"Secrets don't die with the ones who keep them. They haunt the living until they're forced into the light..."
Aminah Clarke's life shattered the night her fiancée, Hailee, died in a tragic car crash. Now, a year later, she is left with a book bar, a...
Hello my veiled babes 🤍 I now present to you chapter 22. Grab your snacks this chapter is an extra long one!! Please comment and vote (Your comments literally make my entire day! Like seriously)
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Aminah's POV:
It's just one night. An extremely— long night. A few hours of uncomfortable misunderstandings in exchange for they key to pandoras box. Truly, how bad can it be?
I should have said no.
I slipped the zipper of my dress up with more force than necessary. "Shit." The tightness around my ribs felt suffocating, but maybe that was the point. Maybe this is what I needed. To feel trapped, to remind myself that there is no moving on until they all pay for what they've done. Endless torment is what they deserve, and I promise it's what they'll get.
As I adjusted the hem of my dress, my eyes drifted the the nightstand. There leaning against the lamp I begged Hailee for, was the photo of Hailee and me from two summers ago—smiling. Our arms wrapped so tightly around one another, so sure that nothing could ever break us apart. I clenched my jaw as I picked it up, my fingers tracing over Hailee's face. I think I was the only one that was sure...
"Why couldn't you have just been honest?"
I wished she had told me the truth. From the start. About Lauren. About her being afraid of Devyn's parents. Everything. She could have told me everything. Maybe if she had, we'd have had a real chance. Maybe I wouldn't be standing here alone in the home that was meant for the two of us. I wouldn't be standing here in a stupid dress, searching for answers that could have easily been given to me by the one who put me on the search for them.
Maybe she wouldn't be dead.
My gaze shifted to the black heels waiting to be stepped into, and my mind wandered to Devyn.
"What the hell am I doing?" I question, frustration lacing every word.
I placed the photo back on the nightstand, feeling a fresh wave of anger settle deep in my chest. Hailee's lies felt like a blade that still hadn't been pulled out—sharp and aching, a constant reminder of everything she kept from me. But Devyn...hers felt like the twisting of the knife. Day after day, she stood there, knowing what dark secrets lied beneath the surface. She knew and said nothing, and she still is saying nothing.
I shook my head, trying to push the thought away, but it was too late. Devyn is partly to blame for all of this.... The thought had already been burned into my mind.
A betrayal wrapped in good intentions, is still a betrayal nonetheless. Yet loving someone while betraying them is still viewed as love, toxic love, but still love...nonetheless.
I grabbed the black heels off the floor, slipping them on as the feeling of bitterness settled in. They were heavy, just like everything else tonight. I felt like I was putting on armor, each piece of clothing a layer between me and the truth I so desperately desired, but still didn't have. The truth Hailee took to the afterlife and the truth Devyn was still too cowardly to face.
