It’s Your Turn To Cry and Beg, Dear Uncle

"I thought you would return with my future aunt," said Kyra smilingly.

James easily caught onto her sarcasm. He sneered, "Why? Are you going to confess your wrongdoings?"

"What wrongdoings?" She chuckled mockingly. "There's nothing to confess. I just thought if she came home with you then at least, there would be one brave person to fight your battle."

In that instance, James knitted her brows. His gaze turned frigid. "Kyra, mind your words while I'm still patient."

"Why? Did I poke at your sore point?"

"Kyra…"

James was about to lose it but Kyra exploded in laughter. The man was taken aback by her sudden reaction. Then, he watched as she stood up, taller than he remembered. Her back was straighter than ever before as she confidently walked to him without breaking their eye contact.

Her gaze felt foreign to him, and with every step she took, his heart pounded along.

Kyra stopped just three steps away from the man.

"We both know who copies who." She smiled. "I've always been open to you. So, at one point, I might've shown you the draft and that should be when you began to suspect."

James pursed his lips. Looking at his reaction, Kyra knew she was right. "I was so absorbed with my own feelings that I failed to realise how cowardly the person I fell for."

James gritted his teeth and she could see him seething.

"Kyra!"

"James!"

The man was once again baffled by the girl's equally loud retaliation and even more so with how she addressed him. He had never seen this side of Kyra. The girl he knew had always been obedient and respectful. This rebellious Kyra made him uneasy.

"Kyra, stop this now! You know you're wrong!"

"I know that it's wrong!" Kyra shouted at him. James pursed his lips. His jaw tightened as he tried to restrain his anger at the girl's behaviour.

"I'm not stupid. My feelings disgusted you and you have every right to feel that way because you have always treated me as a niece. So, to suddenly be faced with a different shape of affection from the one you cherish as a family must've been repulsive."

Her voice began to crack towards the end. But, she continued, "But, that doesn't make your act of humiliation right."

Before the confrontation, she had promised to herself that she would hide her weakness.

She had promised to herself not to allow the man any satisfaction from breaking her.

But, a heart was made of flesh and blood. It was not a steel that could deflect any pain.

It bled when injured.

As the sadness finally seeped into her face and her heartbreak fell in her tears, James suddenly felt his heart being squeezed and the anger that had been gnawing within him instantly melted into concern.

He shook his head and unbeknownst to himself, the girl's tears had slowly turned his eyes red as well.

There was no way James wouldn't hurt too. No matter how wrong Kyra was, James had always been vulnerable against her tears. They had been together for twelve years as a family, the bond they had couldn't just fade away.

So, he might be hurting her to crush her feelings, but in the process, he was also hurting himself.

"That's not what I mean."

However, Kyra quickly interjected, "But, that's what happened."

Her tears continued to fall. By now, her face was a mess. She was far from strong even if she tried to be, much less beautiful. When she saw Lila for the first time, she knew she had lost. She couldn't compare to Lila whose beauty could easily level a model.

"Now, I want to ask you," she asked between her sobs, "Why did you do it?"

She once again raised her head and looked him in the eye. She wanted to hear his reason face to face.

"You could stop at the party, but you decided to continue to destroy me."

Kyra saw his lips trembled, but she was not going to let him tone down her words. "You know what writing means to me, yet you still chose to take it away."

James closed his eyes and inhaled deeply before he coldly replied to her. "Because you wrote about your feelings, you wrote about us. I didn't know how deep you had fallen before but after I read it, I know I have to completely destroy it."

Kyra closed her eyes. She lost all hope now when she heard his lie. A single tear trickled down her cheek, but when she opened her eyes again, there was no longer a trace of heartbreak. There was only a pair of cold blue eyes.

"I see." She smiled. "Thank you for your lies."

She knew damn well that was not the real reason. He was afraid that anyone would know her feelings for him. If that happened, then he would be terribly embarrassed. 

James grabbed Kyra's arm as she tried to leave. "I'm not lying, Kyra."

He sighed. "Please…just understand. We can't be together."

"Even when we're not blood-related?"

"I've taken care of you since you were ten. It's not right!" James began to raise his voice out of frustration.

"Even when I only fell in love with you at nineteen?"

"It doesn't make any difference, you know that."

Kyra smiled. She took her hand back and walked away. However, she stopped as she reached the bottom of the stairs. She turned around and looked at the man once again.

"You know, I'm absolutely fine with what you did at the party."

She chuckled in self-deprecation. "But, you decided to make a move on my dream, my lifeline. You stabbed me where it hurts, knowing well that the wound might just kill me, yet you still did it."

James pursed his lips and his heart beat out of sync as he slowly watched the sanity in Kyra's eyes dimmed away bit by bit.

"Kyra…"

"James."

James felt his lips clumped up at the way Kyra mentioned his name.

"You've given me your answer. So now I will give you mine."

She would make sure that he regretted his decision letting her walk away alive today.