"You've got some nerve showing up here." Malice seethes through Edwin's teeth.
Wyatt pants, "I need to speak with you."
"I don't speak with anyone other than my wife."
"Yeah" Wyatt breathes. "I'm well aware she's your wife."
"Not enough to keep your damn hands off her."
"I didn't know she was married at the time. I would have never touched her if you weren't puppeteering her to lie to my face."
"Careful the words you choose, you're talking to an invisible man here."
Wyatt takes a few steps forward, his knees feel like buckling over. "Edwin, Josslyn loves you so much that at the very sight of you, she will falter. That's why I'm here. I know that you know. Josslyn's intentions are guilt driven."
Edwin clenches his fist, "you know too much for my comfort."
Wyatt gulps, "I know she's your life sustenance, but you've got to face the truth. What are you to her?"
"More than you can ever be."
"Even a reflection?"
"Reflections are overrated. People die, women cheat, men leave. You'll never know what love really is until you don't have a reflection."
They begin to walk cautiously as they circle one another, both unwilling to back down.
Edwin sneers with contempt. He could end this man right here, right now. It's far too easy. "I never took you as too bright, Wyatt, I guess I was right."
Wyatt's face flushes. He came to play nice but this asshole's asking for it. "Well, you sure have a knack for underestimating me. Guess your little act of exploitation back-fired. Pretty bright there too, sport." Wyatt stops and faces him directly.
Edwin snorts, picking a small rock off the ground, he tosses it up and down in his hand and locks eyes with Wyatt, "You're overly confident for a man who's going to die today, overly brazen for a man willing to steal another man's woman."
"I didn't steal anything from you. You created this shit pile, I'm just the one to clean it up."
"Oh, I'm sure you cleaned up my wife real well."
"As a matter of fact, I did. Literally."
Edwin heaves a burst of cold air and lunges at Wyatt, slamming him into the trunk of a tree, pinning pressure to clamp his throat shut.
Wyatt grabs at Edwin's arm, resisting the urge to jab his opponent's chest. "You can't-can't hold it against her anymore," he struggles to breath. "Y-You've caused her enough suffering." He gags for air.
"Who the fuck are you to talk about suffering?" Edwin talks through clenched teeth, "You don't know how much I've suffered!" Edwin's voice reverberates throughout the forest. "Don't talk about sacrifices! Don't you dare talk about suffering! I died for this woman! I love her so much I've watched her die and reborn seven times! I've patiently waited decades upon decades in a dark lonely abyss in suspended space time until I see that light beckoning me to her. Each time I despair as she reincarnates into an animal but not this time - this time she's mine! She belongs to me! I've waited too long, given up too much, it's my turn!"
Wyatt tries to pull away.
Edwin pins Wyatt harder. "You think you've got the damn right to waltz in here after three months time and destroy something that's outlasted you for seven lifetimes? I'm invisible but I've given Josslyn everything! Everything anyone in this world could ever dream of. She swims in money, she's never had to lift a finger, we've sailed all the oceans, we've traveled the world together. She lives the life of solitude but she does so without worry! Without ever going hungry!"
He tosses Wyatt to the ground like a rag doll. Wyatt crawls onto his knees, gasping for air. "You've been invisible for far too long, Edwin. You've forgotten what it means to be alive."
Oomph! Wyatt's neck jerk sideways as he slams into moist soil. The red metallic substance on his tongue taste fresh and hot, he wipes the blood off his lips.
Edwin holds up his fist. "Feels pretty alive doesn't it, son of a bitch?"
In a flash, Edwin takes the mount, grounding and pounding Wyatt, unleashing a fury of punches to erode this man into sand and stone.
"You're the only - the only person she's ever known, Edwin!" Wyatt shields the punches, "look at what you've done to her! She has no career, no friends, you never encouraged the best of her!"
"You slept with my wife you son of a bitch!"
Wyatt grabs his opponent's flying fists, pinning them behind Edwin's back."You kept her all to yourself because you're too afraid she might leave you!" Blood seeps into his mouth. "You never gave her the chance to be the best of who she can be! You allowed your fears to make you selfish!"
"Fight me! Fight me!" Edwin yells, breaking free and cracking Wyatt's nose as they sink deeper into mud. But Wyatt doesn't lift a finger. He's already here to break a man's heart, he'll spare the bones for next time.
"With all that money, you could have sent her to the best schools, Edwin! You could have supported her! Allowed her to live in the real world and watch her grow into her true potential! Instead you locked her up as your prisoner! Locked her up like everyone else did!"
Edwin jumps to his feet as he pulls Wyatt's gun out of the harness, cocking it against Wyatt's skull. "That's enough!" Edwin yells, that's enough truth for one day.
In a moment of silence, the birds has flown far off, nothing disturbs the sound of angry pants and soft whimpers.
Wyatt's shoulder slump forward as his knees sink into dirt and mud, his arms drape lose by his side. He appears defeated, both on the outside and inside. His voice suddenly grows soft like he's speaking to a child.
"I'm sorry, Edwin." Battered, beaten, bloody with tear soaked eyes, Wyatt looks up at the man who towers high above him.
Edwin's caught off guard. He's never seen a grown man cry.
"I'm sorry I hurt you. I know your story, I know you've suffered. I'm sorry that out of all the billions of people in this world, I have to be the one to add to your suffering. But if you think it's tough being bound without choice to someone for seven lifetimes, imagine how hard it is to carry the weight of seven lifetime's worth of guilt; to be obligated, indebted to someone because they've waited seven lifetimes for you."
Edwin averts his eyes.
"Does Josslyn really love you Edwin? Or does she love you because she has to? You've shadowed her since birth, you never gave her a chance to choose. It doesn't have to be me, Edwin. It doesn't have to be you, maybe it's better yet, that she chooses herself."
Wyatt's vision blurs, "you can kill me today because I've transgressed you, I've slept with your wife,"he clenches his eyes to prepare for the bullet. "But please don't kill it. I've had my first one murdered, please allow my second a chance to live."
Edwin staggers back in shock. The gun thuds on the ground. It. He panics. "What do you mean it?"
Wyatt shakes his head. If he had known Edwin wouldn't pull the trigger, he would have never breathed a word. It's Josslyn's responsibility to tell Edwin - not his.
"Tell me!" Edwin snatches Wyatt off the ground, slamming him against a rock wall. "You're man enough to tell me to leave my wife, now be damn man enough to tell me what it is!" He pins Wyatt by the collar.
"No, Josslyn's the rightful person to tell you." Wyatt refuses to meet Edwin's glare.
"Tell me!"
Wyatt shakes his head. Edwin's breathing slows.
"Tell me," Edwin whispers as he brims with tears. They lock eyes.
"Tell me," he begs. "I'm not strong enough to hear it from her."
Wyatt stands frozen. He shifts his gaze. He's well aware these words will puncture like daggers and he can't stand to see Edwin's pain.
"Josslyn's pregnant." Wyatt's heart races, he feels the daggers himself as the words pour from his mouth, "the baby's mine...I'm sorry, Edwin."
Silence.
Edwin drops to his knees as Wyatt towers over him. Slowly, Wyatt sinks down to Edwin's level. They are both broken men. No one wins this fight. Wyatt glances over to see a very opaque Edwin slumping over his knees, his hair draping his entire face, his eyes fixated to the ground as his arms hang limp on each side of his body.
"If you love someone, set them free," said Wyatt. "If they come back they're yours and you will never see me again. If they don't...then it's my lifetime to love her."