"Still drinking your coffee black?"
Maia's voice slithered into Charlie's office like smoke—uninvited, unwanted, but lingering.
Charlie looked up from his desk. "Maia."
She smiled, sauntering in like she belonged. Wearing a crisp white dress, pearls, and that same old perfume—expensive, intoxicating, suffocating.
"I was nearby," she said, placing a coffee cup on his table. "Thought you'd need one. Alam ko 'yung gusto mo, remember?"
Charlie didn't touch it.
"What do you want?" he asked.
Maia pouted. "Why do you always think I want something?"
"Because you always do."
She laughed. "You're colder now. Sexy, but sad. Like whiskey without the burn."
Charlie sighed and stood up, walking toward the window. The city stretched beyond the glass—concrete, moving, indifferent.
Maia followed him. "Do you really think she fits into this world?"
"Don't."
"Charlie, be real. Peachy is a fantasy. A little pink bubble in your gray, grown-up life. She's cute. But she's not built for this."
"She's stronger than you think."
"But not stronger than me." Maia's voice turned steel. "You think she can survive this family? Your father? This hotel? Me?"
Charlie clenched his jaw.
Maia stepped closer. "I still remember how to break you, Charlie. But I also remember how to put you back together. Don't forget that."
Meanwhile, Peachy stared at her phone screen, a message unsent for the third time:
"Hi. I hope you're okay. Just wanted to say... I'm okay too. I think."
She sighed and erased it again.25Please respect copyright.PENANAFePo1k07Oq
A soft kick in her stomach reminded her she wasn't alone.
She hadn't gone back to the hotel in five days. No calls from Charlie. No explanations. Only silence.
The kind that confirms your worst fears.
"Buntis ka?" Patty asked flatly, holding the pregnancy test Peachy had finally shown her.
Peachy nodded slowly.
Patty's hands trembled, her voice low. "And the father is...?"
Peachy gave her a soft, sad smile. "Yung alam mo na."
"Ano'ng plano mo?"
"I don't know."
Patty sat beside her, silent for a long time. Then, "Hindi ako galit, Peach. Nag-aalala lang ako. Kasi ikaw 'yung laging nagbibigay. 'Yung laging sumusuko. And now..."
She touched her sister's stomach gently. "You're about to give everything."
Back at Mo Hotels, Charlie hadn't left his office all day.
Reports, meetings, revisions. Work kept his mind full and heart numb.
But every time he passed the hallway near the event garden, his feet hesitated.
The sticky notes were gone.
No pink ink.
No little words taped on mugs, mirrors, or bulletin boards.
Just cold efficiency.
Just silence.
He stared at a spot near the staff pantry wall. The last note she'd left there used to say:25Please respect copyright.PENANAn7fg6lYrDB
"You're doing better than you think."
Now, it was just white paint.
Charlie was reading through inventory papers when his grandmother's nurse entered his office.
"Sir Charlie," she said softly. "Ma'am Linsay is asking for you."
He arrived in Linsay's room fifteen minutes later. She looked weaker today, her eyes shadowed.
"Where is the girl?" she asked immediately.
Charlie sat down beside her. "Gone."
"Gone as in 'break'? Or 'you let her go like an idiot'?"
He didn't answer.
"Charlie," she said, voice barely audible. "You have two choices: live like your father, or choose something—someone—worth fighting for."
"She left," he murmured. "She disappeared."
"No, you disappeared first."
Maia leaned against her steering wheel, watching the hotel entrance from her car.
No sign of her.
She smirked to herself.
It worked.
All it took was one well-timed coffee visit and a few carefully chosen words.
Peachy wasn't built for this world. That was true.
But Charlie still was.
And he belonged to her.
At least, that's what she told herself.
Peachy spent her nights writing sticky notes again. Not for other people—but for herself.
She posted them on her bedroom wall.
"You are not the absence."25Please respect copyright.PENANAJXjYctaiRf
"He doesn't define your worth."25Please respect copyright.PENANAN1RNvx3yjM
"The baby is real. The pain is temporary."
Still, every now and then, her fingers hovered over her phone.
Still, she didn't call.
Because the Charlie she kissed that night?
He didn't come back.
Patty watched her sister in silence from the hallway. Saw how Peachy folded her little notes with shaking fingers. Saw how her eyes stayed bright—still hopeful, still fighting—but now with shadows underneath.
Patty had always thought Peachy was too soft. Too fragile.
But watching her now, she finally saw the truth.
Her sister wasn't weak.
She was brave enough to hope—even after being broken.
And Charlie?
He sat in his office, surrounded by numbers, power, legacy.
But none of it warmed him.
Because somewhere between ghosts and guilt...
He'd lost the only person who ever believed in his light.
End of Chapter 12.
25Please respect copyright.PENANA9w7ToAYyPW