Oh stars, shine brightly on me

Truth

Continuation to "Secret's Out"

———

CRASH!

The sound of glass hitting and breaking jolts Althea awake from her short but fitful slumber—dreams filled of bad memories from her past and of her current present, of the possibilities of Jade leaving her for the price of her whole life's truth.

Ever since Jade found out about her ex-husband being Tommy and about their child, Jade has become skeptical over her and she could feel that there's something between them, an invisible wall that seems to be slowly coming between them.

She's aware of why this came to be and it's partly her fault for not telling her girlfriend sooner about her past—about Tommy and her child, but whenever she wishes to open up the topic, the fear of Jade slipping through her arms always halts her.

However, now that her secret's out, Jade knows and it has become one of the reasons why they've been arguing lately. Although Jade chose to stay with her, Althea can't deny that her girlfriend has become distant and cold with her.

It hurts Althea badly to see their relationship come to this point, even more so, it has become her fear that one day Jade would wake up and decide to leave her. Which is why she's often neglected sleeping, choosing to keep an eye on Jade, but on this particular day, her body couldn't last not being able to sleep and she had to surrender to the temptation of rest. But even so, the bags under her eyes were obvious just as the exhaustion clinging to her body and she finds her body wanting to remain lying, but she disobeys that desire when she finds out that her companion-her girlfriend, isn't beside her anymore.

"Jade..."

Althea's fear instantly comes down on her in cold waves, like someone poured down a bucket full of cold water on her.

"Where are you? Jade!!" Althea shouts, her facial expression contorting into an expression of mixed pain and confusion.

Instinctively, Althea jumps out of her and Jade's shared bed, not caring to tidy up the messy strewn out state of the bed or comb her messy bed hair as she's already dead set on exiting the room to look for her girlfriend—fear instantly making its way to the forefront of the exhausted woman's thoughts.

"Jade! Where are you?!" Althea desperately asked, tears forming in the corner of her eyes, one hand grasping her loose white T-shirt, just above where her heart's wildly beating inside her chest.

Althea runs down from the second floor to the first floor, eyes wide open and her head frantically turning from left to right, looking around for her girlfriend's familiar figure around the living room. The fear, anxiety and ache of the thought of losing Jade made Althea's actions even more frantic and crazed.

Jade isn't there, but the front door is closed shut just like how she left it earlier before she and Jade went to bed.

Giving a momentary glance at the closed door, Althea takes a deep shaky breathe in, trying to compose herself and rationally think for at least a second or two.

If Jade hasn't left and no one has infiltrated their home, because Oscar and company, then it could only mean one thing and the thought of it doesn't sit well in her mind.

Althea immediately turns away and heads to the kitchen area—heart still beating painfully inside her chest, but for a different reason.

Upon taking a quick turn and passing through the kitchen entrance, Althea's eyes widen in horror at the shards of broken glass littering on the floor, as if someone had thrown the glass in anger with all the scattered pieces lying around.

Just a few meters from this mess, Althea found her girlfriend, huddled in the corner and leaning on the wooden shelf for support, clutching onto a half broken glass bottle that immediately sets all the alarm and warning bells inside Althea's head.

"Jade!" She gasps and quickly walks beside Jade, careful enough not to step on the glass shards on the floor.

Once by her girlfriend's side, Althea hastily takes hold of Jade's hand, disarming the Tanchingco heiress of the broken bottle that she held, which Althea immediately disposes into a nearby trash bin before she goes back to fussing on Jade's unresponsive state.

"Hey, are you okay? Did you get hurt?" Althea questions, voice soft but laced with worry, but Jade remains unresponsive to her, except for the sobs and sniffles that escaped her slightly trembling body.

"Jade, talk to me, please..." She pleads in earnest, "Tell me what's wrong. Confide in me, please..."

At hearing Althea's plead, more tears spilled from Jade's eyes, the heiress' body quivers at the force of Althea's words that the other woman never thought would have this big impact on her girlfriend, and the one who caused all this is her.

To make such a sweet innocent woman like Jade to feel this pain was by far the worst move she ever made.

Jade didn't deserve this.

"Why didn't you tell me sooner...about your ex-husband, and your child. Why?" Jade asks weakly between sobs.

"Jade, I—" Althea opens her mouth to apologize, but it gets cut off when Jade spoke.

"You had the opportunity to tell me, but you never told me. For the past few days since my Dad has been after us, I was with you, but you never told me."

"Do you trust me so little? Enough not to tell me immediately this big part of your life?"

Turning her head to the side, Althea lets go of Jade's hand and bites her quivering bottom lip, "I do trust you...I want to tell you sooner, but I didn't want to hurt you anymore than you are with your family situation and our state right now."

"I couldn't bear seeing you in this state of pain if I were to tell you because I was so scared. I'm scared of what you'd do if you knew. I'm scared of you leaving me and even just the thought of it breaks my heart."

"In the end, I still I hurt you and I'm sorry for that. I'm sorry because I'm so fucking weak for not telling you."

"But I was scared Jade. I wanted to tell you but I was scared of what would happen if I did and I'm scared of how much you're deeply affecting me, Jade. Of how much control you have over my heart and I don't think I can handle it if I were to lose you," Altheas admits, voice quivering, reaching to cup Jade's cheeks with both of her hand as she stares straight into Jade's eyes, "I don't want to lose you too."

"I won't be able to take it because I love you too much..." Althea caresses the Tanchingco heiress' cheeks, wiping the few droplets of tears that trickled down from the corner of her eyes that bore deep into Althea's—searching for something—of any trace of lies and deceit, but Jade found none, instead she found the one she's hoping to know from Althea.

The truth.

———

A/N: Hi guys, this shot is a continuation of Secret's Out, which is in Jade's POV. I'll just be delusional here and think that the reason why Althea hasn't told Jade about it is because she's scared and she loves Jade too much.

Also, I've been talking about Althea and her past with some of those lovely anons in that forum (shout out to you guys, you are all awesome there and I love you) a few pages back and I got the idea to write this.

I'm kind of still a bit depressed, actually I still am depressed with the way the story has become.

I'll still support the show anyways, I did last for so long and abandoning the show this far off is something I can't do. I also want to support RaStro in this show until the end and see Jathea's ending.

Anyways, to those of you, hope you guys can vote tomorrow for Team RaStro for Bloggers Style Camp. Let's show them our love and support by voting for them. Go Team RaStro! :)

Vote for RaStro: http://www.gmanetwork.com/gma/stylecamp