Before Everything Changed
Some stories begin with a first kiss.
Others begin with a confession.
Mine?
Mine began with a baby.
Not a baby that came from a love story.
Not from a wedding.
Not from a man promising forever.
But from a decision I made entirely on my own.
My name is Alexandra Dela Vega aka Alex.
I was born in Switzerland, raised in a family wealthy enough to give me almost anything I could ever ask for.
A diamond-spoon baby.
Rich-rich.
But money was never the reason I became who I was.
My father taught me that.
He taught me how to be independent despite having everything handed to me.
He taught me that having more didn't make me better than anyone else.
And after my mother went to heaven, he became the person who never left my side.
So when I decided I wanted to become a mother, he didn't ask me why I wasn't waiting for a husband.
He simply asked me—
"Are you sure?"
I looked at him and smiled.
"Yes, Dad. I'm sure."
And that was enough.
I flew from Switzerland to Venice, Italy.
I stayed there for one year and five months.
One year and five months of appointments.
One year and five months of uncertainty.
One year and five months of carrying a dream that I didn't know would eventually become the biggest love of my life.
Then I came home to the Philippines.
Pregnant.
Alone—but never lonely.
Because I had my father.
My four best friends.
And a family waiting for me.
I thought that was all I needed.
I thought my life was already perfectly planned.
I was wrong.
Because somewhere inside the same hospital where I was preparing to bring my baby into the world, another family walked through the doors.
The OngFam.
A family known by millions.
A loud, chaotic, loving family led by Geo and Janice Ong.
They weren't there because of business.
They weren't there because they knew my family.
They weren't there because they knew me.
They were there because their youngest—
Astrid "Mei-Mei" Ong, a one-year-old little girl—was sick.
And that was the only reason our paths crossed.
I didn't know them.
They didn't know me.
And none of us knew that one ordinary hospital visit would eventually connect two completely different worlds.
I didn't know that I would meet Jeo Ong.
I didn't know that the quietest person in the room would somehow become the person who could make my carefully controlled life feel completely out of control.
I didn't know that his family would eventually become another home for me.
And I definitely didn't know that one day, they would stop calling me simply Red...
and give me a name that only they were allowed to call me.
But before all of that—
Before the love.
Before the family.
Before the laughter.
Before the chaos.
There was just a hospital office.
A sick one-year-old girl.
A family of strangers.
And a heavily pregnant woman who casually walked through the door during labor, looked at everyone inside, and said—
"Don't mind me."
That woman was me.
And that was the moment...
everything began.
