KEIFER POV
My heart was hammering against my ribs so hard I thought it might crack a bone.
It's her.
The moment our hands touched, that jolt of electricity wasn't just a physical reaction—it was a recognition. It was a soul-deep pull I hadn't felt in seven years.
The way she tilted her head when she was confused. The way she used that sharp, witty tone to mask her concern. Even the way she moved—restless, energetic, like she was always one second away from a sprint. It was all Jay-jay.
She was about to remove the mask. I was seconds away from seeing the face that has haunted every single one of my dreams since I was eighteen. My lungs were tight, my vision tunneling on her fingers as they hooked the elastic behind her ears.
And then that doctor—Zade—had to ruin it.
"Luna! Emergency Room!"
I watched her disappear around the corner, her white lab coat fluttering like a ghost's shroud. I stood there in the middle of the hallway, my hand still tingling from her touch, feeling like the world had just been handed to me and then snatched away in the same breath.
Luna Jay.
What kind of name was that? Why didn't she recognize me? Why did she look at me like I was just another handsome stranger with a brooding problem? If that was my Jay-jay, why were her eyes so clear of the pain we shared?
"Kuya?"
I turned to see Keigan standing at the door of Mia's office. He looked shaken, but there was something else in his expression—a flicker of that same recognition.
"She's familiar, isn't she?" Keigan whispered, his voice trembling as he looked toward the hallway where she had vanished.
I nodded, the weight of a thousand memories crashing over me at once.
"Do you think it's Jay?" Keigan asked, his eyes searching mine for any shred of hope.
"Maybe," I replied, my voice sounding distant even to my own ears.
Keigan shifted, glancing back at Mia's office. "I asked Mia. She said she doesn't know much about her, only that she got into a massive accident seven years ago and forgot her entire past. Maybe it's really her, Kuya. Do you want me to—"
"No, don't worry about it," I cut him off, my protective instincts flaring. I didn't want him getting caught in the middle of this until I was certain. "Go with the driver. I have a bit of work to do here."
Keigan nodded, trusting me as he always did, and headed toward the exit. I turned back and spoke with Mia for a while. She reassured me that Keigan could be cured—that with a few weeks of intensive therapy, he would be okay. She promised to take care of him, and for that, I was grateful.
I thanked her and stepped out, checking my watch. Damn. I'd been talking to her for almost an hour. The sun was starting to dip lower in the sky, casting long shadows across the hospital parking lot. I started making my way back to the car, my mind a whirlwind of "what ifs" and "could it be's."
Then, I saw her.
My Jay-jay.
She was standing near the entrance, wrapped in her lab coat, finished with whatever emergency had called her away. She was talking to someone, her expressions animated, her hands moving as she spoke—a habit that was so painfully familiar it made my chest ache.
Then, she spotted me. She said something to the person she was with and started walking toward me. Each step she took felt like a countdown. Without the mask, her face was finally visible, glowing under the afternoon light. It was her. It was really her.
"Hey, Keifer," she said, stopping just a few feet away.
"Jay-jay," I whispered, the name leaving my lips like a prayer I'd been reciting in the dark for seven years.
She let out a small, melodic laugh, tilting her head. "That's me! But without the extra 'Jay.' Just Jay or Luna is fine."
I couldn't speak. I just stared at her, memorizing the way the light caught in her brown eyes and the way she smiled—a smile that didn't know the history of the man standing in front of her.
Suddenly, her expression shifted to concern. Her eyes dropped to my hand.
"Oh my god, you have a cut on your hand! When did you get that?" before I could even blink, she reached out and took my hand in hers.
The touch was electric. Her skin was warm, her grip firm yet gentle as she inspected the small graze on my knuckles—probably from when I'd gripped my desk too hard earlier. The world around us blurred into insignificance.
"You're the older brother, you should be taking better care of yourself," she scolded lightly, her thumb brushing over the scratch.
I looked down at her, my heart performing a violent somersault.
"Jay," I called out again, my voice trembling with the weight of everything I hadn't said.
