Secrets of Lakefront House
CHAPTER 46. WHO IS RAMIRA'S REAL FATHER?

"Hey, Ramira," Jilena greeted her friend who was behind the counter. Ramira waved at him and continued to receive customer orders. Someone pulled the lower end of Jilena's shirt and she looked down and found two twinkling brown eyes staring at her, under her smiling mouth a smudging brown frosting.

 "Hello, Vino." Jilena smiled back at him, kneeling in front of the boy to be on par with him. He looked around to find his father. Jonathan quickly stepped up from his seat at a table, a lump of napkin in one hand. "Oh, Vino," he grumbled. Her gaze moved from the hand of her son to the end of Jilena's clothes.

Seeming somewhat embarrassed, Jonathan proceeded to clean Vino's fingers but the boy shook his head and tightened his body to Jilena as his small hand held tightly onto Jilena's shirt. He refused to let go.

"I'm sorry" Jonathan said. He smiled at his son's behavior every time he met Jilena, the little boy seemed not to want to be far from the beautiful girl.

"Don't worry, it can be washed and worn again." He stood up and ruffled the boy's hair furiously.

“It looks like it's delicious, Vino.”

Vino nodded his head up and down with approval. “Chocolate is my favorite food." he said.

"Hey, this is my beautiful reporter" Keenan Hadinata said as he joined them.

“Hey, boss. How are you today? Did you take your son to camp again?”

“No, I just need to buy him a sandwich before I take him to soccer practice. After I drop her off, I'll be back at the office.”

Jilena glanced at Ramira, who was grinning at her, apparently the girl was happy to see Keenan and her son drop by. His son was at the bakery, showing Ramira what cake he wanted. Keenan also looked at Ramira. It looks like maybe Ramira's smile is for her, not for Jilena. A smile slowly spread across Jilena's face as her gaze turned to Jonathan who was also smiling looking at her and an unexpected feeling swept over her, but what was it? The satisfaction?

Of happiness? Feelings of joy to be back home? Whatever it is, he enjoys it.

“Well, I better get the boy to practice. I'll talk to you later, ” Keenan said then he went to pay for his son's food.

“I'm surprised you're home from work so early, Jonathan, your first day as a detective and a new assignment, ” said Jilena.

“I think Mr. Wira is tired of my questions and has to explain things to me. He said my shift was done, so I decided to go and pick up my son and we celebrated my first day.”

"My father is now a detective" Vino said proudly, puffing his chest. "It's still the police, isn't it, papa?"

"Yes, right, it's still a cop." Jonathan took his son's hand. "We're just on our way out for a walk. We're still going on a date on Friday night, right?" Jonathan reminded her with a smile.

"Yes. But with the story I'm working on, I'm sure I'll talk to you and Detective Hero before we go on that date.”

“Vino, why don't you go and see if there's something in our cake box—can be brought home for Grandma and Grandpa, ” Jonathan said, pointing towards the display case so that the boy did not hear their conversation.

"OKAY. But papa's dating?" The boy happily asked and walked to the bread box. Jonathan just smiled, leaned closer and lowered his voice. “You know Wira shouldn't divulge information about this case to you. He can get a lot of trouble because of that.”

"He helped me, I helped him" he replied, keeping his voice low.

"Nobody will know if you don't tell them."

“You know I won't do it, but I'm worried about it. He's going to retire soon and I don't want him to do anything that will mess up his retirement.” Jonathan said.

"Everything is just between us, no one knows" he said a little more slowly than a whisper,

"You know he doesn't like it when you call him Wira" Jonathan said with a grin.

Jilena smiled at him. "I know."

...*...

Jonathan and Vino leave The Upper Spot, but Jilena decides to stay and will meet Jonathan and his son for dinner. Vino whines not to go home if Jilena does not want to have dinner with them. How could you resist the wishes of that adorable boy?

It was almost time to close and he should not wait another minute to tell Ramira who his father was. He finally got confirmation from the detective. It is proved that the remains of the skeleton are Mariana. If Jilena keeps delaying telling her, maybe someone else will tell the girl, which could be disastrous for Ramira.

After the place was empty and Ramira locked the front door and turned off most of the lights, Jilena asked her to sit down and chat.

"What the hell is going on?" ask Ramira while sitting down. "You look very serious."

“There is something you should know.” Ramira's brows furrowed into a confused and suspicious expression feeling something strange.

“I received confirmation today that the corpse found in Green Lake is your mother. I'm sorry." said Jilena in a soft voice.

"You're actually suspicious, too, of the photo." Ramira's lower lips began to tremble as her eyes became wet. "I just hope you're wrong."

“There's more.” Continue Jilena.

Ramira took a napkin and rubbed his eyes. "Otherwise?" Jilena took a breath and continued to say. “Ramira, I hate to be the one to tell you about this, but I'm sure your father is—” He hesitated for a moment, his name stuck to his throat.

“Who?”

"Mr Arsyanendra."

Ramira's eyes opened wide and his hands floated up holding his face. He sat dumbfounded for a long time with a puzzled expression on his face.

"Are you okay?" ask Jilena.

"Sir Arsyanendra?" Ramira gasps.

“Now, I can't say that for sure, but I have a very good reason to believe it. RIGHT.ON. I think it would be better to do a paternity test to make sure.”

Ramira lowered her hand, still looking quite shaken by the news.

"Yes my. Arsyanendra, am I Arsyanendra's son? The richest man in town?"

After sitting down with Ramira for a while, making sure she was okay after the news she had just received, Jilena came home in her jazzy blue sports car. He kept an eye on the speedometer, trying to avoid getting ticketed. The ticket, made him remember the first time he met Jonathan who stopped his car to give a ticket. Jilena smiled, suddenly she missed the handsome man and her son Vino.

 Once inside the house, he dropped his bag and keys on the kitchen table and went to his computer, sitting in the middle of his father's old antique table. Sitting facing the computer in front of her, she moved her finger over the carved details on the wood, thinking about her father and how Jilena thought that deliberately bequeathed the house along with its contents to her. There may have been times when her father cared for her, times when she wasn't there with him. Jilena listened to the footage she made of the ribbon cutting ceremony and was busy writing the story.