Ren woke up with a sudden pull on his arms.
The reaction, although late, was enough for him to realize he couldn't move.
His wrists and ankles were tied to the ends of the bed, the same one he shared with Miya.
If that bed could speak about what it had seen there, it would have a thousand and one stories to tell.
Stories it might not want to sing.
Ren barely moved his head. He tried to measure the resistance of the ropes without making noise.
But he was stopped by his wife's voice.
"You're already awake, Ren."
The voice came soft and sweet.
Too sweet.
"What a silly question… of course you are," Miya continued with a slight laugh. "Even if you try to untie yourself, you won't be able to. So don't waste energy… you'll need it later."
That softness made his skin crawl.
Ren closed his eyes for a second, trying to remember how he had ended up there.
The basement, the bag, the blood, the stairs, Miya in front of him, the shine of the knife, the desperate impulse to step back, the emptiness beneath his feet, the blow. After that, darkness. Everything returned with that simple effort.
"Miya…" His voice came out weaker than he expected. "Let me go, please."
Ren swallowed, feeling the rope tighten against his wrists.
"This can end here. Please, don't do something you might regret."
The bed suddenly sank.
Ren opened his eyes intensely when he found Miya sitting on his abdomen, looking at him with an unsettling calm. Although her appearance had been abrupt, almost violent, her face did not reflect anger, but a disturbing serenity, as if all of this were a trivial conversation.
Miya slightly tilted her head, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.
"Do you really want to leave here and leave me?"
She used the same voice with which she used to wake him up in the mornings. The same one with which she called him my prince.
But now that sweetness was a threat wrapped in silk.
Ren held her gaze while Miya's weight pressed against his chest, holding his breath before answering.
"Yes."
Miya smiled.
It wasn't a sad smile. It was a defiant grin.
"Alright," she replied softly. "If you want to leave… I'll let you go."
Ren blinked, confused by the ease of her answer.
"But your friend won't."
Miya got off the bed calmly and walked toward the center of the room. There, outside the direct angle of the bed, she dragged something with effort.
A chair.
Leída was tied to it. Her hands bound behind the backrest, her feet secured, her mouth covered with a cloth that barely contained her agitated breathing, her own fear, everything.
But not her eyes, which said many things without pronouncing a single word.
Her body trembled so much that the chair vibrated against the floor.
Ren's heart stopped for a second.
"No… wait, Miya," his voice broke. "Leave her out of this, please."
Miya tilted her head.
"Out of what, dear? This is just a couple's fight."
"No," Ren denied. "This isn't a fight, it's a separation. You… you lied to me."
Seeing Leída like that shattered any illusion that everything was an exaggeration. It wasn't an argument. It wasn't a misunderstanding.
It was real.
And Miya wasn't pretending anything.
Miya softly shook her head and approached the bed again while her fingers brushed Ren's face.
"It's not a lie, I swear that I'm pregnant… it's just that our child will not arrive as soon as I thought."
Miya lowered her gaze, as if she were ashamed.
Ren felt something break inside him.
"Miya, please, stop lying!" he shouted. "Let me go… and let Leída go, she has no reason to be here."
Miya's expression changed.
The sweetness faded.
Her eyes sharpened and she slowly turned her head toward the girl sitting in the chair.
"What do you mean she doesn't? That damned girl wants to take you away from my side."
Miya stood up and walked until she positioned herself behind the chair. Her hands rested on Leída's shoulders, who shuddered at the contact.
"I saw how you looked at each other, how you laughed together. Like always, you were going toward her."
Ren struggled against the bindings, uselessly.
"Miya, I went to her shop to buy what you asked me for. It was always because of that."
"And why there, Ren? A few steps away there was another man selling the same thing."
Ren clenched his teeth.
"Damn it, Miya! I have nothing with her."
Miya let out a low laugh.
"That's what they all say."
Miya's laughter faded as, with a slow movement, she slid her hand toward her waist to take out the knife she had hidden.
The blade barely shone under the room's light when she placed it in front of Leída's face.
"Do you remember what I told you when we arrived in the town?"
Leída nodded so many times that Miya couldn't hold back her laughter.
After the moment of amusement, the girl with the tattoo on her chest leaned toward the ear of the person in front of her and whispered.
"Then you remember, that I told you to stay away. That Ren was mine."
Her voice stopped being soft.
"Mine!"
Leída trembled even more when the outburst echoed in her ears.
Miya, noticing it, held the knife's handle tighter.
"And even so you didn't listen to me."
Ren pulled at the restraints desperately, feeling powerless.
"Miya, no!" his voice broke. "Please… don't do anything to her."
The blade rested against Leída's skin, enough to mark it.
"I'll do whatever you want," Ren added with agitated breathing. "Everything you ask of me. But don't hurt her. She's not to blame for anything… if someone is, it's me."
Miya barely turned her face toward him.
Her eyes were shining, and it wasn't because of rage or sin.
"You? Do you really think this is your fault?"
Ren remained silent, watching her while Miya released each one of her words.
"No, of course not. Everything is the fault of destiny, that destiny that insists on separating us. But you know what? I won't let it succeed. From now on you will stay with me. Forever. Only you and me… no one else."
Chapter 35: Dreams and Illusions