Pulling Your Heartstrings✔

Chapter twenty eight

Chapter 28
The sun beamed off the turquoise walls,  radiating hues of rays into the room. I blinked my eyes open, when I felt Tife shifting his weight under me. I hadn't realized that I was resting on his chest, and surprisingly, the soft thumping of his heart didn't wake me up.

I looked at him. He was already awake. He wore a faraway look in his eyes, which were fixated on the ceiling. His prominent jawline clenching tightly, and I couldn't resist touching his cheek. "Hey."

He leaned closer to place a chaste kiss on my lips. "Hey."

My words trailed. "I should uhm get going."

"Nara. Thank you for last night. I don't want to be like you're just a one night stand to me cau—"

I threw him an amused look. "Relax. You don't need to give me that guilty look. We're both adults. I made this choice just as much as you did."

"But still—"

"Seriously, Boluwatife. It's okay." I started to pick up my clothes from wherever I threw it to.

His face hardened. "I want you to stay."

I paused, mid dress to look at him. "What do you expect me to do? Cuddle in bed? Sleep  with you again? I don't know what you want from me."

"I want to talk."

I didn't feel the need to hear what he needed to say. "About what? Are you finally going to tell me what's going on, or are you going to keep stalling?"

"I have a son." I whirled around to gape at him. His face was glued with frustration all over it.

I pulled myself back to the bed. "You have a son? "

He nodded slowly. "To be precise, I had a son. He's dead. "

Still trying to understand that initial information, the new one had me completely dumbfounded. "Back up. Start over. From the top. I need to understand this."

"Remember my ex girlfriend, Rhoda?" I nodded. Of course I remembered her. I remembered all of them. She was perky  and cute. I think they started dating about seven years ago. She was probably his last serious girlfriend. Their break up surprised everyone, including me. "She uhm got pregnant. I didn't know what to do. I just got into law school and my life was just taking off. "

He paused to give a sharp sigh, while I watched him quietly. "With Imade's issues still so fresh in our parents' head, I didn't want to add to their problems. I just couldn't. Their marriage was already on the rocks. I was afraid it would make things worse. Rhoda wanted to keep the baby. I didn't. So I did the most stupid thing a 23 year old could do. I paid her off for her silence and she took care of the child. We had a contract. I paid her money monthly,  as long as she never told anyone. I was so fucking stupid, I swear."

"So you never told your parents at all?" I didn't want to sound judgmental, but I was still inquisitive about that.

He glanced at me. "I swear I wanted to. Imade was acting out and it was just a year after she tried to kill herself for—"

I blurted out. "She wasn't trying to kill herself."

He blinked. "What?? "

"I'm not supposed to tell you this, because she made me keep it confidential, but she never wanted to kill herself. It was a misunderstanding. She slit her wrists to scare a guy that was taking advantage of her. He didn't come on time and she ended up bleeding out till she passed out."

Tife's mouth hung low. "Is she out of her mind? Why didn't she say anything for a decade?"

I sighed. Oh God. I shouldn't have said anything. I wasn't prepared for his reaction. It certainly wasn't in my place to reveal this. This wasn't going according to plan at all. "Because she'd rather be seen as an almost suicidal person than the psycho ex girlfriend that's torturing her ex. She got lots of sympathy from it. The suicidal rich girl that was never happy. If people knew that she slit her wrists to teach him a lesson, she was scared that people would see her as crazy."

Tife huffed. "Her whole idea is crazy. She's been misdiagnosed all these while. That's why she still acts out. Why she still cuts."

I frowned. "I never really thought of it like that."

"Of course you didn't. You just assume you can just do whatever you want."

I glared. "I'm not the one with problems. Your whole family is. There's no real communication with all of you. That's why your parents are still together, even when they don't want to. That's why you hid that you had a child. That's why Imade hid her real problems. All of you are keeping up a front that doesn't exist. The perfect family. Flawless till the end. You guys are so obsessed with hiding anything that could alter your image, that no one notices when things go wrong, until it gets to its tipping point. That's the real problem."

He stared at me,  not saying a single word. I pressed my temples slowly. I didn't mean to lash out. I knew I had issues, as much any person did, but I didn't want him to only blame Imade. Their issues existed long before Imade started showing signs.

I quickly said. "I'll see you later." Then made my way out of the room.