I Will Take Hold of You

Chapter Fourteen

The people in the living room stood up in unison when they entered. They are having coffee.

"What happened to you two?" Nicholas asked calmly but formally, glancing at the newcomers.

Thomas looked his girlfriend over from head to toe.

"The car was damaged, Ninong, at Siling Matanda. The fuse blew in the power supply to the machine..." said Paolo.

"Alicia, make us coffee..." Isa ordered the assistant.

"I'm going to accompany you back home, Paolo, and we'll talk..." Nicholas put down the cup of coffee.

The young man briefly glanced at Isa before following the old man out.

After the two came out, Thomas violently grabbed Isa by the arm.

"Let's talk privately!"

"I...it hurts, Thomas. Let go?"

"Where can we talk?"

"O-on the back veranda..." her eyes pointed to what was being said.

Thomas pulled her there. Juana was left shaking her head. Miguel was smiling.

"I like this...come on, darling, let's have a decent breakfast." He dragged his girlfriend to the commode.

"Where did you and Paolo spend the night, Isa?" Thomas shouted before they even got out of the veranda.

"What does that question mean, Thomas? The car got broken and we're stranded on the way."

A strong slap landed on the girl's cheek. "Liar!"

Isa's eyes widened. In her whole life she only experienced hurt that time. She doesn't remember her parents hitting her. And not even in her dreams did she think that Thomas would hurt her.

"T-Thomas?" she covered her cheek.

"If the car got broke down we should have seen you! And isn't that man a mechanic!" he asked glaringly. Jealousy and anger eat away his sane mind.

"We...we took another route. The short cut and...and that's where the car broke down. Paolo couldn't do it because it was dark..." the girl tried to explain.

"Who are you fooling, Isa? Your reasons are so shallow that you are still being betrayed by yourself! Look at yourself! Not a trace of powder and lipstick even though I know you retouched before we left Tayabas. And your Traje de Mestiza , why did it look like that?" There was malice in his glance at the girl.

The girl could not answer. What will she say? That Paolo's kisses erased her powder and lipstick? That he dropped her traje and forgot to put it back on? That they should not worry because the young man did not continue what they intended to do?

The girl took a deep breath. "The car really screwed, Thomas. Believe it or not..."

"I don't believe it! You're telling me what I want to know. It's a waste of respect for me. I should have indulged you. You are nothing but a cheap whore!" He looked at the girl from head to toe again. "But what do I know if before I met you, which boy did you hit? And I even thought you were a virgin!"

If the girl was shocked by the man's slap, she couldn't believe the words coming out of his mouth. Thomas wouldn't say that kind of thing! The perfect gentleman... suave... educated... She wanted to raise her hand to slap him but she couldn't move from where she was standing.

"And what kind of man is Paolo who would hit you when I'm your boyfriend? Unless maybe he knows you're an easy lay!"

The girl raised her stiff arm but the man quickly grabbed it.

"Don't you dare or you'll be sorry!" he said and suddenly dropped her hand down that she almost lost her balance.

Then he turned his back on her and re-entered the house. A few moments later, the girl heard his car pull up.

She sat down on the bench. The lover found her out in that order.

"What happened, Isa? And why are your cheeks red? Did Thomas hurt you?" Juana asked one after the other.

Miguel looked up. "That brat! I can't bear to think of men hurting women."

"I...I can forgive him for hurting me, Juana, Miguel, because he was jealous... but I can't forgive what he told me... what he accused me of..." sobbing she said what Thomas says.

"Oh my! He told you those?" Juana exclaimed in disbelief.

Miguel couldn't say anything. His jaws just set.

"And he's like a hysterical woman here, Isa. Wouldn't it matter if he was worried that something might have happened to you or that you might have had an accident, or that you might have been kidnapped by Paolo... he's suspicious and we couldn't pacify him."

"Well, Isa... all I can say is that this is a good event to get to know the type of personality your boyfriend has before you get married," Miguel said.

"Circumstances have their own way of solving our problem, darling."

Miguel's eyebrows met. "What do you mean?"

Juana shrugged her shoulders. "You said, she got to know more about Thomas' personality. Take me home, Miguel. Borrow Isa's horse to go back to town and then have Leo bring it here."

"Sure. Take Panyang..." seemed to be the tired answer of the girl.

"Rest, Isa..." said Miguel.

After the two left, the girl went to her room and lay down. She tried to forget the events from last night. She wants to rest and sleep.

It was afternoon when she woke up. After showering, she go out feeling hungry. After eating, she went out to the veranda and sat on the railing and looked at the surrounding mountains and trees.

"Hija..."

"Papa?"

The old man sat down. "I talked to Paolo, hija..."

"Well, I hope you believe the car got broke..." the girl answered sarcastically.

"I believe it, Isa. But what about other people who saw you in the field? It's almost here and there are a few houses around and that might people have seen you. This is the province, hija..."

"Straighten what you say, Pa..."

"You are a girl and Paolo is a boy. And my godson has a reputation in this town for mischief..."

"Papa, I thought you believed that nothing happened to me and Paolo and that the car really broke... which is the truth?"

"Right, hija. But other people won't think right..."

"I don't care about them because I don't know them!" hostile language of the girl. She had enough of these! Paolo was right when he said they would face the firing squad.

"The people you speak of are our people in the orchard and paddy fields, Isa..."

"Eh, what now, Pa?"

"I talked to Paolo, Isa, and he understands what I mean. And as a man, he knows what responsibility he has for what happened..." the old man's voice was formal.

"What is this?" confused language of the girl. "Don't tell me what you said to Paolo that he should marry me because it would be embarrassing to the people..."

"That's right."

The girl's eyes widened. "Papa? Oh my, is this still fashionable?" the felt annoyance turned into laughter. The girl laughed hysterically.

"Stop, Isa!" Nicholas scolded hostilely.

The girl gradually stopped laughing. "And what did Paolo say?" she asked still amused. "Did you really tell him to marry me?"

"It's not direct but that's what I'm implying. Paolo didn't say anything. But I know the father and son, they wouldn't allow us to be embarrassed..."

"Pa, whatever has been invented by man already and that is still your view. I know you don't like Thomas for me. Now, maybe your heart and mind will be at ease if I tell you that we are done. And also because of what happened last night..." Although the girl did not speak, she could clearly see the satisfaction in her father's eyes at what she said.

"And I also feel that you are trying to bring Paolo closer to me, Papa. Fine, I like him too. I'm just begging you, please, just let us go. Don't manipulate him, Papa, please. Just in case and we're getting married because he loves me, not because you forced him..."

"Hija, I don't need to force a man to like you or love you. Anyone will love you, Isa, and be proud to be the woman of their life..."

The girl looked outside again. "You know nothing, Papa..."

"Is there something I'm not aware of?" the old man asked suspiciously.

The girl did not answer.

"You've never kept a secret from me, Isa. What don't I know?"

The girl sighed. "Last night...I...I practically offered myself. I mean, I initiated it... but he refused or shall we say he stopped..." She couldn't explain what she wanted to say to her father.

"You what?" Nicholas repeated trying to put in his mind what his daughter was saying, who burst out laughing when he understood.

"Papa, I may have done that very permissively but you shouldn't laugh. I want to be insulted and humiliated. In the first place, I never did anything as daring to Thomas."

Nicholas still couldn't stop laughing. "Naughty, Paolo," he said, shaking his shoulders as he suppressed laughter. "Well, I guess, I'll just let you do what you want. I seem to be too old for that," the father was still laughing.

Isa's gaze followed her father in wonder.