THE CONDITION

Jessica got to the hospital parking lot in no time-her eyes darting around as if she was searching for someone.

She went farther into the garage, turning around and around and soon, she found who she was looking for and her temper aggravated immediately.

She dashed toward the person's car and called out his name from behind who was about to get in his car, "Antonio Flores,"

Antonio looked back swiftly and a look of contentment flashed on his countenance as soon as he saw Jessica with the flowers.

Infuriated, Jessica stormed three steps in his direction and hit him with the bouquet once and then let it go to the ground.

"Are you mad? What do you think you're doing?" she squeezed the words out through angrily gritted teeth.

Taken aback, Cole, Antonio's assistant quickly veered to the other side of the car where his boss was and planned to interfere. But, a single movement of Antonio's head ceased his action.

He bowed in understanding and only crouched a bit and picked up the huge beautiful flowers before stepping away from them.

"Who the hell do you think you are to send flowers to my daughter and what makes you think she's your daughter? Have you lost it completely?" Fierce anger filled Jessica and the rage built in her made her chest burn severely.

"I gave Daniella the flowers because she's my daughter, Jessica," Antonio spoke, his voice a soft caress while his eyes directly trained on Jessica.

"Now I see you've gone completely crazy, Antonio," emotion clogged Jessica's throat but she ensured her words came out sternly.

"How would your informant miss the important information about me? But I'll have you know that I'm a married woman with a kid. So I don't understand what you're saying and I literally don't want to understand,"

She was a mess of raging emotions and that's all she could manage to construct in a fit of her anger.

"You understand more than I do, Jessica," Antonio spoke up again, his eyes meeting Jessica's and holding them.

"Daniella is my daughter and I can prove it to you," he deadpanned, ignoring the glare she was throwing at him and inched closer. "DNA can never lie, you know,"

He'd barely let out those words completely when his head was suddenly tilted to the side from Jessica's hard slap.

"What did you do?" her anger skyrocketed, impatience surging through her veins.

"Mr. Flores," Cole intended to rush over again but Antonio's next words stopped him. "Please, Cole. Let her slap me as much as she wants, I frankly deserve it,"

Antonio pronounced with a deep smile on his calm face and then returned his attention back to Jessica's raging face.

"I didn't do anything exceptional, Jessica. I only got my assistant to tangle up with Daniella somehow at her school and like that, I managed to get a strand of her hair,"

"You," Jessica muttered, scowling, "Stay away from my daughter, as far away as possible,"

With that, Jessica spun around and walked back into the hospital without a backward glance.

A wide grin split Michael's cheeks as he watched Jessica's back view disappearing and then he muttered slowly, "I'm getting back my family soon,"

***

"Would you guys love to travel down the memory lane with me?" Jessica called into question as soon as she appeared back in the room.

Daniella, Mandy and Michael stared at the optimistic woman before them and they couldn't help but share glances among themselves.

Just a little while ago, she was looking furiously mad and stomped out of the room as though she was prepared to go and tear someone apart and now, she was looking so delighted.

"It's about how I met Liam," Jessica added, walking wholly into the room and joining them.

A heavy silence stretched in the air between them while Daniella looked at her mother with unreadable eyes.

"Life became tiring and a living hell for me after I was fooled and betrayed by the first and only man I ever fell in love with; your biological father," Jessica began in a soft voice, a feathered smile showing on her lips.

"Here, have a seat, aunt," Michael stood up from the stool and offered it to Jessica who nodded in gratitude and sat on it.

"You were barely five months old in my belly then, Daniella. I drown in grief everyday of my life as I wanted to have you desperately in my hands but to think that I was going to raise a child without a father always put me in a devastated mood,"

Jessica paused, her teary eyes gentle as she continued, "And that was when I came across a shattered Liam,"

Again, Jessica fell silent, her gaze distant, lost in painful memories.

Twenty-four-year-old Jessica gazed at a young guy's face from where he sat alone from the windshield. Today makes it the third day she'd be seeing the guy, in the same cloth and sitting in the same position.

