Could It Be?

EIGHTY-SIX

Vince and Elaine both get a message from Jake by midnight, saying that Kyle is safe, that they're back in the hotel, and he's staying with her for the night.

They both reply their thanks.

Jake tells them, We will meet you at church tomorrow, 11 am, for lunch with parish priest.

They both say okay.

Vince is already at the rest house, fighting the urge to come back to the hotel to fetch Elaine. He lies in bed, watching basketball, but still listless. After the exchange with Jake, he keeps looking at his phone, and finds it quiet.

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Elaine spends the night instead with her parents, after that conversation with Ampy. She tries not to cry, lying on an extra mattress beside the bed, thinking about Rachel. About what she has seen about this woman on the internet, and on the files the investigator sent. She's a morena beauty, she has her own businesses, yet she still seems to find time to surf. Sure, there's a man in her life - husband, a foreigner - and there are two kids: a boy and a girl.

The boy, from photos she's seen, is probably two years old, with round eyes just like Vince's when he was a little boy.

The girl, a baby, fair like her father.

"Elaine? Anak?"

She turns to find her parents looking down at her as they lie down. Franco's arm is around Elena's waist, and it almost makes Elaine smile.

"Okay ka lang ba diyan?" Elena asks.

"Yes, Ma..."

"Okay... Get some sleep, sweetheart."

She smiles as her parents say good night and turn off the bedside lamps. She watches in the dark as her father kisses her mother's hair, and they end the night in each other's arms.

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"What do you mean ayaw mong umuwi?"

"Ayaw kong umuwi..."

"Lei... Hindi pwede. Pagagalitan ako ng Papa mo."

"He's not home."

"Business trip?"

There was so much she wanted to tell him, but having spent an afternoon with his family - his parents dancing in the kitchen as they prepared merienda - she felt embarrassed.

He may not live in a mansion. He may not have a car. He may be living on a scholarship. Sometimes money wasn't just enough. But Elaine thought Vince was luckier than most. Luckier than she was.

Because his dad came home to them - and only them - seven days a week. Vince was very proud of how dedicated his father was to his mother and the family.

She smiled through the afternoon, but thought of her mother, thought of how she would be out late with her amigas and their D.I.s if only to forget that her father was going to spend the night with his other family.

"Lei? May problema?"

She wanted to tell him she detested the mere thought that her father was with his other children. And yet, much as she trusted Vince, she didn't want him to have that impression of her father.

She felt it would speak about who she was, too.

So she shook her head.

"Hatid na kita, ha? Para makauwi rin ako agad..."