16 John is my.../ Natalia(3)

"Why are you still shamelessly sitting here calmly drinking coffee as if you own the house?" Lucia glared at John.

"Lucia…." The man tried to speak with her. "Don't call my name as if we are some relatives." Lucia looked at him disgusted. She still did not understand how this scum bag of a person was related to her mother and indirectly to her.

"Mom, are you going to talk finally?" Lucia looked at her mom who had just come out of the kitchen and was looking outside the window. For a while she spoke nothing as she was lost in her own thought. 'Was it finally the time to tell her the truth?' She felt complicated.

"Lu lu, You know that I love you right?" She turned around to look at Lucia. Guess it was finally time to tell Lucia the truth about her birth.

"Are you sure about telling her?" John looked at the Mrs. Sovuyer. "Yes, she is already eighteen so I am sure now is the right time."

Lucia listened to their conversation totally lost. She just wanted to know the identity of man but things escalated to the origin of her birth. Even more surprising was that they were even discussing it right before her.

"Hey, mom…What are you guys talking about?" Lucia asked a little anxious, a little curious and a little scared. The atmosphere in the room got sullen and serious.

Mrs. Sovuyer looked at the little girl who had grown up to be a fine young lady and sighed in her heart. 'How time flies so early but one had to grow up anyway…' She made up her mind to tell her the truth.

Lucia felt weirded out by her nostalgic look. Mrs. Sovuyer ignored her confused expression and continued in her low and soft voice, "This man there, he is…."

'This man here, he is…' Lucia was repeating in her heart.

"Tringggg….tringggggg."

Before she could finish her sentence she was interrupted by an annoying ringtone. John took out his phone giving an apologetic smile. "Ihehehe…sorry." He took out the ringing phone from his pocket.

"Its him." His hands shook slightly when he saw the caller ID. "Who him?" Lucia asked flicking her nail. She wanted her mom to continue speaking but this damn phone had to ring just in time to interrupt her.

"He-ello." He slightly bowed down and spoke meekly, his voice was clearly trembling. "What…wha-at you might be calling for?"

"The phone, give the phone to the girl right now." A cold voice asked him from the other side which sounded more like a threat making the poor man tremble.

"Lucia…" He slowly extended his hand that had the phone signaling her to take it.

"For me?" Lucia was surprised since she had not expected the call to be for her. "Yes." John replied urging her to take the phone as soon as possible.

"Hello, Lucia speaking." She informed the other side.

"I know." The man on the other side chuckled slightly. That voice, there was no way she could forget that voice. "What are you calling for Mr. Loan Shark?" Lucia did not want anything to with this man. "Didn't I say I did not want to see or talk with you ever again?"

"But you have not paid the debt yet my girl.. I am just making sure you are not running away." Liam sounded professional but there was a mixture of playfulness and childishness in his voice.

"I signed the contract and I said I would pay the debt no matter the interest with the condition that you will leave me and my mom alone…Aren't you breaking your side of contract?" Lucia did not have time to play with him.

"I never called you, I called the man John and he just gave the phone to you. You can't blame me sweetie." Liam leisurely leaned back on his chair smiling as he made excuses to piss of the girl.

"Boss..." His one of the man entered the office with a file. He had something to report. "Boss.." He called again but the man was busy in his own world.

His subordinate looked at the man who seemed like his boss but did not feel like his boss.

"Shhhh…I am busy now. Come back later." He directly ordered his man to go away. Work could wait but hearing the angry voice of the girl could not wait. It was like a breather to him that came to him all of a sudden.

Lucia was dumbstruck at the shamelessness of the man. "Then have fun talking with him." She was about to throw the phone at John when the man suddenly spoke. "Wait, I have to say something." His tone was a lot more serious now.

"Just say it then." He might be having fun talking with her but she was not. "Tomorrow, I will pick you up. There is somewhere I have to take you."

"Huh??" Lucia could not believe how conceited the man was making plans on his own for her.

"See you tomorrow then." The man ended the call with a beep. He really had something important to show her.

"Ehhh?" She looked at the phone. "Who does he think he is?" Lucia wanted to throw the phone but stopped herself since it was not hers and pouring out your anger by breaking things was not her style.

"Whatever." She did not care about the useless talk of some unimportant man.

"Mom, you should continue from where you left off." Lucia wanted to hear what she was about to say.

