Chapter 44 What the Night Conceals - Chapter 8
Six months had gone by since the pact was made. Six months of secret rendezvous, of locked doors and drawn curtains. Six months during which Alyssa had become intimately familiar with every inch of Samuel and Kaio's bodies, every moan, every sigh, and every way to make them lose control.
But it wasn't enough.
From the office window, Alyssa watched Samuel converse with a client across the street. His pristine gray suit, his rigid posture, his professional smile—all starkly different from the man who had pressed her against the bathroom wall the previous night, his fingers leaving marks on her skin while Kaio kissed her until she was breathless.
"Contemplating running off with him?"
Kaio materialized behind her, his warm breath cascading down her neck as his hands found their way around her waist.
"You know I'm not," she whispered, but she made no move to pull away.
"But you want more," Kaio deduced, his fingers tightening on her hips. You crave his claim.
Alyssa remained silent. She didn't have to respond. Kaio had always understood her silences better than anyone.
"Be careful, princess," he cautioned, his voice taking on an unexpected seriousness. Samuel won't back down on this.
She pivoted to face him, her eyes ablaze with resolve.
"Everyone has a price, Kaio. Even him."
The house was eerily quiet when Samuel got home that night. Too quiet.
He discovered Alyssa at the kitchen table, clad only in one of his shirts, a glass of wine in her grasp.
"Where's Kaio?" Samuel inquired, tossing his keys onto the counter.
"He's gone. We need to talk."
Something in her voice caused Samuel's muscles to tighten. He approached with caution, as if approaching a dangerous animal.
"About what?"
Alyssa looked up at him, and what Samuel saw in her eyes made him pause.
— I'm pregnant.
The air was knocked out of his lungs as if he'd been punched in the stomach.
"What?"
"You heard me," she said, setting her glass down on the table with a soft click. "And before you ask, yes, it could be yours. Or Kaio's."
Samuel slumped heavily into the chair next to her, his fingers threading through his hair.
"Damn it, Alyssa..."
"I'm not going to hide this," she continued, her voice steady. "And I'm not going to pretend it's from some imaginary boyfriend."
Samuel lifted his face, his eyes as dark as the night.
"Are you threatening me?"
Or risk losing it all.
Samuel gripped her wrists, his breath quickening.
"You don't understand what you're asking for."
"I know exactly what I'm asking for" she murmured, leaning in until her lips were almost touching his. And deep down, you know it too.
Kaio discovered them on the back porch, where Samuel was perched in the rocking chair, a nearly spent bottle of whiskey at his side. Alyssa was out on the lawn, draped solely in moonlight.
"Seems I missed the party," Kaio quipped, though his voice was strained.
Samuel didn't even glance his way.
"She's expecting."
Kaio held his breath, his gaze locking with Alyssa's for a fleeting moment before returning to Samuel.
"And?"
And she's expecting me to step up.
Kaio let out a soft whistle, running his fingers through his hair.
Well, that throws a wrench in things.
Or it simplifies things, Alyssa interjected, approaching the two of them. It's all about perspective.
Samuel abruptly rose, turning to face her.
What about the child?
"I know," she conceded, her chin held high. But I also understand the toll it takes to live a lie.
Within her, as tiny as a seed, throbbed the forbidden fruit of their entwined love, a child who would bear both the sin and the passion in its blood.
Kaio came up from behind, his warm body fitting to her back like a second skin. His lips found the curve of her neck in a kiss that was more solace than desire.
"You've made your final play, princess," he whispered against her skin, his hands moving to cradle her abdomen in a protective gesture. "Now you have to live with the fallout."
Alyssa closed her eyes, feeling the gravity of the words.
"Do you believe I'm mistaken?"
Kaio spun her around to face him, his coarse fingers under her chin.
"Are you seeking judgment from a man who bedded his own sister-in-law on his sister's wedding day?" His dark eyes sparkled with a wry humor. "I'm hardly the moral compass here."
She released a shaky laugh, the tears finally breaching her defenses.
"Then why does it feel like I'm committing a mistake?"
Kaio enveloped her in a hug so tight that it nearly lifted her off the ground.
"Because you're expecting a broken man to be whole," he whispered into her hair. "Samuel doesn't know how to live without his shackles."
In the darkness beyond the garden, the lights of Samuel's car vanished around the bend in the road. Alyssa pictured him at that moment - hands trembling on the steering wheel, the scent of fear mingled with whiskey on his breath, the phantom of her touch still smoldering on his skin.
"What if he never returns?" The question slipped from her lips like a confession.
Kaio pulled back just enough to meet her gaze.
"Then you'll have me," he simply stated. "And you'll have this child. And you'll have a life that, even if it's not perfect, it's authentic."
But Alyssa shook her head, her nails biting into his back.
"I don't want to 'have' you, Kaio. I want us. Just as we've been."
The ensuing silence was filled with the nocturnal song of crickets and the distant hum of a car passing on the road. Kaio let out a sigh that seemed to originate from deep within.
"You are the most covetous woman I've ever met," he said, but there was admiration in his tone. "And that's why I love you as much as he does."
Inside the house, the telephone rang.
Alyssa froze, her heart pounding like a trapped animal. Kaio squeezed her shoulder.
"I'll get it."
She followed him with trembling steps, watching as he picked up the receiver. Each beat of her heart seemed to reverberate in the silence of the house.
Then: "Yes. She's here."
His eyes met Alyssa's, unreadable.
"It's the lab. The test results."
The floor seemed to sway beneath her feet. In three months of clandestine meetings, countless nights of shared passion, neither of them had paused to consider tests, to contemplate certainties.
Kaio handed her the phone.
"Do you want to talk?"
Alyssa eyed the device as if it were a poised serpent. Every potential outcome whirled in her mind - if it belonged to Samuel, would his love for her be strong enough to keep him around? If it was Kaio's, would it simplify things for everyone?
And what if it was from both of them?
With steady hands, she picked up the phone.
"Hello?"
The lab attendant's voice echoed, clinical and detached.
"Good evening, ma'am. We regret to inform you that there has been an issue with your sample. The results will be delayed by an additional 48 hours."
The relief she experienced was so overwhelming that it nearly knocked her off her feet.
"Thank you," she murmured, ending the call with a gentle click.
Kaio studied her expression.
"So?"
"We need to wait," she responded, returning the phone to its cradle. "Just like Samuel."
Outside, the moon ascended higher into the sky, casting light upon the deserted garden where three lives had become irrevocably entwined. An unanswered question hung in the air: would the sunrise herald a fresh start or merely reveal the remnants of what might have been?
Kaio embraced her once more, this time in silence. They stayed like that for an extended period, their ears tuned to the ticking of the wall clock marking the passage of time that, like everything else shared between them, no longer belonged to just one.
THE END.