Blurred Lines

Life and Death

Reading someone else’s messages is never right. It’s an invasion of privacy, a moral crime I never thought I’d commit, especially with Kyle.

In the time Kyle and I had been together, there were no moments where I felt uncertain about his loyalty. He earned my heart and trust long before we became boyfriend and girlfriend. Coming from a messy relationship back in college, I promised never to be a victim of players or cheaters again. But as I scrolled through the conversation thread on Kyle’s phone, it dawned on me that one moment of weakness could shatter what you have, no matter how precious it is.

‘I don’t even remember a thing about that night,’ I gathered through my blurry sight. It was Kyle’s response to the image of a pregnancy test result.

It’s ironic how parallel lines could light up the future I had built with Kyle for three years and turn it to ash.

No more eating ice cream in his kitchen at midnight after an eventful sexcapade in his bedroom. No more showering together, cuddles in the morning. The dream of kids with his blue eyes, blond locks, and wits vanished like smoke swept by a strong breeze. My once bright-looking future with him was now darker than a moonless, stormy night.

The pain in my chest howls like a wolf looking for its pup in that storm. I can feel the talon of sadness clawing a huge hole in my being.

Someone has taken what’s mine before my eyes, and I realized it too late.

Reaching the end of the thread that started more than a month ago, I finally had the guts to look at the display profile on the chat.

A strangled sob escaped my lips. I covered my mouth with my hand, my palm slapping my wet cheeks.

It was Katerina Simone.

So it was Kyle, the father of her child. Behind closed doors, she told Georgia and me what kind of service she’d require us to do.

‘I am pregnant,’ Katerina said. ‘And I don’t want the public to know about my pregnancy until after my wedding.’

At LBPR, we live for these kinds of stories. You’d be surprised at the cost people would pay to maintain their perfect image.

‘Their names are worth more than their fortune,’ that’s what Chairman Lewis used to say.

In this case, Katerina has more than an image to protect. She chose me with intent. It’s not because of my excellent work at keeping Gia Marquez’s secret relationship with a governor. By coming to me, she made a statement to prove that she was serious about her threats to Kyle.

I shut Kyle’s phone off, sat on the edge of his bed, and stared at his peaceful sleeping figure. Fiddling with his phone, my engagement ring had never felt this heavy around my finger.

I should ask for his explanation. Knowing Kyle, he’d never allow anyone to threaten him like Katerina does. If it was only him and me, I knew Kyle would fight for me to the end. But his family, their company, their reputation, all of those things had been part of our relationship since the beginning.

It would be easier for him to be with Katerina. I bet his mom would be ecstatic. We were born in different worlds, and here I am, hoping for our happy ending.

I don’t have a photographic memory, but I want to remember him in a beautiful light. He lays on his front, half of his face buried in the white pillows. His blond hair, a mess from my tugging and pulling, draped like curtains over his forehead. My fingers itched to brush them away, but it would wake him up. His lips, red and full, were slightly parted. Those lips that mapped my body, owned it...

I clenched my fist. The sadness in my chest was slowly morphing into anger.

‘How did this happen to us?’

After tonight, there will be no more SoKy.

He was my end game, or so I thought.

Gathering all the strength I could muster, I set his phone on the nightstand and did what my mind told me to do.

I left, leaving my engagement ring beside his phone.

~~

Disoriented and in dire need of caffeine, I lift my hand to press the doorbell. I stood on the threshold of Georgia’s home, the last place I’d go after learning that my fiance was having a baby with another woman.

The sun is not up yet. I glanced left to right on the empty street, shifting from one foot to another. The silence of Georgia’s neighborhood was sullen, and her footsteps as she approached the door were like a drum roll to my demise.

“This better be a life and death-“ her sleep-laced voice halted as she took in my appearance. “What the hell happened to you, Sofia?” she opened the door wider, stepping onto the threshold in her pink pajama top and shorts.

“Oh.” I glanced down at Kyle’s shirt and sweatpants. My hair was probably a tangled mess, and my face was no better. “Can I come in?”

Without thinking twice, she stepped aside and allowed me in.

She led me to the kitchen. I sat on the stool by the breakfast bar while Georgia busied herself on the coffee machine. As the machine purred gently, she faced me and crossed her arms over her chest. “You are here for a reason.”

I sighed. Georgia is the last person I’d confide in about my problems. We are not friends. She doesn’t like me for a reason I still can’t figure out, but she holds my ticket out of this town. “I want the client in Rio.”

Her perfectly shaped brows twitched. It was so small I barely missed it. The coffee machine beeped. Each second as she filled two cups of coffee was a slow countdown to my death sentence.

She set one cup in front of me, taking the chair across from mine. She sipped her coffee slowly, brown eyes never leaving mine. “Convince me to give it to you.”

Of all the things she would say, that one never crossed my mind. On the way here, I had already perfected the story I would give her, but I didn’t think lying to Georgia would get me anywhere, so I told her the truth.

“I know you don’t like me, but I really need to get away from here,” I added when she kept silent. I’d like to give myself a pat on the shoulder to not cry in front of my boss.

She shook her head. “I don’t ‘not like’ you,” she said, her voice gentle and careful.

“You hate me,” I pressed.

“I do,” she chuckled, tucking her fiery red hair behind her ears.

I let out a breath, ready to make my case, but she surprised me again by saying, “you got the job.”

“Yeah?” I asked, bewildered. “Uhm, thank you.” I kept my composure when deep inside, I was jumping up and down like I had won the lottery.

Georgia nodded, sipping her coffee, never taking her eyes off of me.

“One question,” I said, hoping this won’t affect her decision. “Why do you hate me?”

“Because I see myself in you, Sofia.”