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"Oh my god."
Realization dawns.
Her body leaps into the air. "Oh my god!!" She looks down at the phone again, as if she's hoping that it's all a bad dream. "No, no, no, no. This can't be happening."
"Kiara. Sit down, please. You're scaring me"
She flings the phone at the headboard and it crashes on the ground, the case breaking and skidding across the floor.
"They know, Kylian. They know. And... the way they describe me! Oh, my god.” Tears spring into her eyes. "Why would someone do this? Who took this picture?"
The question doesn’t have an answer that I know yet. "I don't know. I'm trying to find out,"
"Okay.” She sits back down on the bed, biting her nails as she rocks back and forth. "I'm going to have to talk to them. Explain. About us."
I nod.
"Now. We have to do it now. What's the chance they haven't read the paper?" She laughs, but the hollow sound stings. "Okay. Let's go. We have to go."
I take her hand. "Kiara. Remember, whatever happens, this is real, okay? You know that. What we're doing here, it's real. We did this for our own happiness."
“That’s just it. When did our own happiness mean more than my family’s? When Nathan came to pick me up from New York after... after everything happened, do you know what he said to me about it?" She picks at her fingernails. "Nothing. He didn't say anything. He didn't scold me, he didn't lecture me, he never held it over my head. He just told me, that if I ever needed his help again, all I had to do was call. And that it didn’t matter what he is doing, he will drop it to make sure I am safe. Do you know what else he said? He said that other than my parents, he only feels that way about one other person."
I know who that person is. Because he said the same thing to me once, too.
"And now, those two people have been having sex behind his back and lying to him.” She says, twisting the knife. “And now, he's found out at the same time as the rest of the world."
I drive her to her family’s complex during which the guilt grows like a balloon, cutting off the air in the car.
When I reach for my car door, she lays her hand on my leg. "No. I... have to do this alone."
"No, you don't. This involves the both of us."
"But this is my family. Not yours."
The words cut but I know what she’s trying to say.
"I'll wait out here."
She squeezes my leg. "No. This... this can't be good for you either. I didn't even think about that. Go to work. Find out who did this. I have to do this on my own.”
She absentmindedly pats my hands and then leaves.
And I watch until her body disappears through the gate and doesn't look back.
Five minutes tick by before I finally drive away, just hoping her face will appear and tell me that everything is okay.
With them and with us.
"Call brothers," I command the system, and drive away from the one person I want to be with right now.
thirty-four
Kiara
The house is empty when I open the front door. And silent.
Nathan's car is still in driveway, and I'm not sure if I wish he was at work or not. Maybe dealing with them one at a time would be easier.
