Episode 17
“Are you sure you want to do this?”
Her mother asked two days later when she went to visit. Her father, being a very hard to read man had placed himself at one end if the living room, reading a newspaper as if it was none of his business. He had been the one to kick against the idea of Kendra’s marriage to Connor and she looked up at him in shame. He was the reason she didn’t visit them while she stayed with Alex.
Alex.
He had been released already after that stupid deal she made with Connor few days ago.
She nodded. Her mother sighed almost to the point of tears.
“I knew it. What kind of husband is this?”
Her mother said.
“When he had been coming and coming I should have known something wasn’t right.”
She looked at her husband who had turned the next page of the newspaper to read. “Honey, you’re not saying anything. Do you want your daughter to die?”
Her husband looked up at her, then passed a look at his daughter who lowered her head to her hands.
“What do you want me to say? I said all I could say the day she insisted on marrying that excuse of a man. Look! Go to the store and you will see lots of your husband’s gifts which are almost getting spoiled. All for what? So he can keep destroying the life of my daughter with our eyes closed. I told you it wasn’t right but what did you say? That she’s our only daughter and we should support her happiness.”
He looked at Kendra.
“Are you happy now? What do you want me to do? I will not be disgraced because of you,Kendra.”
Kendra was already crying and her mother turned to her father in tears too. “Daddy, please I’m sorry.”
She said. He didn’t burge. The man was a hard but to crack and Kendra knew that he was very angry with her. Perhaps that’s one of the reasons she hasn’t found happiness in her marriage.
“Daddy, I’m sorry.”
She said again.
“Don’t do this,Honey. She’s our only child. Your only child.”
He turned sharply at her. “My only child will not bring me shame by leaving her husband’s house.”
He looked at Kendra.
“Go back to your husband’s house,Kendra. That’s what is required of you now.” She sniffed and went down on her knees, holding the leg of her father.
“I know I erred. I should have listened to you. I have to do it for Alex. Please dad, I’m sorry.”
She knew how much her father loved her even with her stubborn attitude while she was growing up. Her mother gave her father a pleading look. “I’m not asking you to take me into your home. I’m only asking you to forgive me,dad. Please I’m sorry.”
He sighed and looked up at the ceiling as if he was trying to get a direction from above then he looked down at his daughter and sighed again.
“I should have investigated this before you went into that marriage. God knows that I’m angry with that man for what he did to my daughter. What do you want to do now?”
She sniffed and looked up at him. “I want a divorce.”
“Divorce? But that is against our faith? Unless he is dead or has been sleeping with other women.”
“Has he been like that dear?”
Her mother asked she shook her head. She was sure of Connor being faithful to the core in that aspect.
“And you have never been unfaithful to him,I’m sure of that.”
Her father said and Kendra looked down at her hands watching them with the side of her eyes. They both looked down at her in surprise. She said nothing. “Kendra!”.
They both chorused.
***********
She was surprised when she saw Alex walk into her salon one week later. She had missed him and she hasn’t seen him ever since he was released. She hasn’t been picking his calls either. Not that she hadn’t been dying to hear his voice but she couldn’t do it. She looked up at him as he entered her office that day and a part of her wanted to go to him and hug him, kiss him and tall him how much she missed him. He stood in front of her .
” Hey,Kendra.”.Alex said.
She looked at him. He was looking more handsome than the last time she saw him.
God help me,,she thought. She smiled up at him.
*********
Alex knew her enough to know that she had just given him a fake smile..He didn’t know what was wrong with her these days and he wanted to find out why she has refused to pick any of his calls or reply any of his messages. But he just hoped it wasn’t what he was thinking. He had almost gone crazy not seeing her at his mother’s place when he went there because he was surprised she hadn’t called. He wanted to see her and hear her voice but the Kendra he always saw, the one who had a laughter of a four year old girl, the laughter that made you want to laugh with her….that Kendra wasn’t the one he was seeing now. He was looking at the one
who had put on the mask again. The one he had first met.
“How have you been, Alex.”
She asked.
He nodded. “Great. How are you doing?”
“I’m doing great too. I heard that you have been released. That’s good to hear.” He watched her. She wasn’t the kind to blab. What the hell was going on.
“Why haven’t you been picking any of my calls? I was d–n worried about you.Are you back with your parents?”
She looked up at him and shook her head. She turned away from him, he was compelled to walk up to her which he did, placing his hands on her shoulder but surprisingly she pulled away from him. Odd. “No, I’m not at my parent’s. I am back with Connor.”
