The text came on a Thursday.
Dad (Keizer): We're coming. All of us. Saturday.
Keifer: All of you?
Dad: Your mother hasn't stopped talking about your girlfriend since the photos. Keigan wants to meet the surgeon who "fixed that kid's heart" (his words). And Keiren packed his favorite toy to show her.
Keifer: Keiren is five. He doesn't pack.
Dad: He made your mother do it. Very demanding. No idea where he gets that from.
Keifer pinched the bridge of his nose.
Keifer: Saturday is in two days.
Dad: We know. Your grandfather already arranged everything. We're staying at the Mandarin.
Keifer: You're not staying with me?
Long pause.
Dad: Would that be okay?
Keifer stared at the question.
Would it be okay?
His parents had lived abroad for years. Since he was eighteen. Since the accident that almost destroyed them all.
They'd left him here. With his grandfather. With the company. With the weight of the Watson name on his shoulders at an age when he should've been careless and young.
He'd never forgiven them.
Not really.
But lately—since Jay—he'd started to understand that forgiveness wasn't always about forgetting. Sometimes it was about choosing to move forward anyway.
Keifer: Stay here. The apartment has rooms.
Dad: Keifer—
Keifer: It's just an apartment. They're just rooms. You're family.
Another long pause.
Dad: We'll be there Saturday morning. I love you, son.
Keifer didn't know how to respond to that.
So he didn't.
Jay's reaction was... Jay.
"Your entire family is coming. Here. To this country. To meet me."
"Yes."
"In two days."
"Yes."
"Your parents who you never talk about. Your teenage brother. Your five-year-old brother who apparently wants to show me his toy."
"Yes."
Jay sat down heavily on her office couch.
"Keifer."
"Jay."
"I'm a surgeon. I handle pressure. I handle emergencies. I handle tiny humans literally dying on my table." She took a breath. "This is different."
"I know."
"I don't know how to do families. Mine just... happens. They show up. They're loud. They love me anyway." She looked up at him. "What if yours don't?"
Keifer crossed to her. Knelt in front of her. Took her hands.
"They will."
"You don't know that."
"I do." He squeezed. "Because I love you. And they love me. However imperfectly. It'll be fine."
Jay searched his face.
"You really believe that?"
"I'm choosing to." He almost smiled. "That's new for me too."
Saturday arrived too fast.
Keifer's apartment had been cleaned within an inch of its life. Food was prepared. Rooms were ready. Keifer himself had changed outfits three times, which Jay found both endearing and hilarious.
"You're nervous."
"I'm not nervous."
"You've re-tied your tie twice."
"It was crooked."
"It was perfect the first time."
Keifer shot her a look. "Whose side are you on?"
"Yours. Always." She straightened his collar, even though it didn't need it. "But I've never seen you like this."
"Like what?"
"Human."
The elevator chimed.
They both froze.
"Together?" Keifer asked quietly.
"Together."
The doors opened.
And chaos—Watson-style—arrived.
A small tornado hit first.
"KUYA KEIFER!"
Keiren, all five years of him, launched himself out of the elevator and straight at Keifer's legs.
Keifer caught him automatically, lifting the boy with practiced ease.
"Keiren."
"I brought Bato!" The child held up a battered stuffed dinosaur. "For the surgeon lady! She fixed hearts so Bato wants to say thank you!"
Jay blinked.
Keifer's expression softened in a way she'd never seen. "Keiren, this is Jay. Dr. Jay."
Keiren studied her with serious five-year-old eyes. "Do you really fix hearts?"
"Sometimes," Jay said carefully. "I fix children's hearts. So they can grow up and play with dinosaurs."
Keiren considered this. Then he held out Bato.
"You can borrow him. For luck. When you do surgeries."
Jay felt something crack in her chest.
"Thank you, Keiren. I'll take very good care of him."
"Good." He nodded firmly. "Kuya, can I see the big windows?"
Keifer set him down. "Go. Don't touch anything breakable."
"Okay!" Keiren ran off, Bato swinging.
Jay watched him go, then turned to face the rest of the elevator occupants.
A teenager stepped out next. Tall, lanky, with Keifer's sharp jaw and dark eyes—but softer. Warmer.
"You must be Jay." He stuck out his hand. "Keigan. I've read your papers. The one on pediatric cardiac reconstruction was insane."
Jay shook his hand, surprised. "You read medical journals?"
"I want to be a doctor. Pre-med next year." He shrugged, suddenly shy. "You're kind of a legend in the field."
"A legend?"
"Don't let him inflate her ego," a woman's voice said warmly. "She probably gets enough of that."
Serina Watson stepped out.
She was beautiful—elegant, polished, with Keifer's eyes and a smile that crinkled the corners. She moved like someone who'd spent years in boardrooms and ballrooms, comfortable in her own skin.
But when she looked at Keifer, something flickered. Regret? Longing? Love?
"Keifer." She said his name like it cost her something.
"Mom." His voice was careful. Controlled.
Serina nodded, accepting the distance. Then she turned to Jay.
"And you must be the woman who made my son smile in a photograph." She took Jay's hands. "I've watched him grow up in headlines and quarterly reports. I've never seen him look at anyone the way he looks at you."
Jay didn't know what to say.
Luckily, she didn't have to.
"Well, well, well." Keizer Watson emerged, and the resemblance to Keifer was almost jarring. Same height. Same presence. Same eyes that missed nothing. "So you're Jasfer's girl."
"And you're Keifer's dad." Jay met his gaze steadily. "He didn't mention you knew my father."
"We go way back. Business." Keizer grinned. "He never mentioned he had a daughter like you."
"Like me?"