Driven by inquisitiveness, she got down from her car and walked over to where he sat alone in the park where only one and two people were passing by occasionally.

"Hello, excuse me," Jessica called his attention and the guy swiftly jumped on his feet and prepared to run away.

"Hey! I don't mean any harm. I'm just curious to know why you've been sitting alone here for the past three days," she voiced out her intention, giving him a warm smile that reassures him.

The guy calmed down a bit and allowed his eyes to scrutinize the stunning pretty lady standing in front of him.

She was dressed in a simple flowery gown and her stomach was slightly bulged under the dress. Her skin was very white and her black hair was tied up in a ponytail which called attention to her oval-shaped face.

"Please, ma'am. Don't take me back to the orphanage home. I don't want to go back there, I'm looking for Ivy," He pleaded with tears, rubbing his palms together in a pleading manner.

Jessica was touched. Her eyes raked him from head to toes and she effortlessly confirmed that he'd run away from wherever he was coming from.

He looked so dirty and his hair had overgrown, almost covering his eyes.

"No, dear. I won't take you back anywhere. What's your name?" Jessica asked, jovially.

"Liam Brandon. That's the name given to me at the orphanage home eighteen years ago when I was found," Liam answered plainly, shoving his front hair to one side but they kept coming back.

Jessica found herself smiling when Liam had pulled the strands away from his forehead. He looked so handsome and attractive even with how dirty he appeared.

"So why did you run away from your home, Liam? And who's Ivy you mentioned just now?" asked Jessica, curiosity glinting in her beautiful almond-shaped eyes.

Liam looked at Jessica briefly and returned to his previous seat on a small rock.

"Ivy is the girl I love. She's the reason I kept enduring all the ill-mannered treatment at the orphanage home but I couldn't take it anymore since my happiness has been taken away from me and I'm all set to look for her," he explained with his face full of tears.

For some reason, tears gushed out of Jessica's eyes too. She thought in her heart; an eighteen years old boy had made such a huge sacrifice to find a girl while a thirty years old man-her own happiness had betrayed her and left her shattered with their baby in her belly.

Sniffing and cleaning her face, "I'm sorry about that, Liam. Would you like to come with me? To my house?" she proposed, putting on her smile again.

Liam blinked, "Me? To your house? Why?" he asked word by word, standing back on his feet.

Jessica grinned and walked closer to him, "You need a lot of energy to look for a girl in this big city, Liam. I promise to help you out, okay?"

Five days later…

Liam watched a grinning Jessica as she brought out all the goodies, clothes, shoes, beanies, hats, scarfs and a lot more from different shopping bags.

He stared at everything and saw that they were all for male, meaning that they were for him.

Again? He thought. Since Jessica had brought him into her house, she had been buying him so many clothes and accessories that he didn't think he would be able to wear them all in ten years to come.

"If I may ask, ma'am," Liam's voice cut through the rattling sound of the bags and Jessica looked up at his face.

"Why are you buying me so many things? I mean why did you transform my life into a better one? Never in my whole life have I eaten the varieties of foods I've been eating since I got here, ma'am.

You cut my hair, took me to a dentist and also to a doctor for a checkup, got me so many clothes and shoes. Why are you doing this, ma'am?" he sounded very close to tears as he poured out his mind.

Jessica smiled and came to sit beside him, "It's true that I'm doing this because I also need your help, Liam,"

She touched her round protruded belly and asserted, "I want you to be with me to be my unborn child father, Liam,"

Liam's eyes opened wide with skepticism, "What?" he murmured.

"I promise to help you with anything, Liam. Anything at all. Your education, your ambition to become a gym center owner and so on,"

"Please, I beg you. I don't wish to give birth to a child without a father," Jessica pleaded, bursting into tears and endeavored to go on her knees but Liam prevented her from doing so.

"No, Jessica. What are you doing?"

"Then please don't say no, Liam. No strings attached but people should see us as husband and wife. Please, Liam, please," Jessica expressed, giving Liam her puppy eyes with more tears streaming down her cheeks.