She said and smiled. He paused at her. He couldn’t have heard right. “What?”
He said and she sighed, raised a smile at him and nodded.
“Yes. I have decided to work it out with him. We have decided to start over again.”.
She was blabbing. ” Who decided? You or the both of you?” She turned away from him. “We both decided, Alex.” No…No….
“Look at me when you talk to me,Kendra.”
He was used to looking at her eyes when she spoke. He could see through her that way. And she already knew it so she turned around and refused to fave him. *********
Kendra was hiding her tears so she turned around. And Alex was no fool. He always loved to look at her eyes when she was talking to him so he could tell what
she was feeling. And she wasn’t about to let down her bravado for him to see through her. She kept her back turned to him and chuckled. “Oh, please,Alex. What’s the use? We both knew it would come to this. You and I can never happen and you know it. I’m married. You knew that I am married before you came for me. I want to go back to my husband which I just did.”
She said. She knew she. was hurting him because she didn’t hear anything from him so she pulled herself together and turned to face him. He looked straight into her eyes. D–n!.
“Kendra what are you doing? Do you want to kill yourself? Listen, I don’t care if you decide to go back to your husband afterwards even though I love you like crazy but I would have agreed if the man in question isn’t a psychotic b—–d like
Connor. But, baby I want you to be happy. That’s all I want. What the hell are you doing?”
“He’s my husband,Alex. And I love him.”
She said with so much certainty. She looked straight at him. “So I’ve decided to go back with him and work things out. And he has changed a lot. He’s calmer now.”
*********
Alex couldn’t believe his ears. What did she think she was doing? Then it stuck him like bolt of lightening. Oh My God! He looked at her.
“Kendra… baby tell me the truth. Did you make a deal with him? Is this all a part of the bargain you made with him?”
She inhaled and exhaled then smiled up at him.
Fake smile.
“Of course not.”
She wasn’t telling him the truth and he knew when she was lying.
“Kendra please don’t lie to me. I know what I’m seeing and it different from what you’re saying..”
“Can you please stop looking at my eyes?!”
She snapped and turned around. “I already told you. I don’t love you,Alex. I love Connor! How else do you think I got married to him without loving him?!”
She shouted and he looked at her. There was something he was feeling with right now and that was the fact that she was trying to cover up something and the fact that he was feeling a sharp pain in his chest right Now. Her words injured him. “You know I’m not trying to turn you away from your husband. No matter how much I love you I still want you to be happy, baby. And you can’t blame me for falling head over heels for you. You know that.”
And. the next thing Kendra heard was the door shut. She broke into tears.
“I love you,Alex.” She said in tears.
*********
That night she couldn’t sleep. She lay in bed trying to forget how her day had gone, trying to forget that she had just lost Alex completely but the more she tried the more she kept thinking about him. She was in love with him. Connor had drained all the love she had for him with his fists and now Alex had replaced her husband in her heart. But how could she forget the man who had thought her how to love without a fault. She heard the door open and knew it was Connor. The room was dark but she knew he still saw her in bed with her back facing him. He must have thought she was asleep because he didn’t say a word, just went to the bathroom to shower. It was few minutes later before she heard him come out again and felt the depression of the bed with his weight on it..Memories of her love making with Alex came back to her and she closed her eyes. Then her eyes flew open when she felt Connor’s hands on her shoulder And his lips on her bare skin. She felt irritated and she pushed away from him.
“What the hell are you doing,Connor?”
She said, sitting up to face him as she put on the light beside her bed. He smiled at her.
“Come on, baby. I’ve missed you badly. I want you,,please.”
“Connor, I’m tired. I had a bad day at work and a hectic one too. I can’t.” “Why can’t you?”
He asked as his face darkened with anger. “But you never feel tired when he tries to get between your legs,do you?”
“Don’t be impossible, Connor. You don’t know that. I want to sleep.”
She turned to lie down and he pushed her back to him. She looked at his face to see the same rage she had ran away from for a month as he pressed her on her back and mounted her. She struggled with him.
“Connor! What are you doing? Stop!”
“Don’t you ever say no to.me. You never say no when he touches you and he’s not even your Husband!”
He placed her hands together above her head,pinning them with one of his hands as
she struggled in vain. He slapped her face with the other hand and yanked her legs
wide open to settle between them fumbling with his trouser.
“Stop,Connor,please!”
“Don’t you fight me, b—h!”
He drove into her and she screamed, trying to fight him back to no avail…
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HEALER