Chapter Fifty Four

Kyla.

The silence between us feels like a scream that refuses to come out. 

Jake sits across from me, his jaw tight, his eyes dark and searching, the muscles in his forearms twitching like he’s bracing for impact. I can’t look at him for too long. Every time I do, memories crash into me like waves that won’t let me breathe. The twins are asleep upstairs now, safe, for now atleast, but I know safety is just an illusion. It’s been five years of running, of pretending I didn’t still feel him in every heartbeat, and now here we are again, in the same room, the truth clawing its way out of me.

He leans forward, his voice low but sharp. “Kyla, you have to tell me what happened. All of it. I can’t protect you if I don’t know who’s after you or who you are running from.”

His words break something open inside me. The flood I have kept locked behind walls and lies. My mouth trembles before I even start speaking. “You want to know the truth? Fine.”

My fingers twist around each other until my knuckles ache. The air feels heavy, charged with everything unsaid. “It was raining that day,” I whisper, my voice distant, like I’m not even here anymore but back there, in that moment when everything shattered. “Five years ago. I had just come from the clinic. The nurse had smiled and handed me the test results, and I thought God, I thought that was the happiest day of my life. We had been trying for months. You had been so excited about starting a family. I couldn’t wait to tell you, even though we had an argument that morning, so I texted you to meet me back at the house, I just wanted to tell you.”

I take a shaky breath, eyes stinging. “I drove home faster than I should have. I even stopped by that bakery you liked you know, the one with the lemon pies you would always steal a bite from? I bought one, Jake. I was smiling like an idiot the whole time. I was rehearsing how I would tell you, maybe I would leave the test on your pillow, or maybe whisper it while you kissed me. I didn’t know. I just knew I wanted to see your face when I told you we were finally going to be parents.”

Jake’s expression softens for a second, but I don’t let it reach me. Not yet.

“I got to the house,” I continue, my voice barely above a whisper. “Your car was already there, parked outside. I remember thinking how perfect it was, that you were home early. I wanted to surprise you. I didn’t even make a sound when I walked in. The lights were dim, and there was music playing. I smiled, thinking you had planned something romantic trying to apologize for our fight that morning. But then”

My throat closes. I taste bile. “Then I heard it. The sounds. The moaning. The bed hitting the wall coming from upstairs, from our room, the same room we shared, the same room you took my virginity.”

Jake’s eyes widen, confusion flickering, but I keep going.

“I froze,” I whisper. “At first I thought I was imagining it. But then I heard your name, my name, everything twisted. I walked down the hall, and I don’t know why I didn’t stop myself. Maybe I needed to see it with my own eyes, maybe I needed proof that the man I loved was capable of destroying me so completely. And then I found the door slightly open, I saw her.”

The words pour out now, fast and breathless. “Amina. My sister. My own blood. She was there, on our bed, and she was she was with you, Jake. Your face was buried in her neck, your hands all over her, and I just ran away.”

I can’t stop shaking. The room tilts. “I ran out of the house so fast I barely I remembered grabbing my keys. I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think. I just knew I had to get away from both of you. I crossed the street without looking, and the headlights came out of nowhere. I heard the screech, felt the impact, and then there was nothing. Just darkness.”

Jake’s hands are gripping the edge of the couch now, his knuckles white, veins bulging. His face is pale, stricken, but I can’t stop. The memories won’t let me.

“When I woke up,” I whisper, “I was in a hospital room. My body hurt everywhere. There was a woman there, dressed like a nurse, but she didn’t act like one. She told me I had to disappear. That if I went back, if I tried to contact you, they would kill me. She said it wasn’t safe, that people were looking for me, people who didn’t want the truth to come out. I didn’t understand what she meant, not then. I tried to ask about you, but she just told me to keep quiet. And then she slipped me a phone number and a ticket. She said if I wanted to live, I had to go. So I went.”

Tears fall hot and fast now. “I wanted to call you so badly, Jake. But every time I tried, something happened, someone watching, someone following. And then I found out I was pregnant with twins. Your twins. And I knew, I knew I couldn’t risk their lives. So I ran further. I built a new name, a new life. I told myself you would moved on with Amina, that you were happy, that maybe forgetting me was the best thing I could do for all of us, and it seemed like you moved on and were happy, you even had a child, the one thing I was unable to give you.”

Jake’s breathing is uneven now. His brows furrow, and he shakes his head slowly, like he’s trying to wake from a nightmare. “Kyla, no.” He said angrily, trying to contain the anger, "No" he repeated. 

I look up sharply. “No?”

He stands suddenly, his chair scraping back hard against the floor. “That’s not possible.”

My heart pounds. “What are you talking about?”

He runs a hand through his hair, pacing, his voice cracking. “I wasn’t home that day. I swear to God, Kyla, I wasn’t! I got stuck in traffic because of that huge accident on the bridge, you remember? I even called you, but you didn’t pick up. By the time I got home, you were gone. The door was open. And Amina”

He stops, looking sick.

My stomach twists. “What about Amina?”

“She was in the living room,” he says hoarsely. “Crying. She said something happened to you. She told me you had run out after an argument, that you wouldn’t answer your phone. She begged me to help find you. I thought she was scared for you. I had no idea”

The air between us crackles, disbelief and horror colliding.

I shake my head violently. “No. I saw you, Jake. I saw your body on her. I saw your face.”

He grips the edge of the table, his eyes wild. “It wasn’t me. I swear it wasn’t. Someone wanted you to see that, Kyla. Someone wanted to make sure you never came back. Someone went to a lot of trouble to make it look like I was home, I never used my car that morning after our fight remember? I had the driver drop me off at work.”

My breath hitches. The room feels like it’s spinning. “Then who was it?”

He steps closer, voice trembling. “That’s what we need to find out. Whoever did this didn’t just want to break us, they wanted you gone. And they got what they wanted.”

I stare up at him, everything inside me torn open again the betrayal, the love, the loss, the years of hiding. My body feels like it’s vibrating with shock and fear and the faintest flicker of hope that maybe, just maybe, the nightmare isn’t what I thought it was.

But before I can say another word, there’s a sound upstairs a soft creak, a child’s voice stirring. Elias. Chanel. The reason I survived.

Jake’s eyes meet mine, and for the first time in five years, I see the man I once trusted completely. “You are not running anymore Kyla,” he says quietly, determination replacing confusion. “Whoever did this, they are still out there. And I’m going to find them.”