Chapter 212

"You don't have to do this, Yemi," I said, my voice low, almost a whisper. It was a plea, but it didn’t feel like one. There was too much rage, too much confusion swirling inside me for it to sound anything close to vulnerable. My heart was beating so hard it felt like it might break my chest open. “You don’t owe him anything.”

Yemi stood frozen in the doorway, staring at the figure standing there like some specter from the past. I had seen that face before. It wasn’t the one I remembered from Yemi’s stories, but it still carried the same weight—the same shame. A part of me wanted to run, but I couldn’t. I wouldn’t. Not again. Not after everything that had happened.

The man before us was tall, his frame still imposing, though his face was older—lined with regret. His eyes were hollow, tired, but there was something else there too. Something desperate.

“Dee, please.” Yemi’s voice broke the silence, but there was nothing soft about it. He didn’t want me to intervene, but he knew I had to. There was no way around it.

“Why are you here?” I asked him, my voice steady but cutting. “What do you want now? After all this time?”

The man, Marcus, shifted uncomfortably. The air in the room was thick with something more than just tension. It was the kind of silence that stretched, tested your patience, your endurance.

“I’ve come to make things right,” Marcus said quietly. “To fix what I broke.”

I couldn’t help it. I scoffed. “Fix what you broke?” The words tasted bitter in my mouth. “You think you can just waltz back in and fix everything? After what you did?”

Marcus’s eyes flickered to Yemi before he spoke again. “I know it doesn’t work like that. I’m not asking for forgiveness. I just…” He trailed off, clearly struggling to find the right words. “I need to tell you everything, Yemi. I need to be honest about what happened. About why I left. About what I did.”

I watched Yemi closely as Marcus spoke. His expression hadn’t changed much, but I could see the muscles in his jaw tighten, his fists clench at his sides. He was trying to control himself, to keep his anger in check, but I knew him too well. I could see it beneath the surface. He was angry, yes, but there was something else—something deeper. Disappointment, maybe. Or was it betrayal?

“You’ve had years, Marcus,” Yemi finally said, his voice cold, distant. “What’s left to say now?”

Marcus took a step forward, his hands outstretched, almost as if he was trying to reach for something—anything—that could bridge the gap between them. “Yemi… I know I hurt you. I know I hurt Dee, too.” His eyes met mine, and there was something almost vulnerable in them, something that made me want to look away, but I couldn’t. “I wasn’t there when you needed me most, and for that, I’m sorry. But the past…” He sighed heavily. “The past isn’t the same as today.”

I clenched my fists. I couldn’t let this man walk into our lives again so easily. Not after everything we had been through. Not after the lies, the secrets, the pain. It felt like a betrayal to everything Yemi and I had fought for. But I could see that Yemi was listening—really listening.

“Why now?” I asked, my voice low but firm. “Why come back when it’s too late?”

Marcus swallowed hard, and for a moment, I could see something raw in his expression. He wasn’t just here to apologize; he was here to face something that had been haunting him for years.

“I’ve been living with the weight of it all for too long, Dee,” Marcus said. “I thought running away from the problem would make it go away, but it never did. And now, with everything that’s happened to your sister… I couldn’t stay silent anymore. I have to be part of fixing this.”

Yemi stiffened beside me, his hand brushing against mine, as if seeking reassurance. I felt it, too—the subtle tremor that ran through him. The vulnerability he wouldn’t let show. He’d spent so much of his life trying to forget the past, to bury the demons that haunted him, that he had kept me—and the rest of the world—at arm’s length. Could he really face this man again? Could he truly forgive?

“This is not just about you,” Yemi said, his voice rough. “This is about everything you destroyed when you left us. You think it’s just going to magically get better because you decide to show up now?”

I watched the two of them, my heart torn between what I wanted for Yemi and what was best for us. I wanted to pull Yemi into my arms, to make everything better like I always tried to do. But this was different. This was about something bigger. Something we couldn’t just fix with love.

Marcus seemed to understand, his face falling in defeat. “I’m not asking for it to be easy,” he said. “I’m not asking for you to forgive me right away. I just… I just need to make it right. The truth needs to come out. It’s the only way we can move forward.”

I turned to Yemi, searching his eyes for any sign of what he was thinking. His expression was unreadable, and I couldn’t tell if he was about to scream, cry, or just walk away. I knew that he wasn’t the same man who had been hurt by Marcus all those years ago, but some wounds run too deep to heal quickly.

Finally, Yemi spoke. “If you want to make things right, Marcus, then start by telling us the whole truth. No more lies, no more half-truths. Everything.”

Marcus’s eyes flickered with something close to fear, but he nodded. “Okay. Everything.”

Just as he opened his mouth to speak, a loud crash echoed from the kitchen.

We all froze.

A voice—someone I recognized—shouted from the other room.

“Dee! Yemi! You need to see this!”

My heart leapt into my throat, my pulse quickening. What now? What could possibly happen next? We had already been through so much.

I turned to Yemi, my hand gripping his arm. “What’s going on?”

He shook his head, his face pale. Whatever was happening, I knew it was bad. Far worse than anything we had already dealt with.

And as I followed Yemi into the kitchen, I couldn’t shake the feeling that the worst was yet to come.

The truth was about to shatter everything again.