The Stars Trilogy (86 page)

Celine looked at her mother sharply. She knew her mom. When she really liked someone, she would treat him like a king, just like how she treated her husband and son. Dare was starting to get that special treatment already, the wily bastard.

“Don’t worry, Ma’am, I’m no stranger to rice. I go to Chinese and Japanese restaurants and they usually have rice in their menu.”

“Good. You should stay longer here in the Philippines. Celine can cook for you. She’s a great cook.”

“Mom!” She glared at her mother.

“Oh but you have been studying in those culinary schools, haven’t you, darling?”

She gritted her teeth. She did study how to cook and the sole reason was to someday impress Dare with her cooking like a dutiful wife. Eww! thinking about her motivation then made her want to retch now. She was such a doormat! What man would want a bloody doormat?

“You will get married,” Teddy declared.

Celine nearly spewed the food in her mouth. She grabbed her water goblet and drank all the contents. She stared at her father.

“You’re pregnant,” her father stated flatly. “He is the father. You will get married.”

“Dad!” she protested.

“No more arguments, Celine,” Jordan said, his tone as serious as their father’s.

“But I don’t want to marry him?!”

“Really?” Jordan smirked at her.

My God, if he’d mention anything about her past delusions in front of Dare, she would strangle him with his Gucci neck tie! Thank God, her brother shut up and continued eating.

“
Hija,
that is only the natural thing to do, right?” said her mother. “We can’t have you having a baby without a husband. It is simply unacceptable. What will they say about you and our family? Now, Dare here is willing to marry you. And we accepted his offer.”

Oh, so Dare proposed to THEM first?! How clever! “Willing?! You make it sound like a shotgun wedding, Mom! He is not willing! He doesn’t believe in marriage! He just got divorced! From his third wife!”

That got to her mother who nervously looked at her husband.

“I know my reputation precedes me, but people change when they meet the right person,” Dare interjected.

She rolled her eyes. “Oh please! The last time I heard you mention marriage was in connection with landing a multi-million dollar partnership. Have you been discussing business with Dad and Jordy?” she asked him accusingly.

“No, Celine. I’m here to marry you without conditions,” he replied gently.

Her jaw dropped.
Without conditions? Hah! My ass!
“What, are you, crazy?! You?” She gave a short laugh.

He just smiled. “You can say that again.”

“That’s nonsense,” Jordan protested.” Of course, there are going to be conditions. I will draft your prenup myself.”

“If there should be one, it will not come from me. Suit yourself, Jordan,” Dare replied calmly.

Now they were discussing as if her voice didn’t even matter! “Dad, I don’t––”

“Enough, Celine!” his father’s tone rose. “I have been putting up with your crazy antics since you were a little girl. We have spoiled you rotten. You went to the US to be with him. You lied to us!”

“Dad...”

“Still, we tried our best to understand you. You nearly killed us when you disappeared in the jungle––”

“That was my fault, Sir,” Dare interrupted.

Teddy speared Dare with a hard look. Dare shut up.

Her father continued his lecture. “You went against our wishes again when you decided to follow him back to America after the crash. You publicly declared yourself as his mistress! Then you came back to us pregnant! You have embarrassed this family too much!”

She dropped her eyes to her plate, her shoulders hunched. Guilt assaulted her at her father’s harsh words. They were all true, of course.

“You have done enough damage to our name. It’s time for you to clean up your mess. You will get married this month. We will go back to Manila today. You will hold a press-conference next week to announce your engagement,” her father said his piece as if wrapping a business transaction. “Is that understood?”

“Yes, Sir,” Dare said.

She remained silent. She hated being  outmaneuvered like this. She  was totally outnumbered, too.

Her mother clapped her hands. “Well, that’s settled!”

“Now, go to your room and pack your things. We’ll leave in an hour,” her father ordered.

She stood up and left the table without a word.

The entire flight from El Nido to Manila seemed to take forever for Celine. She was seated beside Dare and they were facing her parents. For more than an hour, she endured the awkward tension and her own boiling frustration and resentment.

