Chapter 26

“YOU adopted Vince?” Penelope asked confusion was all over her face. “I thought he was your own child?”

“Of course not,” the petite woman corrected. “Justin is a real bachelor. Don’t you know him?”

“If I do, d’you think I’ll be surprised by what you said?” Penelope countered, starting to lose her patience. She doesn’t understand what was happening now or what the truth is. “Justin, could you please explain it to me?”

“Wait, girl, why would he explain it to you? It’s too personal,” the woman said with an arched brow.

Before Penelope could speak again, Justin blocked her flaring view of the woman. “Penelope, can you bring Vince to his room first?”

“Wait, who is she?” Penelope asked, looking at him as if she felt betrayed.

The woman on Justin’s back snorted. “Why do you sound as if you’re a girlfriend?”

“We have an agreement. And it seems that you don’t know anything about it, so just shut up,” Penelope snarled at the woman and then glared at Justin. “What? Care to share?”

Justin caught his head. He doesn’t know what to say too. “Penelope, I’ll explain it to you later. Please, bring Vince to his room and stay with him. I don’t want him to hear anything about this.”

Penelope stared at Justin for a moment. When he gave him a pleading look, she sighed and rolled her eyes in surrender. “Okay, but you will tell everything to me later, okay?”

She heard the woman snorted again. “So demanding, what is she doing here, Justin?”

“Who are you to ask him that?” Penelope asked. This woman is getting on her nerves. She talked as if she has all the right to know everything that Justin does.

“She’s my friend and a personal assistant,” Justin said and glanced at the woman. “Her name is Cherry and—”

“She’s also against your decision on letting the kid stay here?” Penelope asked, brows furrowed in so much disappointment that this revelation brought to her. “She’s one of those guys that don’t want you and Vince to be together?”

“Penelope, I’ll explain it to you later,” Justin insisted and urged her towards Vince. The kid was just looking at them, oblivious of what’s happening.

Penelope felt pity for him. Why does he have to experience this kind of situation? As soon as she approached Vince on the table, he spread his arms to her for a hug.

“Let’s go to your room and play,” she said to Vince and carried him in her arms. “Papa gotta do something quickly, and he doesn’t want us to see it.”

“Penelope,” Justin warned her with a scowl. “I’ll go upstairs in a moment.”

“Whatever,” Penelope said and left them. But before she went upstairs, she looked at the woman and gave him a glare.

The woman gasped at what she did. “Did you see that, Justin? She’s a bad influence to Vince!” she heard her said that just made her smirked.

“I didn’t expect that this would be complicated,” she murmured as they went upstairs. “Vince, what do you want to watch?”

Vince jumped on the bed and pointed at the large TV screen. “Pooh! Pooh!” he repeatedly said while rolling on his bed. “I want Pooh!”

Penelope chuckled. “Okay, we’re going to watch Pooh,” she picked up the TV controller and switched the TV on. “You know what, Vince? Pooh and friends were Nicholas’s favorite.”

Vince looked at her with a puzzled expression. “Who Las?” he asked, struggling to pronounce the words right.

She smiled and caressed the child’s cheek. “Nicholas is the man I love…” she answered and felt the familiar pain inside her heart.

She remembered what Nicholas told her when they see each other after she met with Justin. Nicholas wanted her to rethink her relationship with Justin. He’s indirectly asking her to break up with him just because he doesn’t know Justin. How could he say it to her? It was as if he’s manipulating her life.

“But I guess… I see now that he really doesn’t like me,” she said and smiled sadly. “He wants me to stay, but he can’t love me.”

Vince snuggled closer to her. He looked up at her and gave her the most genuine smile that she had received in her entire existence. “I love you…” he murmured. And even though he can’t say it right, Penelope can feel its impact on her. “Vince loves you…”

She wrapped her arms around Vince and pulled him closer to her. “Thank you, Vince. I love you too…”

_______________

JUSTIN smiled while he was eavesdropping on Vince and Penelope’s conversation inside the room. This is one of the reasons why he wanted Penelope to be Vince’s nanny. He knew that Vince has made a bond with Penelope from the first time that they saw each other at the mall.

He knocked before pushing the door open. “Vince, can I borrow your Mama Penelope?” he asked and looked at Penelope, “in my room.”

When she nodded, Justin went to his room and waited for her. It took a few minutes before he heard her knocked on his door.

“Spill it,” she said as soon as he opened the door and let her in. “Vince wasn’t your son?”

Justin heaved a sigh. “He’s my adopted son.”

“For real?” she asked in disbelief. “I thought he was your child because you talked about him as if he’s your own.” She caught her head. “Why didn’t you mention it to me?”

Justin’s brows furrowed. “Do I have to? Will it affect your treatment towards him if he wasn’t my flesh and blood?”

“Of course not,” she answered quickly. “Why would I do that?”

Justin shrugged his shoulders. “Anyway, Cherry has left, and I told her why you’re here and Vince.”

She gasped and went closer to him. “What did she say? Is she going to tell the management? Will they separate him from you?”

Justin chuckled. “Cherry is a good friend of mine, and she loves Vince as much I do. I’m sure that everything that she saw here stays here.”

“That’s good to hear,” she said, sighing. “I can’t take to see Vince being sent back to wherever orphanage you got him.”

Justin groaned. “I don’t want to hear Sister Coleen’s disappointing speech towards me.”

“S-Sister Coleen?” Penelope asked, suddenly became curious. “In Apostle Orphanage?”

Justin nodded, then knotted her forehead. “Yes, why? Have you been in that Orphanage?”

Penelope avoided his eyes and shook her head. “No…” She swallowed hard. “I just heard it on the news,” she said and suddenly became distracted. “I-I’ll go back to Vince’s room—”

“Wait, Penelope…” He grabbed her arm when she was about to walk towards the door. “We have an unfinished business, right?”

“Huh?” she asked. “What are you saying?”

Justin hooked his arm on her waist and pulled her closer to him. “I want to see if I have an effect on you,” he said and captured her parted lips.

***