Chapter 42
There was someone in Ela’s life that made her happy, and it wasn’t me. That felt wrong.
Panic flickered in her eyes as I asked that question, and she shook her head.
I frowned at her, not appreciating her lying tactics, especially when she was a terrible liar. “What do you
know, Cecil?”
She shook her head. “I am sorry. I disagreed with her about it, so I decided to stay out of it.”
I stepped over to her and took her by the wrist, making her look into my eyes in panic. “Stay out of what?
Do you know where Ela is?” I demanded.
She nodded weakly. “I didn’t think she would. It was foolish even to think.” She rambled on, but I wasn’t interested in anything else she had to say.
“Where is she? Speak goddamn it!” I snapped, grabbing her by the shoulders and shaking her violently.
She looked terrified, and I didn’t know if it was of me or of the truth she knew.
“She is with your brother.” She answered and covered her mouth in remorse.
At her words, I felt as if a dagger had pierced my heart, and I could no longer breathe. I released her hand and stepped back before turning away.
Finally, it clicked.
1
I dug my hand into my pocket, pulled out the phone, moved to the picture, and stared at the betrayal. I thought the man in the picture attachment looked familiar, and this was why. He was indeed Seth; how did I not notice all along?
She had made a fool of me. I was never the one she wanted; it was always Seth.
My hand tightened around the phone, and I threw it against the wall before I could even think it through. It slammed against the wall and broke, and Cecil gasped from behind me.
I walked into the bedroom and grabbed my jacket before storming out.
“Where are you going?” Cecil inquired as I walked past her and toward the door.
“Where the fuck do you think?” I demanded before stepping out.
I got into my car and drove off.
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My heart clenched and unclenched multiple times in my chest, and my eyes blurred a few times while I drove with rage on the road, going as fast as I could. My lips quivered, and I wanted to break down and cry, but staying focused was the goal. The pain in my chest I could compare to none other; nothing came close, not even the pain of discovering my parents didn’t see me as a person but as a tool to carry on the
family’s legacy. This pain was way worse. It was crushing, it was agonising, and it felt like death itself.
This was the pain that came with betrayal. This pain came with realising the one I chose to spend forever with didn’t choose me–not really.
Breathe, breathe!
Fucking breathe, Oliver Michael Plane!
I blew sharp, long air through my mouth while I tried to navigate my way on the road through my
blurred vision.
My hands on the steering wheel trembled as memories of Ela’s smile flashed into my mind. There was
nothing special about that smile; she gave it to everyone, as it turned out. My hands tightened on the
wheel, and I wanted to cuss at the world.
Ela wouldn’t do this to me. A part of me tried to hold on to hope, as thin as it was right now. I never knew where I stood with Seth; I always had his back, but after being cast aside by our parents, I saw him
1 change towards me even though we remained close. There was an uneasiness that took over me
whenever I was around him, and I couldn’t trust him. With Ela, I knew where I stood; she was the love of
my life. She loved me and would never do anything to harm me.
“Then why did she lie? Why was she sneaking around my back with my brother? What did he give her that I didn’t?!” I screamed while taking the U–turn that led to Seth’s apartment.
I stayed in the car with my head on the steering wheel, contemplating my next decision. A part of me didn’t want to go in because I knew there was no turning back from whatever I would see. That part wanted to live in my delusional world; at least in that world, Ela loved me.
I came down from the car and stared at Seth’s apartment building.
I took a deep breath. The truth was in there, and I braced myself for it. I stepped forward, and my heart hammered, but there was no going back.
I came to Seth’s door and knocked on it.
I waited impatiently for Seth to open the door, and after a minute, the door opened for me.
He saw me, and a look of panic flashed in his eyes. He had no clothes except his boxer, and my teeth clenched at the sight.
“Oliver, what are you doing here?” I didn’t answer his question and instead took a step forward.
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“Step aside, Seth,” I said through gritted teeth.
Seth might have been the oldest child in the Plane family, but he wasn’t the strongest. His build and strength failed him most times, and I stepped up to defend him from gang members when he mixed himself with them.
I was not in the best mood to negotiate with him, knowing what I knew–knowing he had stabbed me in the back, not thinking that I was his brother who once almost died protecting him.
“You shouldn’t be here, Oliver.”
I shoved him, and he stumbled away, and I stepped further into the room. My nose immediately picked up Ela’s soft, feminine smell, and my teeth clenched.
She was here; she spent the night with him.
I came here in search of her, eager to disprove my assumption that the Ela I knew would not inflict such pain on me. She was good and would not do such a cruel thing to me. She would not rip my heart out while it still beat in my chest.
She was not cruel; she was not a monster!
I stormed towards the bedroom, and Seth got in my way. “I can’t let you go in there, brother.” He said, stretching his hand out to stop me.
I felt an unbearable ache in my chest upon hearing him call me by that title, and I saw red. “Brother? You still have the balls to call me ‘brother‘ after what you have done?” I bellowed, grabbed him by the neck, and slammed my fist into his face. “Did you forget that she is my wife and I’m her husband?!” I roared and jammed my fist straight into his jaw, and he staggered back, but I didn’t let him recover before launching at him and tackling him to the ground.
“You might be her husband, but I am the one she wants,” he said, spitting out the blood in his mouth. “You do not give her what I give her, and she has been silent because she didn’t want to hurt you.”
“Shut up, shut the fuck up!” I punched him over and over while tears streamed down my face.
He didn’t fight back, perhaps because he didn’t have the power to or because he knew he had already
won this war.
He took away the only thing I wanted in this world.
I growled in pain from his betrayal and slammed my knuckle against his skull, knocking him out.
I got up and made my way to the room. My fist ached from the assault it inflicted, but I ignored it and opened the door.
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Behold, there lay the love of my life, sleeping on my brother’s bed.
The last piece of my heart shattered.