Dare amiably chatted with Marjorie as they were directly facing each other. Marjorie was obviously fond of Dare now. The prospect of having gorgeous, blue-eyed, fair-haired  grandchildren greatly appealed to her. Her mother told her so a while back. 

Her father kept silent. He was still mad at her.

Dare would glance at her but she won’t meet his eyes. She hadn’t spoken a single word to him since they left the island. She didn’t know why he was doing this. After brutally rejecting her  she was still reeling until now, he was here, getting cozy with her family, expressing his intention to be one of them. This was so unlike him. She didn’t trust him one bit. He can be really Machiavellian, she knew that first hand. She had no intention of becoming his next business transaction through a hollow marriage. Truth be told, she was way richer than all of his exes combined. Her father was worth billions, too, in dollars. She was a huge prize catch for any opportunist out there. God, she was getting cynical.

Dare killed her idealism.

The chopper landed at the helipad on top of the AZN building at almost  3 PM. Dare was taken by one of AZN’s luxury vehicles to the Peninsula Hotel where he was billeted. She went home with her parents.

Later that evening, they will have dinner together to talk about the details of their engagement.

Celine was impressed at how her mother had arranged everything on the fly. The dinner Marjorie was talking about turned out to be an intimate gathering of the Lavega clan to formally introduce and welcome Dare into their fold.

The Lavega mansion was bursting with activity when they arrived. Caterers were already setting up the pavilion for the party.

That night, the Lavega clan flocked around Dare, starstruck. She was so forgotten. Her cousins couldn’t get enough taking selfies with him. But they were all strictly forbidden to release any photo of Dare to the public yet or even talk about Dare in connection with the Lavega family. Any photo or tidbits leaked will be blamed on everybody, said Marjorie. In their clan, her mother was loved and respected by all and a real force to be reckoned with. Nobody would dare disobey Marjorie.

Everybody couldn’t seem to grasp the fact that Dare would soon be her husband and therefore would become just an ordinary human being, a member of their clan. But the way she saw it, it would be a while before they’d get used to treating Dare as a regular person. They’d seen too many movies of him where he was larger than life.

She also didn’t know how to deal with all this. It was a whirlwind thing. Her family took complete charge of her life from then on and she didn’t have the heart to object. At this point, she owed her parents too much to go against their wishes. She didn’t want to disappoint them anymore.

She still refused to talk to Dare even if he’d attempted to be alone with her many times. She made it a point to be always with her parents. He’d call her on the phone but she’d always dropped his calls. She only talked to Kelsey.

“Isn’t it great? Dare would be married to a Filipina and I’d have double reason to be frequenting the country as Drew is also a Filipino. You and Desiree should get to know each other. I really love your country! The people are so nice and warm. And I heard your beaches are awesome!”

“You should visit our island in Palawan, Kels. You’ll love it there.”

“Oh, I surely will! Dare told me it’s a paradise! I’m so happy that you and Dare are finally, getting along, my dear.”

“You know we’re not.”

“Aw, hunny, will you forgive him already? He’s learned his lesson, you know?”

“How can I forgive him when he’s using my family to get his way? He’s so devious, using his fans to blackmail me into marrying him? His fans would hate me if I dump him now!”

“Uhh, why would you dump him? He’s your dream guy, remember?”

Someone had been talking to Kelsey about her Darelusions. She was embarrassed about it now, cringing at the thought of the crazy things she did for Dare all these years. Eww! “I have to go, Kels. I’ll see you later.”

“Okay. Looking forward to meeting your family. Bye, hunny!”

Dare wasn’t used to having a family. After he’d lost Faye, he had no one to call as family. He had survived the last fifteen years of his life on his own. But he had very loyal people working for him at least, people who showed real concern for his well-being through the years. And he was thankful for those few people... Kelsey, Cruz, Rem and Sara, Uly....

And now, he was about to have his own family.

Celine’s family.

