“Mommy, is he my daddy?” Nagulat si Arianna nang biglang sumulpot sa likuran niya si Maliah. Nakita nito sa laptop screen niya ang mukha ni Alistair. Nagbabasa kasi siya ng article tungkol dito at sa Exquisite. “No, anak,” sagot niya at hinayaan na itong sumiksik sa kandungan niya.“But I think he looks like me,” giit ng bata na inilapit pa ang mukha sa screen. Natawa siya. Sa katunayan, tumatawa pa siya nang matigilan siya. Why, Maliah was correct. She didn’t realize that until now that her daughter mentioned it. Bukod sa parehong asul ang mga mata ng mga ito, Maliah looked like a younger female version of Alistair. Mabilis niyang ipinilig ang ulo. No, nadala lang siya sa sinabi ni Maliah. “Why are you looking at his picture?” “Nope. I’m reading an article about him. See, this man is called Mr. Alistair Miller. He owns a big company of jewels,” sabi niya sa anak, dismissing her earlier thoughts about her daughter’s similarity with Alistair. Nagkataon lang iyon. Marami talagang

Five years earlier…“Have you found her yet?” kalmado kahit iritable nang tanong ni Ali kay Oliver na kanyang right hand man. “Not yet, Sir. All the CCTV footage didn’t catch a good recording of her.”“That’s impossible. That place has a lot of CCTVs!” “She purposely blocked her face from the cameras, Sir.”“Not even one clear shot?” Umaasa pa ring tanong niya.“I’m afraid there’s none, Sir. We searched thoroughly but she disappeared by the next block where there were no longer cameras installed.”“How about the taxis that came by that area?” “We investigated every car that we got a clear plate number in the CCTVs. But we didn’t find the girl.”Napabuntong hininga na lang si Ali. It seemed that the woman did not want to be found. At wala siyang magagawa ro’n. If only his eyesight didn’t betray him, he could at least remember her face. Pero tuluyan na ngang bumigay ang kanyang paningin. In fact he was slowly losing it even before she saw the woman being harassed by a bar regular. W

‘Darling,Our little Rian is growing up so fast. Wish you were here and share this joy with us…’Arianna wasn’t successful in holding back her tears. Dahil isang oras na niyang iniiyakan ang sulat ng kanyang ama sa likod ng larawan ni Maliah. He wrote it for her mother, Celeste, who had gone ahead of them for almost two decades already. Celeste was the only one who called her Rian. Kahit ang kanyang ama ay bihira siyang tawagin sa nickname na iyon. Samuel preferred calling her by her full name instead. Kaya naman sobrang precious kay Arianna ang nickname niyang tanging ang namayapa niyang ina lang ang tumatawag sa kanya. It was the reason why she hated it when Ali called her Rian. For her, the man had no right… However he came up with that name to call her, was beyond her. Although she used that nickname when she was young, not even Bianca called her that way. Eh si Alistair, nakilala niya lang recently when ‘Rian’ was already a memory. ‘Five years is not recent, Arianna… ‘ her