Chapter 36: Chapter 36

Nothing is wrong with the world. Something is just wrong with people.

When Brielle announced that their wedding was suddenly the next day, I thought it was an early April Fool’s joke until she came up to me and told me that as her maid of honor, I had to help her plan the fastest wedding ever. The next thing that I assumed was that she had suddenly lost her mind.

Kosara later explained to me that she was scared he was cheating on her and didn’t want to be a single mother so decided, completely on her own, to get married to him as soon as she could which happened to be on the second day of January.

I got to work immediately because it seemed everyone, that was at least important to her, was ready to go for the wedding apart from Emrys who thought she was rushing things. Needless to say, she had a mini fight with Emrys and told him he was not invited to the wedding. He, in turn, told her he never even planned on going and that was that.

Normally, I wouldn’t be worried about Brielle’s irrational behavior but something else was up and whenever I tried to find out what it was, she just told me that she was excited to get married. Being a sensible person, I easily caught on the fact that she was lying but kept it to myself not to anger her even more.

I was able to get everything ready for her wedding which ended up being at night because of the little time we had to do all that. It wasn’t the best wedding but it was the best on such short notice especially for people who had that much money to pay their way into getting some privileges regular people would have had an issue getting.

It was no surprise, however, when it was time for the wedding and the groom was nowhere to be found. Brielle kept crying and I wanted Kosara to show up, not because I supported the rushed wedding, but because it would shut Brielle up and that was what I wanted.

“Maybe he’s stuck in traffic?” I suggested, making excuses for him because it was better than Brielle knowing the plain truth. “Look, I’ll find out where he is. I’m sure there’s a logical explanation for all this.”

I know that was a poor move on my part since I clearly wanted to be far away from Brielle, but she didn’t give me any trouble and bought my idea then let me leave. I didn’t plan on doing it but I really felt bad, and as her best friend, I felt I owed it to her. That was how I ended up spending my night looking for Kosara who could have as well been on a flight to another continent for all I knew.

Luckily, fate was on my side and I was actually able to find Kosara just when I’d given up. He was hiding in the worst hiding spot ever which I would have thought of if I didn’t think he wouldn’t be so obvious. It was like he wanted to be found.

“I’m quite curious as to what you’re doing here, in a park for kids, when you’re meant to be getting married,” I said and came to stand beside him. He didn’t acknowledge me so I sat beside him. “What is wrong with you? You can talk to me.”

“So, you’ll tell Brie?”

“It’s not something you won’t tell her on your own but I still won’t. Contrary to what you might think, I don’t tell Brielle everything,” I said and he just shrugged. “I’m going to be frank with you, Kosara, what you did today was a terrible thing. Brielle is a mess and I don’t know why you’d embarrass her like this.”

“I didn’t mean to,” he said with a sigh. “Then, what is really wrong?”

He stared ahead and I saw that he was looking at two kids running around the park while their parents sat on a bench watching them with smiles on their faces. I looked back at Kosara and saw a look in his eyes that I didn’t understand.

“God knows that I’m in love with Brielle. I love her with everything in me and I will never cheat on her but I’m just not ready.”

“For what?”

“Everything. Being a husband, having responsibilities, having children. I mean, I’m happy that she’s pregnant but I know nothing about being a father. I…I don’t know what happened. I guess I just scared and I ran.”

“Why are you scared?”

“I just said it. I know I won’t be a perfect father and I don’t want to make a mistake raising children when I know I’m not ready for it.”

I smiled and placed a hand on his shoulder. “The thing about children and raising them is that they just want to know that their father has their back. It doesn’t matter if you’re perfect at it or not because the truth is no one is. Nobody ever knows what it takes to raise children. They just wing it. It’s not rocket science.”

“But…”

“Stop letting yourself be so obsessed with perfection that you fail in the end. So that now that you don’t have to be perfect, you can let yourself be good at it.”

He looked at me and smiled. “Thank you.”

“I’d say you’re welcome but my best friend is still waiting for her husband.” “Shit! I have to get there!”

“That you do, my friend. Tell her I’ll be there during the reception. I just have one more person to pick up.”

“Who?”

“Emrys. I know she wants him there.”

