EX HUSBAND
1078 Words
ELIAS’S POINT OF VIEW.
The lock clicks behind me with a low thud, trapping us. Her eyes are wide, her green irises shining with worry.
For him?
I don’t know why, I don’t understand my body or my mind. Why do I see her everywhere now? Last night, after dropping Bianca off, I could barely sleep.
I’d closed my eyes for five minutes, and her face would pop up. Worse, I’d get taken back to that fire…….and the girl whose face I couldn’t see.
My grip was still tight on her waist, not enough to hurt, but enough to keep lines blurred. She didn’t pull away from me; she just stared, eyes wide and breathing hard.
The sight felt familiar……..that word again. It hit something deep in my chest, sharp enough to make my jaw tense.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” She snapped, trying and struggling to yank her hand free.
But I don’t let go. Not yet, because if I did, if her hand slips from my hold, it’d feel like she would disappear.
And that didn’t sit right with me for reasons I couldn’t understand.
“You kissed him.” My words came out low, my breathing rough and barely controlled. Her brows furrowed instantly.
“Are you serious right now?”
“Yes.” My voice comes out sharper this time, the tone close to something I don’t recognize.
“You. Kissed. Him.” I repeated, stepping closer, watching and keeping on as she stepped back…….over and over again, until her back hit the wall.
My hand was still wrapped around her waist, trapping her body between mine and the wall.
“This is not your concern anymore.” She shot back, her voice low and shaking, with a small, weak ring to it...
That flooded my chest with satisfaction; I still have her…......the familiar satisfaction filled my chest again, and I hated that it did.
Something eased in me when she didn't pull away......and that didn't make sense.
“Then, whose is it?” I demanded, the question came out before I could stop it, or think it through. At first, there was silence between us.
Something I think I’d have to get used to around her now.
Her chest rose and fell rapidly. “So now you care?” She asked, quieter this time, and it cut deeper. “Now?”
My grip on her loosened slightly. “I…” the word caught in my throat before I could complete it, because I didn’t have an answer. I didn’t understand the question.
Do I care? I shouldn’t……I don’t…..I have Bianca. I found Bianca after all these years. I don’t remember the fire well enough, but I know there was a girl in there with me; a girl I fell in love with…….
My dreams haunt me, plaguing my mind with images of two girls, one whose hand I held while the other cried behind the wall between us.
Dad says the other girl died; her remains were too charred for anyone to recognize her.
Besides that, Bianca was my real love; she confirmed it… she has the birthmark on her shoulder.
I have found my true love; the contract between us was done…..
So why does this feel like……..like I’m watching something that belongs to me slip through my fingers?
My head starts to pound and throb with a familiar headache. “Answer me.” She pushed, her voice cracking with that familiar tremble. “You stood there, announced your engagement to her, and our marriage was nothing to you.
You made that clear from day one. I’m nothing to you; only a means to an end; so why are you acting like this?”
“I didn’t replace you.” I snapped, my words came out too fast, and too defensive. They jerked through me like a spotter from a broken vehicle. Her eyes widened, just like mine, because………I don’t know why I said that.
It wasn’t logical.
“That’s exactly what you did.” She fired back, her voice rising now. “Or what? Do you not remember that part now?”
That word…….remember. Something in my chest twisted violently. My hold on her waist loosened, then tightened again, almost immediately.
“Stop saying it like that,” I muttered.
“Like what?”
“Like I forgot something important…” The silence hangs between us again. My voice came out weak, another thing I don’t understand.
Why am I so weak around her? What is this pull, this drawing in my soul to her every time… even while we were married.
When I picked her for a marriage of convenience, it wasn’t random. The second I laid eyes on her, I felt this familiar pull. It wasn’t this heightened, this intense, this consuming……but it was there.
Her face fell, as her expression changed, not with pain or anger, but something worse……..something too familiar to knowing.
“You did, Elias,” she said softly, and that…….that did it.
“Then tell me!” I finally snapped, stepping even closer until there was no space between us, until we breathed each other's air. “Tell me what I’m supposed to remember.” Her breath hitched, while my chest was rising too fast now.
Everything about this felt too uneven and wrong……..but so right at the same time.
“Because every time I look at you….” I stopped, my voice caught. That wasn’t supposed to come out…../.but it was too late.
Her eyes locked onto mine, clearly waiting. So I finished it.
“…..something feels wrong.”
“What does that mean?” She whispered.
“It means…” I dragged a hand through my hair, a frustrated and irritated sigh escaping me. “It means I don’t forget things.”
My voice steadied slightly; it was colder and more controlled now.
“I don’t forget people, nor do I ever get confused like this.” I stepped closer again, finally sealing the space between us until our lips were but a hair apart, the tension in the room pulsing in our pores. My hand lifted before I could stop it, my fingers hovering near her face……I didn’t touch her, but stayed close enough to feel her warmth.
If I touch her……..
“You don’t fit, Genevieve………I don’t remember you…….but somehow, my body does……..somehow, it doesn’t want to let you go..... no, it refuses to let you go."
- Writer
