You're the ONE I need
Seventeen

She let out a deep breath before entering the gate where Franco's condo unit is situated.

"Good morning, ma'am! Where are you going?" asked the security guard.

"I want to visit my friend Franco; is he there?" she asked.

The man she was talking to was staring at her intently.

"You look so familiar; if I'm not mistaken, you were Sir Franco's girlfriend."

She smiled at him.

"It was told that you were dead, but you're in front of me. What happened? He continued scratching his nape, nodding. "They just didn't look for me. I'm alive; I was in a coma for three months," she replied.

She could see the sadness in his eyes when he spoke.

"Don't be surprised, but are you aware that he has a wife now?" he asked.

"I'm fine; I just wanted to have some closure. I can handle it," she replied.

"So, are they around? She asked again.

"Yes, they're at home." There was concern in the tone of his voice.

She only smiled and walked to the entrance of the building.

The unit is on the tenth floor. She pressed the elevator button and waited a moment for it to open.

When it opened, she pressed the number ten button.

She's now in front of Franco's condo.

The condo he bought is supposed to be their home after their wedding.

Grandma Tenay told her that they suspected that Jean was already pregnant and that is why they got married instantly.

She heaves a sigh before she presses the doorbell.

There was a woman who came out from the front door.

It's Jean, her best friend.

There are no changes in her body aside from the fact that she seems to have gained a few pounds.

She could see the shock on her face.

"Who is that Jean?"

That was Franco's voice; then he came out and stood beside Jean.

She earned the same reaction from her fiancé, her ex-fiancé.

"Hello, hindi nyo ba ako papapasukin? (Hello, don't you want to invite me in?)" She called and brought the two people back to reality. Franco stepped aside and let her in.

"Yane?" He muttered.

"Kumusta ka, Franco? (How are you, Franco?)" she asked.

When she was inside, she didn't wait for them to say that she could sit down.

She sat down on the sofa.

Waiting for them to do the same.

Their eyes never left her.

As if she's not real.

"I just came to get the answers to so many questions in my brain," she started.

The two sat opposite her silently.

"Why did both of you ever replace me?" she asked; she could not control her emotions, and she let her tears freely fall from her eyes.

It's too painful that the most important people in her life never made an effort to replace her.

"If you're alive, who's the person we buried?" Jean asked her.

"If only you had put in more effort, you could have known the truth. That person you buried is Clarissa, the woman I met on the cruise. She tried my ring, but when the cruise swayed and sank, I didn't have a chance to get it back from her," she replied.

"I'm sorry, we concluded that it was you because of the ring Franco gave you," she replied.

She was waiting for Franco to speak from his side.

"I don't believe that it's you. I wanted to have a DNA sample. I'm not convinced that you left me, but Jean convinced me that it's you because she knew you better than me," he said.

"Why then didn't you do it? Why didn't you take a DNA sample from that body?" she asked.

Franco didn't speak.

Now she knows that he is not going to do anything for her.

She thought that their love would be for eternity.

"If you did what you had to do, you will discover that I had been fighting for my life for three months.

I was lying there in the hospital comatose.

I was looked after by some people whom I never even knew. When I woke up, I had amnesia.

It would be easier for me to bring back my memory if I were with my family," she told them.

She was so disappointed with them.

After what she said, no one was ready to speak.

Both of them are silent.

Maybe they tried to process the what-ifs in their minds.

"I came home to our house, Jean," she talked to her best friend, but now she couldn't tell if she were her best friend.

"You were not there; Lola Tenay let me sleep at their house and told me that you and Franco got married," she added.

"It's only less than a year since my death, if I am dead. It's only eight months. But you two got married already," she continued.

Yes, she is also now married, but she had amnesia. Besides Leandro, he married Clarissa's name, not her name.

If only they tried their best in replaceing the truth, they would definitely replace her.

There are social media that will help them. But they never put in an extra effort to replace the truth.

"Maybe everything that happened has a reason." She continued, looking at them straight in their eyes, but none of them were ready to look at her.

She knows that both are guilty.

"There's probably no reason for me to stay here. I can't live in our house, Jean. To be honest, I'm questioning the friendship that we had. Because, if the situation has reversed, you're the one who's the victim of that tragedy. I will not stop until I am completely convinced that the body that I am going to bury is my best friend's. Franco has suggested getting a DNA sample of Clarissa's body, right? But you refused. Why?" she asks Jean; she never looks at her. She still remained silent.

She continues.

"Are you really happy for me, Jean? I thought we supported each other. I thought whatever happened, we would continue to support each other even if we had our own families."

She let out a deep breath.

"I'm sorry if I did not do what you expected me to do, Yane," Jean finally replied, crying.

She let her speak so she could keep quiet.

After a few minutes, Jean didn't speak. She spoke.

"Have you tried to look at the list in the manifesto? If you both tried to look for it, you would replace out that there is another woman. No family bothered to replace her either. If you only did what the person who looked after me did, you would replace out the truth," she said.

In her heart right now is disappointment for the two people whom she thought she could count on.

She thought that Jean was her sister from another mother.

And Franco, her knight in shining armor.

But as she could see them, they seemed not to be the people she thought they were.

She slowly got up from the sofa she was seated on.

Take out a tissue from her handbag and wipe her tear-stained face.

After putting back the tissue, she looked up and sighed.

"May the two of you have the best life," she said.

She never waited for them to respond.

Walking out of the building made her realize that nothing is permanent in this world except change.

Her old friend changed

Her ex-fiancé changed.

Her feelings changed.

Now that she has no business staying there.

She has to go back to the person to whom she owes her second life.

Leandro.

The man who didn't give up on taking care of her.

The man who is willing to make her happy.

The man who made her feel that she is special.

Maybe this is what was destined for her. To be with Leandro.