(Jay's POV)
The hum of the big airplane was loud for thirteen hours straight. It did not help my bad head at all. My head hurt so much from that two-hundred-dollar bottle of resort vodka from the night before.
Next to me in first class, Keifer was sleeping like a baby. He did not care about the long flight at all. I looked at his neck. Under his hoodie, I could still see the purple love bites from my crazy robot dance night.
I felt my face get very hot. The flight workers were being too nice to us, and I knew they saw the marks.
When the plane landed in London, it was raining and grey. It was so different from the hot sun in the Philippines.
We got to our big house in London and we were completely dead tired. We left our bags by the door. We did not even change our clothes. We just fell onto the living room couch with our heavy coats still on and went straight to sleep.
The next morning was a total mess.
"Jay! Wifey!! Move it! If we are late, I will tell the whole school that you dance like a broken washing machine!" Keifer shouted from downstairs.
"It was a broken robot, you big baby!" I yelled back, fixing my hair in a rush.
I threw on a jacket and pants and ran down the stairs. We did not even eat breakfast. We ran out the door and got into our big black SUV.
Keifer drove through the heavy London traffic, and we started teasing each other like we always do.
"You know," Keifer said, turning the big car with one hand, "I should ask the island staff to send me the video of your dance. The teachers here need to see it."
"If you tell anyone about Ulopong Island, I will take all your money," I said, pointing at him.
"You bought me that island! If I look bad, you look bad too."
Ulopong Island was a huge gift from Keifer. When we went there the very first time, we were just young students from HVIS school in the Philippines. Now, it was our own private place with just one villa. But right now, we had to be real students again.
We parked the car and ran inside the university building. We walked into the huge classroom just before the big wooden doors closed. We sat down and tried to look very serious and smart.
Then, the whole room went completely quiet.
The mysterious man
A man walked in holding a black leather bag. He was not old or bald like our other teachers. He wore a very expensive grey suit. His eyes were cold and sharp.
He put his bag down. The sound of the metal lock was very loud in the quiet room.
He turned around and looked straight at me. My breath stopped. He looked exactly like an old photo of a rich Filipino family I saw during our first trip to Ulopong Island. That family had vanished completely many years ago before Keifer bought the land.
"Good morning," the professor said. His voice was low and he spoke with a clear Manila accent. "I am Professor Alejandro."
He took a piece of chalk and wrote on the board. "We will talk about how things get their value. How a piece of empty land can suddenly become a playground for a billionaire."
My heart started beating very fast. My hands got cold and sweaty. He was not just talking about school work.
Professor Alejandro turned around and looked right at Keifer and me with a scary smile. "Some people think cheap drink in a rare bottle becomes billionaire juice. But a stolen paradise always has a price, right, students from HVIS?"
The room felt like it was spinning. He knew the resort words. He knew our old school. He knew about our private island. He knew everything.
Keifer knew I was scared. Under the desk, his big, warm hand slid over mine. He held my shaking hand very tight. He started rubbing the back of my hand slowly with his thumb to make me feel safe. His face looked calm and cool to the rest of the class, but his tight grip told me one thing: We are in this together.
(Author's POV)
The large lecture hall at London University was completely silent. The only sound was the light rain hitting the high glass windows. Outside, the London sky was dark and grey.
Inside, the bright lights showed every desk, every book, and every face. But no one was moving. Every single student sat very still, looking down at the front of the room.
Professor Alejandro stood by the wooden podium. He adjusted his expensive grey suit jacket. He did not look like a regular university teacher. He looked like a man who held a lot of power and many dangerous secrets. His sharp eyes moved slowly across the room. They passed over thirty different students before they stopped right on Jay and Keifer.
Jay felt her heart thump hard against her ribs. Under the heavy wood of the university desk, Keifer's large hand was still holding hers. His thumb moved in a slow, steady circle against her skin. It was his silent way of telling her to stay calm.
He was a billionaire, used to dealing with big problems, but even his frame was tense. They had just returned from their private vacation on Ulopong Island. They were exhausted from the thirteen-hour flight. They had slept in their clothes, rushed to campus in their black SUV, and now, reality was crashing down on them.
The professor picked up a thin piece of white chalk. He did not look at the board as he began to speak. His voice was smooth, low, and carried the heavy, rich accent of old-money Manila.
"To understand the movement of wealth," Professor Alejandro began, his voice echoing off the high walls, "one must look at the things that disappear. We often study what is built. We study big corporations, new tech giants, and rising bank accounts. But true economic history lives in the shadows of what was lost. Let us take a case study. A small, isolated piece of land in the Philippine sea. An island that does not appear on most commercial maps."
Jay felt a sudden jolt of panic. Her mind flashed to the private island where they had just spent their vacation—the place she had playfully named Ulopong Island.
"Many years ago," the professor continued, walking slowly away from the podium, "long before any modern luxury villas were built, that island was not a vacation spot. It was an uncharted, wild piece of land covered in thick green jungle and surrounded by sharp coral reefs. The local fishermen in the province avoided it. They whispered stories about it. They said the land was cursed. But to the elite families of Manila in the mid-twentieth century, it was something else entirely. It was a hiding place."
Jay squeezed Keifer's hand tighter. Keifer did not flinch. He kept his eyes locked on the professor, his face like stone.
He tapped the chalk against his palm. The rhythmic tap, tap, tap sounded like a clock ticking down.
"In the late nineteen-seventies, a very prominent family ruled a vast portion of the shipping and trade industries in the Philippines. They were elite. They were wealthy beyond measure. But during that era of political unrest, wealth was a target. The family needed a vault. Not a vault made of steel and concrete inside a bank, but a vault made of land and water. They sought out an island that did not exist on standard commercial trade routes."