But Mrs. Sovuyer had already changed her mind. It took her a great deal of mental preparation to finally speak the truth only to be interrupted in middle. 'Maybe its not the time yet.' She sighed but she knew that she was only looking for an excuse to weasel her way out.

"Ohh..Right.." She came back from her thoughts. She could not tell her the whole thing but she could remove some details. "This man here was my boyfriend once upon a time. That's all." She dropped the bomb and waited for it to explode.

"Whatt??? You serious mom?" Lucia had expected a more profound and deeper reason that had some secret but there was nothing of that sort.

Lucia was not buying that. Who will let some random Ex into the house, get caught and kidnapped by some shady loan sharks and agree to pay off the debt?? Even more he was sitting and enjoying the free services and food given to him lavishly.

Lucia also wondered why would anyone even have a connection with ex-boyfriend. What she said did not add up. There were too many holes in her sentence.

John also looked at her with a surprised face. What she said was true but not entirely true. He looked at her who was signaling him with her eyes to play the part with her.

"Yes, yes that's correct." He cleared his throat agreeing with her.

"Mom please don't lie." Lucia knew she was hiding something. Not just something but a lot more than that. As for the testimony of the man, she did not trust it one bit. "I would have believed if you had said this jerk is my dad." Lucia threw around her words but did not notice the startled and uneasy expression on the calm face of her mother.

"I am not lying… Lu lu rather what was that call about?" She wanted to stop talking about this and changed the topic. "Tell me about the contract you signed. I have some money in saving and I can help to pay it off..Sorry for dragging you in this…." She sighed making her look ten years or so older.

"Nah…its okay mom…I have my own plan…you don't have to worry about it…As for the contract I can't tell since its supposed to be secret between the related parties only." Lucia did not want to burden her mom in this life financially. As someone who had been reborn making money was a simple matter to her.

"But mom, this man.." She pointed her fingers at John, "He needs to be kicked out as soon as possible."

"I know sweetie… I had the same plans." Mrs. Sovuyer was much gladder to kick him out now that she had helped him take care of the mess he had made.

The man was ruthlessly kicked out by the mother daughter pair along with his pair of stinky socks that he had hidden under the couch. Well he was not worried since his debt had already been paid off. "Lucia make sure to pay the debt…it is under your name after all." He shouted through the peephole before walking away whistling.

When he stepped out from the apartment, it was already dusk. The shade of the sky was a majestic crimson hue on the horizon as the sun slowly sank welcoming the night sky. The golden sky slowly turned murky brown bringing a cold and chilly gust of air. Trembling and wrapping the thin jacket around his shoulder the man walked away disappearing in the busy street.

****************

"What happened to you?" Jordan was still maintaining a distance from her but asked out of concern. "Hey, come here." Natalia patted the place next to her inviting him to sit beside her. Jordan Lay, the man did like her but not to the point where he would approach her when she looked like a madman.

"No I am fine, you talk from there." He cursed himself for coming over today. He felt like he was in some sort of horror setting especially with Natalia giving him that creepy look.

The man did not budge an inch from the place he was standing. 'See even he thinks you are weird…he is also going to leave you….' The voice whispered in her ear once again. Natalia looked at the man with a bloodshot red eye. "Are you going to leave me alone?" She asked him with a pained expression which just looked creepier matched with her face.

Jordan did not speak anything.

'See, I said he would leave you…My child the only thing you have to do is let out your true self and follow your mom's order huh?' The fingers slowly caressed her hair.

"Nat-at, I am leaving, y-you take care….and le-st's bre-eak up." Jordan threw the flower on the floor as he prepared to go away. He had a bad feeling about the current Natalia.

"Don't go." Natalia spoke in a low and tiny voice.

"What??" Jordan asked but she remained silent. He shrugged his shoulder at her abnormal behavior.

He was just about to open the door when Natalia yelled at him. "Didn't you hear me ? I said you can't go." Natalia had already stood up catching the broken glass bottle. The blood on her hand had already dried up.

"Hey, Nat, what are you doing?" He tried to open the door but he felt a sharp pain on his hand as the bottle smashed where he was trying to unlock the door.

"Owww…..Arghhh…you lunatic…are you seeking death?" He shouted at Natalia who was completely different from the girl he knew.

"No, I am just seeking for company." She showed him a wide grin almost like a child but it could be described with only one word. 'Creepy.'