46. Get out!

Upon realizing what she just said, Khalinda's face was instantly covered in regret. She turned to Rachel who looked like she just had the shock of her life, "What are you talking about Khal? What do you mean 'time for you'?", Rachel looked at her sister with eyes filled with pain and betrayal. The disbelief in her eyes was undeniable, how could her only sister do something so despicable?

Khalinda took a deep breath, and at that moment, she switched to a completely different being, her eyes no longer showed any remorse, "You poor thing, do I need to spell it out? I slept with Walter. Actually, for a long time, I have been sleeping with him..."

"That's enough Khalinda!" Walter shouted with a hint of annoyance and shame in his voice. At that point, I had stopped talking, and just fell into a complete daze however, unlike me, Rachel was losing control of herself, she was no longer the loving sister from earlier, "Talk Khalinda! What do you mean? Since when?!"

Just then the driver arrived, and I dragged myself into the car. I never felt so powerless and emotionless in my life, I watched from the window as Walter tried to stop the fight between Khalinda and Rachel which painted a perfect picture of the kind of mess I got myself into.

I snapped at the driver, "Drive! Take me to the hotel!", 

"Ma'am, shouldn't we...", he looked genuinely concerned for Walter,

"You can see he's busy, take me back first, I am not feeling well. You will come back for him".

Upon seeing the pale look on my face, the driver obliged and dropped me off. I walked through the hotel lobby in a zombie state, I could see the smiles on the hotel staff as they walked past me, but I could not make out the words. I don't remember how I got to the room, but the moment I saw the bottle of unopened wine, I could not resist. I took the first sip, and then started to regain my sanity 'What the hell did I just hear? Was Walter seeing both me and Khalinda at the same time? when did they start seeing each other?' as these thoughts were running through my head, I was running down the wine bottle.

Walter opened the door to find me sitting on the balcony staring blankly at the ocean, with now an empty bottle on the table in front of me.

"Thandie...", he said in a soft guilty voice while cautiously making his way toward me,

I was fed up with his excuses, I needed answers. So without hesitating, I went straight to my list of questions, "Was Khalinda the person who posted those things about me?", I asked calmly with my focus still on the ocean,

It was like he could sense that I was no longer in the mood for any stories because his answers were also straight to the point, "Yes", he replied

I slowly turned my attention to him, and with no sense of emotions in my tone, "Were you guys together when we started....whatever this is?",

With his eyes looking at mine, he replied "Yes"

"For how long?",

Walter's face suddenly got darker and he took a second to think, then pleaded, "Thandie, we don't have to tal-"

"How long Walter?!", I felt stung of pain upon realizing the possible response to my question, however, Walter still refused to answer which made me angrier, 'did he really mess around with her while I was in the picture? and not disclose it?', my heart continued to drop the more he delayed his answer.

"I swear I stopped everything a long time ago...", Walter insisted, 

"How fucken long?!"

Finally, Walter dropped his face and with even more guilt, "The first three months we were together..."

Although I suspected that was the case, hearing him confirm left me with no response. I looked at him for a while, with nothing but disgust and fury on my face, the sight of him sent sharp arrows to my heart, "Get out!",

Walter abruptly turned his eyes to me, then made a few steps towards me, "Thandie...I swear, I didn't mean to.."

I didn't wait for him to finish his sentence, 'how dare he?' Although I didn't expect loyalty, but I expected transparency', "How many times did I ask if you were seeing anyone? How many times did I ask you to disclose such information? You let me believe that Rachel was the main problem between us, that Khalinda woman approached me. After trashing my name, she approached me pretending to be a friend! And you didn't even say anything when I told you I met up with her?! Get out Walter! Now! Please"

With his eyes pleading, Walter clasped his hands together, "I was going to tell you everything tonight please believe me, "

Walter was slowly taking small steps towards me but was stopped in his tracks when he heard the bottle smash which made it clear that he was not welcome. He took a deep breath, "We will talk when you are calmer", I heard the door bang sending me to my knees with my tears falling profusely.

The tears kept falling for a while, I was now mad at him for not disclosing everything to me and for also leaving me alone meanwhile, he stuck around to break up a fight between the Bakers, but he couldn't stay a second longer till I was calm then apologize properly. Even in such a situation, I couldn't help but be petty and jealous, looking back, I was already hopelessly in love with Walter.

I pulled out my suitcase to start packing, after packing I wiped my face dry, put on makeup, practiced a smile, and then made my way to the airport. I went to the ticket section and requested to be put on the earliest flight to Silverton, luckily for me, there was a plane that had two empty seats left and it was flying out in three hours. I booked it and then checked in immediately. I sat in the lounge area, deleting each photo I ever took with Walter, my heart tightened even more when I realized that Walter hadn't even called to check if I was calm or even just texted, and it's been 3 hours since he left. With that pain, I decided to get myself out of that mess, I suffered a lot at the hands of the Bakers, but even with my pride shattered, I still hoped to see him, which made me feel like a fool. So to conserve whatever self-respect I still had left, I told myself that I had enough and blocked Walter on all communication platforms.

And He remained blocked for the next three months, or so he was supposed to.