No more tears - Leon Kennedy

Chapter 20

"𝐓𝐨 𝐛𝐮𝐫𝐧 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐤𝐞𝐞𝐩 𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐞𝐭 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐢𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐩𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐰𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐛𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐯𝐞𝐬."

★ ---------------------- ★

The tone and gentleness of his voice were enough to lull me out of my pleasant daydream, knowing that this time, it was real. We had reached the point where we wouldn't leave this conversation until everything had been said.

"I'm sorry about Emma. I didn't expect us to run into her," he began, as I shook my head in denial, offering a sad smile.

If he wanted to talk about his ex-girlfriend, so be it. He probably needed to, and I needed clarity on what had happened.

Because I didn't want to become a poison to him...

"It's okay, Leon, you couldn't have known..."

...

"But I have to admit, I'm a bit curious... I find it strange that she insulted me so harshly without even knowing me." I confessed, hesitantly.

My mind teetered between guilt for daring to ask and a strange uneasiness at venturing into a territory that seemed forbidden to me. I was at an impasse—if I hadn't taken that step, we would have remained stagnant forever, and I wouldn't have found any explanation for the insults she had thrown at me.

The insults themselves didn't hurt me that much... I was sadly used to being insulted, and I had learned to brush it off. What truly surprised me was Leon's behavior.

What could have happened for someone he had dated about fifteen years ago to provoke such virulence in someone who usually kept his composure?

He sighed, running his hand through his hair, my comment seemingly causing him great discomfort.

"It's not your fault... She... Well, we..." he began hesitantly, stopping for a moment and grimacing slightly as if this story brought him pain.

When I released his hand, he seemed to understand that now that he'd started, he had no choice but to finish his sentence: the subject interested me far too much.

"Since you heard some of it, I might as well explain... Back then, my life was a mess. Emma's life was just as bad when I met her. The first time we met, she had just run away from home and needed someone to listen to her—someone I probably needed, too. " He continued, and I felt my eyes sting slightly at the mention of his hardship. It seemed like such a sad way to view life, especially as a teenager.

He paused, his gaze lost in the distance, likely reliving those days.

"When she suggested we start dating, I knew from the beginning that it wasn't me she wanted. Just someone, anyone who was as alone as she was. I gave her everything: at first, it was my time, then my attention..."

He paused.

"And when that wasn't enough, she started flirting with one of my best friends... just to see if I'd get jealous," he added, under my astonished gaze.

But... but what?

What could have driven her to act that way?

"When I began to suspect that she was just dragging me along, I confronted her. In the end, she was the one who dumped me," he said.

I stared at him wide-eyed, holding back my urge to openly express my confusion by yelling, wondering how I was supposed to stay neutral when Leon's version made it painfully clear that he had grown attached to someone who apparently didn't care about him at all.