Chapter 24
Kairo~
It was Sunday evening, and the sun was beginning to set, and even though I was having mixed emotions about everything, I still knew that we couldn’t go any further.
Despite having spent the past two nights worshipping every inch of Triana’s body like I’d always wanted to, we were officially closing in on dangerous territory, and so I needed to finally put a stop to this.
“Baby, we need to talk,” I said as I sat across from her.
About two hours ago, we’d found a secluded area close to the Pitamah Creek, and Triana had taken a bath in the creek while I had set up camp, and she was sitting across the camping lantern, brushing her hair, looking too beautiful to be real.
The woman was absolutely breathtaking, and I had no idea how I was going to be able to keep my hands off her once we got back home.
“What’s wrong?” she asked as she placed her brush down in front of her.
“Triana, we’re an hour away from the border,” I pointed out. “It’s getting real.”
Her back straightened, and her voice sounded wary as she said, “I realize that.”
“And how do you feel about that?” I asked tentatively, trying to feel her out.
“The same as I did two days ago,” she answered firmly. “I know the risks involved, and I’m...I’m willing to face whatever happens once we get to the border.”
“Even die?” I prompted. “Go to prison? Lose everything?”
Because the woman wasn’t stupid, it took all of ten seconds for her to finally realize what this was, and the look of betrayal in her eyes was one that I hadn’t been prepared for.
It was one thing to let down the woman that you loved, but it was quite another for her to look at you as if you were the enemy.
“You...you were never going to cross over into Mexico with me, were you?” she asked, her voice barely above a whisper, but audible all the same.
“I wanted to give you-”
“Answer me!” she yelled, surprising me.
After a few seconds, I told her the truth, knowing that there was no way that I could get out of it. Besides, I’d been lying to her long enough. “No...no, I wasn’t.”
Triana let out a choked cry, but she quickly muffled it.
I watched as a million different emotions played out on her face, and I never thought that I’d regret this as much as I did right now.
It never occurred to me that she’d feel truly hurt by this, thinking that she’d see reason way before now.
Winston had been right, and I’d been too self-assured to entertain his very valid concerns.
“Baby-”
“Don’t,” she spat, fire in her eyes, every other emotion gone. “Don’t call me that.”
“Triana-”
“How could you?” she hissed. “How could you...how could you play with me like this.”
“I am not playing with you,” I told her, and I immediately stood up when I saw her do the same. “This isn’t a game to me.”
“Oh, really?” she scoffed. “Then what is it? Because when something is real, it should be handled with truth and dignity, not lies, Kairo.”
“I wanted you to see how hard this would really be,” I said, trying to explain something that she wasn’t ready to hear. “I thought that...that if you saw for yourself how difficult this would be, that you’d change your mind and let me file the paperwork to do this the right way.”
“The right way is an illusion,” she shot back.
“It’s an illusion that Tucker Morrison and Charolette Jackson were smart enough to see through, and look what it got them.
To this day, the RNA is still trying to extradite them back here to throw them in prison.
Do you really think that the leaders of this country will ever let us be together?
If you do, then you’re more na?ve than I am. ”
“Well, I know that this isn’t the answer,” I told her. “Running away isn’t the answer to anything. It’s also not the way mature adults handle their problems, Triana.”
“Oh, really?” she sneered as she crossed her arms over her chest. “Then tell me how a mature adult would handle being trapped into a life that they never wanted or asked for? Tell me how a mature adult would deal with a lifetime of unhappiness because they have no other choice?”
“Life is what you make of it, Triana,” I told her, sounding just like my father, but not knowing how else to explain it to her.
“You’re digging your heels in without even knowing what’s out there.
How do you know that you can’t be happy living in another part of Rancher Hills?
How do you know that you won’t find a better job or make more friends?
Why does it have to be Mexico? Why are there no other options? ”
Then, with the final blow, she said, “Because you’re only possible in this part of Rancher Hills.”
My chest felt as if she’d just kicked it in, and with the regions being laid out the way that they were, living in any other part of Rancher Hills would just take her further and further away from me, and there was no getting around that unfortunate fact.
She’d have to move closer to Morning Peaks to get away from her parents, and that would end us before we even really started.
“Baby-”
“No...don’t, Kairo,” she said, that angry fire of hers no longer burning brightly. “Just...don’t.”
“Don’t what? Try to do the right thing?” I bit out. “Try to keep you from making the biggest mistake of your life?”
“Why is trying to find another way a mistake?” she challenged. “What is so wrong with wanting more than...than what we’ve been forced to accept?”
“Because I like my life!” I yelled, frustration finally getting the best of me.
“I like that I can walk down the street without running into some racist jackass. I like the fact that we’ve managed to prove all the stereotypes wrong.
We’re number four in education, and our prisons are the least populated, and I’m proud of those two statistics.
I’m glad that we have finally been able to prove that we’re just as good as every other race out there, and I’m proud that it’s all been accomplished with my father at the helm.
So, what more is there to want, Triana?”
“You think that Hispanics don’t have anything to prove, either?’ she asked quietly. “You think that we haven’t endured our fair share of stereotypes? You think that we’re still not viewed with a questioning eye? You say all that as if things weren’t hard all over, Kairo.”
I straightened as I said, “I’m not going to stand here and argue with you about which race has had it worse, Triana. I’m just saying that life is what you make of it, and running away will make your life one that you’ll never be able to fully appreciate because it’ll always be missing something.”
Her shoulders sagged dejectedly, and she didn’t say anything as she sat back down, then grabbed her brush to finish combing her hair, and I knew that the image was going to haunt me for the rest of my life.
Triana looked lost and empty, and I knew that it was partly my fault, something that I’d gladly spend the rest of my life trying to make up for, but not like this.
Not in Mexico.
“Look, how about...how about we just eat, talk some more, then get some sleep,” I suggested. “We can figure the rest out in the morning.”
“On the drive back home,” she uttered softly, accepting the writing on the wall.
“On the drive back home,” I echoed, confirming that Mexico wasn’t going to happen.
Just then, her phone chimed, and when she looked at the screen, she said, “It’s my brother.”
I let out a sigh of relief, silently thanking Tomasco Medina for his timing.
As she texted him back, I prayed that she’d see it as a sign, and that she wouldn’t hate me too much once we got back home.
Yeah, I knew that we’d be experiencing a rough patch for a while, but I was okay with that.
As long as she was safe, and we could still be together, I was willing to put in the work.
However, the joke was on me.
Like a fool who’d been too stupid to give Triana the credit that she deserved, when she’d said that she wasn’t ready to go to sleep, asking for some alone time, I’d given it to her out of guilt.
I’d known that she hadn’t wanted me to hold her, and why would she have?
She’d been betrayed, and she had deserved her privacy.
So, I’d gone to bed alone, trying to minimize the damage, but when a quick gust of wind snapped me awake, it was to see that Triana still hadn’t come to bed, and I wasn’t about to let her sit outside in the cold because she wanted to be stubborn.
Sitting up, I crawled through the flap opening, and when I didn’t see her anywhere, I could feel my heart drop.
Of course, she could be off in the trees, taking care of business, but I doubted it.
Something in my gut was telling me that this was more than that, and when I saw a piece of paper flapping underneath the camping lantern, I immediately raced over to grab it.
Kario-
Thank you for getting me this far.
Triana
Triana was fucking gone, and I had no one to blame but myself.