Chapter 26 · Ten-Year-Old Signature

"Anak, listen to me. Ten seconds, that's all I need."

Kuya Ben's hand closed around my wrist before I even got the linen cart through the service door, and he pulled me into the closet so hard my shoulder hit a shelf of folded towels. A stack of pillowcases slid off and hit the floor, and neither of us bent to pick them up.

"Ben, you're hurting me—"

"Corazon's lawyer already has my signature on a lie." He shoved a folded, yellowed page against my chest, so I had no choice but to grab it or let it drop. His fingers were shaking. "You need to see the real one before I sign the version they want."

My hands were shaking before I even opened it. Ten years working this hotel, and I'd never once seen Kuya Ben scared. Not when the boiler flooded the basement, not when Bianca had him fired and rehired three times in one month for sport. Scared now.