"Ronald, Ma'am."

"Ronald, can you move to the next table, please. Only four people can occupy this table and my husband is coming."

"No problem, Ma'am." Ronald transferred as he was told.

"Hi, son, Ronald, and of course Beauty. Glad to see you all here. . . Beauty, it's a pleasure to hear that you decided to join the investigation team." Clyde spoke standing near their table while holding his plate full of food.

"Beauty, I sent them a message last night so they know," clarified Clarence.

"Oh, glad to meet you both again, Mister Peres and Ma'am Claire. I'll try my best to help Clarence and Ronald." She was so respectful that Claire frowned.

"Shush, you're so polite. Just call me Mommy Claire and call him Daddy Clyde. I like the sound of it. No arguments, okay? Now, eat and both of us will go shopping together. Leave the boys to do their work." She was so excited as she got up to get her food.

Clyde sat down with his food. "Please, don't mind her she's always like that. I also like the sound of you calling me Daddy. I miss my four girls. I hardly see them at home. Now, Clarence is the only one left but I prefer daughters. This boy is rough, never whine, never ask me to accompany him, and never cajole me to buy him this and that."

"Why would I whine and try to coax you to do my bidding? I can handle them myself," retorted Clarence.

"See? Not cute at all. Well, anyway I'm proud of him for being self-directed since young. I'm really happy you're together as one team." His words to beauty had a lot of layers of meaning but dependent on the hearer's interpretation.

She surely saw that they approved of her, but Beauty did not give them too much thought now. For her, let nature take its course. If it is really Clarence for her then her feelings would respond in its own way. She also enjoyed their temperaments.

Suddenly, she found herself liking them a lot too. To be part of this family was not bad at all. She temporarily forgot Your Romeo.

. . . . .

As the ladies finish eating, "Beauty dear, come, let's have girls only day."

"Mom, return her to me tonight and make sure not to tire her out. We still have a lot of things to prepare before we start our team operation."

"No problem, I'll return her to you perfectly fine and much prettier than she's now. Come, dear, let's go to a beauty salon first."Beauty could not say a word but she felt like these mother and son were already branding her as the wife of Clarence.

As the girls left, Clyde waved his hand making Ronald move back to their table.

"By the way, Ronald, I heard your former editor is trying to send someone else to Camotes again. Don't you worry, we already warned the people involved, not to create the same problem.

"Actually, he mentioned about a 's.e.xy who told him.' I don't know who was his girl informant. Were there a lot of people who knew what happened?" Ronald also had no idea on the details, so he only tried to give this information to help out.

"Really? There were only a few that I can count them with my fingers." Clyde suddenly remembered a certain woman aside from his wife who was there. She was not supposed to be there but she went into the mayor's office 'incidentally' when he was confronting the mayor and then she suddenly left after asking an apology. She was one of the guests' guides a.s.signed on the island.

Clyde got wary of realizing this from Ronald's words, so he decided to make a visit to this certain small time editor.

. . . . .

The editor now was sitting behind his desk. He banged his mobile phone on the table, angry. He heard that his men were warned by the policemen for creating bad rumors. Their moves were monitored. In the end, they left the island with nothing.

He was so perplexed recalling Ronald's last visit.

"You didn't get anything juicy for our newspaper?"

"Yes, I tried but it was perfectly filtered," replied Ronald.

"Then don't ever come back here, you dimwit," the editor roared.

"Actually, I only came to tell you that I won't work for you anymore. Goodbye." Ronald gleefully left as if he was relieved for getting rid of his job.

The editor tried to speculate on what was Ronald's cheerful att.i.tude meant in connection with his a.s.signment at that time.

The editor wants to dig more to spill dirty water to the success in Camotes island but his leads were closed. There was only one left, that girl who was willing to tell him everything at a hefty price. He dialed the number of that girl, and the office door opened.

"Sir, someone wants to see you." The editor's secretary was blus.h.i.+ng and smiling while telling the man behind the table. He discontinued the call.

"Why are you smiling silly, Jane? Who is it?" answered the editor.

"I'm the one looking for you, Mister Ralph Lapid." Clyde came in after the secretary.

"Oh, I never thought the great Clyde Peres will grace my humble office."

The secretary slowly left with her eyes glued to Clyde. He gave her a wink that made the girl ran like a stupid fangirl giggling seeing her idol winked at her.

"Oh, even my secretary was taken by you. Somehow, I didn't get a chance to know this and make an article about you being a playboy."

"Haha, I'm no playboy. I'm true to my wife. Those are just nonsensical rumors but I admit I'm just a charming man women loves." Clyde suavely spoke then he continued with a slight smile. . .

"But I'm not here to joke around with you or talk about my charm. I'm here with a business proposition that you can't say no."