The Loyalty Text - S01 E10

Story 1 week ago

The Loyalty Text - S01 E10

Read Story: SEASON 1 EPISODE 10

Grand Finale: The Loyalty Test

The room was so quiet that you could hear the rain hitting the roof. It sounded like thousands of tiny drumsticks playing a very sad song. The air inside the house felt very heavy and very thick. It felt like the air you breathe before a big storm comes to blow the trees down. Nia stood by the cold fireplace. Her hands were shaking. She had just shown Andre the truth. The papers lay on the table like pieces of a broken heart. Andre had read the emails. He had read the messages. He had read the full notes from Nia's diary. He finally knew everything. He knew that Nia had started a silly game. But he also knew that Kate was a very bad person who wanted to steal his life.

Andre stood up very slowly. He was a big man, and when he stood up, he seemed to fill the whole room. He did not look at Nia yet. He looked at Kate. Kate was still standing by the door. She was still wearing her bright yellow dress, but she did not look like sunshine anymore. She looked like a shadow that had been caught by a bright light. Her face was pale, and she was breathing very fast. She looked like she wanted to say something, but no words came out of her mouth. Her big plan was ruined. Her lies were all gone.

Andre walked over to Kate. He did not run. He did not jump. He just walked with slow and heavy steps. Each step made a sound on the wooden floor. Thump. Thump. Thump. He stopped right in front of her. He was much taller than Kate. He did not yell at her. He did not scream. But when he spoke, his voice was as cold as ice from a freezer. It was the kind of voice that makes you shiver even if you are wearing a warm coat.

"I want you to leave this house right now," Andre said. He looked Kate right in the eyes. "I want you to take your bag and your lies and go away. I never want to see your face again. I never want to hear your voice again. You came into my home and you tried to destroy my family. You saw that my wife was afraid, and you used that fear to hurt us. You tried to make me hate the woman I love. You are a very mean person, Kate."

Kate tried to look at him with her sweet eyes one last time. She tried to make her voice sound soft. "But Andre," she whispered. "I was only trying to show you the truth about her."

Andre shook his head. "No," he said. "You were only trying to get what was not yours. You wanted this house. You wanted my life. But you can never have it. Go now, before I call the police."

Kate knew she had lost. She looked at Andre, and she saw that he would never believe her again. She looked at Nia, who was standing by the fireplace with tears in her eyes. Kate did not say goodbye. She did not say sorry. She just grabbed her bag from the chair. She turned around and ran out of the front door. She ran out into the dark and angry rain. The wind blew the door shut with a loud bang. Kate was gone. She disappeared into the night, and she was never heard from again. She was like a bad dream that finally went away when the sun started to come up.

The house was quiet once more. But it was a different kind of quiet. It was not the scary quiet of secrets. It was a quiet that felt like the house was taking a very deep breath. Nia stayed by the fireplace. She felt very small. She felt very ashamed. She looked at Andre, who was still standing by the door. He looked like he had just finished a long and hard fight. He looked very tired.

Nia walked toward him. She walked very slowly because she was afraid he would tell her to leave too. She stopped a few feet away from him. She looked at his face and whispered, "I am so sorry, Andre. I am so, so sorry."

Her voice was full of tears. "I was so scared. I felt like I was not good enough for you. I felt like one day you would find someone better and leave me alone. I was a coward. I made a very big mistake by testing you. I should have trusted you. I know I have broken your trust. I know I have hurt your heart. I am sorry for the game. I am sorry for the lies."

Andre did not say anything at first. He walked over to the blue sofa and sat down. He put his head in his hands. He stayed like that for a long time. Nia did not move. She stayed right where she was. She waited for him to speak. She knew that he had every right to be angry. She had played with his feelings. She had brought a stranger into their lives to see if he was a good man. She knew that trust is a very fragile thing, like a glass bowl. Once you break it, it is very hard to put the pieces back together.

The clock on the wall ticked. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Outside, the rain began to slow down. The loud drumming on the roof turned into a soft tapping. Finally, Andre looked up. His eyes were red, and he looked very sad.

"I am hurt, Nia," Andre finally said. His voice was not cold anymore, but it was very heavy. "I am hurt that you did not think I was strong enough to love you just as you are. I am hurt that you thought I was the kind of man who would leave you. And I am very hurt that you played a game with our lives. Marriage is not a game, Nia. It is not a test. It is a real life with real feelings."

Nia nodded her head. She let the tears fall. "You are right, Andre. Everything you say is right. I was wrong."

Andre looked at the papers on the table. He looked at the full notes from Nia's diary where she said she loved him. "But," Andre continued, looking up at her eyes, "I also see that you are telling the truth now. I see that you were scared. I see that you really do love me. And truth is the only thing that can fix this. We cannot fix a lie with another lie. We can only fix it with the truth."

He reached out his hand toward her. Nia took a step forward and took his hand. His skin felt warm and real. It was the hand of the man who had stayed loyal even when a mean woman tried to trick him. Andre pulled her down to sit next to him on the sofa.

They spent the whole night talking. They did not turn on the television. They did not look at their phones. They just talked. They talked until the moon went away and the sky started to turn a soft pink and orange. Nia told him everything. She told him about the first day she felt afraid. She told him about the phone call to Kate. She told him how much she regretted every second of the test.

Andre talked too. He told her how confused he felt when Kate showed him the torn papers. He told her how lonely he felt at the hotel. He told her that he never wanted to leave her, but he was so hurt that he did not know what else to do. No more secrets were left in the house. No more tests were hidden in the office. No more tricks were waiting in the shadows.

Nia learned a very big lesson that night. She learned that if you love someone, you should just talk to them. If you are afraid, you should say, "I am afraid." If you feel like you are not good enough, you should say, "I need some help to feel better." You do not need to hire a stranger to see if your partner is good. You do not need to play games to find out if someone loves you. You just need to look at how they treat you every day. You need to look at the way they make you coffee or the way they hold your hand when you are sad. That is the real loyalty test.

Nia and Andre worked very hard to be happy again. It was not easy. The hurt did not go away in one day. Sometimes, Andre would remember the papers and feel sad again. Sometimes, Nia would feel guilty and want to cry. It took a long time for the house to feel completely happy again. But they did not give up. They went for long walks in the garden. They cooked dinner together while listening to their favorite music. They laughed again, and this time, the laughter was real.

They were honest with each other every single day. If Nia felt a little bit of doubt, she told Andre right away. And if Andre felt a little bit of hurt, he told Nia. They learned that a good marriage is built on trust. It is like a house built on a very strong and heavy foundation. If the foundation is strong, the house can stay standing even when the biggest storms come.

Nia never played another trick again. She put away her "loyalty test" and started a "honesty habit." She and Andre lived a very long and very truthful life together. They grew old in that house with the white walls and the red and white roses. They told their story to their children and their grandchildren. They told them that love is the most beautiful thing in the world, but it must be handled with care.

The loyalty test was finally over. The game was finished. Nia and Andre had both learned the most important lesson of all. They learned that love is not a game you play to see who wins or who loses. Love is a promise you keep every single morning when you wake up. It is a promise to be honest, a promise to be kind, and a promise to stay, even when things are hard. They kept that promise for the rest of their lives.

Andre chose to forgive Nia even though she played a very mean game. Do you think he was right to give her a second chance?

Kate ran out into the rain and was never seen again. Do you think she got what she deserved for trying to steal a family?

Nia learned that she should have talked to Andre instead of testing him. Why do you think it is so hard for people to just say what they are feeling?

At the end, the story says love is a "promise you keep." What does that mean to you in your own life?

Do you think Nia and Andre's marriage will be stronger now that they have no more secrets?