The professor stopped walking. He looked up at the ceiling.
It looked like he was seeing the past in his mind. "The main leader of that family spent millions of pesos," the professor said. "He turned the wild jungle into a hidden home. But they did not build it to show it off. There were no flashing lights. There were no glass walls. There were no big pools. They built just one large stone house. It was hidden deep under the green trees. It was made to stay safe from big storms, fighting groups, and any enemy who came across the sea."
He turned back to the class. His eyes stopped right on Jay.
"For three years, this family lived two lives," he said. "In Manila, they went to big parties. They gave money to help people. They ran their massive ship business. But every few months, private boats would leave the docks at night. These boats had no official papers. They carried heavy wood boxes. They carried heavy iron boxes. They carried the deepest secrets of the family. Everything was moved to that lone island."
The room stayed completely quiet. None of the other students knew why the teacher was talking about this island. But the air felt very heavy.
"And then," Professor Alejandro said, dropping his voice to a low whisper. Everyone had to lean forward to hear him. "The year nineteen-eighty-two came. A massive storm hit the islands. It was a typhoon so big that it washed away whole villages. No one could talk to the islands for a whole week. The main city lost all touch with the family ships."
He stopped talking. He let the quiet fill the room."When the storm stopped, a search team went to check on the hidden stone house. The boat reached the shore of the island. The stone house was still standing. The jungle trees were broken and twisted from the wind. But the house itself was not hurt at all. The heavy wood doors were wide open. They were swinging back and forth in the wind."
The professor took a step closer to the middle of the room."The search team walked inside," he said. "The table was set for dinner. Nice plates were sitting on the table. Silver forks and knives were placed on cloth napkins. Food was still sitting in the kitchen pots. It was totally spoiled from the heat. But there was not one single person on the island. The dad, the mom, their three young children, and all twelve of their workers were completely gone."
Jay felt a cold shiver go down her back. Her mind went back to their very first trip to the island years ago. Back then, she and Keifer were just young students at HVIS school. She remembered walking by the thick jungle. She remembered seeing the old stone walls. Those walls were just a short walk from where their new villa stood now. She had always thought they were just old rocks from long ago.
She never knew a whole family had vanished right there."The local police said it was just a bad accident at sea," Professor Alejandro said.
He smiled a thin, cold smile. "They said the family tried to run from the storm on a small boat and died in the deep water. But the money data shows something else. In just two days after they went missing, millions of dollars in banks were taken out. The heavy iron boxes under the stone floors of the house were found completely empty. It was not a storm. It was a planned theft by someone they trusted."The professor walked back to the board.
He wrote a date: October 14, 1982.
"The family was never found," the professor said. He turned his back to the board. "Their names were taken off the business books. The government took the land. For many years, it sat empty. It was a ghost island with stories of blood and missing gold. People forgot. The world moved on. New rich people took over the city of Manila."He stopped.
His sharp grey eyes looked right at Keifer. The air in the room felt very tight, like right before a big rain."But money leaves a track," Professor Alejandro said softly. "You can buy a piece of land. You can clear away the old stone rocks. You can build a beautiful, modern villa with luxury workers. You can bring in two-hundred-dollar bottles of rare vodka. You can call it a private paradise. But the blood in the dirt does not wash away with money. The children of that original family did not all die. And some people spend their whole lives looking for every single dollar that was taken from their family."
The professor hit the chalkboard hard with his hand. It made a loud smack sound. A few students jumped in their seats."That is how the market works, class," the professor said.
His voice went back to a normal, professional teacher voice. "Value is never lost. It just goes from the people who had it first, to the people who took it next. For your first homework, I want a five-page paper on how money moves during bad times. Class is over."
The heavy feeling in the room stopped instantly. Students started moving their papers, packing their bags, and talking.
Jay sat completely still. Her fingers felt numb inside Keifer's tight grip. She looked down at their hands, then up at Keifer's face. Keifer was staring straight ahead at the front of the room. His jaw was set very tight. He did not look like a playful fiancé of hers anymore.
He looked like a billionaire who just found out his private island was full of ghosts.
Professor Alejandro packed his black leather bag. He closed the metal locks with a click. He walked out the side door of the room without looking back at them at all.
The classroom cleared out fast. Jay and Keifer were left sitting all alone in their row. The quiet room felt heavy now. It was filled with the dark past of the island they thought was just theirs.
Jay turned her head to look at Keifer. His eyes were still looking at the empty spot where Professor Alejandro stood.
"Keifer," Jay whispered. Her voice was shaking a little bit. "What was that? He knew about the island. He knew about HVIS. He even knew about the vodka."
Keifer slowly turned his head to look at her. The funny, teasing boy from the plane and the SUV was completely gone. His eyes were dark and serious. He let go of her hand, but he put his arm around her shoulders to pull her close to him.
"I do not know yet," Keifer said. His voice was low and steady. "But he wanted us to know that he is watching. He wanted to scare us."
"It worked," Jay said. She put her head on his shoulder. "That story about the family going missing... Keifer, our villa is built right next to those old stone walls. We walked past them every single day."
Keifer squeezed her shoulder tight. "We are going to find out exactly who Professor Alejandro really is, Jay. No one threatens us. Not in London, not in Phillipines and definitely not on our island."
He stood up. He pulled his black coat tight around himself. He reached down to grab her bag. "Come on. Let us get out of here. We need to make some phone calls."
They walked out of the quiet school building. They stepped back into the cold London rain. The black SUV was waiting for them in the parking lot. It looked dark and silent under the grey sky. They climbed inside and shut the heavy doors to block out the sound of the rain. Jay could not stop thinking that their private paradise would never feel the same again....