Chapter Fifty Five

Jake.

I don’t even realize I’m pacing until Kyla’s hand catches the edge of my sleeve, stopping me. The world feels like it’s tilting, everything inside me shifting under the weight of what she just told me. The rain outside beats against the windows, and for a moment, it feels like five years ago again that night everything changed.

Her voice is still trembling when she asks, “So what happened next? After I disappeared?”

I drag in a rough breath and sink back into the chair, elbows on my knees, staring at the floor. “You really want to know?”

She nods, her lips pressed together, eyes glistening. “I deserve to.”

God, she does. She deserves all of it: the truth, the ugly, the things I didn’t see, the things I should have questioned. My throat burns as I force myself to speak.

“The morning after you were gone,” I begin slowly, “I filed a missing person’s report. I didn’t sleep all night. I went through every street, every hospital, every damn alley I could think of. I called your friends, your coworkers, no one had seen you. Amina stayed at the house with me. She cried every time I came back empty handed. She said you would never forgive yourself for leaving, that you were probably too ashamed to come back.”

Kyla’s brow furrows, but she stays quiet. I keep going before I lose my nerve.

“The police called me the next morning,” I whisper. “They said they had found clothes, your clothes washed up along the Hudson River. Your jacket, your phone case, one of your shoes. There was blood on the sleeve. They, they told me you probably fell. That you drowned, that you killed yourself it seemed like.”

Kyla gasps, her hand flying to her mouth. Tears spill down her cheeks, and I feel the air tighten between us like it’s about to snap.

“I didn’t believe it,” I say quickly, my voice rough. “I told them you would never do that. I said they were wrong, that maybe someone planted it. But the detective looked me in the eye and said the current was too strong that week, that sometimes bodies take weeks to resurface and sometimes, they never do.”

I swallow hard, remembering the numbness that swallowed me whole that day. “They filed it as a probable suicide. Said you might have been overwhelmed. Said you left because of stress. Said you probably jumped.”

Kyla shakes her head, whispering, “Oh my God,” over and over again.

I close my eyes for a second, pressing my palms together. “I refused to believe it. I wanted to hire a private investigator. I was ready to spend every cent I had to find out what really happened to you . But Amina”

I stop. The name tasted like poison now.

Kyla lifts her head slowly, eyes narrowing. “What about Amina?”

“She stopped me,” I say quietly. “She told me to let it go. Said I would only end up hurting myself more. She said the police already did everything they could. She told me you wouldn’t want me to live in pain.”

Kyla’s eyes flash with something between disbelief and fury. “She told you to stop looking for me?”

I nod weakly. “She said maybe you left on purpose. That maybe, you wanted to disappear.”

Her voice rises, trembling. “And you believed her?”

My chest tightens. “At first, no. But she” I exhale shakily, running a hand through my hair. “She was the only person there, Kyla. Everyone else moved on. My family told me to accept it. But Amina stayed. She cooked for me, cleaned up, sat up with me at night when I couldn’t sleep. She made sure I ate, made sure I didn’t drink myself to death. I thought she was being kind. I thought she was grieving too.”

Kyla lets out a hollow laugh that cracks in the middle. “Of course she was. She was grieving her mistake, not me.”

I look up at her then, and it hits me the pain in her eyes, the years she spent running, the lies that stole half a decade of our lives. I want to say something, anything, but she beats me to it.

“Jake,” she says, voice shaking. “How could you let me go that easily? How could you just believe I was gone? You knew me. You knew I wouldn’t just leave like that, I was happy so happy there was no way I would try to kill myself.”

Her words cut deep, because I have asked myself that same question every night for years. Why didn’t I fight harder? Why did I let her memory fade under everyone else’s version of the truth?

I stand, too restless to sit still, staring out the window at the dark street. My voice is low, broken. “Because Amina told me something that made me doubt everything.”

Kyla’s head snaps up. “What did she tell you?” she seemed curious now. 

I turn slowly, meeting her eyes. “She said you had been cheating on me.”

The silence that follows is brutal. I can almost hear her heart breaking.

“She said what?”

“She told me you were having an affair,” I force out. “With one of my associates from the firm. She even gave me a name. Marcus Hale.”

Kyla’s mouth drops open, her entire body going still. “That’s insane. Marcus was your friend, Jake. He is married”

“I know,” I say quickly. “But at the time, it made sense. Or at least, she made it make sense. She said that was why you had been distant. Why you were crying that week. Why you has been avoiding my calls.”

Her eyes glisten, fury mixing with heartbreak. “I was crying because I thought I was pregnant. Because I wanted to surprise you when I found out, I didn't want to get your hopes up.”

The truth hits me like a punch. I close my eyes, guilt roaring through me. “God, Kyla”

She shakes her head, standing now, her voice trembling. “So you believed her. You believed I cheated on you. You believed I killed myself. You buried me without even questioning her.”

I take a step closer, desperate. “I didn’t bury you! There was no body. I waited, Kyla. For months. I searched. But everything pointed to you being gone. Amina showed me messages, obviously they were fake , I realize that now from some unknown number, saying you were sorry, that you needed to ‘start over.’”

Her breath hitches, and for a second, I think she might collapse. “She planned everything,” she whispers. “She wanted me gone so she could have you.”

I look away, shame burning through me. “She said she loved me. I told her I couldn’t love anyone else. Not after you. But she stayed anyway. She said she just wanted to help me heal. And I let her. Because I was too damn broken to see the truth.”

Kyla’s voice is quieter now, but sharper than any blade. “Did you ever love her?”

“No.” The word leaves my mouth without hesitation. “Not once. But I let her in because she made me forget how much I hated myself. And now I see that was her plan all along to keep me numb, to keep me blind.”

Her tears fall freely now, but she doesn’t look away. “You believed the worst version of me, Jake.”

I step closer, my voice rough, pleading. “And I hate myself for it. Every day. But I swear to you, if I had known, if I had even suspected that you were alive, that you were out there carrying my children I would have torn down the world to find you.”

Kyla’s chest rises and falls, her jaw trembling, and for a moment, I see the flicker of the woman I lost. But the pain in her eyes says it’s not that simple. It won’t ever be that simple again.

I run a hand through my hair, my voice cracking. “That’s what drove me off the edge, Kyla. That lie. That betrayal. Believing you had left me for another man. Believing you were gone because of guilt. I didn’t just lose you I lost the man I was with you I preferred thinking you were dead and not that you ran away from me.”

The room goes quiet again. Only the storm outside speaks for us now, thunder rolling in the distance.

Kyla wipes her face, her voice barely a whisper. “She took everything from us.”

I nod, my jaw tight. “And I’m going to make her pay for it.”