lang ang inalis mo?" paninigurado nito

"Yes. I just edited it out because you don't need to hear it" Adam looked at her for a second seeing that she's not buying his reason, he sighed as he took out his phone and gave it to her "Check it by yourself"

Aliyah looked at the phone before gazing at Adam's face "You sure? Bakit hindi na lang ikaw maglagay kung nasaan. Baka kung ano pa makita ko" she hands him his phone.

"I'm driving" he gazed at her "Wala kang makikita diyan, just go to the recordings that are the only file there."

Aliyah gasped "It's been years and you still keep it?"

"Because that is the only thing I regret in my entire life" he mutters

She looked at him skeptically before looking back at his phone and search for the file. Placing the speaker near her ear and played the voice recording.

"Anong ginagawa mo dito" she remembers his voice, it was Gio

"I was waiting for Aliyah" the low voice of Adam echoed in her ear.

A chuckle was heard, "So you're in the move now. Nag-iintay ka lang talagang gago ka"

"I'm always in the move, you let her go," Adam said "You dumped her" he added

"As if I liked to let a great woman like her go" she can feel the anger on Gio's voice, when she first heard this some butterflies formed in her stomach but now all she felt was disgust.

"But you did" Adam stated the fact

"I was forced, I don't want her to be labeled as a girlfriend of a murderer's son" Gio heavily sighed.

"That's it? Don't you know that Aliyah does not care about rumors?" sabi ni Adam "You decided it by yourself and didn't ask for her opinion. Do you think that you are considerate?" he said

"You're an inconsiderate as fuck" she heard a thud in the record, pausing it she looks at Adam.

"Did you just use violence?" she gasped "I thought you are not that type of person. I just thought you are a jerk but not a gangster"

"Is that a compliment?" Adam just shrugs at her "That's why I edited my part" he reasoned out

Aliyah just rolled her eyes as she continues to listen to the recording.

"Now, Aliyah was asking herself if she's not enough, because of you, jerk. All of the people around her make sure she felt more than enough but because of you, she's now not confident about herself anymore" Adam continued in the recording, this makes Aliyah to peeks at Adam 'He really knows me' she thought

"My father's target was her father, but Aliyah's father's best friend took the shot instead of her father!" Her eyes widen, he said it before! It was just her ignorance that she didn't process this information before.

"Did you know it?"

"I just discover it the day we broke up" he admitted.

"Liar" she mumbles

"That's the only reason why you dumped her?"

"What else could it be? I love her but I can't ruin her reputation and nothing's going to work out, the world is against us"

"You should have fought against the world if you have her by your side, she's the universe, you know?" and there the recording stops.

She looked at Adam "You edited those parts because?"

Adam sighed as he parked his car in front of their house "Because I don't want to confuse you" he admitted "Which I regret the most, I should have confused you that time and make you mine" he added.

With his confession, Aliyah don't know what to do and gave him an awkward smile before rapidly took off her seatbelt and gets out of the car.

"Shit" Adam curses as he saw tons of reporters waiting at their house, he immediately gets off the car and walked towards Aliyah who's now surrounded by reporters.

"Are you two together?"

"Are you dating?"

"Are you the fiancée of the president of the D company?"

Aliyah felt dizzy by the questions of the reporters surrounding at her, her hands start to tremble as the reporters get near her. "Can you please move" she mumbles as she gasped for air, a warm pair of arms envelope her petite body.

Adam immediately hugs Aliyah as he tries to calm her down "Are you fucking serious?! You are invading our privacy!" he hissed "You fucking get out of my sight or each one of you will be in jail before the sun sets now!" he yelled as caress the back of Aliyah who is now grabbing his coat tightly.

"It's okay I'm here" he whispers

Aliyah soon calmed down in the embrace of Adam as the reporters immediately back out and get out of their way. "Let's go home" she mumbled

Adam nods at her as he led her to the way to the door.