A dark thought flickered in my mind. Maybe she was still mad. Maybe that was why she was acting like this—pretending she didn't know me as a way to punish me for the pain I caused. I deserved it, God knows I did, but I couldn't handle the silence.
"Jay... do you really not remember me?" I asked, my grip on her hand tightening ever so slightly.
She stopped fussing over the cut and looked up at me, raising an eyebrow in genuine confusion. There was no flicker of recognition in her eyes, no hidden spark of the girl who used to yell at me for being too possessive.
"Jay, you're still mad at me, right? That's why you're behaving like this," I pressed, my desperation starting to leak through. "It's because of what I did back then. I'll explain everything, I promise. Just stop pretending."
She pulled her hand back, her expression shifting from concern to discomfort. She looked at me like I was a stranger who had suddenly lost his mind in the middle of a parking lot.
"Keifer, please," she said, her voice soft but firm. "I don't know you. I literally met you for the first time an hour ago in Mia's office."
The finality in her tone was like a blade to the chest. She wasn't lying. She wasn't playing a game. The girl I had built an empire for truly didn't know who I was.
The dam inside me finally broke. I didn't care that we were in a public hospital parking lot. I didn't care about my reputation
I reached out and pulled her into a hug, my arms wrapping around her small frame with a fierce, possessive strength.
I buried my face in the crook of her neck, breathing in the scent of her—the same faint, familiar scent that had haunted my dreams. I held her like I was trying to fuse our souls back together, my chest heaving as the reality of her presence finally sank in.
"I don't care if you don't remember," I whispered into her hair, my voice breaking. "I've found you. I'm never letting you go again, Jay-jay. Never."
"Keifer, please… let go," she said, her voice strained as she struggled to pull away from my embrace.
The desperation in her movements snapped me back to reality. I couldn't force this. Not yet. If I scared her off now, I'd lose her before I even had the chance to win her back. I slowly loosened my grip, stepping back with a hollow feeling in my chest.
"Sorry," I said, my voice thick. I forced myself to look away for a second, trying to regain my composure. "You… you just looked like someone who was very close to me once."
Jay-jay nodded, smoothing out her lab coat with a small, awkward sigh. "It's okay. I understand. I get that look a lot, honestly."
I watched her closely, my mind racing. I needed to know the truth. I needed to hear it from her own lips. "If you don't mind me asking," I started, keeping my tone as casual as possible while my heart hammered against my ribs. "I heard from someone that you were involved in an accident."
"Oh, yeah. That," she said, leaning back against the cool brick of the hospital wall. "I got into a bad accident when I was seventeen. I don't really know the details. All I know is that when I finally woke up in the hospital, my Kuya was there waiting for me."
"Kuya?" I asked.
The names Angelo, Aries, and Percy immediately flashed through my mind—those bastards would have done anything to keep her from me. But the name she spoke next wasn't any of them.
"Yeah. Luan Val," she said.
Luan Val? My brow furrowed. I'd heard the name in business circles—a man with a clean front but shadows deep enough to hide an army. "What's your full name?" I asked, leaning in.
"Luna Jay Val," she replied easily.
I nodded, pretending to process the information while my brain worked overtime. Luna Jay Val. He gave her a new life. He gave her a new name. He stole my girl
"Do you, by any chance, have a girlfriend?" she asked suddenly, a hint of genuine curiosity in her eyes.
I shook my head slowly. "No."
"That's sad," she said with a playful tilt of her head. "You're pretty good-looking. I honestly figured you were already married or at least taken."
I felt a ghost of a smile tugging at my lips—the first real one in seven years. Even without her memories, she still had that same blunt, honest streak.
"The girl I love… well, she's near me," I said, my eyes boring into hers. "But I did something incredibly stupid and I lost her. For seven years, I looked for her everywhere, but I couldn't find a trace."
She looked interested now, her medical professionalism momentarily replaced by feminine curiosity. "If you don't mind me asking… what did you do?"