"Brilliant. Accomplished. And apparently immune to my son's intimidation tactics." He laughed. "I like you already."
Introductions happened in waves.
Keifer gave the tour. Keiren demanded to be carried. Keigan asked intelligent questions about Jay's research. Serina complimented the decor. Keizer found the whiskey.
Then the elevator chimed again.
The Marianos arrived.
All of them.
Together.
Percy burst out first, as always. "WE'RE HERE! Wow, same elevator. Fancy. Keifer, do you get motion sickness? This elevator is so fast. I feel famous."
"Percy, breathe," Aries said, stepping out behind him.
"I'm breathing! This is breathing with enthusiasm!"
Reycee followed, warm and smiling. "Keifer, anak, thank you for having us. The apartment is beautiful."
Jasfer came last, already scanning the room—and freezing when he saw Keizer.
"Keizer Watson."
"Jasfer Mariano."
The two men stared at each other.
Then Keizer laughed. "Last time we saw each other, you were trying to convince me to invest in that shipping deal."
"Last time we saw each other, you were trying to convince me your quarterly projections weren't inflated."
"I wasn't inflating anything."
"You were absolutely inflating."
"Gentlemen." Reycee stepped between them smoothly. "Perhaps we save business talk for later? I believe there are introductions to be made."
Keizer's eyes crinkled. "Reycee. Still as elegant as ever."
"Still as charming as ever, Keizer. And still married." She smiled sweetly. "To him."
Keizer laughed again, genuinely amused. "Fair enough. Fair enough."
Dinner was... chaotic.
Beautifully, loudly, perfectly chaotic.
Keiren had claimed the seat next to Jay and spent the meal explaining the detailed backstory of Bato the dinosaur (he was a explorer, a hero, and once fought a volcano).
Keigan asked about surgical residencies and whether Jay thought he had a chance at her hospital.
Percy talked about himself. Extensively.
"So then I said, 'If you wanted a model, you should've said so, because I clearly have the bone structure for it.' And they actually laughed! I mean, I wasn't joking, but—"
"Percy." Aries shot him a look. "No one asked."
"People are always asking. Silently. With their eyes."
"Literally no one."
"You just don't appreciate genius."
Keifer watched this exchange with something like wonder.
His family was... talking.
Laughing.
Being normal.
Serina was deep in conversation with Reycee about something that made them both smile. Keizer and Jasfer had moved from business to golf to complaining about their children's work habits. Keigan was quizzing Jay about surgical techniques.
And Keiren had fallen asleep against Jay's arm, Bato clutched to his chest.
"She's good with him," a voice said quietly.
Keifer turned. Serina had slipped into the seat beside him.
"Keiren doesn't usually warm up to people that fast."
"He's five."
"He's discerning." She smiled softly. "Like his kuya."
Keifer said nothing.
Serina hesitated. "Keifer. I know we don't... I know I haven't..."
"Mom."
She stopped.
"It's okay." He said it quietly. Carefully. "I'm not ready to forget. But I'm ready to... try. To move forward. Jay helped me see that."
Serina's eyes glistened.
"Your Jay. She's special."
"She's not mine. She's her own." He glanced at Jay, laughing at something Keigan said. "I'm just lucky she lets me stand beside her."
Serina reached for his hand—slowly, like she was afraid he'd pull away.
He didn't.
"That's love," she said softly. "Knowing someone is their own person. And choosing to stand beside them anyway."
Keifer looked at their joined hands.
It wasn't forgiveness.
Not yet.
But it was a start.
Later, after plates were cleared and Keiren had been put to bed (in Keifer's room, because he'd thrown a tantrum about wanting "kuya's pillows"), Jay found Keifer on the balcony.
Alone.
Staring at the city.
She wrapped her arms around him from behind. Pressed her cheek to his back.
"You okay?"
He covered her hands with his. "I don't know."
"Talk to me."
He was quiet for a long moment.
"When I was eighteen, there was an accident. A car accident. My parents were supposed to be in it. They weren't. But someone else was." His voice was flat. Controlled. "Someone who worked for us. A driver. He died."
Jay held tighter.
"My parents couldn't handle it. The guilt. The what-ifs. So they left. Went abroad. Said they needed space. Needed time." His jaw tightened. "They left me here. With the company. With the weight. With everything."
"Keifer—"
"I told myself I didn't need them. That I was fine. That control was better than trust." He turned in her arms. "Then you came along. And suddenly control didn't matter as much. Suddenly I wanted to... feel things. Let people in."
Jay cupped his face.
"Your parents made a choice. A bad one. But they're here now. Trying."
"I know."
"You don't have to forgive them overnight. But maybe—"
"Maybe I can start." He leaned into her touch. "With you. Because of you."
She kissed him softly.
"I love you," she whispered against his lips.
It was the first time she'd said it.
Keifer's breath caught.
"Say it again."
"I love you, Mark Keifer Watson. You impossible, controlling, secretly soft man."
He laughed—a real laugh, surprised out of him.
"I love you too, Jay Mariano. You terrifying, brilliant, chaos-bringing woman."
From inside, Percy's voice: "ARE THEY KISSING? ARIES, THEY'RE KISSING. SHOULD WE CLAP?"
Aries: "Percy, get away from the window."
Percy: "I'M CELEBRATING LOVE!"
Jasfer: "Let them have their moment, anak."
Reycee: "They're so sweet together."
Keizer: "My son. In love. Never thought I'd see it."
Serina: "Keigan, don't record this."
Keigan: "Too late. Sent it to the family group chat."
Percy: "WAIT THERE'S A FAMILY GROUP CHAT? ADD ME."
Jay groaned against Keifer's chest.
But she was smiling.
And so was he.