Chapter 27 Khloe
Khloe
My phone buzzed against the nightstand.
Kairo: Let me know when I can come upstairs to talk.
My heart started to race. I knew he was home.
I had seen his truck pull into the driveway on the camera sometime after midnight, but he never came upstairs.
I never felt the mattress dip beside me or woke up tangled in his arms like I secretly hoped I would.
But at least he came home. Our house was too big for us both to exist and never run into each other.
I typed back quickly.
You can come now.
The three dots appeared almost instantly, then disappeared. I sat up in bed, pulling my knees underneath me, suddenly aware of how loud the silence felt. Every small sound made my heart race
Then I heard his footsteps on the stairs. The bedroom door opened, and when he stepped inside, my chest hurt at the sight of him. He looked tired. I knew that look. That was Kairo when the world sat on his shoulders.
“Hey,” I said softly.
“Hey,” he said, smiling a little.
We just… stood there. Two people who had loved each other most of our lives suddenly unsure how to exist in the same room.
He started to speak first. “Khloe, I’m so sorr—”
“I know,” I interrupted. “And I’m sorry too.”
“I should’ve communicated better,” I continued, my voice shaking. “I expected you to just know what I needed instead of saying it. If I would’ve just talked to you more… we probably wouldn’t be here.”
Before I could say anything else, he crossed the room and grabbed my face in his hands.
“Baby, it’s not your fault.”
Tears filled my eyes instantly.
“I made you feel empty,” he continued. “And I’m sorry for that.”
I cried, and he leaned down and kissed me. When I pulled back, I sniffed and laughed through my tears.
“Have you been smoking?”
He blinked, then laughed. “Yeah. These are the same clothes I smoked in with Kordai yesterday. I thought I packed another outfit but apparently my mind was everywhere. I only packed underwear and two shirts that were yours.”
I laughed harder, wiping my cheeks. “It smells like yesterday.”
He grinned, pulling his shirt over his head. He dropped it to the floor, kicked off his pants, and walked toward the bathroom. “I’m gonna shower.”
The sound of the water starting calmed me. I sat there for a moment, just thinking. We weren’t fixed. Not even close. But we were talking. breathing, and existing together again. After everything, that felt like enough.
I stood up and gathered his clothes from the floor to toss them in the hamper. Something about doing small, normal things felt comforting. When I picked up his pants, something hard pressed against my fingers inside the pocket.
I frowned and reached in. A plastic card slid into my hand. I looked down, noticing that it was a hotel key.
My heart dropped straight into my stomach. My mind didn’t even hesitate. It ran straight to the worst place possible. A hotel. Another woman. Revenge.
My eyes burned instantly.
No. Calm down. Just ask him.
I stood frozen, holding the key while the shower turned off behind the bathroom door. A second later, Kairo walked out with a towel wrapped around his waist.
“Kairo.”
He looked up. “Yeah?”
I swallowed. “Were you with your brother when you left the house?”
“Yeah,” he said, grabbing clothes from the dresser. “Went to Ma’s, chilled with Kordai. That’s it.”
“So… you didn’t go anywhere else?”
He paused, finally noticing my tone. “No. Why? What’s up?”
I turned slowly and held the hotel key up between my fingers. “Well… why was this in your pocket?”
The change in his face was immediate. His eyes widened. His hands lifted instinctively.
“Baby, let me explain. It’s not what you think—”
The exact words I had said. The exact words that meant everything was what it looked like. Something inside me snapped.
I threw the key at his chest. “I’m so stupid.” My voice cracked as tears spilled down my face.
“I knew you would do this to me. That’s what men do, right? You just had to get your revenge.”
“Khloe—”
“Fuck you, Kairo!” I said, shaking. “And I mean that.”
I didn’t wait for another word.I ran out of the bedroom. down the stairs, and out of the house crying so hard I could barely see where I was going.
I barely remembered getting into the car. My hands were shaking so bad I dropped the keys twice. Tears blurred everything in front of me. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t think.
I grabbed my phone and hit Coffee’s name.
Coffee answered and heard me crying. “What the fuck is going on?”
