Meeting Ysabel (2)

Ysabel's face turned pale but managed to put up a nervous smile on her face.

"Mommy, I want daddy!" The baby leaped out from JP's lap and snuggled herself to Ysabel's arms.

"Baby, daddy will not come back. Didn't I tell you this before?" Ysabel feigned a slight frown at her baby.

"Come here baby. I will tell you something." JP coaxed the baby in his now shifted tender and soothing voice as ever.

The girl turned her head and gave him an assessing look as if calculating if she could trust him or not.

"No, Mommy said my daddy went far away!" she frowned and hid her face at the side of her mom.

My brother got on his knees and moved closer to the mother and daughter. He stretched his arms around them. His right arm stretched through her lap to her waist while his left arm was wrapping the little girl drawing her close to his embrace lifting her a bit so that the baby's face was on his shoulder facing his back.

In that same position, JP held Ysabel by her waist then softly said, "Ysabel, you can't deny this from me. I knew and I feel it. I don't understand why you hid from me. Why?" JP's face was frowning in a sour mood but his eyes showed a puppy-dog look as he looked up to her.

"You are so confident of yourself John Paul. Why do you even think you are her father? Don't you think she could be somebody else's?" Ysabel said nonchalantly as she evaded his pleading look.

"I don't think so. But if you want to challenge me, let me go ahead and do some DNA testing with her. What do you think?" JP said shifting from his previous pleading tone to the domineering CEO tone again.

"Bro, I can take the baby for a walk if you need to talk first." I offered seeing that they need some ironing out.

"No, don't take my baby away from my sight! Who knows where you might take her" Ysabel spoke immediately upon hearing what I said.

"By the way, this is John Mark, my younger brother. You haven't got the chance to meet him before. He's not a dangerous cop." JP introduced me to Ysabel, who in turn stared at me blankly.

"I should have said hi sister-in-law a while ago but you seemed not willing so I have to drag you. Anyway, nice meeting you! I hope my brother can settle now that he has finally found you." I said bravely thinking that my own matters with my Fem Law still lies unresolved. Probably, I will just take a step one at a time to make things sure.

It's already four o'clock in the afternoon and we haven't had a good lunch during the trip. I suggested that we should go down to the restaurant for tea time.

Ysabel's eyes widened everytime the servers greeted us with warmth and respect. "Why do you seem so familiar to everyone here?" She asked as she glanced at her surroundings.

"Why, but we own this place?" JP said wryly.

"What? Are you serious? Since when?" She again asked.

"Maybe since before we were born?"JP maintained his wry smile.

Ysabel looked at JP for some good minutes while I took time to place our orders. I was glancing at their interactions and noticed that my brother turned red in embarrassment due to her long stare.

"I didn't intend to hide anything from you but I miscalculated your move. Before I could reveal my true identity, you went hiding and I couldn't find you. Now tell me, why did you need to do that?" JP came back to his confidence and controlled the situation.

"Tell me first why you didn't reveal you true identity. You are not the JP I met before." She said seemingly confused.

" As I said, I never intended to hide this from you Ysabel. I just never thought you'd go hiding like that before I even have the chance. Now tell me why you hid from me! I will not accept a lame reason for such." JP said under his breath as he looked sternly at Ysabel.

"It's a complicated story JP. You'll not understand and digest it over a tea time. All I can say is that it has to do with my identity as well. It has nothing to do with you though. Though, I'm sorry for sacrificing the relationship we had before. I think there's no point going back to it anymore. We have already both moved on" She said wryly.

"So why should I kidnap you now if there's no point in it? Look at her, how can you explain to her in all honesty that you ditched her father?" JP lifted his chin pointing it to the little girl who was busy playing with plastic cutleries.

Ysabel shook her head and softly said, "I'm sorry. I hope she'll understand when she grows up."

"What kind of reasoning is that? Why do you think I'm still single till now? Can't you see the obvious? Shall I spell it for you? Do you have a pea brain? " JP was angry but controlled the volume if his voice.

Seeing that Ysabel went speechless as she shook her head, JP shifted his attention to the little girl. " Baby, do you know that we have the same name?" He asked.

"No, I don't know you!" The little girl said blinking her eyes.

"Okay, okay. Do you want to know my name?" JP asked with patience to which the little girl nodded.

"My name is John Paul Arevalo. See? Isn't our name almost the same? " JP ruffled the girls curly brownish hair as he pulled her chair towards him.