DARK CHOCOLATE SERIES 5: BITTER BLUNDER, SWEET SURRENDER

Prologue - Mrs. Filomino

We make our friends; we make our enemies; but God makes out next-door neighbors.

- G.K. Chesterton

"It's almost as if a higher power wants us all to live together here in Sweet Homes," was what Leticia De Dios told my daughter, Isabella, when she paid her a visit.

She was right. It was like that.

If someone asked me before if I ever imagined things would all come to what they already had, I would definitely say, "Not in my wildest dreams."

Suddenly, the ball of secrets I had carefully arranged was slowly untangling, right before the eyes of the last person I arranged it for, my bundle love, my only daughter.

My husband Armado, blinded by rage, accidentally killed Gracia Lopez, my blackmailer. Gracia Lopez knew my secret. I never knew she did. I never knew she was the sister of someone I chose to forget---Leticia De Dios. And I never thought Leticia knew more than what she needed to. And she had kept that knowledge to me, kept it from everyone, as a matter of fact, except that when she had a little chat with her sister, she mentioned something about it. And Gracia decided to make use of the information she discovered.

Leticia had read Gracia's diary, where she chronicled every last detail of her life and the life of everyone around her. Leticia knew her sister blackmailed me. And it was not hard for her to put two and two together. And she was now in Sweet Homes to find solid evidence to bring to justice her sister's death. She wanted to find hard evidence against her only suspect---my husband.

AJ and PJ, Sweet Homes' newest residents were a bonus to all this mess. I knew them. They knew me and Isabella, and Isabella's father. We used to live in the same neighborhood years and years ago. And now they were renting Gracia Lopez's house. I never expected that could happen to the two, being the last granddaughters of Don Salvador, a business tycoon.

My daughter Isabella, intent in searching for her questions I had long wished she'd stop asking, saw the man she hired to find the people she wanted to see. Wala siyang ideya na ang private investigator na nakuha niya ay siya ring inupahan ni Armado noon upang patahimikin ng magkapatid na Lulu at Katalina, ang magkapatid na inakala niyang siyang nagpadala ng blackmail note sa akin.

Binayaran ni Armado ang lalaki para iligaw si Isabella.

"Ano ang balita mo?" tanong ni Isabella rito.

Inabot nito ang isang folder sa kanya. "Nandiyan ang listahan ng lahat ng pangalan ng mga taong posibleng hinahanap mo. Napuntahan ko na silang lahat. Walang resulta. Kaya nag-imbestiga ako ulit. Maaaring hindi tama ang pangalan ng mga taong pinapahanap mo sa akin, gaya ng sinabi mo."

"At?"

"At nandiyan din ang pangalan ng lahat ng taong posibleng hinahanap mo."

"Bakit ang tagal ng resulta?" Her voice got louder.

"Tandaan mo sanang ang tagal nang panahong nangyari ang sinasabi mo. Mahirap alamin lahat ng detalye nang ganoon kabilis, lalo na at ayaw mo namang sabihin sa akin lahat ng kailangan kong mlaman para mapadali ito."

"I told you what you need to know. Kailan ito magkakaroon ng resulta?"

"Malapit na."

"Dapat lang dahil ang laki na ang naibabayad ko sa 'yo!" She held her head and shook her head. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to yell. It's just that this is very hard for me and---"

"Walang problema."

She left the office and went back home, restless as always.

Now, Gracia's demise had too much effect on people, including paranoia in some of the residents of Sweet Homes, including the Polarios who moved, making Attorney Seymour Villavicencio a new resident as well. He was the lawyer of the Polarios.

Seymour, like me, had done a big mistake in his life. And someone who helped him out before demanded that he payed what he owed...