JUST LIKE what Joaquin said, he stayed at home with her and Callie. Coincidentally, even though it was a weekday, Callie didn't go to school because the weather was a bit rainy, so the class was suspended.
Joaquin stayed in their room while she and Callie were in the living room. At that moment, Nanny Loring was busy preparing their lunch.
She and Callie were currently busy watching TV when the doorbell suddenly rang. She was about to present herself to find out who it was but Nanny Loring preceded her.
"Who was it, Nanny Loring?" Lara asked, glancing at the lady who was standing at the door.
But that was all and she was surprised to see from behind Nanny Loring a familiar face. He stared at her while she could see no other emotion in his aura except for the hatred that was also reflected in his black eyes.
"Ah, g-good morning---,"
"Where is my son?"
Joaquin Sr. did not allow her to finish the rest of what she wanted to say because he had cut them all off. It was obvious that he was not interested in what she had to say.
Lara was just about to open her mouth to answer the old man's question but again her husband preceded her and spoke from behind her.
Because of her fear and the speed of events, she did not notice or even feel Joaquin coming down the stairs.
"Papa, what are you doing here in my house?" Joaquin asked the newcomer.
Joaquin Sr. let out a small laugh and then she saw his eyebrows meet and was stunned to see Callie who at that moment was busy with her coloring book while watching TV.
"So you also let this woman's offspring live here?"
In the tone of the old man's speech. Even mentioning the words "this woman’s offspring" made her feel like a very low type of person. After that, he even manages to throw a judging gaze at her from head to toe.
Lara immediately felt her face quickly heating up from what her husband's father said and did. Suddenly, she seemed to think of herself as garbage.
"Whatever you want to say, tell me. You don't have to talk anything bad about my wife," Joaquin said angrily as he joined her and hugged her tightly.
The old man laughed again.
Honestly, if she didn't know her husband as a simple employee in a big company, she might think that he is the sky and she is the earth.
What she means is that, based on the way Joaquin's father speaks, he is like a big and very rich businessman. And her husband is his heir and he does not want to be associated with simple commoners like her.
"You have indeed forgotten who you are because of this dirty woman!" shouted the old man to Joaquin, much to their surprise.
Lara gasped in shock.
But what she remembered most at that moment was her daughter who was also shocked by what her father-in-law did. Because of that, Callie ran towards her and hugged her crying.
Lara quickly tried to settle her daughter. While in the intensity of the compassion she felt for her, the glance she directed at Joaquin Sr. was sharp.
That's why she could see the look of amazement on the old man’s face as he stared at her daughter's face.
"If you don't have anything nice to say, Papa. I hate to say this, but you need to leave. You are scaring my daughter," said Joaquin with anger in his voice.
"Your daughter?" the old man said sarcastically. "Is it because she has such a strong resemblance to your mother that you accepted this girl so easily well for, a fact, you do not even have a drop of blood streaming in her veins!”
Lara's chest heaved with anger.
If only she could tell them the truth. That Callie is not from another man. But she knew it wasn't that easy. She knows that there is a right time and a right opportunity when she should confess the truth to her husband.
"Papa, please! Just leave! If there's anything you want to tell me, I'll come to your house. Don't do this to my family!" Joaquin pleaded while in his tone she noticed a mixture of fear and concern that Lara could not know or identify where it came from.
They were in that arrangement when Nanny Loring approached her and guided her to go up to their room.
And also, because she wanted Callie not to see the argument between the two, she decided to follow what Nanny Loring wanted to happen.
*****
"SHE does not know, Papa. She doesn't know anything yet, so please!" Joaquin's strong plea to his father.
To make sure that Lara would not hear the conversation between the two of them, he decided to invite him outside. Inside his car parked in front of his house, they talked. He let the driver leave them first so he wouldn't hear their conversation.
"I know! And I can't promise that I'll be able to hide your true identity from that woman, especially since you married her without my knowledge!" Joaquin Sr. also answered him angrily.
"Isn't this what you want? Or maybe you have forgotten? Wasn't it you who gave me this condition? Why are you angry? Can't you accept that I fell in love with the woman I chose to marry?" full of resentment in his voice, Joaquin asked his father.
"Yes, you're right, I'm the one who gave you this deal. But I didn't tell you to marry someone like her who has already given birth to someone else child!" that's his father.
"Stop it, Pa, please!"
"And what will you do next? Will you legally adopt that child to give her my name? Is that your plan? You have no idea how hard I tried to keep our name from unpleasant issues? Our reputation? Then someone like that woman will just defame it and put it to shame?"
The tone of his father's speech was no longer high at that moment. But despite everything, Joaquin can still feel the emphasis on every word he utters.
"I love her, so much," in the end, it seemed like that was all Joaquin could say to his father.
Thinking that he could soften the old man with what he said, Joaquin was disappointed. Instead, he only let out a sarcastic laugh.
"You will lose everything," he threatened him.
That's when Joaquin turned to his father. He saw that he was not looking at him and instead at Callie who at that moment was standing on the terrace of their house where his father’s driver was also there.
"If I didn't know she was from someone else, I might have thought she was your daughter because she looks so much like your mother. But the resemblance between them and my late wife is not enough for me to forget that she is the daughter of the woman who tarnish the name of the legacy that I nurtured and built. And she is also one of the reasons why you were able to disobey me now."
When his father said the last thing, the resentment in his voice did not escape Joaquin's hearing. Something that he felt hurt his heart deeply.