When Opposites Attract - Chapter 26

I'd like to dedicate this chapter to Ciriat and Phoebe, because they have always left me the most amazing comments that always bring a smile to my face, and this chapter is also dedicated to Zeviyane, the one who knew.
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I felt empty, like everything I ever was, everything I had worked up to be, had been torn from my soul. And it hurt so much.

I wandered aimlessly; I did not want to face what lay waiting for me at home yet. I couldn’t face Selene. Selene…she was right. Mateo had only been using me. Mateo had been cruel enough to agree to use me.

He was heartless.

And yet…why couldn’t I stop thinking about him? Every turn I made to get away from him, every step I made faster to distance myself away from the place I had just been, everything reminded me of him. I supposed that I truly did have a broken heart.

What was worse was that I should have seen this coming. Attractive, charming men don’t just walk into your life everyday and claim to have fallen in love with you. And he was supposed to be my enemy. And now, truly, he was. He was my enemy.

I gingerly touched the hollow beneath my eyes when they started to sting. I had probably cried a river, and yet it seemed not to be enough. I had oceans left to cry.

And as much as I tried, the tears would not stop falling. Why? I whispered internally. Why, God, have you put me through this? It was a question that I was to ponder further. Why had Mateo done all of this in the first place? How could he be so…so heartless? The Mateo I knew would never have done something so cruel. But then, I smiled bitterly, the Mateo I knew had probably never existed. He was just an act, a façade to which the merciless, deceitful man hid behind. A man I didn’t know.

Eventually, after it felt like my whole being was going to collapse, I started to make my way home, and my now dulled view on life and everything surrounding it took in the chirping of birds, the faint smell of freesias as an annoyance. Something to be rid of.

I reached home eventually, after what seemed like hours or centuries. I entered through the back door, and walked through the archway in the utility room that would lead me to the kitchen. I had barely crossed the archway when a voice cried, ‘Kaia!’ and my whole body was suddenly being engulfed by warm, feminine arms that tightened around me, almost completely cutting off my breathing airways. When Selene finally let go, I was gasping for breath.

‘Kaia!’ I looked at Selene, which was unbelievably hard, but in her eyes I didn’t see anything accusatory or angry, just concern and worry. And suddenly I wanted to cry again. My lower-lip started to tremble dangerously, and I bit down on it hard. I couldn’t let her see me cry.

I looked over her shoulder and realized that Xavier was sitting on a stool by the breakfast table. He gave me a small, sad smile. Did he know?

‘Come on, Kaia,’ Selene took my hand in hers and tugged me in the direction of the stairs. ‘We need to talk. Alone.’

I nodded wordlessly, letting her lead me up the stairs. Tailing behind the pain had become numbness. But it felt so much worse.

We entered into my room, and I was momentarily startled t the bright, yellow shade the walls were painted. An exact opposite to my mood.

We sat down opposite each other on my single bed, and when I finally worked up the nerve to look Selene in the eye, she was looking at me with so much sadness I knew it was something I had yet to experience.

She reached out her hand and stroked my cheek. I gave a wan smile. ‘Selene…’ I hesitated. ‘I’m…I’m so sorry.’

She shook her head. ‘It’s not your fault, Kaia,’

‘But it is!’ I felt desperate. ‘It is, and I’m so sorry because I should have told you and I loved him, and I thought he loved me, too, I…’ I trailed off. The tears had sprung to my eyes again and that same choking ball of nothingness was clogging my throat.

She enveloped her arms around me and whispered soothing words in my ear. ‘Kaia, Kaia,’ she rocked me against her as if I were a baby. It felt nice, actually, to have someone take care, take control, of my life. ‘I know how it feels.’

‘No, you don’t.’ When I regained control of myself, I gently pulled away from her and wiped my eyes with the back of my hand.

‘You’ve probably met Leion,’ she said the name distastefully, as if it were a repulsive thing that she wanted to get out of her mouth as quick as possible. ‘You know that…you know…’

‘He looks a lot like me.’ I cut in. ‘A lot.’

‘He’s your…he’s your father, Kaia.’

This information did not surprise me, nor did my body act in the according way. I smiled bitterly. I had known this information all along, I had just chosen for my min not to linger over the fact. I said, ‘Yeah, I know.’ But then something else occurred to me, something that made me frown and look up at Selene questioningly. ‘But….but Selene, you said my parents abandoned me at birth. Why would Leion…?’

Selene gulped as if she had been expecting this question. She cast a brief glance out of my window, before looking back at me again. She looked nervous. ‘I…I lied, Kaia. I know how it feels to feel the pain you’re feeling because it happened to me, too.’

I frowned. ‘What are you talking about?’

‘Kaia,’ she whispered, her eyes closing. ‘Your parents didn’t abandon you at birth.’

I blinked, astonishment creeping over me. ‘They…they didn’t?’

‘No,’ she shook her head and inhaled a deep, shaky breath. And then she opened her eyes, and I felt slightly startled at the intensity I saw in those dark pools of knowledge. ‘Because I’m your mother.’