I noticed that he didn’t mention Maezy’s name, but I didn’t expose him. What for? We were already both married and had led separate lives, so it’s useless to cry over spilled milk.
Perhaps Kim was afraid that I would confront him for marrying the woman who sold me. If he truly loved me before, he should have married someone else and not the one who betrayed our friendship. But I couldn’t question his decisions because it didn’t matter anymore. Things like that could happen to people, even to someone you don’t expect.
“Thanks for coming back to me, Yen,” he said, and his hand crawled on top of my right hand, clasping it with his.
Tears rolled down from my eyes as I shook my head.
“I am already married, Kim. And so you are.”
“But you were mine first.”
“But it’s in the past.”
I heard with my two ears when Josh confronted Kim for stopping him in his pursuit of me. And he slapped Kim with the fact that he already filed a declaration of my presumptive death. Therefore, he had no right to keep him away from me, except for Zed. So his primary reason for doing that was, of course, to be able to remarry. And that was apparently because he already got Maezy. He was already his wife, so it was his duty to protect her, even from me and my hatred.
“There was no marriage. We just decided to live together after she got pregnant.”
I froze. But Maezy had no other child except Jaykee. How long have they stayed together, and where is the child?
Kim probably read my mind because he answered my unspoken question.
“She got a miscarriage. The child is the reason why I decided to live with her. I even thought of marrying her because I don’t want my child to grow without a father. Only to know that the father was James.”
Sadness clouded his eyes, and I pitied him. What kind of woman is Maezy? She married the old Mr. Yuki, Kim’s foster father. She later got into a relationship with James, his cousin, and later caught on to Kim. And while she already had Kim, she hooked on Tim, my best friend’s boyfriend.
Remembering that I saw her earlier, I wondered if she was staying in the same hotel.
“Kim, I saw Maezy this afternoon. Where is she now?”
Kim scoffed and shrugged, “I don’t know. Perhaps he accompanied Mr. Yuki.”
“How does he become your foster father?” I asked. I just accepted the fact, but I didn’t know how it happened.
“My parents sent me to a university situated in a remote mountain. Then, the administration assigned each of the students a foster parent. Mr. Yuki happened to stay in the facility as one of the shareholders, and he chose me as his foster child.”
Sounded weird. But maybe it’s the discipline Kim’s father was after. Kim couldn’t possibly excel as a businessman if it were not for the training and discipline he learned from the university.
I realized that we were already swerving from my main topic, so I redirected our conversation.
“How did you find out about me?”
“I searched the whole world just to find you. Who would have known that the key to finding you was the person I least expected.”
“Who?” I was already dying to know about how he found me again. But, then, I realized that all those meetings we had, including that of the office with Ara, were all planned.
Kim didn’t answer. He, instead, pulled me close to him. Surprised by this sudden move, I lifted my head to meet his gaze. I was about to pull away, but he quickly sealed my lips. Weak as I always was in his presence, I found myself melting in his kiss.
Soon, the kiss deepened until his moves became aggressive. His hands roamed anywhere in my body as our mouths tangled into the heat of passion. I got so lost that I no longer realized that he lifted me into the bed. He turned off the lights, and in the dark, he groped desperately for my eager and sensitive areas until he fully invaded me.
I no longer knew how long we danced into the rhythm of desire and pleasure. I just fell too exhausted on the bed afterward but deeply fulfilled. And this was something I never experienced with Zed.
I felt guilty again, but I was too tired to think about it. I fell asleep right away, nestled in the arms of my first husband. I knew that if I have to fight for my right, my subsequent marriage to Kim would be terminated. But even in my thoughts, I couldn’t afford to do that to Zed, the man who treasured me like a fragile figurine.
Early in the morning, Kim woke me up. I didn’t know that he already booked our flight back to the Philippines the night before. I hurried to take a hot shower, and when I went out, a steaming glass of milk and breakfast sets were already on the coffee table.
“Hurry a bit so that you could still eat,” Kim said. His wet hair was already glistening against the light, and the fresh scent of his soap filled my nostrils.
I nodded and went inside the bedroom to change. But when I was removing my towel, a large pair of arms hugged me from behind. Kim began kissing my neck, and we ended up in bed again. And it was another round of deep pleasure.
“Yen, what will happen to us after we return to the Philippines?” Kim asked later when we boarded the plane.
I looked at him with guilt and pain etching in my expression.
“We already lead new lives, Kim. Let everything that happened between us in the past and recently be all just memories. I would no longer ask how you found me, and I will no longer dig into the past. It’s enough that I finally have the answer to the question I had been asking in my mind since the day I met you.”
He went silent, but glints of bitterness spread in his eyes as he fixed his gaze at me.
“I can’t promise that to you,” he said.
“I'm not asking your permission. I’m merely telling you about my plan.”
Our flight back to our country was as silent as the white clouds that stared back at me from outside the window. And all along the trip, my mind was on Zed and on the face of the child I had been painting in my mind.