Chapter 29: Devastation (I)

07:40 P.M.

Dela Ia's Abandoned House.

June 15th, the year 2018. Friday.

Margo dismissed the makeup artist's team first. She wanted to be alone for a moment before the last shooting of the scene again. She removed the torn shirt from the superior part of her body. It left her naked with no clothing that covers her bare bod.

She retrieved the undergarments and skinny jeans by its hanger. She also got the blush, knitted turtle-neck sweater from the clothes rack.

She wore the clothes quickly because someone might enter her tent. When she finished dressing up, she sat down on a chair. She smiled at her reflection in a rectangle mirror with lightbulbs in it. She removed her thick foundation with wet wipes. When she was about to apply some BB cream, her cellphone rang.

Margo put the BB cream aside and answered her cell phone. When she thought it was a normal call, she's astonished to see that it was a live video chat. She creased her forehead as she got confused about who was calling her out of nowhere.

She scrolled down and saw that it was her boyfriend calling to her, Xian Santos. She smiled and waited for Xian to show up on the screen, but seconds later, the chat was still dead.

The noise in the background was like rustling footsteps. Margo didn't even know if it was something like that or what. Added to her puzzlement was the moaning. Margo inched her ear a little more closely on the speaker, and she knew she was right. There was someone moaning in the chat.

Margo got worried about Xian. He was still at San Miguel's Hospital, recovering from the leg and arm injury he gained from the accident. And for the meantime, her mom, Sammy Carbonel, was his guard.

"Hello? Hello? Honey, are you there?!" she cried out anxiously through the microphone. A few moments later, Margo widened her eyes when something popped out. She dropped her cellphone when she saw two people kissing torridly on the screen. She stood up rapidly, panted, and closed her eyes. It felt like someone had poured acidic water over her eyes when she saw it.

"Did he... did he just call for me to watch... his mistress and he kissing?" Margo asked, gritting her teeth and her clenched jaw emerged.

She felt the wrath that rose; the tears swelling in the rims of her eyes, and the knuckling of her fists. She saw Xian, her boyfriend, and a woman succumbing to each other's lips continuously. Not tired of what they were doing, as she watched the screen inches away from the dressing table.

She grabbed the cellphone, threw it in the tent's corner. It smashed onto the hardened, wooden floor of the house. She quickly retrieved her things from the table and put it recklessly in her designer bag.

The curtains opened and Carmela emerged from the outside. Margo wiped the tears that were falling down her cheeks hastily.

Margo didn't notice that Carmela was calling her. Her vision got blurred because of the tears. She smashed her left shoulder on Carmela's right and ran over the hallway.

Carmela cried out her name, but Margo didn't want to turn back around.

She opened the door and slammed it. All she wanted right now was to be alone. She didn't care about the scolding of the directors or the writers or anyone on the production team. All she wanted was to cry, and she felt the pain running across her body up to the tips of her toes and fingers.

She climbed in her car, stepped onto the gas pedal. She made sure that it will speed up into its maximum limit, and she drove off through the alleyway towards the exit. Margo turned into the corner of Bella's Main Highway while sobbing. She zoomed hurriedly, that made cars honk behind hers.

A lot of projects came since Margo won the best actress award, for the fifth time. She didn't have the time to see her for five days straight. She texted Xian yesterday, saying everything in a long, sweet message, but he doesn't reply like he used to.

"It's only been five days, Xian. Five days." Margo mumbled to herself while looking straight down the road. The road seemed slippery. Margo can't stabilize her driving because of her weeping. She pulled over her car on the side street across from a convenience store that's packed with people. They were shopping for their everyday groceries.

She bowed her head down while she draped her hands over the steering wheel and screamed. Margo leaned back after a minute in the driver's headrest seat and sobbed loudly.

"Why, Xian, why?!" Margo felt her heart aching in pain as she held her chest. She tugged the sweater and closed her eyes. She put her hands over her face and howled. The people rushed in and out of the store, not knowing that the most popular actress was inside a luxurious car. She was bulging her eyes out because her boyfriend cheated on her.

