Felix found his sibling looking for something among their deceased parents' belongings. The belongings were scattered.
"Jen, what are you looking for there?" Felix calmly asked Jenny.
"Brother." Jenny just muttered and stopped rummaging through the things then. Maybe Jenny just noticed that he has come home now.
"What are you looking for?" He asked the question again.
"Brother," she spoke hesitantly. "I saw the past." Jenny couldn't help but say it.
He furrowed his brow. "What do you mean?" He asked his sister in confusion.
"A woman was shot, and she was carrying an old notebook. But what I remember is that that notebook was stained with blood." His sibling replied to him, looking at him with fear and concern.
Notebook? Woman? The notebook was stained with blood. A fragmented memory formed in Felix's mind.
He just couldn't remember where he had seen the notebook Jenny was talking about. He saw hands holding that notebook.
His sister's gasp brought him back to reality. "Brother." He immediately approached Jenny, holding a photo she found among their parents' belongings.
He looked at it, a picture of a group of young women happily smiling.
"That's the one I saw, brother. He sustained a bullet wound while clutching a notebook. I'm not mistaken." His sibling looked at him intently.
Is this one of Mom's classmates? In his confused mind, the only question was whether he should quickly look at the back of the photo. He saw a name on the back of the photo, and he clenched his fist. Felix was not mistaken; the name he saw belonged to his mother, and what was even more surprising was that her friend was Fuego's former wife, his first wife, and their mother, Ellese.
Felix found himself submerged and unsure of his current location. He was still holding the picture of his parents from before.
"Help me." That was the only thing he heard then; he saw two shadows, followed them, and noticed who was talking.
"Mom." Felix merely mentioned that in his journey, he cannot touch the people he sees, and the painful part is that he is just an observer of past events.
"What help can I give you?" He heard his kind mother say it back then, her worried voice looking at the one asking for help.
The woman sobbed into her palm before continuing. "Assist us in escaping the terrible situation I find myself in right now." Her voice was filled with sorrow and fear.
"Terrible? What happened to you?" Alarmed by what they heard from the other person, this individual asked only one question.
"Take us away from him, please, Riza. Please help me and my children." She said.
Rizalyn Sheena Tejero-Blanco is the real name of his mother. Felix just clenched his fists. He now thinks his parents' deaths were planned by the enemy, not an accident.
"Calm down, Bella; I won't understand you if you don't explain to me what your husband did to you and your children." Felix's mother spoke with an authoritative voice.
He even saw her hand tremble.
It still couldn't answer; it could see the hesitation of whether to say this to the person it was talking to.
"I want to say that if something happens to me, please don't bother my husband." She even said this while crying.
He saw the confusion on his mother's face.
"That husband I thought would defend me, that family I dreamed of, he hides greed behind his beautiful name." The woman said.
"W—What greed are you referring to?" Rizalyn asked her companion.
Bella swallowed before speaking. "His being a reliable and respected mayor in the town of Regondo hides his true nature and wickedness. I observed him selling drugs and participating in illicit activities, commonly referred to as the black market. He told me that if I stay quiet and become an obedient mother to my children, nothing will happen, but I'm scared." She looked at her companion.
Rizalyn swallowed at that moment; she didn't speak; she knew her companion had more to say.
"I was pretending to be blind back then. I started to feel fear, not fear for myself, but fear for my children. I tried to bring back what was before until he took me to the warehouse."
Felix's ears perked up at that moment, so he turned to the conversation.
"Warehouse?" The only thing he heard was his kind mother's question.
"On the Fuego's property, on the Fuego's land, a large warehouse stands."
"What is in that warehouse?" That was his mother's sole inquiry.
She didn't speak right away. "Bella!" That was all her mother said.
"Where the heinous crime is taking place… they are not just being killed… they are being slaughtered like animals. I ended up there because he brought me," Bella said, holding her hair and trying to close her eyes tightly.
"There—there, my mind broke, my heart broke," Bella paused. "I could clearly hear the cries of the young women, begging for help and looking at me pleadingly. Even if I wanted to—but I was afraid of my husband back then. I could hear their cries and screams as they were being hurt repeatedly."
Bella broke down and cried into her hands. "With every blink, my conscience consumes me. I can no longer pretend to be blind. What will happen to my children if they experience the same fate? I was scared, Riza; I don't know where to ask for help." Bella said.
He even saw his mother hugging her friend, trying to comfort her.
He returned to their house still holding the picture.
"Brother?" was all his sibling asked back then.
He looked at Jenny. "They are friends, Jenny. Our parents were not victims of an accident; they were victims of murder." He said back then that he witnessed the incident.
"Their mother, Ellese, asked our parents for help back then."
He simply laughed, as if he had lost his mind. Their paths are truly converging now; they have no escape from what they are facing.
He will continue the investigation.
"Jenny, call Thalia now." Felix ordered his sister.
He even saw Greg standing there, watching them.
"Sister, Brother, Ellese said, "We shouldn't force ourselves to get involved any further."
Felix could only sigh at what he heard.
"Really, Ellese? We're all involved. We will persist in our pursuit until we discover its conclusion." That's all he could say.
Someone held his arm.
Don't let your emotions take over right now, Felix. He only heard his cousin say.