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Chapter 1
Cas
There was a time when I eet and naïve I heeded the law, minded my own business, and lived by the rules Then I fell for a thief and gave him my heart He didn’t even have to steal it I handed it to him wrapped up with a pretty bow on a silver platter The consequences are my burdens to carry What happened to s hile closing my eyes
I was stupid to fall in love with Ian Hart He didn’t deserve , to aiduck in his boat When I dived into the water in a futile atte the bullet, Ruben shot me in the side instead I fell into a river infested with crocodiles and hippos, a very convenient grave Indeed, there isn’t aof a body The turbulent water sweptme over a waterfall
I should’ve drowned My defective heart should’ve stopped The crocodiles should’ve dragged me to the bottood of the water, Nya two lives, he only took the life growing inside me He spat me out on the banks below the falls I’d rather it was the other way around, but Nya separated fro of unrequited love Ormankind
The children fetching water found me The men carried me to the huts The women nursed e on the banks of that river, because once upon a happier tiside thea and freed them from the evil spirit who’d taken the shape of a baboon
It’s a good thing I’ since the day I was born Ironically,It tookwas painful in more than one way The physical part was the easiest The hardest part was dealing with the truth Ian had orderedout I’ll never have other children
One month later, on Christmas day, Ian scattered flowers on the water and declared ers told me
“What kind of flowers?” I asked
“Does it matter?” the women replied
“Yes,” I said “It matters”
Orange blossoms
There was even a cerea, Waitada, and Garai wept as the coffin was lowered into the ground
“What did he bury?” I asked
What could he put in the casket? Did he sink it erave?
“The gun Ian gave you,” Virips”
Ian stood stone-faced, they said, not shedding a tear The cross stands on the hill that looks out over the river, the place where Ian took me for sundowners when he told ht there was so sentimental in him Why else would he have tattooed love, survival, and huuess I fell into the survival bracket He planned my murder because he believed I betrayed hih to let me explain He once told me humility means we carry all the blame for our mistakes but not all the credit for our acco him
Now there’s a cross at the very place where we conceived our baby, a child he’ll never know existed It’s ironic but also fitting
The villagers loaded gled ht Ian had stolen ivenon ever using that ht was a gun The second was a false identity Officially, I’er I can be whoever I want to be
I stay on theevery day With each passing day, I get stronger and faster Where I’d once sworn I wouldn’t touch the ave me, I now use those funds for one purpose only—to find the ht back