Shit!
Chapter 8
Kalilah’s third child – Myles, was beautiful, and Finn was right beside his wife, comforting her and whispering words of encouragement in her ears on what an amazing job she did.
He kissed her repeatedly and called her sweet names. Powerless to stop it, Kaiya felt slightly jealous of the couple and their newborn son.
Unable to control her thoughts, she began to wonder what life would have been like if her baby survived. If Tyler had been by her side when she was giving birth, would things have turned out differently?
Her mom looked at her sympathetically, probably sensing her sadness. The woman would know what she was going through at the moment because she had been there through it all. Instead of Tyler to be by her side holding her hand, it had been her mom who stood in for him. Her mom had murmured words of encouragement at her and told her how beautiful and strong she was.
Oh, the pain had been unbearable. At such a young age, she had never experienced something so painful in all her life. Her mom, gripping her hand, had told her that she could do it, she could push out her baby. But if she couldn’t, she could always go through a cesarean section. Afraid of going under the knife, Kaiya had put in her all and pushed out her baby. Unfortunately, she had lost a lot of blood, which had all the doctors and nurses running helter-skelter to salvage the situation. Too weak to even open her eyes, she had slept off only to wake up and be told that her baby hadn’t made it.
Holding back the tears, Kaiya excused herself from the room.
***
What am I doing here?
Tyler questioned himself continually. He was hiding under the guise that he was here to offer support to Kaiya when, in fact, it wasn’t needed. The baby had been born, and according to the nurse he asked, mother and son were doing just fine.
So why was he really here hanging around the deserted hallway? For some reason he couldn’t understand, he felt he needed to be there.
Tyler was still thinking and trying to make sense of the argument he had with Kaiya right after they had sex. It was odd that all their time, they hadn’t talked about their child, and it’d been burning Tyler to not say anything to Kaiya. He kept on waiting for Kaiya to say something about it, but she said nothing.
Was she that heartless? How could she not even care about them?
Suddenly, the woman occupying his thoughts stormed out of the room, crying.
“Kaiya!” Tyler called after her, but she ignored him.
Tyler noted that she was furious. He could tell by the tension in her shoulders. It wouldn’t be surprising if she had had an argument with her father concerning him even at such a euphoric moment. The man was a kill-joy. He hurried to where she was, and grabbed her hand, whirling her around.
Kaiya, with tears streaming down her face, raised her hand and struck him hard across the face. Tyler’s head jerked back as he held his stinging cheek.
“What the hell was that for?”
“How could you?” she queried cuttingly, looking like an avenging angel with narrowed eyes, flaring nose, and tightened lips.
Tyler had no idea what she was talking about, but as she continued to cry brokenly, he took her hand. She hesitated at first, but when he was persistent, she reluctantly allowed him to drag her back to the waiting room. Thankfully no one was sitting in the room that late in the night. The TV was on, but it was muted.
Rounding on him on the chair with fiery eyes, Kaiya all but yelled at him, “How could you have cheated on me with Lena? How could you have gotten her pregnant and moved away with her? And you did all these while I was pregnant with your son! You left me all alone and to grieve alone. How could you?”
Cheated on her? Son? What in the world was she talking about?
Tyler was rendered incapable of any coherent thought as he studied her crying brokenly. Her head was bent, and her shoulders shook with the sobs wracking her body.
Lifting her head and staring into her eyes that were consumed by pent-up pain, he hoarsely said, “I swear to you that I never cheated on you!”
Wrenching her face from his hands, she shouted, “Stop lying! Your daughter is proof that you cheated on me! You chose Lena.”
A thick knot formed in his throat, as he was still trying to decipher what she was saying. It was all very confusing to him.
“Please tell me about this son of ours you’re talking about.”
Sniffing, she narrated her story, “I discovered that I was pregnant two weeks after that night at the park. I was so scared; I didn’t know what to do. All I knew was that I had to tell you immediately. I kept on trying your number and sending texts, but you never replied to any. For months, I kept trying to reach you without any response from you. I had never felt so alone in my life.”
The image of her being holed up in her room crying her eyes out and feeling all alone because she couldn’t reach him tormented him to his soul. He let go of that feeling wanting to hear the remainder of the story. He didn’t want to feel sorry for her after what she did.
