Chapter Twenty-One.
"There's no need to protect those who could give a fuck less about you." —Qadir N. Bukhara
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Citrus bent down to Braelin's level, and placed a hand on her shoulder. This newfound revelation allowed everything to finally come together. It all started to make sense. Jealousy was never the issue. This whole time Braelin was simply relishing in her own wrongs. She was guilty.
"So what do you think you're going to do?"
"The right thing," Braelin looked up from her hands. "What else is there to do?"
"You're going to tell the truth?" Citrus pulled her neck back in shock, "Right before the wedding?"
"I can't let him marry her, he's a dog."
"And what does that make you?"
"I made a mistake."
"We all do, but if you break this to her now then she'll never forgive you. She'll leave the both of you in the dust, and then what?"
Braelin took her bottom lip into her mouth. Citrus was right about that. Amongst all of this, she never once thought that far into the consequences or even how Briana would take to it. Which is why she was in this predicament to begin with.
"All I'm saying is everyone is happy," Citrus explained. "Brix is happy, and we're all happy for her. If you fess up, everything will be ruined on account of you. Yeah, she's your sister but she's your sister who you weren't thinking of when you started up an affair with her man. But it's over now and that's all that matters, right? Think of her feelings the way that you didn't before. Do you want to be the reason she doesn't marry the love of her life, huh? The reason her happiness was taken?"
"Of course not."
"Exactly,"Citrus acknowledged. "And don't you have Ohaji now? You've moved on so there's no need to bring up old stuff."
"He caught me out with Reese," She chuckled through her tears. "Hasn't spoken ta' me since."
"Oh," Citrus frowned. "What's up with you and Reese?"
"Sex," Braelin revealed. "Nothing more. Relationships never been my thing."
"But they have been for your sister, especially this one. See what I'm getting at? Sometimes it's best to just leave the past in the past."
Silence fell between the two as Braelin tried her hardest to consider all that Citrus was saying; though it just didn't feel right, especially coming from someone like Citrus. Braelin never would of thought in a million years, that her best friend would condone something like such. The fact that Citrus was rather nonchalant and in a way encouraging about the situation was strange in itself. This was not the person Braelin had grown up with...at all.
"Are you okay Citrus?" Braelin brought her brows together. "Why aren't you going off on me? Saying that you're disappointed? Most importantly; why are you telling me not to tell the truth?"
"Because I know how marriage is, and I know how it is to be with your first love," Citrus shrugged. "You know you're wrong, me saying it won't change the fact that you did what you did."
