Papa... is He Cheating?

Nicole reached their house panting with her body covered in cold sweat.

She immediately went in and placed her bag on the bamboo chair at their living room.

"Mama! Papa! I'm home."

She called out but nobody answered.

"Maybe they're still on the field. Better do my chores first before they come home."

So she went in her room and changed into a new set of home clothes.

First, she fed the chickens. Then, she pastured the cows for awhile before taking them back in their fence.

By the time that she finished, it was already 4:35 pm.

"It's time to cook for dinner."

She said and hurriedly went home. She took some dried fish from a basket and fried it. Then, she picked some vegetables in their garden, washed it, and chopped it to pieces before placing it in the boiling water in a pot. She adjusted the taste using salt and waited till it's finally cooked.

She checked the time, it's already 5:30 pm.

"What's taking them so long?" She said as she headed in her room with her bag to do her assignments.

In the middle of doing her homework, she heard the text tone of her father's keypad phone.

She went out and found the phone on the bamboo table in the living room.

She pressed the open button and read the text.

"Hello, good evening. What time are you available tomorrow? I have something to discuss with you. - Maurine"

'Who is this Maurine?' Nicole thought.

She's suspicious about the relationship of the woman and her father. So she opened the sent items and history of the phone.

There, she found the two exchanging messages with each other.

The suspicion that Nicole had awhile ago was growing stronger and is slowly turning into worry and sadness as the time passes by.

Worry because what if it's her father's kept woman and sadness because she can't imagine how her father could cheat to her and her mother.

She was on the verge of crying while reading the texts when her parents arrived.

"Nicole, we're home!"

Nicole's father shouted gleefully.

Nicole didn't heard her father and still continued to read the messages.

Because there was no response like the usual, Mr. Vargaz got worried that something happened to his beloved daughter, so he and his wife immediately went in the house through the front door from their balcony.

"Nicole! Nicole! Where are you? Are you okay?" He called out to her.

He went in the living room and saw his daughter sitting on the floor with a face full of tears while holding his phone. He tried so hard to see what his daughter saw in his phone. He squinted his eyes and finally he read a word on the small screen which made him frozen on his feet.

'Maurine... Of all the times that you could've texted me, why now?!'

He face palmed himself with his right hand while the other hand is holding his straw hat.

"Now I'm doomed..." He whispered.

Mrs. Vargaz finally catches up and saw the scene before her. She sighed. A deep one.

'This is gonna be a long explanation...' She thought and walked past her husband. She gave him a glare that sent chills down his spine saying 'Why did you not brought your phone with you?!'

Mr. Vargaz gulped.

'Oh-no... This is not good...'

"What happened, my dear?" Mrs. Vargaz asked as she slowly approached her daughter.

"Mama!"

Nicole jumped into her mother's embrace and that's when she cried hard.

"What's wrong?"

"P-papa... *sob*... is he... *sob*... cheating?"

Nicole looked at her father with tearful eyes that's full of sadness.

As Mr. Vargaz saw this, his heart was shattered a thousand times.

"No! I'd never do that to you and your mother."

He wiped the tears off Nicole's cheeks with his thumb.

"You know how much I love you. That I love you more than myself and I would do anything for you and your mother's safety and happiness." He joined the hug.

"Then, who is this Maurine who you've been texting to these past few months?" Nicole asked as she let go of the hug, still sobbing.

Mr. and Mrs. Vargaz just looked at each other in confusion on whether to tell their daughter the truth or not and in the end they chose the first option.

The both of them took a deep breath before facing their daughter.

"Well, we couldn't hide a secret forever. Maybe now's the time to tell you the truth."

Nicole looked at his parents in confusion but she didn't say anything and just waited for them to spill the beans.

"Nicole, you're adopted."