Chapter 162 - Tell Me The Whole Truth

"So, you were deceived about Andrew's identity?" Joanna asked when he no longer continued his story. She then began to understand why Leo did not acknowledge him right away. Even if she had just met him, she could tell he was a good man.

"There's more, and it's more horrible..." Leo replied, his lips pressed together into a weak smile. He looked at her for a while before his eyes hollowed out as he drifted back into his memories.

Before Leo could start speaking, Andrew stood up and stared at him. "I hate you! Mark my word, I will not also allow your son to be happy."

"Andrew!" came Joanna's voice, and Andrew dropped back to the floor. He looked at her like an obedient sheep, and Joanna gave him a look that made him slouch his back into the wall.

Joanna watched him until he pulled his knees together and locked his arms around it, placing his head on top afterward. She then turned to Leo and gestured for him to continue.

_______

"Amalia, tell me this is all a lie!"

Amalia started to sniff as she couldn't hold back anymore those tears she tried hard to suppress. She moved her eyes sideways and saw Raul looking at them from a distance. "You heard everything you need to know. You may now go away."

Leo gripped her forearm tightly and tugged it, demanding to take her words back. Amalia's tears escaped like waterfalls, and her chest began to rise and fall as she began to sob.

"I'm not asking you to answer me with your tears, Amalia, I need to know the truth! When did you betray me, and why? And tell me honestly, who is the father of that child?" came Leo's series of questions, in his want to know the truth all at once.

"I have said everything. Raul was my secret high school sweetheart. When his ship picked up a fuel somewhere in Luzon, I went after him and stayed with him for a few days."

Leo's shoulders dropped, and his expression, a massive shock. "I thought you love me, Amalia. Why did you do this to me?" he asked, and his voice started to crack.

"The answer is simple, Leo. I'm dying to leave this mountain. I want to live a better life and bask in the comfort of the city. You cannot give it to me. Your crops and your livestock couldn't make my dreams come true, and your love for music and your group is my endless rival."

The sense of inferiority struck him unprepared, and he was deeply humiliated. His eyes fell at Raul, and he saw him smirk. That scornful glow in his eyes blinded him with rage that he ran towards him like a wild beast and punched him until he gasped for breath.

Amalia screamed for help until Fernan came over and separated the two. The latter already expected this trouble, so he followed Leo to Amalia's place. Fernan thought of allowing a couple of minutes to pass by to give them privacy, only to realize this decision could have given way to a fatal disaster. Never did he anticipate that something worse than he imagined would happen.

Using great force to pull Leo away from Raul, he glanced up at Amalia to help him pull Raul away. Their fight got so intense that separating them, also got him wounded. Only when he shouted at both of them in anger, did the two retreated to the sides.

"Do you want to kill yourselves?' Fernan roared in anger, shifting his gaze from one to the other.

"They betrayed me, Fernan! Who in his right mind would be happy in this?" defended Leo while still catching his breath.

Raul laughed hard in a mocking tone. His eyes bulged out in his ridicule. "I'm just taking back what's mine from the beginning. You knew  I had set my eyes over Amalia from the very day she came into our school. Yet you dared to deceive me and lured her to yourself, instead of helping me."

Leo sank back as the memory flashed back into his mind. He never intended it that way. They became seatmates and close friends on a block section for four years until their friendship bloomed into a special relationship. "I did not do it to provoke you. The feeling was mutual, and it flowed out naturally."

"Really? That's what you think"?' Raul hissed, a contemptuous smile broke into his lips.

Fernan sensed another offensive physical bout coming in so he dragged Leo with all his strength and forced him to climb into his horse. He did not leave until Leo was some meters away.

Seated later on the bench under the Caimito tree in front of Leo's house, the latter gathered his guts to open up the subject again. "How long have you known the truth about them?"

"It's been a while. I cannot exactly tell," Fernan answered in a nonchalant expression.

"Amalia is about three-month pregnant. Do you think I am not the father as they both claimed?'

"Who knows?" replied Fernan, shrugging his shoulders afterward, "Amalia's parents are fond of Raul because he is among the few in our town who are successful in their dreamed carriers."

_____

A few days later, a postmaster came to Leo's house. He handed him an envelope, telling him it was from their district captain. Leo gazed at the postmaster with a puzzled look, why would their district captain send him a letter? He slowly opened the sealed envelope, and his eyes widened in astonishment. It was a subpoena, demanding him to appear and explain himself before the local district court due to Raul's complaints of physical assault. Not only that, he was charged with forced sex against Amalia.

Leo's fine hair stood up, and his face turned red in anger. It was only two months ago before he left, he and Amalia spent a day in their makeshift hut on a hill facing the ocean view. He still remembered the intimate moments they shared. He still recalled the careful way he made love to her, knowing that she already missed her period for a month already.

"I'll accept this job before we will announce our engagement," Leo told Amalia as he touched her lower abdomen.

"I'm afraid it will be too late already, Leo. My parents will surely kill me if they are going to find out about my pregnancy."

Leo ran his fingers through Amalia's hair as he assured her. "I have already committed to this assignment, Amalia. We also need my stipend for our wedding preparation expenses. Don't worry; your parent's anger will just be short-lived because I will take responsibility."