The Trap

Goodbye

That was it. The moment she tried to avoid at all costs had come. The moment she knew would ruin everything: their relationship, the love Shannon felt for her, the happiness she was feeling for the first time in her life, the hope for a future by her side, everything. From that moment on, nothing would be the same anymore.

"Please, tell me this is all a mistake. Tell me you didn't lie to me all this time. Tell me he made up a story to my father and you're not what he said you are." Her voice got shaky by the end of the sentence.

"I..." Cari couldn't find the words. She felt like she had lost her voice and her senses. She was about to lose the love of her life and there was nothing she could say to avoid it anymore.

"Tell me it's not true."

"I... I can't do that." Cari looked down, feeling the first tears rolling down her face.

Shannon's expression was a mix of different feelings. It was full of confusion, shock, sadness, perplexity, disbelief. It was like she was trying to put the puzzle together to make things clearer inside her mind.

"Let me see if I got this right. Are you telling me that everything I know about you is a lie? Your name, who you are, your story, is all made up?" Shannon's tone got heavier and stronger.

"No, it's not like that, let me explain. I..."

"I don't wanna hear it. I don't wanna hear any more lies from you." Shannon put her hands on her head, coming to the realization that the things she refused to believe on her way to Cari's apartment were in fact true. "You know, I didn't believe my dad when he told me that you seduced that man and then ran away with his things. I didn't believe him when he told me that you are not who you say you are, that you are using a fake name, a fake job, a fake life. I didn't believe him because if what he was saying was true, then the person I love in so many ways wouldn't even exist!" The tears came along with reality, showing how broken she was feeling inside.

"No, baby, it's not like that, please listen to me, please!" Cari ran her hands through her hair, trying to control the tears and explain how her plan failed the moment she got to know her better.

"Stop calling me that! I don't even know your name! How dare you to call me like that?!"

"My name is Cari, I swear, that's my real name. The only thing you don't know is my last name yet. But if you let me explain I'll tell you everything you don't know, absolutely everything." Cari was starting to feel desperate. She needed to make her understand that she may have lied about a lot of things, but the love she felt for her wasn't one of them.

"Oh my god, do you even hear yourself? This is absurd! The person I gave my heart, my soul, the person I introduced to my parents is telling me that the "only thing" I don't know is her last name?"

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I know you hate me right now, I know that doesn't matter what I say, nothing will change the fact that I did terrible things, that I lied and made you believe I was somebody else, but I need you to know that my love for you is real, I never lied when I said I loved you, ever. You changed my life, you changed me!"

"Why Cari?" Shannon buried her face in her hands, letting out all the pain she was feeling inside. "Why?"

Cari stepped closer to her and gently held her arms, but Shannon escaped from her touch like it was fire burning her skin.

"Fletcher. My name is Cari Fletcher. I'm not a reporter, I don't work for a magazine, I've never went to college and I'm not from Jacksonville. I'm from New Jersey."

Cari didn't know if she was listening, but the least she could do at that moment was tell her everything and be honest for the first time in her life. She wasn't worried if that could ruin her life. She wasn't even worried if she could end up in jail. Life wouldn't make sense without Shannon either way and whatever happened after that night didn't matter anymore.

"That's why you were acting so weird last night. That's why you panicked when they called that man's name. It all makes sense now. I can't believe I fell for so many bullshit. I can't believe you fooled me that way. Why? What kind of evil person does that?"

"I had a plan before meeting you. The same plan I used the last five years of my life with some of the richest men around the country. I would made up a character, find a way to introduce myself and slowly make you fall in love with me to the point you would give me things like they always do and run away without saying a word. I would vanish from your life as if I've never even existed and start all over again somewhere else." She was unable to control her voice any longer seeing how the person she loved the most in the entire world was absolutely destroyed in front of her. "That was the plan. I had everything figured out until the moment I met you. Until I met the kind, loving and amazing woman that you are. Until I fell completely in love with you and it was too late to back away. It was too late to leave or to tell you the truth, because I couldn't live without you anymore. I couldn't risk losing you."

"I... I can't." Shannon supported herself on the back of the armchair in front of her. "I thought you were a good person. I thought you were the one that I would spend the rest of my life with. But I guess that's how you made all those men feel isn't it? You come like an addiction. A drug that takes control of you're entire being and, when you realize it, it's already too late to get out of it unharmed." Shannon turned her face to her. "How many people you did this to?"

"I'm not sure, around fifteen I think."

"So you lost count?" Shannon's face showed the disgust she was feeling. "I assume you have stolen a lot of things from them. What did you do with all that stuff?"

Cari kept in silence for some seconds. It was hard for her to tell all the dirty things she have done in her life to Shannon.

"I sold most of it."

"Your parents and brother?"

"I only have my mother, but it's been over three years since the last time I spoke to her. My father left me and my mom when I was a teenager and I've never heard of him again. I don't have a brother."

"Is there anything about you that is not a lie?"

"Look, I know what I did is horrible. I don't expect you to forgive me. I just want you to know that, yes, I made up a name, a job, a life, but I never made up my love for you, the way you make me feel or the person I am around you. I want you to know that you are the reason I realized how selfish, stupid, self-centered, mindless person that I was. And that I am sorry for dragging you into this mess, you didn't deserve it." Cari tried to get closer to Shannon once again. "Please, just give me a chance to show you that I'm still the person you fell in love with, that I would never do anything to hurt you, please, don't cut me out of your life."

"I can't." Shannon swiped away her tears and turned to face Cari, who was a small step away from her. "How can I trust you again after so many lies? After knowing all the things you did in the past? That you dedicated your life to fool people just to take their money, to have unnecessary material things? I don't think I can ever forgive you for that. It's hard to even look at your face right now."

"Please." The tears returned even more intense than before. Cari lowered the space between them and held her face with her hands, touching their foreheads together. "I'm begging you baby."

"You have no idea how much I begged for this not to be true. How I wished that, when I walked through that door and asked you, you told me it was all a lie and that that guy was crazy, but unfortunately that didn't happen, and now we have to live with that. We'll have to find a way to go on with our lives without each other." Shannon closed her eyes for a moment and slowly held Cari's arms, removing them from her face and backing away from her. "Goodbye Cari."

Cari felt her world fall apart while she watched Shannon walk towards the door, leaving her devastated. Life had a funny way to make someone pay for their mistakes. She never took in consideration anyone else's feelings since she decided to make them fall in love with her and leave without an explanation, clueless of what went wrong. Now she was paying the price. Now she was feeling in her own skin what it felt like losing the person you love. 

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Ok, I'm sad lol

Hardest chapter to write for sure :(