Chapter Four
1256 Words
The hallway outside my bedroom felt colder than usual.
Maybe it wasn’t the temperature. Maybe it was just the strange tightness sitting in my chest.
The message from the unknown number kept replaying in my mind.
Go to the balcony downstairs. And listen carefully.
I still didn’t know who was texting me, or why they were so sure I would follow their instructions. A part of me wanted to ignore it completely, to stay upstairs and pretend everything was fine.
But another part of me, the quieter, stubborn part, refused to let it go.
What if it wasn’t, nothing?
What if someone really was trying to warn me?
Downstairs, music played loudly. Someone had switched to an old love song my mother liked, and I could hear relatives singing along in the living room.
The house was alive with celebration.
Which made the strange feeling crawling under my skin even harder to ignore.
I walked slowly down the staircase, careful not to make too much noise. Halfway down, I paused and looked toward the living room.
My aunt was dancing with my cousin, laughing loudly as someone recorded them on their phone. My mother was sitting on the couch, talking to two neighbors about the wedding scheduled for tomorrow.
Everything looked normal. Perfectly normal. Too normal.
No one noticed me as I slipped past the hallway and toward the kitchen.
The back balcony was connected to the kitchen through a sliding glass door. Most of the lights in the kitchen were off now, leaving the room dim except for the small light above the stove.
I stepped inside quietly.
For a moment, nothing happened.
I almost felt foolish.
Maybe this was exactly what I had told myself earlier someone trying to create a drama where none existed.
I pulled out my phone again. No new messages.
I walked closer to the balcony door.
The curtains were partly drawn, and through the glass I could see the dark outline of the backyard. The night air looked still, quiet, peaceful.
I reached for the door handle. Then I froze.
Voices. Not inside the house. Outside. On the balcony.
My heart skipped once, hard enough to make me step back instinctively.
There were two voices, one male and one female.
I moved slowly toward the curtain and leaned slightly closer to the glass.
The male voice spoke first, low & frustrated.
“I told you we shouldn’t be talking about this here.”
My stomach tightened. It sounded like Sipho.
I held my breath. The woman sighed softly.
“I know,” she said. “But you’ve been avoiding the conversation all week.”
That voice. I knew that voice too.
My fingers curled into the fabric of the curtain.
Shakira.
I suddenly felt like I was standing in someone else’s dream or nightmare.
“Tomorrow is the wedding,” Shakira continued quietly. “You can’t keep pretending like nothing is happening.”
Sipho didn’t answer immediately.
When he finally spoke, his voice sounded tense.
“What do you want me to do?” he asked.
“Tell her the truth.”
My heart began beating faster. The truth? About what?
Sipho exhaled sharply.
“And destroy everything the night before the wedding?” he said. “Do you realize what that would do to her?”
There was a short silence.
Then Shakira said something that made my chest tighten even more.
“She deserves to know.”
I couldn’t move. I couldn’t even breathe properly.
My mind raced through a thousand possible explanations, none of them making sense.
Maybe they were talking about something small. Something harmless.
Maybe Sipho had planned a surprise for me and Shakira was helping him organize it.
Yes. That had to be it. That had to be the explanation.
“Pearl trusts you,” Shakira said softly. “More than anyone.”
The way she said my name felt strange.
Heavy, like it carried something underneath it.
Sipho let out another tired breath.
“I know.”
His voice sounded quieter now.
Almost guilty.
A cold sensation slid down my spine.
“I never planned for this to happen,” he continued.
My stomach dropped.
Shakira didn’t respond immediately.
When she did, her voice sounded more fragile than I had ever heard.
“Neither did I.”
The silence that followed was thick, Heavy and Uncomfortable.
I leaned closer to the curtain, my pulse thudding loudly in my ears.
Something was wrong. Very wrong.
“What are we going to do?” Shakira asked.
Sipho answered after a moment.
“I don’t know.”
Another pause.
Then something happened that made my chest tighten painfully.
Footsteps.
Soft.
Moving closer together.
Through the small opening in the curtain, I could see only two shadowy figures standing close under the dim balcony light.
Too close.
My heart began pounding harder.
Say something, I told myself. Step outside. Interrupt them.
Ask what they were talking about.
But my body refused to move.
Because a terrifying thought had begun forming in the back of my mind.
A thought I didn’t want to believe.
“Maybe after the wedding…” Sipho started.
“No,” Shakira interrupted firmly.
Her voice had changed.
Stronger, more certain.
“You can’t marry her if you feel this way.”
My throat felt dry.
Feel what way?
Sipho ran a hand through his hair. I could hear the soft sound of it.
“You think I don’t know that?” he said quietly.
“Then why are you still doing it?”
The question hung in the air between them.
Sipho didn’t answer right away.
When he finally spoke, his voice sounded almost broken.
“Because it’s too late to stop now.”
My heart cracked slightly at the words.
Too late? Too late for what?
Shakira stepped back slightly. I could hear the shift in her footsteps.
“That’s not a reason,” she said.
“Yes it is,” Sipho replied. “Our families are involved. The wedding is tomorrow. Everything is already planned.”
“And Pearl?” she asked softly.
There was another long silence.
Then Sipho said something that made my stomach twist painfully.
“She’ll never forgive me if she finds out.”
The words echoed in my mind.
If she finds out.
Finds out what?
The fear that had been slowly building inside me now felt impossible to ignore.
My phone suddenly vibrated in my hand. I jumped slightly. The screen lit up.
Another message from the unknown number.
Do you see now?
My hands started shaking.
Outside, Shakira spoke again.
“We can’t keep hiding this forever.”
Sipho’s voice dropped lower.
“I know.”
Then he said something so quietly I almost didn’t hear it.
“I never meant to fall in love with you.”
Everything inside me stopped.
My heart, My breathing, My thoughts.
For a moment, the world outside the kitchen felt distant, like I was listening to it from underwater.
Because the words I had just heard made only one horrible kind of sense.
Slowly, painfully, my eyes drifted back toward the balcony curtain.
Toward the two shadows standing far too close together.
And for the first time that night, the terrifying possibility I had been trying to avoid finally took shape in my mind.
Sipho & Shakira? Together? Behind my back?
The night before my wedding.
My phone buzzed again.
Another message.
I looked down at the screen with trembling hands.
This is only the beginning.
- Writer
