Chapter 3 #5
“No.” He took another step, eyes piercing her, jaw tight in anger as he stopped in front of her. “How long?” he demanded, gaining nothing but silence from her.
Eyes glistening, Nayelli trembled. There was no point in lying now. Kong was perceptive if anything. If she lied now, she’d have to keep up with it, and she was already losing the energy to do so anymore. This wasn’t how being married to him was supposed to be.
“How long, Nayelli?”
Exhaling shakily, she fidgeted with her fingers and started to pace.
“It didn’t come back all at once,” she admitted, wringing her hands together. “Mostly bits and pieces after Christmas.”
“So, you been sitting here lying and not saying shit?” Kong was in more disbelief than anger.
He’d been walking on eggshells for months, feeling guilty, trying to make amends within himself, but it wasn’t working.
“I was scared!” she shrieked, throwing up her hands. “And you were already pulling away from me. Now I know why.” She folded her arms across her chest and looked away.
“What did you think was going to happen all this time when you did remember?” Kong queried.
“I don’t know.” She whipped her head back in his direction. “I just knew I didn’t want to lose you. We finally got to this place I have always dreamed about, and I didn’t want to let it slip—”
“You were manipulating me.”
“I love you!” she argued with tears staining her eyes. “I’ve always loved you. More than anyone. More than Twyla! More than Jane!”
“Don’t ever speak their names again!” Kong roared, startling her. “You never loved me, Nay. You love the idea of me and what that means for you.”
“That’s not fair,” she replied, face crumpling slightly.
“Fair?” Kong echoed. “I’ve been doing right by you because I thought I owed you something, and the whole time, you been lying to me.”
“Oh, like you haven’t been doing the same fucking thing!” She wiped her tears angrily. “She’s dead, Kong!”
Those words hit Kong right in his chest, like someone had taken a hammer to his heart. He went still again, and pain flashed across his face so openly it almost startled her.
“I just meant that… she’s gone… and I’m still here.”
There it was. She’d revealed her true fears and hopes all in one statement.
For a long moment, Kong looked at her. There was nothing soft or empathetic left in his expression.
All this time, he’d let guilt guide his decisions, and now he was paying the price for it.
Nayelli had no idea the accident was partially his fault, and she never would, but he allowed it to become a factor in the choices he made.
Now it was hard to even look at her, knowing he wasted all this time with her that he could have spent showing Ayla what she meant to him.
She was carrying his child, and now they were both gone.
“I told myself that choosing you was for the best. My enemies made it clear that Ayla could become collateral damage if I let her—”
Reality set in for Nay, and she blinked back tears. Her surprise quickly shifted to anger when she realized what he was saying.
“Are you saying you only married me to protect her?” she questioned.
“What you think, Nay? Hmm? How this shit feel to you? Does it feel like a real marriage? Or does it feel like you just here, taking up fucking space?”
“You don’t mean that.” She sniffled, brows bunching together incredulously.
“I actually fucking do,” Kong told her.
A heavy, final silence settled between them. He turned to head back to the kitchen, keeping his back to her.
“You need to leave.”
“Wh-what!”
“It’s over.” His words struck her like a death sentence, robbing her of her breath.
“Kong, please—”
“No. This is done.”
“You can’t just throw me away!” she screamed, this time causing him to turn and face her.
His eyes were exhausted, filled with devastation, but also certainty in who he was dealing with.
“I think we both know you were never supposed to be my future, Nay.”
Quiet filled the room and Nayelli broke like a dam, crumbling to her knees in defeat.
It was never Ayla that she lost to. It was this version of Kong that she’d invented in her head.
She never really knew him or wanted to aside from what he liked in the bedroom.
The two didn’t share many common interests, and he didn’t even talk to her about work or ask about her job.
It was all so… routine. Like they were both walking through life playing a role.
Kong had lost his appetite, so he took the back stairs of his home to the second story.
He stopped at Kara and Kyro’s rooms to check on them, finding them both soundly sleeping in their beds.
When he stepped inside his own room, he closed the door behind him and kicked off his shoes.
He didn’t bother turning on a light, but from the balcony doors to his right, the illumination of the moon in the sky shone through.
Sitting on the edge of the bed alone, the crushing reality that the woman he loved was dead and he never truly told her how he felt weighed him down.