The Billionaire's Enchantress

  Ria’s POV “Thank you so much Mr. Lawson for supporting my studies. I owe you a lot.” I hugged him tightly to show my gratitude and how much I appreciated everything that he did for me. “You’re welcome Ria. You deserve everything that you have right now. You are hardworking and very smart. I can see you will be very successful one day.” answered Mr. Lawson who keeps smiling since the time he arrived at the graduation venue. Words are not enough to describe my happiness right now. Slowly, I am achieving my dreams. I only want simple things in life… to finish my studies, have a good decent work, and raise my own family someday. “And how many times did I tell you not to call me Mr. Lawson? It’s Uncle Jaime. You are way too formal. You know how much I care for you.” He said while my mind was elsewhere. I smiled widely at what he said. “ Yes, Uncle Jaime. I owe you everything that I have right now.” I am teary-eyed because of so much happiness. I just can’t control my emotions. It is a dream come true. Never in my wildest dreams that I could finish school in one of the best and highly-respected universities in the country. It is not easy to get in this university. It’s either you have the money or you are smart. The tuition fee alone just for one semester is enough to build a low cost housing for a poor family like where I came from. “Hey, I am not asking you to pay me back.” replied Uncle Jaime. “You brought yourself to this level since you are extremely smart and determined young woman.” Praising me more and I can’t stop myself from getting flattered over what he said. “You graduated as magna c*m laude. That’s a great achievement!” He couldn’t stop praising me and I just felt proud of myself and realized how far I’ve gone since I became an orphan. I really worked hard to finish my education. I invested all my time and energy on my studies. I never entertained any suitors since they were just distractions aside from the fact that it was not in my head to have a boyfriend. I needed to maintain my good grades. That was my main focus to keep my academic scholarship. I was an orphan at the age of 8. My father passed away when I was a baby. I only saw him from pictures that mom showed me. My mother succumbed to a heart failure. She had been very sad and lonely over the passing of my father. She was not able to recover from her grief and became weak and sickly.  I was left in the orphanage which was managed by my aunt. She took good care of me and sent me to school until I finished highschool. Aunt Alice has been very nice to me. She treats me like her own daughter. She is the younger sister of my mom and she never has her own family. She devoted her life taking care of the orphans like me. I stayed in the orphanage until my highschool years. I helped Aunt Alice while growing up with the other kids. It was fun to form friendships with the other kids but those were shortlived. All of them went to different families who adopted them. I stayed with Aunt Alice as she is my only family. I love her so much. She is like a mother to me. I never really had a deeper relationship with other people during my childhood except Aunt Alice and not even with my mom. As far as I could remember, my mom has always been sickly and sad. She was a loner and didn’t talk that much. Despite everything, I know deep in my heart that she loves me. That is enough. I couldn’t ask for more. I could see in those soft brown eyes of her before she passed away how much I meant to her. I am sure that mom would be truly happy if she were here. “Hey, a penny for your thoughts?” Uncle Jaime said while still smiling. His happiness is radiating. “Your classmates have been calling you for awhile now. They want to take pictures with you.” He said in a serious tone this time. Uncle Jaime has always this air of authority in him. No wonder he is a very successful businessman. “I am sorry, I got lost in my thoughts. I just remembered my mom and was hoping she were here to share this moment with me.” I replied with a dejected voice. “I’m sure she is very happy and proud of you.” He patted my shoulder to comfort me and I felt way better.  “Thank you so much Uncle for everything and for attending my graduation. It means a lot to me.” Again, I hugged him tightly. Saying thank you is not enough to show my gratitude to this man. I am lucky he came to my life. “You know that I treat you like my family, right?” Ria nodded in agreement. “I am sorry that we couldn’t do our dinner later. I have a flight to catch. We can have dinner on Sunday instead. I want to discuss further my proposal to you last time.” Uncle Jaime said in a calm voice. My eyes widened a fraction upon hearing what he said. I knew he wanted me to work in his company right after graduation. I didn’t say anything to him yet since I got busy with my final exams and graduation rehearsals.  “Yes Uncle. Thank you so much again. I can’t wait for our dinner this Sunday. Please have a safe trip.” He hugged me one last time. After that, he immediately left to the airport for his flight to Singapore. He dropped by here in the university for a few minutes just to attend my graduation. My Aunt Alice wasn’t able to make it since she had an earlier commitment to attend to. She attended a seminar and she was one of the important speakers. She already congratulated me last time I visited her. She was so proud of me. She even prepared a celebratory party for me with everyone at the orphanage. I was so happy at that time. Even if I’ve lost both my parents, I never felt that I am incomplete. My Aunt Alice filled up all the voids in my life and replaced it with love and care. I even considered the kids at the orphanage and the volunteers as my family. We are actually one huge family. I found in them a real family. And now, there is one more person I can call as my family. It’s Uncle Jaime who is always there to guide me. He has been very nice to me. I got a college scholarship after I passed the exam offered by his foundation. He was very supportive since the beginning of my studies. Little by little, we got closer after I came to know him more. I am very fortunate for the kindness and generosity he has shown to me. I also learned a lot from him about his businesses and family life. Uncle Jaime lost his wife a few years back when his only son was still a teenager. He is in his mid-fifties now but that doesn’t mean women have no interest in him. He is still very attractive to the opposite s*x. I have seen a lot of those women who kept looking intently at him, longing for his attention. He told me he doesn’t want attention from women when one time I teased him about it. “I am immuned to those women’s charms. I know what most of them are after. I had been a victim once and that will never happen again. I was so sad when Cecille passed away. Two years after, I tried to find a partner hoping love will blossom. In the end, I almost ruined everything I had built. Even my only son became distant from me.” I can see Uncle Jaime was trying to contain his emotion. "Ria!" screamed loudly by Katie, my classmate and bff in college. Uncle Jaime left earlier and here I am, reminiscing the past in the middle of a crowded gymnasium where we just finished our graduation. “We have been calling you a million times but your brain must be somewhere else. ” Katie laughed. She has been my bestfriend since first year college. I accidentally bumped into her while I was in a hurry to find my classroom. Fortunately, we enrolled in the same course and she has been my classmate ever since. "Yep!" Jane and Megan agreed. Both of these girls became my close friends as well. The four of us are good friends but Katie is closest to me. She knows everything about me. We share secrets together. I consider her like a sister. She came from a rich family and so are Jane and Megan. They were all nice to me and I have never had any issues with them. Infact, we got along well with each other. "Let's go and take some pictures. This better should be worth a frame on the wall.” Katie jokingly said. “By the way, this coming Saturday we should celebrate. Let's have some dinner and maybe we can go to a bar after. We expect you to come this time, Ria.” Insisted Jane who has a determined look on her face. “You can’t refuse our invitation now. I already asked permission from your aunt to come with us. She agreed without hesitation.” Megan said with hands on her hips. I was trying to suppress my laughter as she looks like she is expecting to lecture me right now if I refused again. I used to turn down their invitations to go to a party or somewhere else. I got tempted sometimes but study was really my main focus. Now, I can loosen up since I’ve just finished college. Without replying, I just smiled at them in agreement. We resumed our picture taking until we got tired. Note from the author: This story was originally written in bilingual text (Tagalog and English). However, I have to modify some foreign words now to English as this was the choice of language I signed up in the contract. It was an error on my part. For those who started reading the Taglish version, I can still post them for you but please give me some time. I also have to change some names and made up some places to conform to the English version. Thank you. Hope you would continue reading my story.