The CEO's Painted Skin 13 She's Gone!

John stared at the last message he received from Catherine for the last fifteen minutes. The more he re-reads it the more his heart keeps pounding hard on his rib cage.

He pressed call and waited for Catherine to answer the phone, but the voice machine says unattended, cannot be reached and so on. His uneasiness was growing with each minute that pa.s.ses by. With the last unanswered call, he called Ramon to ready the car. He donned the mask on his face and his baseball cap on his head in a hurry.

"Let's go to Catherine's house! She's not responding to my call!" he ordered.

Ramon saw the turmoil and uneasiness showing on his boss face. He fired the engine right away. His boss didn't even complain when he drove the car past the speed limit, he was thankful that there is almost zero police visibility in the area, or else he will be slapped with a speeding ticket fine.

They arrived in the village much faster though...thanks to his speedy driving!

Ramon immediately exited the driver's seat and rushed towards the nipa hut while John watched him nervously inside the car.

Ramon saw the padlocked door of the nipa hut. He asked the middle-aged woman sweeping dried leaves in the next house regarding the whereabouts of Catherine's family. The woman answered that the entire family migrated to the city. When Ramon asked her in which city, she replied with four cities in her mind...Marikina City, Pasay City, Caloocan City, and Cavite City.

Ramon sighed. It's clear that the woman was just playing the guessing game and she doesn't have any definite information where was Catherine's family was heading...he thanks her nonetheless and rushed back towards the car.

"Boss, Catherine's entire family migrated to the city as of today!"

The bad news was like a bomb that suddenly dropped from the sky straight towards John's heart. He closed his eyes feeling the pain gripping his heart. His mouth was twitching. His heart was bleeding internally due to the painful realization that his dear Catherine left him without saying goodbye.

"Let's try the bus station!" John barked at Ramon.

Ramon already ignited the car's engine even before his boss can utter a single word and the car was now speedily breezing towards Santa Monica's bus station.

During the ride, John and Ramon both knew that their chances of finding Catherine and her family in the bus station were slim, but they continue anyway just in case they were still there.

"Which city did Catherine migrate to, Ramon?" asked John.

Ramon glanced at his Boss face in the rearview mirror. "Thier neighbor mentioned four cities. Marikina City, Pasay City, Caloocan City, and Cavite City. Not sure which one is the right place."

John inhaled and exhaled air into his lungs. He was suddenly suffocating...

He pressed call on Catherine's number again, yet he heard the same annoying machine-generated message, unattended or not available. He gripped his cell phone hard almost to the point of breaking it.

When they arrived at the bus station it's nearly 5:00 PM. Ramon got out of the car and checked every bus that was scheduled to depart from the station. He never saw Catherine in any of them. He walked back to the car, shoulders both slumped on his side.

"Sorry Boss, they're gone," said Ramon saddened by the whole event. He got back into the driver's seat and waited for his boss next instruction. How could that girl break his boss heart?

John was silent for a few minutes, gripping with the pain of rejection and abandonment by the woman he truly comes to love in just a short time.

"Let's go back to the hacienda," said John in a dejected voice.

Ramon started the engine and navigated the car smoothly into the highway heading back to the hacienda, this time he drives the car with the normal speed limit.

John didn't speak during the entire drive.

After pa.s.sing some store, he ordered to stop the car and commanded Ramon to buy one case of beer or hard liquor, they also brought five kilos of roasted pig belly and roasted chicken.

"Let's have a feast and drink some liquor later when we're back in the house," John said in a somber tone. He wants to drown his sorrow and heartbreak with liquors.

Ramon knows what his Boss means. Every time John was bothered with something they would drink hard liquor all night long. He sighed. Just when he thought his Boss can finally be happy again after meeting Catherine, he was wrong!

After they arrived in the ancestral house, the two bodyguards prepared a table in the middle of the balcony and the roasted pig belly and roasted chicken was deliciously displayed in the platter above the table. The three bodyguards accompanied their boss in drinking the hard liquors and eating the yummy mouthwatering foods in the table all night long until 2:00 AM.

A few minutes later, the two bodyguards finally retreated downstairs for the night.

Ramon and John were left alone on the balcony...

"What do you think the reason why Catherine left me?" John finally asked his driver-bodyguard.

Ramon scratched his beard a few times before voicing his opinion.

"It could be that she wasn't ready for any serious relations.h.i.+p yet? She's young and still has a lot of things to do with her life, young women of today were more independent compared to the previous generation," answered Ramon.

John just stared at his companion with a blank expression.

"Another reason is that what happened between you two are too sudden, too fast for her liking, she's not ready yet, she may be puzzled, confused and suffered from lots of emotion surrounding the first time you meet each other."

Ramon keeps going with his opinions...

"A lot of things and reason is involved, Boss."Ramon finishes his sentence with one gulp of the hard liquor from his gla.s.s. Then start talking again. "I have my fair share of dealing with women before I married my wife. Women generally have pickled mind. They can change their mind at any minute. Sometimes they do things on impulse. What they feel inside might not what they will follow or act upon with later. Women are always a great mystery to us men, we will only understand one thoroughly if we captured one successfully and keep her on our side for a long time," he grinned.

"Or maybe she doesn't have any real feelings for me," said John sadly.

Ramon nodded. It's a big possibility too, he said to himself.

"But one thing is good though, Catherine was never the opportunist..."

John brows furrowed. "What you mean by that?"

"She knew that you're loaded. If she is some kind of an opportunist or gold digger girl, she might still be here sucking on you like a piranha, sucking your money dry," he laughed at his own joke.

Ramon realized his blunder too late and said..."I'm so sorry Boss," he said.

John ignored his companion's blunder and continues drinking his hard liquor. His eyes were glued to the distance and beyond where darkness resides.

Thirty minutes later...

Their drinking session ended.

John resigned to his room feeling sad, lonely and painfully rejected, abandoned by the woman he comes to love wholeheartedly.

He opened his cell phone and pressed call on Catherine's number.

Same bulls.h.i.+t machine-generated message! Unattended and cannot be reached. d.a.m.n!

Furious, he played their s.e.x video on his mobile device nonstop. Catherine's beautiful face comes into life, he calmed a little bit.

Before she successfully deleted her photos and their s.e.x video in his cell phone he already secured a copy of all on his laptop.

He smiled at Catherine. "I will find you Catherine! I will take you back in my arms!" he swore to himself.

A moment later he succ.u.mbed to sleep with their s.e.x video still playing repeatedly on his cell phone.