I'll Come Back for You

Chapter Nineteen:

What?! An update on a Monday? That never happens! (Haha, you're welcome)

I know on the last chapter I said two more chapters and an epilogue, but I just realized I was trying to cram too much into chapter Twenty which is coming up soon. So I think I will have 21 chapters and an epilogue... sorry (not really). 

Hope you enjoy this! Don't forget to hit that star button and comment! I love to hear from you guys!

--VIVKELLER23

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I only meant to keep you from heartbreak, but I seem to have brought you heartbreak despite my best efforts...

Struggling to stand on shaking legs that no longer supported her, Kaliah sank down onto the piano bench, her brother's letter crumbled mercilessly under the grip of her fists. She felt her tears stream down her face and splatter on the piece of paper her brother had left her. She was shaking, her body wracking with silent sobs as she tried to come to grips with what her brother had done.

He'd wanted to see her happy. Her own brother had seen her total surrender for Dimitri and he hadn't thought she could handle it. Jesse hadn't believed her love was true. Dimitri had been too scared to try.

So much wasted time. So much unnecessary pain. So many years of second guessing what she'd meant to him, if she'd meant anything at all. All because her brother had wanted to protect her from a boy who'd been too insecure to fight for them.

But instead of answering her questions, this made her want to ask so many more. Why had Dimitri believed he wasn't his father's son? Why hadn't he trusted her enough to let her know the truth? When had he planned to come clean with her if his father hadn't reached out?

But more importantly, why had he decided to tell her now? She figured the logical explanation was that Dimitri had found out he was his father's son and had wanted to clear the air now that he didn't have anything to hide. But she wondered why he'd looked so hurt when she'd accused him of not caring enough to trust her the way she'd so completely trusted him. If she thought back on the pain she'd seen on his face, she could almost believe there was another reason for his wanting to confess his motives to her.

She shook her head, using the sleeves of her gray-blue cardigan to wipe away her drying tears. She had to stop thinking too much into the things she thought she saw or she'd only set herself up for more pain. Her eyes fell onto the white envelope again and she saw that there were more papers still inside. If what her brother had written was true, she no longer needed to stay married to Dimitri. The house was hers.

So why had Dimitri bothered to marry her at all? Surely if he had made the agreement with Jesse, he would have known there was a loophole, a way to get out of having to enter their farce of a marriage. It didn't add up. He'd known the house was signed over to her, yet he'd insisted he was only marrying her so she could have a home to go back to.

He'd played with her all over again, only this time she didn't understand why. She couldn't comprehend why a man who had everything he'd ever dreamed of having would return to the girl he'd given up so easily.

But as she took the crumbled up letter and the envelope without glancing at the contents inside, Kaliah shivered with the knowledge that she was fooling herself.

It wasn't that she didn't know the answer. There was one answer to all her questions that could silence them all. But she couldn't bring herself to contemplate it. It was that she was afraid of it.

***

Ronan and Sydney were nowhere to be seen the next morning. Dimitri hadn't made any more attempts to speak to her after he'd handed her Jesse's letter. He seemed to understand that after so many years of being lied to and kept in the dark, she would need her space to sort out her feelings.