CHAPTER EIGHTY TWO
Beautiful
I tried to sit still, but my skin crawled as my eyes wandered around the house I bought with millions of dollars. The warmth that filled every corner of this place is gone, and all I feel is coldness. Everything remains the same as I left it, but I just can’t shake this lingering reminder that this place, which I once called home, no longer feels like it. A subtle reminder that I made the right choice, and I don’t want to be here any second longer.
So, I looked at Frances, who was fixated on her phone at the mini bar in the living room.
“Why am I here, Frances?”
“What? You have a better place to be,” she taunted before looking up from her phone. “Ah! Your beloved wife is sick, right?”
With a wrinkled nose, I leaned back and sighed.
“Why do you look disgusted?” she probed.
“That is because I am,” I interjected immediately. “What happened to you?”
“You did. You happened to me,” she yelled.
“It was a mistake coming here. Do whatever the fuck you want with the zygotes.” I moved to stand up.
“Relax,” she said smugly. “She is here.”
“She?” I asked, and I got an uneven smile in return. I felt my brow draw together at her response, and a quiet discomfort crept in.
Something feels off.
And my assumption was confirmed the very next minute.
“Hello, Bewaji!” Frances said with a smirk.
My heart dropped.
“Kylian!” she called to me.
The space surrounding me tightened, the air felt heavier, and I wanted the floor to open up and swallow me whole—but it didn’t. So I slowly turned to face my consequence, and looking into Bewaji’s eyes, I knew I was finished.
I can’t remember how long I stood there, staring at the door after Bewaji left, telling me she did not want to see me for the foreseeable future. I know I should go after her and beg, but the look she gave when she left kept replaying in my head over and over again.
“Wow!” Frances taunted as she walked down the stairs, but I gave her no attention. “You are still here?”
Every part of me wants to lash out at her and tear her apart for what she has done, but none of this is her fault.
I should have told Bewaji the truth a long time ago, but I didn’t. All Frances did was exploit the hole I created in my marriage.
She walked in front of me, dragging a suitcase behind her, and smirked. “Look at you, looking like a lost puppy. You must really love her, but too bad. If I can’t have you, then I can’t allow Bewaji to have you.”
“Do you feel better now?” I finally asked.
“Of course, I do…” Her face dissolved into sadness. “We could have been happy, and we still can be. Bewaji is nothing. All you have to do is hold my hand,” she said in a hopeful voice.
I looked down at her stretched-out hand.
“I’d rather die,” I said, and then she chuckled loudly.
“I thought as much.” She stretched out a card to me. “Your zygotes are here. They are expecting you.”
I looked at her in heated silence, seriously second-guessing myself for letting her go scot-free. Maybe I should just kill her for ruining my life. She dropped the card when I gave her no response.
She walked to the door with her luggage.
“I remember telling you I had already taken what I want, and you probably think it is the zygotes, but it is not.”
I narrowed my eyes at her.
“I took the Rever project,” she confessed. “It is the best alimony, right? An expensive one, but still the best considering what I have sacrificed for you.” She was laughing as she said this. Suddenly, she stopped. “Don’t try to fight me on it. If you do, I will blow everything open.”
With that, she left, and I finally let the guilt swallow me whole. I sat down as it settled over me. Long after, Alice called me to ask what happened. I just sat, with guilt pressing harder with every passing second, mixed with a desperate urge to undo something that was no longer in my power to undo.
Soon, my phone rang again. I picked it up when I saw Alice as the caller ID.
“Alice.”
“Kylian,” she whimpered with urgency, and my stomach knotted instantly.
I stood up. “What is it, Alice?”
“Bewaji found out everything,” her voice trembled. “About the Clouders.”
“What?” I shouted.
“There was so much blood, Kylian.” My heart pounded hard against my chest.
“What blood? Whose blood?” I asked in confusion.
“Bewaji’s blood. She found out that the Clouders were spying on her for Frances, and then she went down. She is not breathing, Kylian,” she cried with pure agony, and I heard the call drop.
“Alice! Alice!” I called, but got no response. So I started running to the door.
I don’t think I have ever run the way I did from my car into the hospital where Bewaji was. I looked around to ask for directions.
“Alice!” someone called, and I turned toward the voice.
Alice stood with Beatrice, Bewaji’s nurse. I moved closer to them.
“I am sorry, Alice,” Beatrice said in a low voice.
“No…” Alice cried.
“We did everything, Alice, but her heart stopped before we got to the hospital. There was nothing we could do.”
“No… no… no…” Alice’s face twisted in anguish as she collapsed to the floor, sobbing uncontrollably.
I felt a sudden stillness.
“Bewaji is dead,” I managed to say.
Alice looked up and leaped at me.
“You did this,” she cried as she held onto me. “You killed her. You killed her,” she wailed with abject sorrow.
I watched the sun slowly rise from the VIP waiting room where I stood with my family. Soon, Bewaji’s doctor found us there.
“She is ready,” the young female doctor said, and I nodded. My mother stood up and came beside me.
“I should come with you,” she said, placing her hand on mine.
“No, I should do this alone.”
“Kylian?” my father called.
“I will be back,” I said in a broken voice.
So I followed the doctor into the mortuary. She stood in front of a door and looked at me.
“She is in here.” I nodded. “Do you want me to come in with you?” I shook my head.
“She is very beautiful. I am very sorry for your loss,” she said gently, then walked away.
I opened the door and entered. The first thing my eyes fell on was the small pink casket on the table, and my heart dropped. Tears snaked their way down my face as I slowly approached the table to confirm the news I had been told hours ago.
Without permission, my voice croaked, and then I broke down. Nothing I did stopped the tears from coming. I killed my baby. I did this.
“I am sorry. I am so sorry,” I wailed.
TO BE CONTINUED ON NEXT SATURDAY, 9.00PM WAT.
0 Comments