Love Me Like You Do

Prologue

Nervous. 

That's the current state of emotion that runs rampant inside of her. To say that she didn't fidget at the face of her current situation would be a huge lie. Too big of a lie even, especially with the apparent obviousness of it in the form of a thin sheet of sweat covering the palm of both of her hands.

'I should just back down.' She thinks, eyes shifting swiftly from left to right. Thankfully no one was there to witness her being an apparent weirdo, which is good considering that she's been standing there, in front of her father's office room, for the past fifteen minutes. Because for that past fifteen minutes, she still hasn't found her guts to get inside and girl the hell up to face her father.

'Not that it's my fault.' The brunette heaves a small sigh.

She's damn sure she never did anything to make her father want to call her to his office, not that she could remember doing anything wrong that could set the Tanchingco family's head's anger to the level of hell's ferocious flames.

Then again, she could just be imagining things. Especially about the part where her father called her out during lunch time with a stoic expression on his face, the hint of a scowl that did somehow made her grip her silverwares tightly due to the tension that wrapped around the atmosphere of their supposedly happy and pleasant family lunch time.

Her siblings, Paul and Gabriel, did told her not to worry, but for god's sake, she just couldn't stop worrying—the tension she felt after her father asked for her to see him in office was too much not to worry about.

'I hope I didn't do anything bad...' She thought wishfully, not wanting to be at the receiving end of her father's displeasure.

Her father has a bad reputation in the family for getting angry easily and for putting his pride in the forefront before even considering other people, much less his own children's feelings and thoughts. But that was in the past, what with after the event that led to her brother, Paul, to a near death state. Because of that occurrence, her father had become a bit more lenient with them, a bit softer and kinder.

Still, that doesn't mean that some habits die easily. He could easily revert back, and even if she did gave her father the benefit of the doubt, there's a small part of her, whispering to her to be careful around her father.

Taking a shaky breath in, the young brunette raises her hand and forms her hand into a fist to gently knock on the door, a part of her instantly wanting to turn around and briskly walk away, but that urge stopped when she heard her father's voice answer.

"Come in."

Taking a deep breath, she reached for the knob and twisted it open, entering her father's office room with a face void of expression. The door clicks to a shut behind her as she leans on it for a bit before pushing herself off and walking forward to her father, who was intently signing paper after paper that piled in a stack on his desk. He only stops when he hears the clicking and clacking noises of her heels to look up her—a smile on his tired and aging face.

"Jade, my baby girl, I'm glad you came by to my office," Her father, Oscar Tanchingco, the current head of the Tanchingco family, greets her brightly, "I thought you might have left already and head back to your condo."

"Dada, you know I wouldn't outright leave without at least taking your request to speak with you." Jade's tense shoulder slightly relaxes, a small smile forming on her face as she greets him in kind.

"I know, but forgive your Dada. You know I'm still trying to adjusting myself to be a better father to all three of you." Oscar smiles sheepishly, taking off his eyeglasses as he stands up and gestures his daughter to follow him to the reception area of his office to sit by the couch.