Burdens: A Forced Proximity Romance by SeRaya

Author:SeRaya [SeRaya]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-08-06T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 14

NOAH (PRESENT)

Her question hung heavily around us, the weight of it sitting against my chest.

I knew I’d have to tell her one day, that my revelation might change everything between us forever. I just hoped that despite my lies, my next words wouldn’t create an irreversible rift between us that I wouldn’t be able to mend.

I hesitated for a moment, unable to meet her gaze. But then, with a heavy sigh, I finally let go of the one truth I’d kept buried inside, the admission breaking free like a dam succumbing to the weight it’d been holding over for too long.

“Because I used to be one,” I admitted, my confession suffocating the air around us. I chanced looking over at her to find her brows pulled together in confusion. “Omar Barrera’s my father.”

Her eyes searched my face for answers and when my expression didn’t falter, a wave of understanding washed over her, melding with hurt and betrayal that threatened to swallow me whole.

I would give anything to turn back time and meet her again for the first time, to right my wrongs and make sure the look on her face right now would never have a chance to make its way there.

She closed her eyes and turned away from me, her attention back on the road. My stomach sank with each passing second she didn’t speak.

“Say something,” I pleaded, needing her to say or scream something, anything. Anger I was prepared to deal with because anger meant she still cared. But indifference, her silence, that I didn’t want to fathom its repercussions.

I needed her to be angry. I needed to know that deep down, no matter how much time had passed, she still cared.

Maybe it was foolish of me to think that despite my constant betrayal and lies, she’d still want anything to do with me, but a foolish heart reached for hope and I wasn’t ready to give that up.

I didn’t think I ever could.

It felt like hours had passed when she impassively said, “All you seem to have ever done was lie to me, so no, I don’t have anything to say to you.”

“That’s not true,” I started, my voice strained with guilt. “I didn’t lie about everything.”

I kept my focus on her, hoping she’d talk to me. But she stayed silent, her eyes remaining on the road and refusing to meet my gaze. I eventually turned my attention to where we were going, stealing glances at her from the corner of my eye every once in a while.

It was a few minutes before midnight when we passed a white town sign that read Ben Sbih.

We drove for another few miles before she left the paved road and turned into a dark narrow alley. Amalia navigated through a labyrinth of narrow alleyways, passing a group of kids playing football in the streets, until a one-story property, its rammed earth facade weathered with time, came into view.

She came to a stop behind a motorcycle already parked there, turned off the engine, and said, “We’re here.

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