The drive back to his mother's house felt different this year.
Matthew sat in the back of his Lexus LM500, the city lights of Manila reflecting off the car's tinted windows. BGC was still buzzing with late-night Christmas Eve celebrations, but as he moved toward Quezon City, the streets grew quieter. The pandemic had changed the way people celebrated, but the warmth of the season remained.
For the first time in a long time, Matthew wasn't thinking about Sentinel Systems, investors, or billion-peso deals. His mind was on his family.
He had been so caught up in work, expansion, and making Sentinel a global powerhouse that he hadn't realized just how much things had changed for them.
His mother, Teresa, wasn't struggling anymore.
His brother, Marco, wasn't stuck in a dead-end job.
Even his father, Ramon Sr., seemed… different.
And this time, when he visited, it wasn't out of guilt. It was because he wanted to.