chapterTwo
966 Words
Everything I Didn’t See
POV: Marcus
I stood there long after the noise of the market rushed back into place, after the moment had already torn me apart.
Lena did not answer my question.
She did not need to.
The silence between us said everything.
Her hand held onto the little girl’s fingers, protective, instinctive. The way she moved her body was very much familiar. It was the same way she used to move when she was afraid of losing something she loved.
That should have been my first clue years back.
“Say something, please,” I said softly, barely putting myself together.
Lena shook her head. A small motion. Controlled. Final.
“I have nothing to say,” she replied.
Nothing.
The word hit harder than any truth she could have thrown at my face.
I laughed once, sharp and broken. “Nothing? You disappear. You let me believe you were gone forever. You show up years later with a child who looks at me like I am staring into a mirror and you tell me there is nothing to say?”
Her jaw tightened. Her eyes did not leave Charlotte’s face.
“I don’t owe you any explanation,” she said.
That hit more than I expected.
Because she was correct.
The child was still watching us, her brows drawn in confusion, her fingers still locked around Lena’s hand. She felt the tension even if she didn’t understand it.
I tried to catch a breath.
Grief and rage fought so hard in my chest. Disbelief twisted through both of them. I wanted to shout at the top of my lungs. I wanted to beg. I wanted to grab Lena and demand answers until my voice gave out.
And under it all was something worse.
Longing.
“You left,” I said, because that was the story I had lived with. “You walked away. You stopped answering. You vanished.”
Her eyes finally met mine.
For a second, the market disappeared again. It was just us. The way it used to be. The way it hurt now.
“I didn’t leave you, Marcus,” she said.
Her calm voice made me unsettled.
“I escaped.”
The word stayed in my chest like broken pieces.
Escaped.
“That’s not fair to me,” I said immediately. “You didn’t say anything to me. You didn’t fight. You didn’t give me a chance to fix it.”
Her breath paused. Just once.
“You think I didn’t try?” she asked. “You think I just woke up and decided to erase everything about you?”
“Then why didn’t you come to me? Why didn’t you let me know what was going on?”
She laughed, but there was no humor in it. “I did. Over and over. And every door closed.”
That made no sense.
“I never shut you out,” I said. “I would have known.”
She shook her head slowly. “You think silence always looks like silence. Sometimes it looks like blocked calls. Sometimes it looks like unanswered messages. Sometimes it feels like being pushed away without anyone actually saying it.
My stomach dropped.
Old memories flashed back without warning. Meetings that got canceled without any reason. Messages I assumed she ignored. Gaps I blamed on distance and pressure. On my schedule. On life.
On her.
“But you never came back,” I said softly.
She looked at me, the pain finally showing. “Every time I tried, someone made me feel too small to keep going.”
Before I could ask who, Charlotte pulled at Lena’s hand.
“Mommy,” she whispered. “Please can we go home now?”
Lena’s expression changed at once. Her face softened, fear showing under it.
“Of course,” she said, brushing her hair backwards. “We’re almost done here already.”
Done.
Karina arrived before I could speak again.
She moved fast and put herself between us, like it wasn’t new to her. Protective. Alert. Her eyes moved to Lena, then to the child, then finally to me.
And they sharpened.
“What’s happening?” she asked Lena.
“It’s nothing serious,” Lena said. “We ran into someone we know.”
Karina looked at me fully now. Her jaw set.
“Oh really? I don’t think so,” she said plainly.
“I didn’t come to cause any trouble,” I said. “I just need answers.”
“You don’t need anything from her,” Karina replied. “Not anymore.”
The dismissal was absolute.
Lena did not contradict her.
That was when it hit me.
I had already lost.
Not just Lena.
Years. Moments. First words. First steps. The life she had built without me.
I looked at Charlotte again. At the way she leaned into Lena’s side. At her smile. The way she looked at me, like she almost knew me.
My chest tightened, and I could barely breathe.
“This changes everything,” I said.
“No,” Karina said. “It changes nothing. You don’t get to walk back into their lives because it suits you.”
I wanted to argue. I wanted to explain that it was not about convenience or pride or legacy.
It was about a child who should have known her father.
But Lena was already pulling Charlotte closer, already turning away.
The truth hit me hard.
I had lost more than I ever thought I could.
Before they could leave, the question came out of my mouth.
My voice almost broke down.
“Is she,” I whispered, devastated. “My daughter?”
Lena froze.
She did not answer.
And in the absence of her voice, I knew everything had already changed.
- Writer
