“Why did you stay with the imperfect me anyway? I have been pushing you away.”
“Carter, I saw how much you love your family. I want to get to know you better. You're not Doc Darryl, I know that. I accepted it. But I can't just ignore you without knowing who you are. And the more I get to know you, the more I was falling for you.”
He put his hands on his hips and looked up. “I am not sure. How many times I have felt so insecure whenever you talk about Doc Darryl. Until now I feel like I was never a match to him in your heart. Then he turned out to be just an illusion. Just like…what if what you feel about me was also just an illusion?”
“Please believe me. You’re the one that I like now.”
He shook his head. “I am not so sure anymore, Czech. I am not so sure anymore.”
She looked up at him. She thought her world crashed down when she found out that Doc Darryl was just an illusion. But it hurts, even more, to feel that Carter was slowly moving away from her. Because he was her world now. He was the one her heart cries out now. And it was like seeing a glass shattered into tiny pieces when she saw how his feelings for her were slowly fading away. As if she was just a complete nuisance for him. A charlatan. A mistake.
Cheska just buried her face in her palms. She was in a foreign place with no one to comfort her. Because even the man she expected to take care of her now hated her. She hid the truth from him. Carter might not understand her no matter how much she explained to him. Min Ji’s cheating was still fresh to him. The only difference was that she didn’t mean to hurt him. She won’t deliberately do that. She was hurting, too.
She just hugged herself. She saw Carter standing near the door. As if he was trying to distance himself from her as much as possible. But for her, it was like he was already on the other side of her world. She was feeling so cold, she couldn’t feel the heater in the room. She had lost Carter. He would not hug her anymore nor hold her hand so she wouldn’t feel alone. She was with him in this room, but she had never been so alone.
"Yabusaeyo!" he called someone on the phone. “Park Gung. Hyung!” He even laughed as if he had been friends with him for a long time. Why did he call Park Gung? She didn't understand their conversation, but it was clear they were talking about her because she heard her name and ‘Manila’. 
He wanted her to go back to the Philippines? Was he planning to let Park Gung and his men deal with her? Was she really that bad as a person? The scenarios running through her mind were not good anymore. 
"Who was that Jayimee person you’re talking about? That cousin of Doc Darryl?” Carter asked her. "Where does she live?"
“She’s from Bataan. I met her at a youth camp in our church. We became friends.” She rubbed her hands together. "She's a good friend."
“Good? She made a fool out of you and she even dragged me to it. Did she ask you for money?”
“W-well, she said he was sick. Like a blood anomaly.”
“And you gave her money.”  
“She was in a healing camp at our church in General Santos. She is my friend and Darryl's cousin so I send money every month.” She felt responsible for her. She thought that if Doc Darryl was still alive, they would have been relatives by now. 
He grinned. "I want to meet your good friend."
"She's sick, Carter."
“Sick? Yes, maybe in the head. And you believed her. It looks like she just used that ‘sickness’ to get your sympathy and extort money from you. This has to stop, Cheska. Because I don't know how many more she had victimized using my picture. Did it ever cross your mind that she might have deceived a lot more people just like what she did to you? Shit! Who knows how many candles and flowers were offered in front of my picture? Or maybe that Jaimee has used other men’s pictures just to get money from people.”
She shook her head slowly. “I have lost Doc Darryl, as well as Jaimee. S-she’s my friend. She’s the only one who understands me when it comes to Doc Darryl.”
“Because she just fabricated everything. She created the illusion. I will come with you when you back to the Philippines. Take me to that Jaimee girl.”
"But you don't have spare money for an airfare…" She remembered he was talking to Park Gung earlier. “Did you borrow money from him? Carter, your debt will increase again.”
“A little price to pay for my peace of mind. And it's time to end Jaimee’s scamming. Rebook your flight to Manila for tomorrow. I will pay for everything.”