PREVIOUSLY: Conchita’s husband Manuel abandoned his family on the night it was revealed that he had a mistress. Three months later the news of his death reached Conchita through the mysterious lady in red who quickly disappeared after leaving a letter. Despite the circumstances, Conchita agreed to have her husband’s body brought home for the sake of her children. This was the only way she could get through her anger, confront the problem and physically say goodbye to the man who betrayed her and her children. Manuel died in a drowning accident and Conchita knew that it was going to happen in this way, like the rest of them.

Nothing out of the ordinary happened in Conchita’s life after her husband’s death. She focused all her energy on looking after her children, providing for their everyday needs almost bsessively. In the months that followed she lived only for them. Conchita stopped going to public gatherings and refused all invitations to weddings, baptisms, etc. She would only leave the house to either shop for food and other necessities and had even stopped going to church. When somebody tried to engage her in a chat, she would make excuses to leave for an important errand and she feigned illness every time the priest from the local church attempted to visit her. After a while, everybody gave up and left her alone.

For some time Andy helped Rico with the running of their electrical shop and business was good.

After a much bigger electrical superstore was put up by the son of the town mayor, however, their income dropped considerably. Knowing that they couldn’t compete, the three boys, with the consent of Conchita, converted their electrical shop into a grocery store.

The boys convinced their mother to take active part in the running of the grocery store. They were worried about her introverted behavior and they thought her participation in the grocery store would prompt her to interact with people. Conchita was reluctant at first but she had no choice. She was aware that running a grocery store was labor intensive and that they could not afford to hire extra help at this early stage in their new venture.

After a few months, Conchita was back to her friendly self and even resumed her Sunday routine

of dressing up for church. Her friends and neighbors decided that her withdrawn behavior was just a phase, expected after a bereavement, and welcomed her back into their circle as if nothing had happened. They understood the magnitude of her grief following the trauma that she had been through.

After a year of selling groceries, they found out, however, that this was not as lucrative as dealing in electrical supplies. While Manuel Jr., was already in her last year in university, there was Margarita’s schooling to think of. This new development made Rico decide to apply

for a job abroad. He went asking around and after a few leads he found a vacancy in Riyadh.

By this time Rico was already twenty five years old and everybody was a bit worried that he had no girlfriend. He spent all his waking hours in the family business and had no chance to take anybody out on a date. Theirs was a very small town too where the girls were generally

demure. They expected to be pursued in the Filipino traditional way and Rico simply didn’t have

the time for all that. He was seen flirting with the daughter of a local policeman but the girl’s father was too strict and nothing came of it.

Andy and Manuel had their respective girlfriends who they met at school and they were hoping

that their older brother would meet somebody in Saudi Arabia, a Filipina nurse perhaps.

In a matter of weeks, Rico flew to Riyadh in Saudi Arabia where he even worked harder than before. He was now the head of the family and he was determined to send Margarita to a good school and to eventually replace their old house with a new one.

To be continued

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