Ana Oliveira Part 2

“At no point in these last three years did you question not letting me tell my side of the story about the night you left me? Did you not even see me touching your brother?” I asked, holding his face more firmly to prevent him from pulling away. He looked sad, his face red, and his drooping, heavy eyes unsettled me. I was still devastated because, in my heart, I already knew how it would all end. “Because your brother was gay! We became friends in a very spontaneous way. He was Jonas’s boyfriend, and they were a couple for many years. Your mother, Luana, and even Isa knew about it…”
“What?” he whispered, his eyes darting around as if he were malfunctioning. “Explain this... I…”
“Yes, Jow... Your brother was showing me an audio of Jonas that day when you walked into the room and misunderstood everything. I didn’t choose to betray your trust by becoming friends with Lucah; things just flowed because he would use his time in the army to visit his mother. It’s very easy to verify everything I’m saying because I have a ton of photos of Jonas and Lucah together…”
“Shhhh!” he murmured, holding my neck, resting his forehead against mine. “So all this time you let me believe you were having an affair with my brother? I don’t know if that changes anything, Ana.”
“I didn’t let you believe anything, Josiah. You chose that on your own, decided to put that weight on our scale, to end everything without even hearing me out. I... was devastated. You were the only man in my life. You always were. You were the first and only one I ever kissed, the first and only man I ever had sex with. And even knowing how much I gave myself to you, how alone I was, you chose to think I would end our relationship with an absurd, unfounded betrayal. You were my light in a world that only showed me darkness, a lifeline to a drowning girl. Yet, you managed to believe I would renounce all the magic that brought me to you, that I would be capable of betraying you.”
“You were in our room, Ana, in your underwear, laughing with him…” Josiah accused, releasing my neck and stepping back. “And now you’re telling me Lucah was gay?”
“Yes! Are you going to say Isabela didn’t mention anything all this time?” I asked, sniffing and wiping away the intruding tears.
“Yeah, she didn’t mention it. Apparently, you’re not the only one hiding information.”
“It was about his sexuality; it was none of your business!”
“You’re right. And now tell me, does being gay change everything my brother did? Does it change the person he was, the photos I found, the psychological terror he inflicted on me when I was a kid? Does it change the fact he never defended me from our father?” he fired the questions, impatient. “Did you know I was terrified of being alone? That I only fell asleep out of exhaustion because I was paralyzed under the covers, terrified of what he would do if I slept? That, in addition to dealing with Cristian’s abuse, I also had to be a child terrified of sleeping in the dark? Lucah made my childhood a nightmare with his schemes, always turning Marta against me.”
“I don’t know those things, my love...” I coughed. “Josiah,” I corrected, blushing as I almost called him the way I used to during our relationship. Even he was startled, looking at me attentively, seeming to enjoy hearing it. Jow walked to the fridge, pulling out a bottle of mineral water, making me notice how shaky his hands were. “I never saw Lucah the way you described him. All I knew was a kind, honorable man who respected me, who was in love with his boyfriend, his mother, and even with you…”
“Stop lying, damn it!” he shouted, gripping the bottle tightly, crushing it and causing the water to splash out. “Lucah was always sneaky. He strangled me when I was six years old, dressed in a carnival costume; I had his hand marks on my neck for a week. I became terrified of sleeping alone, and my mother didn’t even believe me, thinking it was Cristian or one of his goons. I woke up with insects on me several times, found all my toys broken, my schoolwork destroyed, and he always denied being the culprit. But when I searched his things, I found the costume he used to nearly kill me.”
“How do you know it wasn’t Cristian, Josiah?” I inquired. “Your brother died while going to the hospital to see the birth of your daughter…”
“And you think it was because of Júlia?” he yelled, throwing the bottle at the bathroom door, causing a huge crash and soaking everything around. I closed my eyes, trying not to be hit by his aggression. “No, Ana! It wasn’t for our daughter, nor for you. It was to hurt me. Look at the message your ‘friend’ sent me on the day Júlia was born.”
My ex-boyfriend stomped heavily into the room. He was furious, pulling out his phone from the nightstand, walking nervously until he placed it in front of me, then rubbing his finger frenetically over the screen, finishing as he displayed the device to me. A heavy knot formed in my throat, and even though I was afraid of what I would find there, afraid Josiah might be right, I accepted to see what the man I loved was showing me:
“Dude, your wife is going into labor with your daughter. Your daughter! And who’s going there? Me!”
I felt the tears streaming down my face, my lips trembling. I raised my gaze to Jow’s face, which looked at me with a needy expression. I knew what Josiah expected to hear, how he believed that message from his brother was meant to hurt, to say that Lucah was boasting about having stolen something from him, because he had a fixed image of his brother as a psychopath.