Page 183 of Taeja

You’re not as pretty as you think you are.

But this? This took the whole cake.

“Tae!” Rough hands grabbed her arm. “Yu good?”

She blinked up at the person.

“You good?” he repeated, bringing his brows together.

She opened her mouth, but no words came out. A lump was stuck in her throat. Her throat was dry as sandpaper.

I don’t love you.

Why would Zain want to hurt her this way?

A loud sob tore from her throat. Her legs gave out and Wayne held her steady.

“Mi cya badda wid foreign people,” Wayne muttered before dragging her through the crowd.

‘Where are we going?’ she wanted to ask, but the words refused to take form.

I don’t love you.

Those words kept replaying over and over, morphing into a rusty knife and stabbing her bleeding heart.

I. Don’t. Love. You.

Did all the time they spent together mean nothing? Did their opening up to each other mean nothing? Did decorating their new house mean nothing? All the laughs, all the smiles, all the jokes, and all the times she surrendered herself to him in ways she’d never done to anyone before?

It all meant nothing?

“Aunty, see yu pickney ya,” Wayne said, placing her before Cassedi. “Mi ketch her a walk. If mi neva grab her in time, she wuda drop ina the gully.”

Cassedi held Taeja’s shaking shoulders. “Baby girl, what happened?”

“I want Damon,” Taeja forced out.

“I’ll see if we can find him. Talk to me first, please. What happened?”

“Mi want Damon!” Taeja screamed, ignoring Wayne’s scowl.

Cassedi’s eyes widened, but she nodded. “Let’s go find him,” she said, rubbing Taeja’s back as she led them through the crowd.

Taeja tried and failed to bite back more tears as she followed behind her mother. They found Damon in under a minute. He stood beside the soup pot, chatting and laughing with some old women while helping them to serve the soup.

“Damon!” Cassedi called out.

Damon looked up. His brows furrowed before anger and concern flared in his eyes as he rushed over. He pulled Taeja from Cassedi’s hold. Taeja wrapped her arms around him, laying her head on his chest as the dam burst.

“Baby, what’s wrong?” Damon asked, and Taeja hiccupped a jumbled mess out. “Let’s go somewhere quieter,” he suggested, and she nodded weakly.

“Unu can go ina mi bus.” Wayne gave Damon his key. “It park a street mouth.”

Damon nodded and took the key. “Thanks.”

“Yeah, man,” Wayne said, walking away with Cassedi. “Aunty, mi nuh get nuh soup yet!”

Taeja blocked out the surrounding noise, numb as they left the gathering. Damon kept asking her what was wrong, but she couldn’t find the words to answer him yet.

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