Ana Oliveira Part 4

When I finally went to the bedroom, I decided to take a shower, then put on a T-shirt and underwear before throwing myself onto Jow's bed. I lay there for a while, staring at a photo frame on the nightstand. It was a black-and-white mosaic of the two of us making silly faces, sticking our tongues out...
“Ana...” Lucah called, knocking on the door.
“Come in...” I said, searching for a blanket since I was in just my underwear, but it was on top of the desk where I had changed the sheets before lying down.
Lucah noticed my embarrassment and rolled his eyes. “Dear, I’m gay! There’s nothing here that interests me...” he said, making me give a small smile. “But I can wait outside until you get dressed.”
“No, you can talk...”
“Ah, I just wanted to show you an audio from Jonas... He sent a message for you.”
Lucah crouched beside the bed, playing a WhatsApp recording: “Ana, you traitor... So you guys had a blast last night without me, huh? You’re going to have to make it up to me by putting me in one of your books and making me a rich guy, or when I die, I’ll haunt you!”
I laughed. It was the second time Jonas had asked me to create a story where he was rich. When I opened my mouth to comment to Lucah, Josiah appeared in the doorway, throwing a bouquet of flowers on top of me and my brother. I blinked, startled, hearing him curse me out before charging at his brother.
It was a terrible moment when my boyfriend completely misunderstood everything, believing that I had cheated on him with his brother. If Bernardo hadn’t restrained Josiah, a tragedy might have occurred. After all, Lucah was under the influence of alcohol and couldn’t even defend himself, staggering out, bleeding...
I felt so vulnerable in the face of Josiah’s rudeness and outburst. As I pleaded with him to calm down, trying to clarify the situation, to explain that he had misunderstood, all I felt was that my relationship was falling apart, reaching a point where it would be impossible to recover. There was no way to control the situation because my boyfriend was completely convinced of what he thought he had seen. I felt shattered seeing the man I loved screaming that he would propose to me, throwing the ring with fury onto my body, then grabbing my face and hurling insults at me. I was scared of him, afraid of the man to whom I had given everything good left in me. The disappointment roared within me, and I was so outraged that I hit him, trying to make him let me go. At that moment, I broke down in tears of fury, disappointment, and rage...
Bernardo was there, shocked at the scene, and I even wondered if my friend also thought I was a traitor, if he believed I was a slut capable of having an affair with my brother-in-law. I felt so ashamed seeing Marta and Luana witnessing my humiliation.
My heart ached as his grip around my arm made me feel so vulnerable. I was so sad and shocked that it took me a while to understand that he was shouting that I was going to leave their house, that my boyfriend was kicking me out. I wanted to dig my heels in and stop him while Luana threw herself at Jow, trying to defend me. But it hurt so much, I was so devastated that I couldn’t even react. Inside me, the urge to scream against that injustice was enormous, but at the same time, I felt so humiliated that he didn’t even know me as I thought he did. It made me feel so outraged that I realized Josiah didn’t deserve the effort of an explanation.
It was so strange to see so much anger seeping from him, so much fury directed at me from the man who had always given me love and care...
I had no chance or desire to explain things because Josiah was distraught and ended our relationship with me in my underwear in the middle of the street, where he threw me, unbalancing me and almost knocking me over. My heart shattered into a thousand pieces, and I felt the world swallowing me, but I forced myself to be strong when Marta hugged me, murmuring something that, due to her nervousness and fear, I didn’t hear as she guided me back into the house. I could see neighbors watching me through the windows around the street, and tears streamed down my face, mixing with the rain.
And nothing, nothing could make me want to go after him to clear things up. Josiah acted cruelly and unjustly towards me. The man I loved said it was all over...
And it really was.