A Piece of the Denovan Brothers

“I ran away!”. Three words I never thought would define my life. My wedding, the most anticipated event in the entire country, was called off just like that. Everyone was so eager to find out who the bride of the youngest master of the Denovan family was. It was me. It should have been me, but Marcus called it off, just a few weeks before our wedding. I was pregnant, and he wouldn't even let me explain. It was the worst day of my entire life. I lay curled on my bed, trembling under the blanket as the test result from the hospital continued replaying in my head. It was positive. The same news that was supposed to bring joy now felt like a death sentence. Marcus didn't even want to see my face, how could I tell him? Hot tears rolled down my cheeks and I couldn't help it, I couldn't stop it, it flowed like running water from a tap. I was swallowed in shame and guilt, my mind went places and my thoughts went wild, frightening and desperate. It felt like either way my life would crush me. No one else knew the wedding was called off; it was just my best friend and me. If my father found out, I would be dead meat; he would bury me alive for sure. Marcus and I had been the perfect campus couple, we were adored, envied, and inseparable, but when things went bad, he didn't even give me a chance to explain. The look in his eyes was cold and distant. I could feel that he had already slipped off my finger, and the pain in my heart tripled as I ran out in tears, but he didn't even turn to look at me. I broke all over again as my mind kept playing every moment we shared together and his cold rejection. The door suddenly swung open, snapping me out of my thoughts. Carissa walked in, my roommate, my best friend, and the only person who held my sanity. She had just returned from work. Her sweet fragrance filled the room before she even spoke. “Hey, Pookie, how are you feeling?” She asked climbing into bed beside me. “Worse”. I whispered, my voice cracking. She wore a sad face, her eyes mirrored my pain. “Did you get the result from the hospital?”. She asked gently. I couldn't speak. My tears spoke for me. Carissa pulled me into a tight hug and let me sob on her shirt until I felt better. She was the sweetest and most blunt person I knew. “Did you tell him?”. She asked finally. “Marcus hates my guts…”. I choked. “He wouldn't listen to me”. “Maybe he'd react differently”. I looked up at Carissa. I wanted to believe her, but the Marcus who dragged me out of his house that day wasn't my Marcus. My Marcus was gone, lost far away, where I couldn't reach him. Still, I picked up my phone. My fingers trembled as I tried to place the call, but my phone rang first. My father! My heart dropped. If he found out I was pregnant, and Marcus called off the wedding, there was no escaping death for me. Carissa grabbed my phone from my shaking hand and answered. “Good evening sir”. She spoke softly. “Where's my daughter?”. His voice thundered through the speaker. “Erm sir. She's- she's taking a quick shower”. “Tell her to pack her things. My driver is coming to get her. She has a lot to explain to me”. He ended the call without waiting for a response. Carissa and I stared at each other. “It's over,” I whispered. “He knows”. I grabbed my hair with my fingers at both sides of my ear. Carissa suddenly stood up, pacing. Her eyes darted around the room like she was coming up with something. Something dangerous. “What if you run away?”. She spoke finally. “I mean really far away”. I turned to her in disbelief. “Carissa… he'll kill me if he finds me”. “I know. But he won't, trust me. Not where I'm thinking”. She sat beside me on the bed and continued. “Listen Lythia, you have to leave this city. The pain, the shame, the problems, all of it. You have to start afresh somewhere new. A new life, a new you. My cousin lives really far away, he can help you, all I have to do is place a call and trust me, your father wouldn't find you, at least not for a while, until you've pieced your life together again”. Her words were reckless, frightening, and insane, but somehow, it felt right to my drowning soul. Escaping all of this wasn't a bad idea; the only thing I couldn't escape would be this baby. I wasn't going to kill it, so I could as well escape with it. I took a deep breath before speaking. “Ok. I'll go, but what about you?”. “Don't worry about me, darling. But if your father's driver arrives and we're still here, we'll be cooked. So let's pack fast”. She spoke already headed to the wardrobe. Carissa would have to run away, too, and that means she had to leave her job just to protect me. She was the best thing that had actually ever happened in my life. We stuffed everything we had into two suitcases and ran. I left everything that night. Left my father, left Marcus, left my previously perfect life, left the wedding of the year that I would never have. And I even left Carissa. She refused to come with me. She said she was part of the old life I needed to bury if I truly wanted to start over. After all, she was the reason I met Marcus. But leaving her broke me, almost as much as Marcus broke me, but still, I stepped onto the plane with nothing but fear, a baby, and hope that everything would get better as soon as I escaped this city. It would be a new place, a new me, and a new future. I was already looking forward to it. But as the plane took off into the night sky I couldn't shake off the question in my head. Have I escaped or stepped into something far worse? Would this new city bring me more pain or redemption?