Kosara nodded, pulled me in a hug, then ran off to go get married to the love of his life. I smiled to myself at how beautiful love was and I just knew that I wanted that kind of love. The one that makes a great story to tell the kids. The one that would make you cry whenever you think about it. I wanted love.

I sighed and brought out my phone to call Emrys but his phone kept going to voicemail something that seemed really weird since he was always the person I called whenever no one else was picking up.

I looked around wondering what next then decided to walk to the house since it wasn’t that far from the wedding venue. I suddenly regretted not going with my own car and instead hitching a ride with Hiro but when I remembered the smile that would be on Brielle’s face when everything went according to plan, it just kept me moving.

Finally, after close to ten minutes, I was at the house and was glad to see Emrys’s car there showing that he was around just like I expected. I met the door slightly open and wondered why Emrys would actually leave it that way especially at evening.

Normally, I’d have gone straight to the living room but for some reason, I assumed he was in his room so I went there instead. I found the door to his room open, a little scattered, and drawers open like he had been desperately looking for something but he wasn’t there. It wasn’t my business but out of curiosity I decided to do some investigation of my own.

I looked into the open drawer and saw a diary then picked it out to inspect it despite the voices in my head telling me not to. I decided I shouldn’t have brought it out and made to return it back to its position when my attention was drawn to the framed picture of Ellarosa on the floor.

I picked it up slowly confused as to why Emrys would have her picture in his room then looked closer to see that it had been right on top of a lot of papers. I picked up the papers and saw that it was a DNA test proving that Ellarosa was Emrys’s daughter. My mental wheels began to turn as I remembered when he told me she was Adan’s daughter.

Was it a lie like everything else?

I couldn’t even confront him since I had no right to be in his room or looking through his things. I placed the picture and the papers back where I saw them, and stood up my mind set on the fact that nothing he would do would make me miss Brielle’s wedding more than I already did on his account.

Knowing he wasn’t back home, I was on my way to leave and met the same door I’d closed, open. I knew something was wrong so I did a little snooping and found myself in the same living room I’d strayed from going to. The sight that met my eyes had my feet glued to the floor.

Emrys was in an intense makeup session with Taniya, the same girl he had denied having feelings for. I brought out my phone and called him ready to hear whatever lie he would feed me with.

His ringtone broke them apart and Taniya asked, “Who is calling you?”

He glanced at the phone, rolled his eyes, said, “No one important”, and went back to kissing her.

The effect those words had on me was like nothing I’d expected so my phone fell to the floor and that was able to bring their attention to the invisible girl that had been standing there.

Emrys’s eyes widened as he got off her and walked in my direction.

“I didn’t expect you to be here tonight.” “Clearly.”

He made a step towards me and his bimbo, Taniya, kept glaring at me for ruining her wonderful night. It was almost like she wasn’t the same person I’d met at the café.

Emrys raked his hands through his hair. “H-How long have you been standing there?”

“Long enough to hear my heart break,” I said then flashed a smile at Taniya who wouldn’t stop glaring at me. “Don’t mind me. Carry on. I’ll just be leaving for his cousin’s wedding. I was going to invite him but it seems you both are preoccupied.” I walked to leave then came back inside. “On a second thought.”

I reached for the baseball bat Brielle always kept at the door in case of emergencies and began to thrash the everything in sight like a mad woman including Emrys. I broke the TV, the glass table, and somehow managed to destroy the chandelier. I kept doing that until Emrys took it from my hands forcefully.

At that moment, I couldn’t help the tears that flowed down my entire face like a stream. Emrys tried to wrap his arms around me but I kneed him in his crotch and ran outside the house wanting to be anywhere but next to him. My heart felt like something was trying to cut it into pieces. The pain was unbearable.

How can one person be the source of so much pain?

I heard Emrys keep calling my name but I refused to answer him. Then I heard a sound that turned my attention to the car headed my way. I stared at it like a deer caught in headlights but I didn’t make an attempt to move. The car didn’t hit me because the driver clearly had good brakes but, maybe it was the effect of my heart breaking, I passed out on the cold hard floor.

The last thing I heard before I completely lost consciousness was a familiar voice saying, “If she dies, your blood will be on my hands.”