Meanwhile, Carmela went outside of the door, leaving it ajar, and got baffled. Why would Margo leave at the last minute of their shooting? There must be something that came up. But Carmela thought of the time she saw Margo wipe her face as if she was crying over something. Someone startled her, and she turned her face towards the one who called her name.

"Mina, you made me jump," Carmela yelped, widening her eyes towards Mina. Mina just chuckled and put his hands in his pockets. Carmela looked at him as if scrutinizing his radiant face.

"What's gotten into you now, Mina?" Carmela questioned. The wind whistled across the trees that made them shiver. Mina just beamed and nodded.

"Katrina might be like that when we met her, but she changed a lot," Mina whispered. He's looking out at the dried branches of the trees lining the walls. The chartreuse grass that became brunette over the years. Carmela thought about how happy it must have been for Katrina to hear those words from her best friends.

"By the way, why are you here outside of the house? I thought you were prepping Margo in her tent?" Mina asked, confused. Carmela got her cellphone out of the pockets and dialed Margo's number. She was getting worried about her because she saw her crying.

The ringing began, but it suddenly turned into voicemail.

"Margo Monteverde, the popular actress ahead of you! Please leave the message after the beep!"

Carmela put her cellphone down and shifted her eyes towards Mina.

"Margo isn't answering," Carmela whispered.

"Where did she go?" Mina asked.

"She left her tent without even glancing at me. I think she was crying," Carmela mumbled, thinking. There is only one person who can do this to her.

'Xian...,' Carmela thought. Margo's current boyfriend and her ex-lover crossed her mind out of nowhere. Her instincts might be right because Carmela got a glimpse of how Margo cry. The grudge against someone who experienced betrayal.

Carmela suddenly turned around and went inside the house again.

She walked rapidly towards Margo's tent, sweeping the curtains aside. Mina behind her back, confused by her rash actions. Carmela looked everywhere in the tent. She saw a bumblebee case with an Apple logo in it. It was upside down. She realized it was Margo's cellphone.

"That explains why she doesn't answer my call," Carmela muttered. She picked up the cellphone and saw that the screen was broken.

"What happened to Margo?" Mina asked softly. Carmela just shook her head and opened it. It confused her to see that there was a video recorded minutes ago of Margo's chat conversation with Xian. Carmela got puzzled by what it was and pressed it. She gasped as she saw two people kissing on the screen. She watched it closely as she furrowed her eyebrows and saw Xian. The woman he was kissing was the other kitchen staff at Kelly's Diner, Michie Alestre.

"Michie," she vented out.

"What is it?" Mina weighed in as he stood beside Carmela and take a peek at Margo's cellphone. He put his hand over his mouth as he saw Xian and averted his eyes to Carmela.

She glared at the screen and spoke, "Xian did it again. He cheated, just like what he did to me."

"That punk," Mina said angrily and rolled his eyes. Carmela sighed exasperatedly and put Margo's cellphone in her pockets.

She faced Mina and addressed, "I need to find Margo. Just say goodbye to Katrina to me. I think we will have to take a rain check for dinner."

Mina grabbed a hold of her arm and presented, "I'll come with you. I want to go to Xian. I waited for this moment to see him again."

"Mina, just...," Carmela held her forehead.

"Carmela, we all know what Xian did to you the last time, alright? You barely got out of your grief," Mina reminded Carmela how she cried in the gloominess of Xian's deceit. She closed her eyes and bit her lip.

"We got no time to talk about the past, Mina. I need to find Margo," Carmela burst out rapidly and went out of Margo's tent. Mina ran over ahead of her and stopped her in her tracks.

"Mina, please. I have no time left," Carmela was outraged.

"I'll come with you. Let's find Margo," Mina pleaded. She looked back at Katrina's tent.

"Don't worry, I'll text Katrina. She's with her makeup team now, so let's go." Mina turned his back, typing in something on his cell phone. He walked ahead of her. He opened the door and let Carmela get out of the house.

She ran over to her Rolls Royce Ghost car, climbed in on the driver's seat hurriedly, and Mina on the passenger seat. They fastened their seatbelts. Carmela started the car, and they zoomed out of the alley.