"Teresa, what happened to you?"
Teresa was making her way back to her room when she suddenly realized that her room key was missing. When she reached her room, she decided to just ring the doorbell. Diana, her roommate, opened the door, looking confused…
Teresa's head hung low with her hands clutched. She shook her head without saying a word.
"Teresa, where have you been? We've been searching all night for you. You didn’t answer your phone, and we were about to call the police if you didn’t show up by this morning!” Diana questioned as she shut the door.
But by the time Diana turned back, Teresa had entered the bathroom.
Bang!
The door slammed shut.
Sensing something was wrong, Diana rushed to the door, knocking. "Teresa, what's wrong? Did someone hurt you?"
"No!" Teresa shouted.
She took off the bathrobe and stood in front of the mirror. Looking at her bruised body in the mirror, she gathered herself and responded, "Diana, I was having too much fun with my friends and lost track of time. I'm fine! Go ahead and sleep. I need a bath."
Given Teresa's answer, Diana also hadn't noticed anything unusual and decided not to push further. She yawned and went to sleep.
Teresa stared at her reflection before filling the tub. She submerged herself and grabbed a towel. She began to scrub herself intensely…
Unity sat on the bed on the thirteenth floor, still processing that the man Teresa had been with was Gabriel.
That man was Gabriel, the only heir of the Garcia family. He was wooed by countless women and had been with Teresa in the same hotel room.
“No. It wasn’t Teresa. It was me.” said Unity.
Recalling what Gabriel had said, Unity quickly got off the bed and gathered Teresa's clothes and phone. After seeing those missed calls, she turned off the phone and left the room. She ensured nobody had seen her and hurried back to her room.
Once there, she called the hotel's front office to have the surveillance footage from that night deleted.
By doing so, even if Gabriel realized something wasn't right, he would have no way to trace back that it was Teresa he'd been with.
Teresa remained in the bath for several hours. If it hadn’t been for Diana, she would still be sleeping in the bathtub.
"You've been in there all this time?" Diana asked, seeing Teresa's wet hair.
"I fell asleep in the tub," Teresa lied with a forced smile.
"Are you done? I need to get ready," Diana said.
"Yes," Teresa nodded, drying her hair and beginning to dress up.
Ring!
The doorbell rang as Teresa covered up the bruises with her clothes. Recalling what happened last night made her shiver involuntarily.
"Teresa, aren't you going to open the door?" Diana, hearing the doorbell, opened it herself.
"Where's Teresa?" Liam Evans asked. He’s Teresa's boyfriend.
"Oh, Liam, Teresa's here," Diana greeted while brushing teeth.
Liam was relieved to hear Teresa was inside; Liam went straight into Teresa’s room and called her.
"Teresa!"
"Liam," Teresa said.
In the blink of an eye, she found herself in his embrace, overwhelmed by a surge of emotions that brought tears to her eyes.
"I heard you were missing this morning, and I couldn’t find any way to reach you. I was really worried." Liam said. As he held her tightly, his worry began fading away.
"I'm sorry!" Teresa sobbed, fighting back tears, "I was out with friends last night. I had drunk too much and also lost my phone."
"As long as you're safe, nothing else matters," Liam said, "Babe, it seems like you have a fever."
He felt her forehead, and he was confident that he was right.
"I…"
"Don’t worry, I’ll take you to the hospital."