Life has a funny way of showing us just how insignificant we really are to people we once put on a pedestal.
Alani cackled by my side, without the slightest intention of hiding her true emotions. She already knew her brother was planning to be at the Seaside Hut tonight, yet kept it from me. Not only that, but she knew that this whole marraige was a ruse right from the start.
The flash from her phone zapped me out of my shock as Alani took a picture of my husband nuzzled in some girl's neck with his hand up her skirt.
''He just makes it too easy, the idiot. This is all Mom and Dad need for now,'' she mused. As she turned to leave, I could see her looking at me through my peripheral.
Stroking my hair and leaning in, she whispered, ''Nothing personal, Babe. This is between me and that douche over there.''
Alani didn't take her eyes off me as she straightened her posture and I couldn't take mine off Milo. His chocolate brown eyes squinted our way, trying to make out where the flash came from.
When he finally locked eyes on me, his lips moved in a quiet curse. He guzzled the remainder of his drink and ran his hand through his short hair while leaning in to whisper something in the chick's ear through the loud music. She nodded and he stood up to make his way to us.
''I gotta go, but just know, my house is always open when you decide he's not worth it,'' Alani said. She twisted me and it all happened too quickly.
Her face rushed towards mine and she delicately sucked my lip into hers with a kiss. I sighed against her mouth and she quickly grazed her tongue along mine.
It was over. It was all over.
I was left heady with the kiss, the betrayal, the music pumping in tune with my heart all at once.
Milo advanced and my feet worked it's way in the opposite direction. Soon, my steps turned into long strides until I could feel the cool ocean breeze whip my hair behind me as I ran away.
Away from him, from Alani... from my laughable fate.
''Kaia!'' He called out but his voice fueled the speed in which I wished to flee.
My face was damp with hot tears before they merged with the cold pelts of rain that started to fall. The scrunch of sand under his hurried footsteps tormented me.
'Just leave me alone' I wanted to scream.
That's what he was always good at anyway. Why bother now? To save face?
I felt the tug of my arm as he caught up to me, spinning me around with us both breathing heavily from the chase.
My gaze scanned his face for even the smallest drop of regret. There was none as his callous eyes looked down at me.
''Why? You were the one who convinced me to give us a chance. But you never tried." I choke out.
He closed his eyes in frustration, ashamed that he got caught with his secret paramour while I wasted countless nights wishing he'd touch me as he did her. Countless nights thinking that maybe it was my fault, my flaws that kept him away.
I had never seen Milo as vile but tonight sealed my next step in stone. "I'm leaving. You're not who I thought you were, letting all this power and money go to your head. I wish I trusted my gut and never married you!" I say devastated.
Those pitiless eyes became unnervingly threatening as the muscles twitched under his jaw.
"Like hell you are!" His menacing voice shot chills down my spine, and I scratched at his hold on my arm to get away; afraid of this stranger in front of me.
He unbuckled his leather belt, sliding it off his waist in one fluid movement while shoving me violently to the ground.
I shook my head in panic, trying to focus on his dark figure as the rain poured down my face, blurring my vision somewhat and lowering my faculties.
Not him, not the Milo Hale I grew up with... He was nothing like most of the men in this area, hungry for submission from their wives by any means necessary. He would never...
Spitting out like a man gone mad, he said, "You want to dress like a whore, then I will fucking treat you like a whore. That's what you wanted? Isn't that what you came here for tonight, leaving my house, my bed?"
The first hit licked my bare thighs like a searing whip and it made me scream out in pain. He continued, my body curled up, my arms trying desperately to protect myself from the beating.
The wetness of my skin welcomed each blow like a slice of a dagger and I anticipated the damage would be bloody.
"Milo! Stop! Please!"
He didn't stop and I knew full well what he waited on. What they all waited on.
"I'M SORRY... I'm sorry... I'm..." My words were drowned by my quiet sobbing.
He flung the weapon off to the side and crouched down while grabbing my jaw roughly. My wet hair was matted to the sides of my face, and my glasses were hidden under the darkness atop the sand. I convinced myself it was better that way... to not register this humiliating memory in full clarity.
"Don't be ridiculous, you knew fully well coming into this agreement how things would work. It's all on you Kaia, not me, not your father, nobody but you. So don't blame me for continuing to live my life as I see fit. I promised luxury and comfort and extravagance for you and your father. But one thing I never promised you was love or passion. You want to be fucked then I will fuck you, but that's it. "
The alcohol on his breath made me nauseous as he gritted out violent slurs and I fisted the sand tightly to keep it from spilling out, for fear of a potential round two.
"I kept up my end of the bargain but look at you, you couldn't even last three fucking months to help me get what's rightfully mine. You think my sister likes you? Why do you think she's tried to get closer to you all of a sudden, tried to slut you out on the beach like that tonight? She wants us to break up, to not last so she can have everything. The little bitch. Just because she's older she thinks she's entitled to my share."
This wasn't what I wanted. Not in a million years, and not by the guy I once loved as a dear friend of mine.
I saw clearly now that I was just a pawn in their wealthy crusades. To be used and not to be heard or seen or loved. I couldn't even curse my fate for the foolish decisions that got me into this very predicament.
"I don't care how you get there, but you better be home by the time I come back. If you have any common sense, you'll think carefully about your father and what I'm capable of."
Baba's face flashed before my eyes and an emotion came over me that I'd never experienced of Milo and his parents and... of Alani.
Hate.
I fucking hate them all.
And I did something so untoward, so unbefitting for a daughter in law of the Hales- but oh so satisfying at the same time.
I spat in his face.
"You bitch."
What happened next shot stars before my eyes. My head collided with something sharp and hard as he released my face to shove it backwards in one violent push.
