Office Diaries - Chapter 141

Alvin rolled Jena over so they could lie in a spoon position. His arm firmly wrapped around her middle while his other hand ċȧrėssed her hair, soothing her. This was it. It was now or never. He would tell the truth, he decided as he started with his story.

“When I was young, I was so addicted to dance,” he began and Jena frowned wondering what this story got to do with her confession about Sam’s father, but she kept quiet and listened as she promised she would.

“Back then, I had an agreement with my parents. They’d let me dance as long as I’d like but once I graduated from college, I’d leave it and start focusing on handling our business. They even booked me a flight to the US the day after my graduation. Well, for me that was okay. I understood that I could never dance forever but I loved the dance floor so much I’d agree to anything as long as I could be on it.”

Jena turned her head to glance at his face. She still had no idea where this was going.

“Eight years ago, when I was twenty, I was still so addicted to dancing and showed off whenever I could,” Alvin snorted as if he was laughing at his old self. “I always went to this club where I was pretty known as the king of dance. Nobody could ever beat me back then,” he continued making Jena more confused.

“But on my last night, the night after my graduation, after my last performance, someone made me forget about dancing. Hell, I even forgot that I was still kneeling on the dance floor with many people watching me. My mind just went blank. My eyes were focused only on the beautiful person I saw sitting just a few feet away from me. She was so beautiful, she put angels to shame. It was love at first sight for me,” he added and he felt Jena tense in his arms once again but she didn’t stop his story.

“My friends picked me up from the dance floor and that’s the only time that I remembered where I was. But I still kept my eyes on my angel, and I was so displeased over the fact that there was someone who kept on bugging that person. I was so jealous but couldn’t do anything about it. If it weren’t for my friends, I wouldn’t have the courage to go and wait for the angel so I could introduce myself.”

If ever, Jena became more tensed after listening to this? Even if she knew this was in the past, it was not really nice to hear about her husband’s past relationship.

“I waited and waited outside but when the angel didn’t come out, I returned inside the club to see her drinking a glass of wine. She looked like she’d never drunk it before and so I went to the restroom to relieve myself first.”

“Restroom?” Jena asked, interrupting for the first time as her heart began to pound.

“Yes. Restroom,” Alvin answered. “I was thinking of ways on how to approach my angel when the angel herself entered the restroom. She was too out of it that she entered the male restroom instead of the ladies’ and she was sick. She looked like she would throw up or faint and so I asked what was wrong.”

After he spoke, he watched as Jena’s eyes widened. It looked as if her memories of something similar had come rushing back. On the other hand, just as Alvin had predicted, Jena was indeed reminiscing blurred pieces of memory— what she could recall that fateful night.

Entering the restroom, Jena felt her body begin to burn, her breathing turning ragged as her vision started to blur.

“What’s going on?” she whispered as she desperately clung to consciousness.

“Hey, are you okay?” a kind voice inquired, but her vision was already too blurry to recognize the stranger’s face.

“Hey!” the voice called out again, but for Jena, it was just a distant echo as darkness claimed her.

For Jena, even though she wasn’t able to see the stranger’s face, she could remember his kind voice.

Could it be?

She wanted to ask as she turned around to face her husband, to search his face. Could it be? Her eyes asked the question, but instead of answering, Alvin continued his story.

“The angel fell on the floor, but I caught her before she hit her head. Then the annoying guy who’d been pestering my love came to the restroom. He was so happy to see my angel fall that I nearly slammed his face in the toilet bowl. He wanted to take the unconscious angel home you see, but I wouldn’t let him.”

Jena gasped. By now she had an inkling that it was her he was talking about and felt horrified upon

“I demanded – I asked what was given to the angel. She was so obviously drugged but it wasn’t and ordinary drug. She was whimpering in pain. As it turned out she was given a huge dose of aphrodisiac,” Alvin said grimly, remembering that night and Jena somewhat could remember the painful burning sensation she felt and her heart beat faster.

“Was that….me?” Jena asked in a small voice which reflected her silent prayer. Was it possible that it was Alvin who found her after all?

“Yes. The one who I fell in love at first sight with was you,” he answered softly and Jena felt weak, relief flooding over her system like a warm balm.

“Oh God,” she sobbed against Alvin’s ċhėst as she wrapped her arms around him, clinging onto him for dear life as she cried.

Alvin didn’t stop his story there. He wrapped his arms around her as well as he continued on with his story.

“We found out you were from a strict school and so my friends and I brought you to my apartment instead of your dorm. They left you there with me,” he said as he lifted her crying face to look at his wife in the eye.

“Before we took you to my apartment, we had tried our best to make you vomit the drug out. But you have already absorbed some so we were not able to make you come back to your senses.”

Alvin knew that he sounded apologetic and he was indeed apologizing. But he was very much aware that if he really, really put his mind into it, he could withstand the temptation regardless of the reason and wouldn’t have touched her if he didn’t want.

The bottom line was that he wanted her.

“You were crying in pain. The dosage of the drug was high— but that’s just an excuse. The truth was that I love you so much. I made love to you that night because I wanted to have you for myself. I love you. It was me. I’m Sam’s father,” he confessed and Jena cried harder.

“I was shocked to see you gone the next day. I tried looking for you but you were nowhere to be found. I had a flight to catch in the afternoon so I had no choice but to leave. I returned though. I returned after two months only to find you had been kicked out of school.”

Alvin was totally scandalized at how cruel the school had been. As soon as he returned to Taiwan, he tried his best to mess with the school’s finances by making companies stop donating to it.

“I asked the office and the people there where you might have gone but they all didn’t know. I stayed here in Taiwan for a week, hoping to find you, but I came empty handed. I returned to America not knowing what happened to you. I didn’t know about Sam. If I’d known… If I’d known I would have searched harder,” he whispered, his voice cracking up with emotions he had been keeping for so long.

All those frustrations he felt when he couldn’t find Jena came rushing back, making him as teary eyed as his wife. If he just pushed himself more in looking for her, he would have found her sooner. The truth would have been easier to tell than now. He couldn’t help but cry also about the years that were lost— the years they spent apart.

“I’m so sorry. I didn’t think of the hardships you might have gone through when I made love to you. I just love you. I love you too much,” Alvin couldn’t help his own tears from falling, realizing the extent of the damage he’d done to her physically, mentally, and emotionally.

“And I’m so sorry for not telling you sooner because I was so scared that you’d run away from me. I didn’t want to lose you. I’m sorry for keeping this secret from you. But please understand that it’s because I love you too much. I love you and our son.”