After the wedding reception, Marco and Sitti hopped on a plane and flew to Puerto Princesa Airport in Palawan. They were all bright-eyed and excited about starting their new lives together. Their choice to honeymoon in Palawan was more ceremonial than anything else. They hoped that returning to that island would usher in good luck for their future. Since the wedding cost them quite a bit of money, they only planned to stay there for two days. Marco and Sitti rationalized that they had plenty of time for travel. To continue their rational and adult decision-making, they have decided to live in Marco’s apartment in Cebu. This was an easy choice since Sitti’s job was service-oriented, and it would be easy to find a similar one in Cebu, making the same amount of money. Marco’s job, on the other hand, was not so easy to come by. They hoped that using their higher intellect instead of making decisions based on emotions would make them more economically solvent. Attaining Prosperity in the Philippines could not be taken for granted after all.

However, now wasn’t the time to burden themselves with a lot of weighty thought; they had two days and nights to enjoy themselves. You, after all, were only young once, and hopefully, you got married only once as well. Marco and Sitti had packed light for their honeymoon; after all, they weren’t expecting to wear clothes very much anyway. And when they did wear something, it would most likely be a bathing suit, because they planned to take full advantage of Palawan’s fabulous beaches. Bearing this in mind, they had decided to stay at the Daluyon Beach and Mountain Resort.

Unfortunately, they never even made it to their resort. Sitti, complaining of a full bladder, went to the airport restroom, while Marco went on to get a cab to take them to their resort. Marco, being a little preoccupied and excited about their mini vacation, did not think much when this elderly man carrying a tour book came up to him and asked for directions. Marco did not even consider the fact that he was wearing a black surgical mask. After all, many people were still wearing masks after the COVID pandemic. Besides, he was clean, neat, and well-dressed and very polite. What harm could there be in helping a lost and confused tourist? He even acted apologetically when he asked for help. It wasn’t till after a moment later that he started feeling a little light-headed and even a little confused. He soon felt strong hands supporting him and seemingly trying to help him in his distress. Before he knew it, he was in a small panel van, where he was quickly bound, gagged, and blindfolded.

With all the hustle and bustle at the airport, nobody even noticed that anything was amiss. After all, people got in and out of vehicles all the time at the airport. When Sitti left the restroom and went to the loading area in front of the airport, she immediately saw their unattended suitcases on the sidewalk. Since it had only been a few moments since Marco had been whisked away, no security personnel had even noticed that they didn’t belong to anyone. Sitti grew increasingly frantic as she rapidly scanned the area, looking vainly for Marco. He should have been easy to spot among the milling people. He, after all, was at least six inches taller than the vast majority of all the Filipinos at the airport. When she failed to find him, she grabbed their two small rolling suitcases and started looking for security.

Upon hearing her story, Sitti quickly found a security guard, who immediately escorted her to the airport’s Office for Transportation Security. The head of security was professional and efficient. He asked her if she had a current photo of her husband. She showed him a picture on her phone. He asked if he could borrow her phone for a minute. He handed the phone to the technician, who quickly uploaded a photo of Marco. When he was finished with the phone, the security officer promptly gave Sitti back her phone. The officer told Sitti that they would now review all the recent footage from the security cameras in front of the airport to see if they could discover what had happened to Marco. While they waited for the techs to review the videos, the security chief contacted the local police department of Puerto Princesa. Within 15 minutes, two detectives showed up to take the information from Sitti about Marco. One of the techs handed the detectives a hard copy photo of Marco and a thumb drive with all of the security footage for the last 30 minutes, so they could also review it firsthand when they returned to their offices.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity to Sitti, one of the techs picked up Marco on the footage. They saw an older man wearing a black mask come up to Marco, holding a map and asking for directions. Then they saw him leave a few minutes later. Then they saw Marco leave his suitcases and start to wander around. Unfortunately, he walked out of the camera coverage. In another video, they found a plain white van leaving the airport. However, they had no way of knowing if the truck was at all involved with Marco’s disappearance. The license plate was also not visible as the van drove off. So that footage was of questionable value. Thanks to the black mask, identifying the elderly man would be challenging, to say the least. All they could hope for was that he showed up again. Several hard copies were printed and dispersed to all the airport security personnel. While Sitti was waiting for any information, she called her parents and Marco’s father.

Marco’s father, ever the stoic, seemed to take it well on the phone. However, after Sitti had hung up, Lorenzo, all alone in his hotel room, broke down in gut-wrenching sobs as he lay in a fetal position on the floor of his hotel room. He had decided to spend a few days in the Philippines after the wedding to see a few sights, so he had decided not to hop back on a plane back to Italy. Now, there was no way in hell he was going back home until he found out what had happened to his son.