Chapter 68– One Year Later
One year changed everything.
And nothing.
---
The mansion near the forest no longer felt temporary.
It had become home.
Messy.
Loud.
Alive.
---
The hallways once filled with fear and medicines now carried different things:
Rhys screaming over stolen snacks.
Lyra threatening him with books.
Care yelling because someone ignored medical schedules again.
Alex silently judging everyone.
And JJ—
usually at the center of the chaos somehow.
---
Because against every prediction—
against every medical expectation—
Jasper Jean Mariano survived.
---
Not just survived.
Recovered.
---
The dizziness disappeared slowly over months.
The tremors stopped.
The weakness faded.
Her body regained strength little by little until one morning Care realized something shocking during a routine checkup:
There was no progression anymore.
None.
---
It became a medical impossibility.
A miracle.
A case senior neurologists still argued over secretly.
---
But even miracles demanded payment.
And the price remained the same:
JJ still remembered nothing.
---
No Manila.
No Section E.
No Keifer.
No brothers.
No past life waiting somewhere across oceans.
---
Only fragments remained sometimes.
Random feelings.
Tiny instincts.
A strange ache whenever rain hit windows too hard.
A strange comfort around black hoodies.
A strange sadness she couldn't explain whenever airports appeared in movies.
---
But names?
Faces?
Gone.
---
At first the others feared that would destroy her.
Instead—
JJ rebuilt herself.
Completely.
---
She completed high school online quietly over the year.
Mostly from the library.
Usually while bullying Rhys emotionally.
---
"Read this financial report."
"I'd rather die."
"You're dramatic."
"You revived from terminal illness. YOU don't get to define dramatic."
---
The old JJ remained alive in pieces.
Even without memory.
---
But something else changed too.
Something nobody expected.
---
JJ became terrifyingly ambitious.
---
It started small.
Reading business books in the library.
Watching market interviews.
Studying corporate wars for fun.
Then suddenly—
she was building something.
Quietly.
Carefully.
Dangerously fast.
---
J&K Corporation.
Started secretly six months ago.
Now already growing beyond expectations.
---
Lyra once asked what the "K" stood for.
JJ froze for a second strangely.
A strange pain hitting her chest.
Then she laughed it off.
"…it sounded cool."
But later that night—
she stared at the company logo for almost an hour.
Like part of her soul knew she was lying.
---
Alex helped heavily with the structure.
And honestly—
Alex was terrifying in business himself.
His pharmaceutical company already operated worldwide despite his age.
Calm.
Efficient.
Ruthless when necessary.
---
"Never sign emotional deals," he told JJ once.
JJ nodded wisely.
Then immediately invested emotionally in a coffee startup because the owner looked sad.
Alex stared at her for ten seconds straight.
"…you would die first in corporate warfare."
---
Cole helped too.
Though in quieter ways.
Connections appearing mysteriously.
Funding opportunities opening suddenly.
Legal issues disappearing overnight.
---
Nobody asked too many questions anymore.
Because one thing became clear over the year:
Cole's influence reached frighteningly far.
---
Too far.
---
Government officials greeted him carefully.
Businessmen lowered their tone around him instinctively.
Even powerful people acted… respectful.
Cautious almost.
---
And still—
he never explained his family business.
Not once.
---
Meanwhile—
Care, Lyra, and Rhys became monsters inside hospitals.
---
Care specialized in cardiology.
Precise.
Cold during surgeries.
Terrifyingly calm under pressure.
---
Lyra became one of the youngest neurologists in their network.
Brilliant.
Obsessive.
Able to understand impossible brain cases frighteningly fast.
---
And Rhys—
despite acting like human chaos daily—
became an anesthesiologist with unbelievable precision.
---
Together?
They were nearly unstoppable.
---
Inside hospitals people already whispered about them:
> "If those three handle the operation together… the patient survives."
---
Their success rate together became absurdly high.
Almost unreal.
---
Outside the operation theatre—
they fought over chips.
Inside it—
they saved lives like machines.
---
One night after surgery—
Rhys dramatically collapsed onto the mansion couch.
"I deserve financial compensation for existing."
Care threw a pillow at him.
"You almost slept during rounds."
"I was meditating."
"You were snoring."
---
JJ walked downstairs halfway through the argument wearing oversized clothes and carrying snacks.
"Why are all doctors mentally unstable?"
Alex answered immediately from the dining table:
"Occupational hazard."
---
Everyone laughed.
And for a second—
everything felt normal.
---
But sometimes—
late at night—
JJ still stood alone near the balcony overlooking the forest.
Quiet.
Thinking.
Feeling something missing she couldn't explain.
---
Like somewhere far away—
someone was still waiting for her.
---
And in London—
Keifer Watson had no idea the girl he still loved was alive.
Breathing.
Laughing.
Building an empire under another sky entirely.
---
The Silence Left Behind
Manila changed after JJ disappeared.
