My hands trembled as I stared intensely at the screen of his phone. He had left his phone open to visible notifications. The words hit me like a punch to the gut, leaving me breathless. Engaged? My mind spun, trying to make sense of it. I was his girlfriend. We had shared so much intimate moments, dreams of the future, late night talks under the stars. The very idea that he had promised himself to someone else felt impossible, unreal. But there it was, in black and white.
I rushed through the small Jamaican villa, the salty breeze and scent of the sea once calming but now suffocating as I moved through the house. I found him out on the veranda, his back turned to me as he gazed out at the ocean, completely unaware of the storm building behind him. He looked peaceful, like the same man I had loved for months his locs catching the soft glow of the setting sun, his relaxed posture betraying no sign of the secret he'd been keeping.
"Skip," I called out, my voice tight, breaking the stillness. He turned, his face softening when he saw me, but his smile faded the moment he caught the look in my eyes.
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"I saw it. I saw the messages with that bitch! You're engaged? How—how could you keep this from me?" My voice trembled, a flood of emotions, anger, betrayal and disbelief all spilling out at once.
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He didn't flinch. Instead, he sighed, as if this conversation was one he had been expecting. He set his drink down and walked toward me, calm, collected, like this wasn't my world crashing down around me.
"I was going to tell you," he said, his Caribbean accent smooth, but his eyes held a seriousness that twisted the knife in my chest even deeper. "It's just... it's complicated. My grandfather had multiple wives, and it's a tradition, a belief I hold too. I love you, but I also love her. I want both of you in my life."
For a moment, the words didn't even register. They sounded foreign, unreal. I felt the ground beneath my feet sway, like everything I had built with him our love, our trust, our future was suddenly crumbling. I thought I was his only one, the woman he saw forever with. And now, he was calmly telling me he wanted multiple wives, like it was just an ordinary thing, like my heart wasn't breaking right there in front of him.
