Chapter 50: Chapter 50

KRISTIN

Why this unexpected feeling of disappointment?

This was what I wanted, right?

Then why was I feeling sad and moody? June seemed to have moved on with her life and her obsession with me, and I was suddenly feeling sorrowful?!

When she got up and walked away, I felt a part of me break. Why did it feel like she was walking out of my life?

For a long time, I've wanted our relationship to go back to the uncle-and-niece period of our lives filled with love, laughter, and mutual respect.

Seems my wish manifested with a glitch in our happiness.

Or maybe I was just overthinking and needed some fresh air.

I climbed the stairs and walked to my room, kicking my slippers off at the base of the sliding glass doors leading to the balcony.

The cool evening wind rushed into my face as I stepped out.

I watched the sunset, the colours deepening and changing as the sun sank lower. The sky is turning from gold to purple, and the city lights are beginning to twinkle brighter. It's amazing how peaceful it is here, how calming it feels staring at the clouds as they slowly morph themselves into shapes and control the direction of the sinking sun.

It's like I'm in my little bubble, suspended in time. I feel a sense of calm, of stillness, as if the world has stopped moving...

"This is beautiful..." I murmured to myself, sighing in contentment. A feeling of welcomed emptiness washed over me with a growing sense of reminiscing.

What did this new phase of June mean?

Did something happen to her?

I paused for a moment, my heart beating erratically in my chest. Had Mark done something to her?!

!!!

I bolted away from the balcony and raced for June's room, banging on the door as soon as it came into view.

"June, June!"

As expected, she took almost six years to get to the door.

"What is it?" she asked me with the same lifeless stare she gave me throughout dinner—and even before that.

"Doll, I need us to discuss."

Her brows quirked, her face creasing into a look I can't describe. "Are you and Edith getting married?"

I know my day has not been spectacularly wholesome, but that question, coupled with the dry look on June's face, made me laugh.

"No, doll. Nothing of such is happening." As quickly as the laughter came, it subsided. "What happened yesterday?"

"What happened?" she repeated.

I suddenly remembered that we were standing. "Doll, let me in." She would have protested, I know, had it not been that I pushed the door and let myself in. I heard a frustrated exhale as she closed the door.

"What is it?" she asked, standing with her arms folded in front of the bed where I was seated. "What do you want—"

"I would be extremely grateful if you could cut that tone down a bit. I'm not here for a fight."

"I don't want a fight," she stated. Her hands dropped to the sides. "Please, make it snappy. I need to sleep."

"When have you ever gone to bed early?" I chuckled lowly in a bid to lighten the mood. If anything, it made the clouds thicker.

"You have ten minutes."

I sighed. Just when I thought we were getting back on good terms...

"I... Really, I don't have much to say. I just wanted to make sure you are okay."

She looked around the room and shrugged. "Why won't I be okay?"

I got up from the bed and approached her. She took an instinctive step back, and I stopped moving immediately.

"What happened with Mark yesterday? Did he molest you?"

For the first time since the day began, I heard—and saw—June chuckle, but... but it was dry... It lacked life and the usual vitality.

"It's so difficult for you to think of consensual sex because you do nothing but abuse women," she scoffed, shaking her head, and the words hit me like a spike. A large tear I wasn't expecting rolled down her right cheek as she chuckled bitterly, "You do nothing but cause pain... That's all you do..."

"Doll, you know that's not true," I defended myself. My heart constricted.

"It's true," she barely whispered. She didn't make a move to wipe her cheeks which were now a pathway for the broken dam in her eyes. "You do nothing but cause pain... that's why you can never look at one woman and feel contented... that is why they never stay..."

"That's not true," I wasn't audible enough; I doubt she heard me. My eyes felt like they were burning with unshed tears, but I couldn't cry. Even if I tried, the tears wouldn't fall, because it's been ages since I cried. The last time was when my sister passed. At that time, I would watch June play with her dolls on the floor of the sitting room and my heart would give way—then my eyes would follow... That period of my life almost seemed like a century ago...

June was hurting, and she seemed intent on sharing the pain with me, and I was allowing her.

"Do you think it's normal that you only feel the satisfaction of sex when the other person is in pain?" she continued, scoffing almost every five seconds into the release of the words. She was slowly enunciating every word to make sure I heard her correctly and to make sure I felt the slow burn, the excruciating feeling of ache her tears always brought me.

"June, my sex life has nothing to do with this. It's rude to talk about me like this," I said quietly.

"You are so unbelievable," she smiled amidst the tears. The smile did not get to her eyes. "That means what I do with my pussy out there should not be your business."

"You don't get it, do you?" The headache I'd feared since the conversation began, started a slow throb at the side of my head. "You're under me. I am your guardian. I should look after you; it can't be the other way round."

"Kristin, get out." She wiped her face quicker than I had time to blink. "I need to rest now."

"Tell me what Mark did to you." I shoved my hands into my pockets as they began to tremble. "And don't lie to me."

"He fucked me... Is that what you want to hear?"

"What?!"

She raised a brow. "Oh, I think it was the other way round. I fucked him because I was mostly the one in charge."

My lips parted but no words came out. "Tell me that's a joke," I begged...