115. The Absolute Truth

“Then why the fuck you framed me?”

“To protect my brother!” I shout back, my words a raw scream of honesty that I can no longer suppress.

“Ethan?” Dakota scrunches his brow in bewilderment. 

An intense layer of confusion covers his face, slowly taking over the cloak of anger as he tries to piece together the puzzle I have laid at his feet.

“Yes. Ethan.. He was that stupid bacteria guy!” I finally admit to my sins of shielding my brother from the consequences of his naivety.

“I knew something shady was going on, but I never imagined it would be an illegal drug racket. I suspected Zydus who passed stuffs around, as I had seen him selling some powder to Ethan.” I confess, reading out a chapter of my life I had long sealed.

“But my brother was so innocent, he had no idea those substances were drugs. And like a good sister, I wanted to protect him from the drug charges, and from our infuriating dad, who kept pressurizing me to speak out a name.”

I look up and find those intense emerald eyes gazing down at me with an unreadable expression. “And your name just slipped out of my lips.”

Silence hangs heavy between us. The air gets thicker with unspoken tension as Dakota silently stares at me, absorbing my confession. 

Yet, the subtle wind of destruction continues to surround him like a deadly fragrance. 

“And it’s not even my fault! If you hangout with filthy company, people will naturally assume you are one of them.” I snap at him bitterly, leaving no stone uncovered. 

“I had seen you with Zydus before, so when my father pressed me for a name, yours was the first that came into my mind, and I said your name to save my brother.. Because Ethan..”

My voice cracks with emotions choking my throat from all sides. “He didn’t deserve it. He just took the drug once during the fight against Ryan.” *Or maybe twice!*

“I know my dad would have not showed mercy, even to his own children and I couldn’t bear to see my brother’s life ruined over something he was not even part of. He is a good guy.”

I feel my chest clench painfully as I reveal the reasons for my false statement. Yet, the cord of guilt further tightens around my heart as I see myself as a hypocrite in my own eyes. 

Whereas Dakota remains silent with his piercing gaze, and a face as hard as my regrets. His eyes reflect a mixture of pain and betrayal, which I feel down to my bones. 

“But I know saying your name was not right, even then!” The words tear from me, and I watch his jaw clench in return. 

“And believe me, since that day I have been consumed by regret for what I did to you. My intention was never to target you, hell I didn’t even know you were an orphan and had a rough past, or even about your accident!” 

Dakota gulps hard, his fists are still clenched as if he is fighting a battle within himself.

“All this time, I have wished I could turn back the clock, and maybe say a made-up name, anything to save you and my brother. Maybe even my own name, because I have been living in this hell of guilt ever since, and I can’t live like this anymore.”

The room feels heavy with his silence and my cries of regret. In order to save one person, I have destroyed another, and this realization is a burden I know I’ll carry forever. 

“So you didn’t do it to protect Ryan?” Dakota asks, breaking the silence between us. 

I look up, my teary eyes spearing at him in disbelief. From everything I had told him, he just picked up that *one* detail.

“No! I didn’t do anything to protect Ryan. And I bet he doesn’t need anybody’s protection. His family is influential enough to pull him out of any legal shit.” I spit out vehemently. 

I didn’t know I hated him for his perfect life.

“Ryan is a selfish motherfucker! He-he used me and all this time I thought I mattered to him and let him touch me, play with me until one day he just left me without a word. I never left so unimportant in my life, like an object so easily replaced, and discarded like I meant nothing to the person I gave my all to.”

My heart pounds painfully against my ribs, every word I speak deepens those thorns into my chest, causing to rip open the wounds I have tried to bandage a thousand times. 

“I-I could never bring myself to trust another person, or dare to like them to the level I blindly did for Ryan. I never really moved on from that pain of being used and left out, and couldn’t even date anyone without thinking about the trauma he gave me.” 

More tears pool down, cutting through my cheeks as I hold on to those painful memories. And the most terrible among them are right in front of me. 

“And what you are doing to me is far worse. Worst than I ever did to you!” I yell at the man who ruthlessly tore my heart with his bare brutal hands. 

Dakota stares at me with his silent furious gaze, yet there is a sense of sadness, a melancholy of left alone by everyone in his life. 

I know his pain is way deeper than mine. 

I was dumped by my first love, or so I thought. But Dakota, he was abandoned by his parents, left without a home, with no siblings to protect, no one he could rely upon and on top of that.. I..

“I-I am sorry Dakota for spoiling your life. Especially when you genuinely liked me.” 

I sob, breaking down in front of him, overwhelmed with guilt for the role I played in further ruining his already miserable life. 

“I-I never knew you liked me.”

*Or I would have taken all the blame on me!*