The skyline of Bonifacio Global City pulsed with wealth and ambition, but no building gleamed brighter tonight than the Vera Luxe Tower. From its rooftop Sky Garden down to its marble-laced lobby, every inch of the tower screamed legacy, money, and perfection - much like the woman finally returning to it.
After five years away from Manila, Jade Vera was back.
The Maserati purred to a stop in front of the entrance, its doors opening like an unveiling. Flashbulbs exploded almost instantly.
She stepped out, tall and composed, wrapped in an emerald-green gown that dipped low at the back and shimmered like a jewel under the camera lights.
Her chin tilted upward, her expression calm - the kind of calm that costs you years of therapy and quiet heartbreak.
The press surged.
Photographers: "Miss Vera! Can you face this way?"
Another: "Is it true you're back for good?"
Someone else: "Are you taking over the company now?"
Jade: [soft smile, no words]
She didn't answer. Not because she was being rude - but because she no longer had the energy to give people pieces of herself she couldn't afford to lose.
She walked forward. Unbothered. Unreachable.
But beneath the surface, her heart pounded - like it always did when memories threatened to crawl back.
Crystal chandeliers sparkled over the heads of the elite. The room pulsed with soft jazz, luxury perfumes, and expensive laughter. Waiters carried trays of hors d'oeuvres-caviar toast, foie gras tartlets, gold-dusted macarons.
Jade scanned the room slowly.
It was the same scene she had left behind: the powerful pretending to be kind, the beautiful pretending to be modest. And still, she moved through it all with the ease of someone born into this world... even if she no longer felt part of it.
A familiar voice pierced the buzz.
Ally: "Jade freakin' Vera?! As in my best friend? Alive?! Breathing?! In a gown?!"
Jade: [smiling slightly] "Disappointed?"
Ally: [throws her arms around her] "Girl, I thought you went full monk mode in Europe. Like... joined a cult. Or married a duke. Or both."
Jade: "Sadly, no dukes. Just therapy. And solitude."
Ally: [pulls away to look at her] "Tara. You're not getting away with vague answers. Come on, let's hide somewhere and do what we do best."
Jade: "Which is?"
Ally: "Judging rich people while drinking overpriced alcohol."
They both laughed, and for a second, the tension in Jade's chest loosened.
The two sat in a velvet booth with glasses of French champagne. Ally ordered a plate of truffle fries "to balance the bubbles."
Ally: "So... where have you really been, Jade? I know the press said Switzerland, but that's PR. You ghosted everyone. Even me."
Jade: [quietly] "I needed to get away. From everything."
Ally: "Because of... Lance?"
Jade didn't speak.
The silence stretched.
Jade: "He was the only person who didn't expect anything from me. With him... I could be still. I didn't have to perform."
Ally: "You loved him."
Jade: "More than I knew was possible."
Her voice cracked at the edges. Ally reached over, squeezing her hand.
Ally: "You don't have to explain. But I'm glad you're here."
Jade nodded, taking a sip of champagne. But her eyes drifted away - toward the giant LED screen as the program resumed.
Clips played of the Vera Luxe Medical Missions - footage of community work, surgical outreaches, and recovery centers in far-flung provinces. The crowd clapped politely, but Jade leaned forward slightly when a short clip rolled in:
A blurred shot of a man in surgical scrubs, standing over a patient. Mask pulled off. Eyes focused. Hair damp with sweat. Something about his posture - steady, almost reverent - struck her.
She felt it before she understood it.
Jade: "Who is that?"
Ally: [peering] "That? One of their new outreach doctors. Grabe daw 'yan. May na-save in a helicopter. Viral story last year. Parang Dr. Stranger vibes."
Jade: "Name?"
Ally: "Dr. Chase something... Miller? Hindi local. Quiet type. Wala sa socials. Total mystery."
The image faded from the screen. Jade blinked like she'd missed a step on the stairs.
Jade stepped out onto the Sky Garden, away from the noise. The city stretched below, alive and infinite.
She walked toward the edge, where the glass railing framed the skyline like art.
From her clutch, she pulled a small red string bracelet - the thread frayed at the edges.
It had been tied around her wrist by Lance, three weeks before his accident.
Lance: "They say there's an invisible red string that connects us to the one we're meant for. No matter how far, how long... it'll never break."
She used to laugh at it.
Now she clung to it.
Jade: [to herself] "I still feel you. I just don't know where."
At the far end of the garden, hidden by shadow and vines, a man stood in stillness. He had arrived minutes ago, unnoticed.
Dressed in a black suit, hands in his pockets.
On his wrist - a nearly identical red string.
He watched her for a heartbeat longer. Then turned and disappeared silently back inside, leaving only the faintest trace of presence in the air.
Jade never saw him.
But her skin tingled.
Her breath caught.
Like someone had passed through her soul.
You know that feeling?
When someone walks into the room,
but your body reacts before your eyes even see them?
I felt that tonight.
A pull.
A thread.
As if something - or someone - was calling me back to a fate I tried to escape.
And for the first time in five years...
I wasn't sure I could ignore it.
YOU ARE READING
The One I Cannot Touch
Romance"How do you love someone who carries the heart of the man you already lost?" Jade Celestine Vera is rich, guarded, and grieving - still haunted by the death of her fiancé five years ago. Dr. Chase Alexander Miller is Manila's top trauma surgeon, sav...