The Lavegas were a huge clan of extensive wealth and influence. But what really impressed him more was their closeness to each other. In America, this was rare. People there tended to mind their own business and would only get together during special occasions. He found out that the Lavegas partied together all the time.

Celine had uncles and aunts from both sides of her parents who really got along, at least from what he had seen so far. She probably had two dozens of cousins who seemed really tight.

The moment he stepped into the Lavega mansion that night, he was enveloped in warm welcome.

Jeez, these folks were touchy-feely. He had never been the recipient of so many hugs in his entire life.  Everybody came over to talk to him, make him feel at ease. The aunts were especially sweet to him, interviewing him about how he met Celine. He was prudent to answer their curious inquiries for the benefit of Celine.

He found instant camaraderie with Celine’s uncles. Everyone invited him to their homes. They all wanted to entertain him, take him around the country, introduce him to their friends. He felt like he found a new fraternity.

Jordan finally quit giving him the murderous look and invited him for a drink at Lothario, an exclusive gentleman’s club where he was a member. He said yes. Of course, he couldn’t say no to his future brother-in-law’s first peace-offering.

Celine’s father looked relaxed tonight and he started talking to him casually about business. He was only glad for the ice-breaker and he latched on it, dropping bits and pieces about his mineral-mining investments. Pretty soon, Teddy Lavega was clapping his shoulder, hinting at a future partnership.

Madame Marjorie was simply amazing. He can easily call her ‘Mom’. She would approach him every now and then, inquiring about his comfort. Such a thoughtful lady.

Celine’s cousins were aged fourteen to thirty, a few of them, already married. Her younger female cousins flocked around him, giggling and vying for his attention. The male cousins were especially interested in his car-racing adventures.

Everybody seemed to love him. Except Celine.

She avoided him all night, forced only to stand beside him when her parents told her to. She didn’t speak to him, didn’t even look at him unless he spoke to her. And their conversation would die the moment she answered his question.

Not that he blamed her for her coldness. He had to admit, he had railroaded her into this engagement. He was not a man who would waste too much time planning. He preferred decisive action. But God, how he missed her sweet smiles. Smiles that she used to gift him in abundance every day. He missed their talks, the way she would make him laugh. He missed her touch...her kisses...He missed making love to her, feeling her soft skin on his nakedness...It had been so long since they last made love and he didn’t know how long he could take this.

She was standing alone now, near the grand piano,  breathtakingly elegant in her simple lavender gown. He walked toward her.

He saw her become tensed as he approached.

“Will you play me a sonata?” he said, smiling.

“Do I need to?” she replied indifferently.

He sighed. “Celine...” he said in an imploring tone.

She sat on the piano bench. Seconds later, she was playing a piece by Wagner.

Her fingers were angry on the keyboard as she hit each note with extra force. By the time she  finished playing, the entire pavilion had become so quiet. All eyes were on them.

Celine stood up and bowed gracefully. She then exited the pavilion, her chin up and not a word to him. He was left standing there, watching her retreating figure in frustration. He wanted to go after her...

Marjorie rushed to his side. “Wasn’t that nice?”

He smiled. “Indeed, Ma’am, such a...powerful performance.”

Marjorie clasped his arm. “Dessert?”

He was comforted by the fact that this warm, sweet woman had raised Celine and one day soon, he would reap the benefits of being loved by a wife like this.

They walked together to the buffet table. He would grow fat as a moose if he wasn’t careful with Filipino food. They were simply delicious.

Dare was already too comfy with the local media.

Celine was peeved as Kelsey wasted no time in taking advantage of Dare’s presence in the country. Dare appeared again on AZN Channel, but in a business-oriented show. He was interviewed about being a director and a movie producer. He had hinted at the possibility of shooting his next movie in the Philippines.

Of course the entire country was loving him to bits already. If they only knew the truth!

Their rival TV networks were expressing their gripes because Dare won’t grant any appearance in their shows or even a simple interview.  Of course, he won’t as Dare was so busy trying to impress her folks with the power of his celebrity. True enough, all the shows where Dare had appeared annihilated their competitors in the ratings.