Page 22 of A Virgo's Muse
“I didn’t want to ruin the night we?—”
“The night we what?” I snapped, pushing up off the chair. “The night we made love? The night you held me like I was safe? You knew she was missing and still kissed me like you weren’t holding a loaded secret in your mouth!”
He tried to reach for me, but I pulled back so fast it was like his touch burned.
“Don’t.”
“Desire—”
“No! You don’t get to say my name like that right now!”
Everything was pouring out of me now. Not just the fear, not just the betrayal, but years of pain I had never let fully surface.
“My mom is in here hooked up to wires, fighting for her life. My best friend was taken and violated because of you, because of some street shit I didn’t ask to be a part of! And you?—”
I pointed at his chest, tears flooding my eyes.
“You just walked into my life like I was your peace, your little escape, while you got blood on your hands and demons trailing behind you! And now, they’re crawling into my life too!”
He didn’t move. He just let me scream… let me break.
“I thought you were my safe space, Onyx. But you’re the reason everything around me is falling apart.”
His voice was rough when he finally spoke. “I never meant for this to touch you. I tried to keep it away. That’s why I didn’t tell you.”
“But you should have! You should’ve told me something. You gave me your body, your time, your words… but you didn’t give me the truth. That’s not love. That’s control.”
Silence. Tension hung thick between us, coiling in the corners of the room like smoke from a fire we couldn’t put out.
“Get out,” I whispered.
He flinched. “Desire…”
“I said get out.” My voice broke completely. “I can’t breathe around you right now. I can’t see you without seeing her face.”
He hesitated, like it physically hurt him to leave. But then he nodded once.
“I’m sorry,” he said quietly. “For all of it.”
Then he was gone. I collapsed back into the chair like my bones gave out. I didn’t even hear my dad come back in, but I felt his hand on my shoulder.
“You wanna talk?” he asked gently.
I shook my head. “No. Not really.”
He sat down beside me anyway. We both stared at my mom, machines humming around us. She looked like she was sleeping peacefully. But everything felt like a nightmare.
“I saw the way he held you,” my dad finally said. “And I saw the way you looked at him.”
Tears spilled again. I was tired of crying.
“He’s not who I thought he was,” I murmured.
My father leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “Baby… I can see the way he carries himself, how he tends to you, and that in itself is a prize. It takes a lot for a man like that to let his guard down… to love out loud.”
I turned to him, confused. “You’re defending him?”
“No. I’m reminding you that men deserve grace too. Just like women.”
