My Only Exception

Chapter 17

"Is it okay with you if Tatay would always be with us?" she told him.

"What about Dada?"

"Dada's still here. I promised you I won't leave you, right?" Seff told him.

"We would have some changes. But it wouldn't be so different, honey," she told him. "Tatay would always be with you and Nanay. Dada would still be with you though Dada would let Tatay do some things that he used to do for you."

"Like what?"

"Hmm... Read you bedtime stories every night. Tatay would be the one to play with you daily. He will be with us daily and sleep beside you. If Dada has to be on his house sometimes, Tatay would be on our house daily. What do you think about that?"

"Are you leaving us?" he asked Seff, trying to suppress his cry.

"No. Of course not. I would never do that," Seff assured him.

"Why would he need to live with us? He has a big house. He doesn't need a smaller one."

Raffy took a deep breath.

"It's like Gavin, baby. He has your Tita Ava and your Daddy Paul. You, you have Nanay and me as your Tatay. Tita Ava is like Nanay. Daddy Paul is like Tatay. You, you're like Gavin," Ethan explained to him.

"No, I don't want to. I want my Dada," Cali all of a sudden burst into tears and ran out of the room where they were talking.

"Cali!" Raffy stood up and was about to follow him but Seff stopped her. Ethan was behind Raffy.

"Let me talk to him," Seff told them.

Cali locked himself inside the room where he slept the previous night. He stayed on one corner and cried. Seff knocked on the door.

"Go away!" he shouted in tears.

"Cali, it's Dada," he said.

Raffy and Ethan were waiting from afar. He waited for a long time until he heard a click and the door opened. Raffy was relieved when Seff came in.

"Hey," he said soothingly and sat on the floor beside him. "Cool house that you got huh? Bigger than Dada's house."

"I don't care."

"How long do you build your Lego car?" he asked him.

Cali wiped away his tears with his sleeves.

"Hours," Cali answered.

"I don't think so. You give up right away. Dada finishes it for you," Seff told him smiling. "How many Lego cars do you think will it take to build something as big as this house?"

"I do not know," he answered.

"Just make some guess," Seff urged him.

"One thousand. A lot,"

"That's right. A lot. A million maybe," Seff told him. "Tatay also did that for your Nanay. He had his Lego pieces until he finally was able to build this house for your Nanay. You know that this is Nanay's dream house right?"

Cali nodded.

"It wasn't easy for Tito Ethan to build this house. It was also hard for him. You got me to finish it for you but Tito Ethan doesn't have one to finish it for him," Seff said.

"He hurt my Mom. She cried because of him every night. He wasn't there when I am having my birthdays," he started crying again.

"He asked me to be his representative," he told him, trying to make it sound easier for Cali.

"Then why is Nanay crying every night and telling me she's sorry?"

"Because Nanay is hurting and she knows you know it. She doesn't want you get hurt. You know that. She's your Supermom right?"

He nodded.

"Tito Ethan loves Nanay for the longest time baby. It is complicated to tell you everything but I know something you're the only one who will know."

"What is it?"

"I will give you your birthday wish last time but I would ask you for one condition," Seff bargained.

"What?"

"I'll buy you the game console that you wanted but you have to give Tatay a chance to spend time with you," Seff told him. "You'll let him do what he needs to do as your Daddy."

"On one condition," he wiped his tears away. "I don't want to call him Tatay. I will just call him Tito Ethan."

"Okay, I'll take that," Seff said and offered his hand to him. "Deal."

Cali shook it and Seff embraced him.

"When we get out of the room, you'll say sorry for walking out on them, okay?"

He nodded. "Dada, are you leaving me?"

"No. I wouldn't. We just have additions, baby."

••

The days remaining for Raffy and Cali were numbered. They were leaving in two days and Ethan have tried real hard to make Cali like him. Since the moment Cali and Seff went out of the room, Cali stopped calling him Tatay. He was civil and polite when Ethan talks to him but is different when it comes to Seff.

They were on his house that night and Cali was asleep between the two of them. Ethan would not go inside the room until Cali falls asleep first para makatabi dito.

"You're leaving the day after tomorrow," Ethan told her. She was facing Ethan and Cali.

"I know and we haven't talked about what we will do," she told him.

"I want to be with you and Cali. I lost the chance to be with him when he needed me most. I know he had a father figure but it should have been me. It should have been something constant."

"I'm sorry," she said and held his hand.

"For what?"

"It's my fault. I should have told you about Cali the moment I found out that I was carrying him," she said. "It would have made a difference if I told you."

"It doesn't matter. I know you had all the reasons to hate me before, and I can't blame you for that. We lost each other somewhere along the way. But what's important now is that you are here and I have Cali," he smiled.

"I know," she smiled back at him.

"Raffy... I took some time off from working," he told her.

"Why?" gulat nyang tanong.

"I know you can't leave your work yet and that we don't have enough time to settle things. We'll fix them together," he told her.

"Thank you," she said.

"I already got my ticket. I'm coming with you," he said.

What he said gave her surprise. Of all things that he would say, she didn't expect it to come from him without her asking for it.

"I know that that's what would make you and Cali happy so I will do it for the two of you. I would be a father to him," he said.

"Thank you," she said and crossed the distance between them to kiss him. "I love you. I always did."

"Me too, Love. Always will do."