Souls Remember What Matters — Corey Gibson 12
Chapter 12 – More Important
SERA
The elevator doors slid shut behind us with a soft ding. I pressed my now sweaty back against the cool metal wall and closed my eyes for just a second. My chest felt tight, like I’d been holding my breath for hours.
“You okay?” Johnson’s voice was quiet, careful.
I opened my eyes and looked at him. Really looked at him. His dark hair was slightly messy from running his hand through it during the auction. His tie was loose around his neck. There was something solid about him, something real that made my throat ache.
It took me a few seconds to realize that I was jealous.
“I will be.” I responded, my shameful thoughts making me avoid his gaze.
The words came out rougher than I meant them to.
The elevator jerked slightly as it reached the parking level. My stomach dropped with it.
Johnson has been beside the second I’d rounded the corner and left Darius behind.
He was listening in.
I wasn’t just jealous, I was ashamed, that he had to hear all of that, and that he had to see me in such a shape.
Johnson stepped closer, not touching, just close enough that I could smell his cologne. “That was brave, what you did up there,” He dipped his hands in his pockets and met my gaze with a satisfied grin.
Despite what I had expected, he didn’t look at me like I had made a fool out of myself, he didn’t look at me like he pitied me.
I let out a laugh that didn’t sound happy at all. “Brave? I just told my husband I won’t apologize for something I didn’t do. That’s not brave, that’s basic,” I shuddered, I rubbed my palms up and down my arms as the cold air brushed against my skin, tormenting me and keeping my voice unsteady.
Johnson’s eyes followed my movement and in the next second he’d taken off his suit jacket and covered my shoulders without hesitation.
His jacket swallowed my petite frame whole and the gesture made my throat close up with emotion.
He gave me a small smile, flashing his pearly whites.
“It is when you’ve been convinced it wasn’t for so long,” He replied softly, “You’re the bravest woman I know, Sera,”
The doors opened and cold air hit my face. The parking garage stretched out in front of us, all concrete and shadows and the echo of our shoes on the ground. Johnson’s car was parked near the back, away from the main
entrance.
“God, I need air.” I tugged at the neckline of my dress. It felt like it was choking me.
“Almost there.” Johnson matched my pace, his hand hovering near the small of my back but not quite touching.
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Like he wanted to comfort me but wasn’t sure if I’d break if he did.
We were halfway to his car when I heard it. The familiar sound of Darius’s laugh bouncing off the concrete walls. My whole body went rigid.
“Sera.” Johnson’s voice was low, warning
I turned, and there they were. Darius and Vivienne walking out from between two black SUVs. She had her hand tucked into the crook of his arm, her head tilted up toward him like she was hanging on his every word. Even from here, I could see how she leaned into him, how small she made herself look next to his broad shoulders.
He was smiling, so brightly. Despite the fact that moments ago he’d been asking me to come home, claiming, I was being unreasonable.
Yel.
My jaw clenched so hard it hurt.
Darius spotted me first. His smile faded and he stopped walking. For a second, just a second, something flickered across his face. Regret? Guilt? I couldn’t tell anymore.
He said something to Vivienne and started walking toward me. His stride was confident, determined, like he was coming to fix something that was broken.
“Sera, walt.” Ilis volce echoed in the empty space.
Johnson stepped slightly in front of me, not blocking me but making his presence known. I felt his warmth at my back.
Darius was maybe ten feet away when it happened.
Vivienne stumbled. Her hand flew to her chest and she made this small, breathless sound that carried across the
silence.
“Oh.” The word was barely a whisper, but it might as well have been a scream for how fast Darius spun around.
She was leaning against the side of a car now, her other hand pressed to her forehead. Her face was pale in the harsh fluorescent light. “I just… I feel so dizzy all of a sudden.”
And just like that, I became invisible again.
Darius was at her side before she finished speaking. His hands found her waist, steadying her. “What’s wrong? Are you okay?”
“I don’t know.” Her voice was weak, shaky. She looked up at him with wide eyes, her bottom lip trembling just slightly. “Everything just went spinning. Maybe I stood up too fast, or the excitement of the evening…”
“Here, sit down.” Darius guided her to lean against his car, his hands never leaving her. “Should I call a doctor? We can go to the hospital right now,” His voice was urgent, his eyes roaming every inch of her.
“No, no.” She shook her head, then winced like the movement hurt. “I just need a minute. Maybe some water?”
I watched this whole performance with something cold spreading through my chest. It wasn’t anger this time. It was clarity. Crystal clear, ice–cold clarity.
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Johnson moved closer to me. “Sera,” he said quietly.
But I couldn’t look away. Couldn’t stop watching my husband fuss over another woman while I stood twenty feet away like a stranger.
“I have some water in the car,” Darius was saying. His voice was soft, worried, the same tone he used to use when Luna had nightmares. “Just breathe, okay? In and out.”
Vivienne nodded weakly. She let herself sag against him just a little more, and his arm tightened around her waist.
That’s when she looked at me. Over Darius’s shoulder, while he was reaching into his car for a water bottle, her eyes found mine.
And for just a split second, I saw it. The calculation. The satisfaction. The tiny smirk that tugged at the corner of her mouth before she let her head fall back against Darius’s chest with a soft moan.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered to him. “I’m ruining your evening.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.” Darius’s voice was fierce, protective. “You’re more important than any evening.”
More important than any evening. More important than his wife standing in the same parking garage, watching him choose someone else again.
My hands were shaking. I curled them into fists and shoved them into my Johnson’s coat pockets.
“We should go,” Johnson said. His voice was carefully neutral, but I could hear the edge underneath it.
I nodded. I couldn’t speak, couldn’t trust my voice not to crack.
We turned and started walking toward his car. Behind us, I could hear Vivienne’s soft voice and Darius’s murmured responses. Something about getting her home safely, about making sure she was okay.
Johnson opened the passenger door for me and I slid inside. The leather was cold against my legs. He got in on the driver’s side and started the engine, but he didn’t put the car in drive right away.
“Sera.”
I looked at him. His hands were gripping the steering wheel, his knuckles white.
Johnson reached over and covered my hand with his. His skin was warm, solid. Real.
“I’m done,” I said quietly. The words felt strange in my mouth, but also right. “I’m really, truly done.”
“Good.” His thumb brushed across my knuckles. “You deserve better than this.”
Darius’s car pulled out of its parking space. As he drove past us, I got one last look at them through his passenger window. Vivienne had her head tilted back against the headrest, her eyes closed. Darius’s mouth was moving like he was talking to her, probably asking if she was comfortable, if she needed anything.
I was supposed to be the one he worried about like that.
The red taillights of his car disappeared around the corner, and something inside me snapped clean in half. Not broke – snapped. Like a bone that had been cracked for so long it finally just gave up trying to heal wrong.
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