The Conspiracy of Silence

14th Silence

Everything was dark for him. The rope around him constrained his movements. The silent environment filled him with fear. For two days, he kept on calling Bea's name but to no avail. He vowed that if the kidnapper did anything to harm Bea, he will make that man's family suffer for the rest of their life.

"Bea... Bea..." he kept on chanting even though he's weak and thirsty.

"I'm here..." a familiar sweet voice immediately reached his ears from the distance. His head jerked to his front and slowly, he heard footsteps coming towards him.

"Bea? Are you okay? Did... Did he hurt you?" A slight smile peeked at the corner of his lips knowing that she's still alive. He wanted to hug her. He wanted to see her. He wanted to act like her hero so she wouldn't be scared.

But why... didn't she sound scared?

His lids fluttered open when she took the clothe that was covering on his eyes. A sigh of relief immediately poured into him after seeing her immaculate face. He smiled when she smiled.

"How did you escape?" he asked and checked her whole body for any signs of bruise.

"I brought you food!" she cheerfully pointed at the tray lying near his feet.

He frowned. "What are you doing? Untie me quickly before the kidnapper gets here..."

Her smile only grew wider by his words. "The kidnapper IS here."

He frantically looked around the empty space until his sight landed on Bea.  An absurd idea slowly formed in the pit of his mind and he quickly shook his head in denial. "No... no..."

"Oh, yes..." she grinned and her sweet tiny laughter echoed in the room.

He got played. She used him. Was her feelings for him even real?

He looked up and glared at her innocence. "What are you doing?"

"To show you how much I love you..." she patted her heart and gazed at him lovingly.

It softened him a bit. But when he remembered that she can staged a kidnapping scene to her own lover, he quickly became vigilant.

"I love you..." she whispered with an angel's voice, so sweet and fetching.

His heart went wild. This was the first time she said those three words to him. But she looked cunning like a fox. And that silent smirk lurking on her sweet lips was itching to come out and ridicule him.

"Do you?" he spatted out

Her head gently bobbed at the question. The hand he so lovingly held before touched his cheek now in a caressing manner. How can she acted so sweet yet ruthless?

"How can I not love a guy like you?" He gasped when this conversation was very familiar in his mind. It was like that sweet scene they shared was retaliating him now.

"You have everything... especially wealth." She flicked a peso coin in the air and it instantly landed on her waiting palm. "I love you as much as this. Because for an orphan girl like me... a peso coin is everything. Money... is everything."

"So all this is because of money?! You love me because of my money?! You should have just waited for me to marry you rather than staging something like this! Then I wouldn't be hurt like this after seeing your true color..."

A tear was forming at the corner of his eyes, knowing that he was fooled in love. He love her with no condition and here he was, tied and helpless. She only love him because of money. What a sucker he was.

"You can't marry someone like me, Alden. Your parents will do everything to prevent that. I'll be leaving the orphanage soon when I reach 18. And you will have to study abroad after high school. I have to seek financial support before any of those happen. So I have no choice but to utilize what I have that is within my reach."

He flinched in disgust when she touched his cheek. "The ransom money will arrive later. Thank you for sincerely loving me. I will hold on to that love that you will never tell them that I am your true kidnapper. You don't want to hurt me, right?"

How did this happen? The kind, shy, and innocent Bea can actually be a cunning, smart bitch who knows how to use her pretty face to her advantage. Wow... she was really one of a kind. She wrapped him around her fingers. Blinded him with her beauty. Fooled him with fake affections. And now, she slaved him into silence.

Worst, he couldn't make himself hate her. He couldn't bring himself to be the cause of her misery. He couldn't tell the police of what really happened... the whole truth.

"You must be sad to have such parents..." she empathized while they were inside the car. Police cars were hovering behind them, quickly gaining their speed. "I'd rather die as the sweet, pretty Bea that loves you dearly. And you can never hate a dead person that you sincerely love."

His eyes went round when she suddenly stood up and messed around the steering wheel. Her accomplice went wild at the sudden disturbance and the car swerved at the intersected road. The tie on his hand and feet rendered him helpless and could only watch the next scene that took place. When the trailer truck hit their car... when the vehicle toppled away from the road... when he woke up and saw the bleeding Bea...

Alden frantically thought of ways to escape. He couldn't let them both die. He shouldn't let her escape her sin by death. He have to make her suffer by living. She doesn't deserve death!

He gasped when she touched his tear-stricken face and pinched it hard. A gesture he abhor from that moment on.

"Sorry..." she mouthed and immediately pushed him out of the car with all her might.

He stumbled out of the dangerous vehicle in time of the rescuers to arrive on the site. They saw the scene and the team leader immediately shouted his order.

"Save the boy!"

Fear conquered the boy's eyes as they drag him out of the danger zone. He saw the fire creeping dangerously near the car. He saw her smiling at him with a regretful look. He saw himself reaching his hand towards her.

Yet in the end, Bea happily waited for the fire to eat her up. Because she saved him. Because he owed her his life.

The bitch immediately became the victim and the hero in this tragic event. Everybody remembered her as the sweet, pretty Bea that offered her life for the man she loves. Everybody likes her, loves her... except him. Alden Faulkerson.

He spent his last voice screaming her name not because of compassion but of rage. It was a cry of a broken boy to his lover whom he wanted to skin alive.

"Bea!"

Agad na napabangon si Alden mula sa masamang panaginip. Basang-basa ng pawis ang buo niyang katawan. Inis na napahilamos siya ng kamay sa mukha. Ngayon lang uli bumalik ang alaala niya kay Bea mula ng nagkalapit sila ni Maine. What happened yesterday was a mistake. Hindi siya dapat bumigay.

He saw something in Maine that reminded him of Bea. Nagpanic siya dahil unti-unting lumalaki ang control ni Maine sa puso at isip niya. Takot siyang maulit na naman ang nangyari. Ayaw na niyang ginagago siya uli.

And even if he will give himself to Maine, he's not sure she'll accept it with genuine sincerity. Lalo na at nagkakamabutihan ito at ang ex nito. He's afraid that she's just faking her affection towards him para mabilis na ma-solba ang kaso niya.

No one should know the truth. He should lock himself in silence. He should start distancing himself to Maine.