Chapter 3 #4
Dead tired is what he was. Nayelli studied him carefully.
She’d heard the news about Ayla. According to Phoebe, Audiemar had also been affected, and he wasn’t a man who showed much emotion.
With Kong, this wasn’t just guilt over a family employee.
He was devastated, and it was pouring out of him in the way he moved, how he spoke, and that dark, lost look behind his stare now.
“You look horrible.”
Kong laughed once under his breath. Not an ounce of humor in it as he went over to his bar in the corner to pour a glass of whiskey.
“Thanks.” After pouring himself a drink, he thought he’d go to the kitchen and try to put something on his stomach.
He couldn’t remember the last time he ate. Now when he thought about food, it immediately made him think about Ayla. His grip on his glass tightened.
“Kong.” Nayelli stood, stopping him in his tracks, but he kept his back to her. “Talk to me, please,” she pleaded, greeted by his stillness.
She watched his shoulders shift like he was releasing a breath.
“There’s nothing to talk about.”
That was a lie, and they both knew it. Folding her arms over her chest, Nayelli glared at his back.
“So, this is about her, right?”
“Don’t.” His eyes closed briefly, and all he saw was Ayla’s smiling face behind his lids.
“Don’t what? Hmm? Call you out on your shit?”
He gradually turned, facing her. Nearly five feet away from where he stood, she felt the warm heat from his glare. This was a side of Kong she’d never seen before. Very much cold and detached. He’d been distant before, but never like this.
“The chef? Right?” Nayelli pressed, only further irritating him.
There was no anger as something sharp flickered across his face, but there was a warning in his eyes.
“She had a name. And you know that.”
Nayelli stared at him. There it was. The confirmation she didn’t want. A frown marred her features, and her lip curled in distaste.
“She mattered that much to you?”
Kong didn’t answer, but his hard stare never faltered.
Nayelli swallowed. He had that same look in his eyes that day at the park when he snatched her up.
This particular version of him, she’d never seen before.
Not even when Twyla died. He shut down with her.
Processing what happened to Ayla had him going through the motions, pretending like it hadn’t happened.
It wasn’t healthy, so it was bound to cause a crashout.
“Did you love her?”
“Does it matter?” he quipped.
It was all the answer she needed. Something ugly twisted in her chest. Jealousy.
A dose of hurt, and a whole lot of humiliation.
She thought they were really building something.
There was something off with Kong all these months, though, and she couldn’t quite put her finger on it in the beginning. Now, she knew.
“So, all this time. Everything that we’ve been to each other. It’s been her?”
Kong rubbed his free hand over his face. He wasn’t in the mood for this conversation.
“What you want from me, Nay? I didn’t seek this. I don’t want to feel this. I married you and put distance and space between me and her.” He didn’t realize those words struck her deeper than anything.
Nayelli scoffed and shook her head. It meant that he was trying to fight it, so it was real.
“Wow.” Laughing bitterly, she pinched the bridge of her nose.
Kong’s silence was loud, amplifying her anger.
“You slept with her?” Nayelli continued her interrogation.
His jaw tightened.
“Nay—”
“You did, right?”
His lips didn’t move, but his eyes told her everything. Shaking her head slowly, she mumbled under her breath.
“I knew it.”
“Knew what?” he asked, brows lifting slightly.
The words left her too fast, filled with emotion.
“The way you looked at her. The way you’ve been looking at her since she got hired!” she snapped, immediately stopping as her eyes stretched.
She’d said too much, and now she couldn’t take it back.
Kong stilled completely. Everything in the room shifted, and his oil-colored orbs narrowed on his wife.
Her breathing changed. She knew she fucked up.
He wasn’t some gullible man who couldn’t pick up on what was right in front of him.
Although Nayelli had been doing her best to hide the fact that her memory had returned.
“Ayla started working for us before your accident, Nay,” he pointed out.
“I know,” she quipped, dropping her hands at her side. “I just meant—”
“Nah.” His voice lowered into a dangerous calm. “You remember that.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Kong took slow steps toward her, pausing to look into her eyes.
This time, he searched a little harder than he normally would, looking for the truth.
The two of them didn’t even share eye contact when they were fucking.
He rarely engaged in kissing her on the mouth.
The soft sweetness that lingered in her eyes after the accident was no longer present.
Something a lot fiercer and sharper had replaced it.
“You said you didn’t remember anything.”
“I don’t. I meant—”