Behind me, my mother had collapsed to the floor, wailing like someone had died.
“My daughter! Kelechi mo!” She was rocking her body with the kind of rhythm you only see at a graveside. It was the sound of someone mourning a body that hadn’t even gone cold yet.
Only then did it finally dawn on me that this was the real price of their love. They didn’t want the daughter who was standing in front of them, breathing and honest. They wanted the ghost of the girl who had been a lie.
I guess that was the tragedy of it, they would rather wail at the funeral of a daughter who never really existed than look into the eyes of the woman who was finally real.
I paused at the doorway, looking back one last time at the house that had shaped and caged me for so long. Then stepped outside, closing the door behind me on everything I’d ever known.
The gate creaked as it opened.
But this time, it sounded like freedom.
* No problem
* Kelechi has killed me.
* What am I hearing?
* God forbid
* God almighty
XXIII
“Where the bonds of blood have failed us time and again, we hope that our friends, lovers, and mentors will fill the void.”
— Kai Cheng Thom
Chapter Twenty-Four
Kelechi & Marley
I tugged at the hem of my shirt as I pressed Marley’s doorbell for the seventh time, my mouth dry despite chugging an entire bottle of water just minutes ago. I think my unusual thirst was my body’s quiet warning, a physical premonition that arrived before my mind could catch up, already preparing me for the wreck I would become the moment I faced her.
Pulling out my phone, I used the black screen as a mirror, checking if I looked remotely presentable. I had landed in Mapleridge barely an hour ago, dropped my luggage at my dorm, and rushed straight here without even stopping to shower or change. I probably looked as exhausted as I felt.
I knew where Marley usually hid her spare key when I came to visit, but that was before. Now I wasn’t sure if it would still be there, or if using it would cross some invisible line we’d drawn between us. We weren’t together anymore, after all.
Leaning against the door, I forced myself to breathe.
You’ve survived worse than this, Kelechi.
My hand trembled as I lifted the doormat by her front steps. The key was still there, exactly where she’d always kept it. My heart lurched. Had she left it, hoping I would come back? Or had she simply forgotten about it?
Stop overthinking everything.
The key turned easily in the lock. The moment I stepped inside, her scent wrapped around me like a familiar embrace, and tears stung my eyes.
God, I had missed her.
I’d missed this place, this feeling of being somewhere I belonged.
“Marley?” My voice echoed in the quiet house.
No answer.
I set my bag on the kitchen counter and wandered toward her bedroom, each step feeling heavier than the last. The room was carefully arranged the way she always kept it. Her wardrobe doors stood slightly ajar, and when I opened them wider, the full force of her scent hit me.