I looked down at my grazed hand, the one she had just been fanning over. "I was stupid," I answered simply. "I told her I was using her—that she was just a pawn—but I only said it to protect her from my family. I didn't get the chance to explain anything. She disappeared before I could tell her the truth."
Jay-jay sighed, a look of genuine pity on her face. "Wow. That's… that's really intense. I'm sorry, Keifer. I hope you find some way to make it up to her."
I will, Jay. I'll spend the rest of my life making it up to you.
"I plan to," I said, my voice dropping back into that low, possessive vibration. "No matter what it takes."
"Luna!" a boy's voice broke through the moment, shattering the quiet intensity between us.
I stiffened, my gaze cutting toward the newcomer
"Ahh, Ben! Do you have my bento?" Jay asked, her face lighting up with an immediate, hungry enthusiasm that was so her it almost made me flinch.
"Yes. And for the record, your brother called me twenty times," Ben said, huffing as he handed over a neatly wrapped package. "Call him back right now, or else he's going to kill all of us. I'm too young to die because of your missed connections."
Your brother. Luan Val. The man who had been playing house with my girl for seven years.
I watched as Ben stood close to her—too close. The way he spoke to her, the casual way he looked at her... it ignited a possessive rage in my chest that I hadn't felt since I was eighteen. My hands clenched into fists at my sides, the leather of my gloves creaking.
Asshole. Move away from my girl before I give you a reason to visit the ER as a patient instead of a doctor.
Jay laughed, clutching the bento to her chest like it was a prize. "Fine, fine! I'll call him. Stop being such a baby, Ben."
She turned back to me, her expression softening into that polite, professional mask again. It stung more than a physical blow.
"I have to go, Keifer," she said, offering a small wave. "It was… interesting meeting you. Take care of that hand, okay? Try not to get into any more brooding accidents."
I didn't answer. I couldn't. I just stood there, a silent, dark statue in the middle of the parking lot, watching them walk away together. I watched the way she bumped her shoulder against Ben's, laughing at something he said.
Tss.
I pulled out my phone, my eyes never leaving her retreating back as she walked away with that Ben guy. The sight of them together—the casual way he leaned toward her, the way she smiled at him—it was like a slow-acting poison in my veins.
"Tell me everything about Luna Jay Val," I commanded the moment Edrix picked up. My voice was like ice, hard and unyielding.
There was a stunned silence on the other end of the line, followed by the sound of fingers pausing over a keyboard. "Keifer? This is the first time in seven years you've asked me about a girl. Who the hell is Luna Jay?"
"Just do it, Edrix. I want her medical records, her residency details, and especially her connection to a man named Luan Val," I snapped, my grip tightening on the phone until the casing groaned. "And call Section E. Tell them to meet at my place. Now."
"Section E? All of them?" Edrix asked, his tone shifting to something more serious. "Keifer, what's going on? You haven't called a full meeting since..."
"Since she disappeared," I finished for him, my gaze fixed on the spot where she had vanished around the corner. "Just get them there. I have something they need to see."
I hung up without waiting for a response and climbed into the back of my car. The interior was dark and silent, a stark contrast to the chaotic energy of the hospital parking lot. I leaned my head against the cool leather, closing my eyes for a split second as the ghost of her scent—vanilla and sterile hospital air—lingered in my mind.
Seven years.
I had been a hollow shell of a man, a king of a kingdom that felt like a graveyard.
"Drive," I commanded the chauffeur.
As the car pulled away from St. Jude's International, I watched the building recede in the rearview mirror.
Luna Jay Val.
It was a beautiful name, but it was a lie. She was Jasper Jean. She was my Mutya. And if I had to tear down the world she'd built for the last seven years just to remind her of who she really was, then so be it.
I pulled out the small, worn photo from my wallet—the one of her eating fishballs with that fierce, defiant glare.
"The game of hide and seek is over, Jay-jay," I whispered to the empty car "I've found you. And this time, I'm not letting anyone keep you from me."
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