How Could You?

2

Leona

I was in a trance, in a hollow nightmare, shivering, fidgeting with some invisible hands that kept pulling me somewhere and I was struggling to come back to reality and at the same time wanting to avoid it.

As soon as I pulled into my parent's driveway, I made sure my daughter was securely climbed out of the car and placed her in the wheelchair just then my sister-in-law came running, taking hold of the chair. Between our four-hour drive, I stopped at a gas station and got Wilona to eat something, told my parents with nasty sobbing sentences that I was coming over because I had nowhere else to go.

I couldn't have stayed in a hotel, I didn't want to be near that man, I wanted to be near my family, my parents and my brothers. I glanced up at her with stinging teary eyes, and a snort-filled nose, plus my dishevelled state might have announced a lot too.

My parents and elder brother instantly rushed out to hold me, taking me inside carefully as I walked like a dead body forced to be alive.

"Leona, look at me. What happened? What might have been so crucial for you to have rushed out like that in the middle of the night with your daughter, what if you had an accident?" My mother became frantic, shaking me vigorously.

I bit my lip, choking on the tears and pain spreading throughout my chest. I could no longer stand, my legs were shaking and I had lost patience.

"Mom, please. Look at her." I heard my brother's voice fade in the background. Everything along with my body got heavier by the passing second, I was being squeezed by an unseen whip, tightening around me as I stood motionless hearing my family throwing question after question at me.

My stomach clenched brutally twisting my lungs in a way I could be sure it was ramming into each other. I held it tightly, groaning in discomfort and doubling over 

She went down on me.

I fucking cheated.

I'm so sorry.

The words that roamed through my mind like fire flamed my senses, my vision blurred and I could feel myself sliding down to the floor in my brother's arm, losing whatever consciousness I had. When I woke up, my parents were by my side worried and scared, it took me a minute to get settled before I slid up on the bed.

"Wilona? I asked, breathlessly.

"She's fine, she's sleeping." My mother assured me. My dad quickly sat beside me engulfing me in his arms and I leaned on him seeking some sort of comfort.

"Baby, you're scaring us. Wilson called, he was terrified and crying. We need to know what happened?" My mother asked, tears forming in my eyes from the fresh, unexpected betrayal from the one who was my whole world.

"He," a hiccup escaped my mouth, "he cheated on me mom, he cheated on me," I whispered breaking down into the tears I was holding back. Hysterical sobs shook my entire body, and my mother's arm quickly encircled me.

It was a brutal reality hitting me bone-deep at the same time it felt unbelievable. I couldn't think straight, my mind was shutting down, and his words kept repeating inside my head on a loop, chewing my sanity like a fungus, nothing else made sense. The world around me was spinning in circles.

I cheated

I cheated

I cheated

She went down on me.

She went down on me

She went down on me