Olivia spent the entire drive back to Laoag with her hands clenched together in her lap. The passing fields outside the window blurred into long strokes of green and brown, but she barely saw any of it. Her mind sat heavy with the echoes of Helena’s words at the city hall, the venom in her mother’s voice, and the quiet, tired shame on her father's face.
Renato Salvador had never defended her. Not once. Yet when Helena attacked, he had looked at Olivia with something unfamiliar. Something that resembled sorrow. It was enough to unsettle her.
By the time the car entered their compound, her heart ached with a confusing mixture of guilt and duty. She stepped out, clutched her folder to her chest, and found Simon in his office, the door open, the glow of his desk lamp casting sharp shadows ac