Her voice was already alert.
“Did you leave town yet?” I cried.
“I just got on the highway,” she said. “Do I need to turn around?”
For a split second I wanted to say yes. I wanted her there with me, but I knew that she had responsibilities that she needed to get back to.
“No… keep going.”
“Khloe… talk to me.”
My chest caved in. “Kairo came home… he wanted to talk… and then he got in the shower and I found a hotel key in his pocket.”
The words broke apart as I spoke them. “He cheated, Coffee. He went and got his revenge.”
I heard her tires screeched through the phone and horns blared. And when she spoke again, her voice was different. It was more like the attorney Coffee.
“Khloe,” she said slowly, “pull your car over.”
“What—”
“Pull. The car. Over.”
I turned into a parking lot. “Okay.”
She took a breath. “I’m about to say something that you may not like. But I love you too much to lie to you.”
“He really went to a hotel and cheated,” I whispered.
Coffee laughed in disbelief. “Oh now it’s cheating?”
“What do you mean—”
“No,” she cut me off. “We’re not doing that. We’re not rewriting history because your feelings hurt today.”
“You stepped outside your marriage. You built emotional intimacy with another man. You slept with him. You lied. You snuck. You balanced two lives.And it was fine then. You justified every single step.”
My throat tightened.
“But now that he may have done something? It’s the apocalypse?”
Tears streamed down my face. “That’s not fair—”
“No, what’s not fair,” she snapped, “is you wanting grace for your mistakes but punishment for his.You can’t dish out something you can’t stomach coming back to you,” she said firmly. “Life doesn’t work like that.”
“When you were sneaking to Stacks’ house, you told yourself you deserved happiness.”
Her voice softened just enough to hurt more.
“You told yourself you were neglected and lonely.”
She paused. “But the second your husband becomes human and reacts to pain?”
Her voice rose. “Now he’s the villain?”
“You wanted freedom,” she said. “You wanted to feel alive. You wanted somebody to choose you…. Well congratulations. Now you’re experiencing what happens when two hurt people start making decisions from emotion.”
I wiped my face, shaking. “You’re running right now,” she said. “Same thing you always do. The moment accountability shows up, you run.”
“I’m not running—”
“You ARE!” she snapped. “You ran into another man instead of fighting for your marriage. Now you’re running from the consequences of that choice.”
Her words sliced straight through me. “You don’t even know if Kairo cheated,” she continued. “You saw a hotel key and your mind filled in the worst story possible. The same way his mind did when he saw Stacks’ name.”
“You know what this sounds like?” she asked.
I didn’t answer. “It sounds like two people letting their minds destroy something their hearts still want.”
My eyes closed. “And let me be very clear, if he did step out? You helped create the environment where that felt possible.”
“I’m not saying you deserved it,” she said. “But you don’t get to act shocked that pain created more pain.You turned your marriage into a scoreboard, Khloe. You kept count of what he wasn’t giving you… and went somewhere else to collect it.”
Her voice lowered. “But now that he might have collected something too.. You want to quit the game?”
Tears rolled harder down my face. “I just wanted to feel loved,” I whispered.
“I know,” she said. “But love doesn’t mean escaping when it gets uncomfortable. Love means staying through the comfortable and uncomfortable..”
“I have enough drama in my own love life.” She laughed. “Y’all are my little Sims family, and I refuse to watch both of y’all self-destruct because neither one of you wants to sit still and have a hard conversation.”
She exhaled. “I’m calling Kairo.”
“What?”
“Yes,” she said. “Because clearly y’all cannot communicate without emotions hijacking common sense. I already have someone coming to your house tonight. A mediator, professional, and someone who’s neutral. And don’t you dare send her home.”
I sniffed.
“Because if I have to turn this car around and come back there… I’m whooping both of y’all asses.”
A laugh escaped me.
“Go home,” she said softer. “Sit down. Stop assuming. Stop reacting. Stop running.”
“You broke something. He broke something. Now both of y’all gotta come together to rebuild it.”
“Okay.”
“I’m calling him now.”
The line disconnected.