Faded memory

Nina's POV

My eyes flickered open in succession as I threw a quick glance across the room I was in, the air sipping in made my head swelled.

I swallowed, running a quick glance around when I noticed that I was alone, bile rose in my throat at the memories from earlier, and I sniffed in, pushing myself up the bed when the door creaked open, revealing Reina who stumbled in, a doctor by her side.

“Nina” she shrieked out, rushing to hold my hands. “ Are you fine? You shouldn't be out of bed”

I flickered my eyes up at the doctor who approached, while I tried to get his name, but my memory was muddled.

“ Ryan…” I swallowed while I called. “Where is he?”

She stood, nodded at the doctor who came closer, I reclined against the wall, a pillow placed at my back to aid me to sit properly.

“I will be checking your vitals now, so you need to relax.” I squeezed my eyes shut, trying so hard not to break down right away as it wouldn't be good.

My heart punctured with needles, as I tried to think about what exactly I had done so wrong for Ryan to do so, in front of the nation.

Everyone knew we were married …my family, I swallowed when I recalled their decision to have me married to someone else who wasn't him, but I had been blinded and had insisted with the excuse that I loved him.

“ Take in a deep breath,” Reina’s voice came through as she squeezed my hands, a sign of solidarity, maybe to show me that she was by my side.

I forced a smile at her, wondering if this was how she had felt when Richard had acted out of place.

I had never known she was feeling this way and…. I swallowed when the doctor stood, his height towering over me.

“ Your emotions are unstable, but given the situation, it is warranted, but it would be best if you try to at least keep them in check” he chided.

“ Can I leave now?” I forced myself up, standing upright. “ I have somewhere to be”

“ Yes… you can. But you shouldn't forget your situation, you are in your early trimester, and it would be best if you evade anything that would make you worry.” he advised.

I nodded, letting Reina hold my hands as she led me out of the ward. Silence hung over us, like a bomb that was yet to be lit.

When she shut the door to her car tightly, I sat down quietly when I saw Richard by the wheel.

“ Reina…she told me about what happened, and I am sorry, but I am going to talk to Ryan. I will scold him and make sure that he rescind whatever he had said.” He uttered to me.

All I gave him was a wry smile, one that didn't leave my lips while I shook my head.

“ I wouldn't want you both entangled in this, I kept this away for a reason and that is because I could attend to this alone. I can. All I need to do is talk to Ryan. Where is he?” I asked.

“ Where exactly is he!” I demanded again when they both shared glances that told me whatever answer they were going to give me would break me.

Reina turned to me.“ Nina, you should go home, and we will talk to him, we will…”

“ Take me there.” I demanded.

“ Please,” I was at my wit's end, my head swirling with hurt while I tried not to think of what he might be up to.

Reina batted her eyes before nodding at Richard, they were a beautiful pair that I had come to love, their love was a story that I didn't want to go through, one that had crumbled, and they had gotten back together, but their love was firm and strong.

“ Thank you.” I exhaled out when Richard killed the engine in front of Ryan's law firm.

One that he had painstakingly built with me over the years, I had dropped in my views when he needed it, and even when he hadn't asked, had asked my family to help, they resented him, but they did it anyway for me.

Shutting the door behind me, I nodded at Reina who instructed that I come to her whenever anything went wrong before the car drove away, the dark eating it up.

My steps quickened when I traipsed into the elevator, teeth clattering while the numbers beeped.

When the elevator dinged, Ryan's floor, which was at the top of the building came into view, my feet halted at the lewd sounds coming out of his office, brows kissed while I shook my head.

I let out a chuckle, accompanied by a sneer, while I contemplated walking away.

“ Yes, please….fuck me, Ryan. Gosh, don't stop.”

I ran a hand across my cheek when something whetted it as crystals cascaded down my cheek.

I shook my head, trying so hard not to stomp in, yes, he wouldn't be the one in, it might be someone else, who bore the same name, and he was the one in there. I said in denial.

With clambered steps, my hand turned the knob clockwise, peering in when my eyes caught with Ryan's who halted and threw his face away like he wasn't the one.

I inhaled gasps of air, trying so hard to breathe in properly while I sauntered back, with a hand clasped over my mouth, my feet glided across the floor until I was in the elevator where the bottled up tears in me erupted out.

A faint smile crept across my face at the first time we had met, battled it out, where I had called him a snitch from the onset, but he had retaliated, what we had was something that had blossomed out of rage, and it was supposed to be our happy ever after until this.

I waited when I got out of the elevator, for him to show up, for him to get across to me and explain why exactly he was asking for a divorce, why the divorce papers weren't hidden, and he had placed it boldly enough for me to see.

I wanted answers to my questions, the ones that besieged my head and when seconds spun into minutes and minutes into an hour, I knew that I wasn't going to get any.

That no matter how long I stood here, it was going to be the same thing, he was going to tell me to my face if he resented me and didn't want me close by.

My feet shook while I halted a cab, his company fading with every inch it sped away. The realization that whatever it was that we shared, what I felt we had was gone.

“ Thank you.” I shoved a dollar bill at the cab man who drove away, speeding off into the cold night.

Meandering through the foyer, to the room where the papers laid on the shelves, I drew it out, running my signature across it before I placed it on the bed for him to see.

My knee gave way underneath me, as they buckled to the ground, a hand on my chest while I screamed out in pain until I felt numb, my hands shook as I glided over my phone, leaning it against my ear while I bellowed at the number crested across of it.

“ Mother, I need you to pick me up. Right now.” My hands squeezed around the phone, my hands wrapped protectively around my stomach while my shoulders shook in agony.

When minutes later, a helicopter swept across the compound, the noise drumming in my ear, I pushed myself up, stalking out until I was in her arms.

“I want to go home, away from here, mother. Getting married to him was a mistake and I want him to pay for hurting me this way. I want him to pay mother.” my plea sieved through.

Leaning against her outstretched arms, I took a last glance at the house that had been my home for five years, and when I walked up the air stairs, I stared at it until it was all a memory to me, Ryan and all that we had shared was gone.