Not visibly.
The schools still opened.
Traffic still screamed through roads.
Students still laughed in hallways.
Life moved on.
---
But for Section E—
something never returned.
---
People still called them monsters of HVIS.
Still feared them.
Still whispered when they walked past.
But the chaos that once followed them everywhere had faded into something quieter.
Heavier.
---
Because the center of it all was gone.
---
Cin stopped fighting teachers for entertainment.
Now he mostly sat near windows during breaks scrolling through old photos nobody knew he still kept.
Sometimes he'd suddenly look toward the school gate unconsciously—
like part of him still expected JJ to walk in yelling at everyone.
---
Rakhi noticed once.
She quietly held his hand under the desk afterward.
Cin didn't say anything.
Just held back tighter.
---
Denzel changed the most visibly.
Becoming frighteningly protective toward Grace and their child.
Like losing JJ taught him how fast life could disappear.
Their baby girl was born healthy six months ago.
And when Grace jokingly asked what they should name her—
Denzel answered too quickly.
"Grazel Jay."
Then went quiet immediately.
Because everyone knew why.
---
Felix and David stopped skipping classes recklessly.
Endrix buried himself into hacking networks and cyber-security work beside Watson Corp.
Rory became calmer somehow.
Eman talked less.
Even Calix—
usually emotionally stable—
sometimes stared too long at old group chats.
---
The group chat itself remained active.
Barely.
Mostly memes sent by Percy desperately trying to keep everyone functioning.
---
And every year—
on the date JJ disappeared—
nobody spoke in the chat at all.
Not once.
---
Mica still kept JJ's old voice notes saved secretly.
Especially the one where JJ yelled at her for crying over Calix.
Sometimes she replayed them when she missed her too much.
---
Freya once whispered quietly during lunch:
"It still feels like she'll come back randomly."
Nobody answered.
Because all of them thought the same thing.
---
At HVIS—
JJ's desk in Section E remained untouched.
Even after one year.
---
No one sat there.
No one moved her chair.
No one removed the tiny doodles she scratched into the wood.
---
Teachers stopped trying eventually.
Because the first time someone attempted assigning the seat to another student—
Cin nearly got suspended.
---
So now the desk simply stayed there.
Like a ghost everyone silently respected.
---
And then there was Keifer.
---
Keifer Watson no longer looked seventeen.
Not really.
---
Power aged people differently.
Pain did too.
---
He spent most of his time between London and Manila handling Watson Corporation.
Expanding aggressively.
Destroying enemies efficiently.
Building influence frighteningly fast.
---
People feared him now.
Not because he shouted.
Because he didn't.
---
He became quieter after JJ disappeared.
And somehow that silence felt more dangerous than anger ever did.
---
Business magazines called him:
> "The Youngest Monster CEO in Europe."
Online articles praised his intelligence.
His control.
His ruthlessness.
---
Nobody wrote about how he still stared at airports too long.
Or how he still carried JJ's old hair tie inside his wallet.
Or how he sometimes woke up at 3AM convinced she had called him.
---
Keigan and Keiren still lived partly at Fernandez Mansion.
Because even after everything—
they refused leaving the place JJ once called home.
---
Keiren still asked sometimes:
"When Ate JJ comes back… will she remember us?"
And every single time—
nobody knew how to answer.
---
Percy became louder after she disappeared.
Almost aggressively chaotic.
Because silence reminded him too much of loss.
---
But sometimes—
very late at night—
Aries found him sitting alone in JJ's room.
Quiet.
Holding one of her hoodies.
---
Aries himself became more protective.
More mature.
More dangerous too.
---
The three brothers rarely talked about JJ openly anymore.
Because saying her name out loud made the absence real again.
---
Angelo blamed himself secretly still.
For missing signs.
For not stopping her.
For letting her leave alone.
---
And despite one year passing—
they never stopped searching fully.
Never.
---
Every few months—
a lead appeared somewhere.
Japan.
Singapore.
Germany.
India once too.
But every trail ended dead.
---
It became obsession.
Especially for Keifer.
---
Because unlike others—
he never accepted she was gone willingly.
Not emotionally.
---
Some nights in London—
he still reread her letter alone.
The paper already worn from too much handling.
---
Especially one line.
Always the same line.
---
> "You were my safest love."
---
And every single time—
it ruined him quietly all over again.
---
Meanwhile across another country—
JJ laughed loudly while stealing Rhys's snacks again.
Completely unaware that somewhere far away—
an entire group of broken people still carried her absence like an open wound that never healed properly.
----------------------.....💕🧿
Hey Cuties,
How are you ?
I won't upload tomorrow...
I will try to upload tomorrow night if I will free, but no guarantee.
I wanted your suggestions for the University of both section E and JJ...
Mostly all are taking the management course. So I was thinking of IIM Bangalore.
Give your suggestions too...
Regards,
Yours lovingly,
Author ~CARE💕...