The Man I Was Supposed to Hate Part 2 – Story By: Florinuke
Three years later, Sharon stood before the mirror, fastening the final button of her dress.
The memories had not disappeared. She had simply learned to live without allowing them to control her.
Blade had changed too.
He served his sentence without asking for special treatment. After his release, he testified against the kidnapping network, surrendered the money he had earned through criminal activities, and helped authorities locate two witnesses whose lives were still at risk.
He also began working with a victims’ support organization.
He never used Sharon’s name.
He never told anyone what had happened between them.
Most importantly, he never contacted her.
For almost a year, Sharon heard nothing from him.
Then, one afternoon, a letter arrived.
Sharon,
I spent a long time trying to find a way to make what I did right.
There isn’t one.
So I stopped trying.
All I can do now is make sure I never become that man again.
I hope you’re well.
Blade.
Sharon read it twice before folding it carefully.
She placed it inside a drawer.
She did not reply.
Not because she hated him.
She simply wasn’t ready to decide what he meant to her anymore.
Six months later, they met by accident.
Rain had just begun falling when Sharon stepped out of a café.
She stopped.
Across the street stood Blade.
He looked older than she remembered. Quieter too. There was no weapon beneath his jacket and no one standing behind him.
He was alone, holding an umbrella.
Their eyes met.
Blade did not cross the road.
He waited.
Sharon understood immediately.
He was leaving the decision to her.
She crossed.
“Hello, Blade.”
He gave her a cautious smile.
“Hello, Sharon.”
He glanced toward the café.
“Coffee?”
She studied him for a moment.
“One coffee.”
They walked inside.
At the counter, something caught Sharon’s attention.
A photograph was displayed beside a vase of fresh flowers.
She stopped.
Her breath caught.
The woman in the photograph was younger, but Sharon recognised her immediately.
Ada.
Under the photograph was a simple inscription:
FOUND ALIVE AFTER SEVEN YEARS.
Sharon turned slowly.
“She’s alive?”
Blade nodded.
But there was no happiness in his expression.
Only emotion he was struggling to contain.
“Where is she?”
He pointed toward the back of the café.
A woman sat alone at a table.
She looked older than the woman in the photograph. Her hair was shorter, and there was a guardedness in her eyes that Sharon immediately noticed.
She had been found eleven months earlier in another state, living under a different name.
For seven years, she had been moved between safe houses and eventually placed with a family who believed she was a relative of one of the women who had disappeared with her.
She had survived.
But survival had not restored the years she had lost.
When the authorities finally identified her, Ada refused to return home immediately.
She couldn’t.
She was afraid of familiar places.
Afraid of crowded rooms.
Afraid of sleeping with the lights off.
She spent months in counselling before she was ready to meet the brother who had spent seven years searching for her.
Today was the first time she had agreed to see him outside a rehabilitation centre.
Ada looked up.
She saw Blade.
For several seconds, neither moved.
Then her lips parted.
“Daniel?”
Blade broke.
He had faced armed men without flinching. He had sat through years in prison and accepted the consequences of his crimes.
But hearing his real name from his sister reduced him to tears.
He crossed the room slowly.
Ada stood.
For one terrible second, she seemed unsure whether to move toward him.
Then she did.
They embraced.
Ada pressed her face against his shoulder.
“You really came.”
Blade closed his eyes.
“I never stopped looking.”
“You said you would find me.”
“I know.”
“You were so stubborn.”
A broken laugh escaped him.
“I know.”
Ada pulled away and touched his face.
Blade looked at her as though he was trying to memorise every detail.
Then his expression changed.
He realised something Sharon had already understood.
Getting Ada back had not brought the past back with her.
He had missed seven birthdays.
Seven Christmas mornings.
Seven ordinary afternoons.
Seven years of watching his little sister grow into someone he no longer knew.
Ada had survived.
But she had changed.
So had he.
And neither of them could recover the people they had been before she disappeared.
Blade lowered his head.
“I should have been there.”
Ada shook her head.
“You were looking for me.”
“I should have found you sooner.”
“You found me.”
Her voice softened.
“That has to be enough.”
Blade looked at her, tears running freely down his face.
For the first time, Sharon understood the depth of his obsession.
It had begun with grief.
But somewhere along the way, grief had hardened into anger, and anger had turned him into someone capable of doing terrible things.
Finding Ada had not erased what he had become.
It had simply given him a reason to stop running from it.
Ada finally noticed Sharon.
Her expression changed.
“Is that her?”
Blade glanced at Sharon.
He did not answer for her.
Sharon stepped forward.
“I’m Sharon.”
Ada looked at her for a long moment.
“I know.”
Sharon’s chest tightened.
“Blade told you about me?”
Ada nodded.
“He told me what he did.”
Sharon looked at Blade.
He lowered his eyes.
Ada continued quietly.
“He also told me that you were the first person who made him understand what he had become.”
Sharon didn’t know what to say.
She still remembered the locked room.
The fear.
The nights she had cried herself to sleep.
She also remembered the man who had protected her, confessed his crimes and accepted the consequences.
Both memories were true.
Neither cancelled the other.
Ada reached for her brother’s hand.
“Don’t waste what you have left.”
Blade looked at her.
“I won’t.”
His eyes moved toward Sharon.
“But whatever happens between us is her choice.”
Sharon felt something tighten in her chest.
That was the answer she had needed, even if she wasn’t ready to give him the one he wanted.
Outside, the rain grew heavier.
Sharon glanced toward the café entrance.
The door stood open.
Three years ago, an open door would have meant nothing to her.
Now it meant everything.
She could leave.
Nobody would stop her.
She could forgive Blade without loving him.
She could care about him without trusting him completely.
She could even walk away and still believe that his redemption was real.
Those choices belonged to her.
Sharon looked back at him.
“One coffee,” she said.
Blade smiled.
“One coffee.”
Ada laughed softly.
They sat together.
No promises were made.
No future was decided.
For once, there was no need to force an ending.
Sharon had spent too long having choices taken from her.
She would not surrender this one.
And as the rain beat against the windows, Blade looked at the open door beside them.
Then at Sharon.
He understood.
She was not staying because she was trapped.
She was staying because, for the first time, she was free to leave.
And she had chosen not to.
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