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At My Bridal Shower, The Blindfolded Game Took A Shocking Turn—What I Touched Left Everyone Silent
I was blindfolded by the females at my bridal shower for a ridiculous “trust game.” Until my hands touched something warm, familiar, and unachievable, I giggled as I made guesses about each object. My breath caught, and everything fell apart when I tore off the blindfold.
I was in the middle of a group of people in masquerade masks, as if they were at a fancy event rather than a bridal shower in the suburbs.
“Okay, Hannah!” Sophie’s voice broke the commotion. “The Trust Game is about to begin! Let’s examine our soon-to-be bride’s life knowledge through touch.”
Sophie wrapped a silk scarf tightly about my eyes.
“First item,” said Sophie.
A gentle object fell into my hands. I felt the small elastic cuff as I brushed my fingertips over it.
“Baby socks?” I speculated.
Around me, squeals broke out.
The voice said, “She’s good!”
“Next one.”
The items continued to arrive. I instantly recognized the dog collar as belonging to my old high school volleyball jersey and my childhood golden retriever, Pepper.
I could feel myself settling into the game as each item elicited waves of praise and laughter.
Sophie’s voice then became more solemn and subdued.
“All right. The final one.”
I extended my hands in anticipation of something more. Rather, I sensed skin, warmth, and a strong forearm. My fingertips encountered an old leather bracelet as I traced downward.
My heart stopped beating. No. It isn’t possible.
I felt a heartbeat that thundered nearly as loudly as mine when my hand reached out and struck a firm chest.
And then I smelled his fragrance.
I ripped off the blindfold. Too real, too bright, the backyard whirled into focus. I looked at the man in front of me, who was still wearing a plain black mask over his face.
“Take off your mask.”
He paused. Slowly, almost grudgingly, I saw his hand rise and remove the mask.
Jake.
I could see all the hurt and regret I hadn’t allowed myself to consider in the two years since he disappeared as his eyes met mine.
Around me, the gasps sounded like smashing waves. My name was called, but it sounded far away, like it was underwater. Then I heard footsteps that were heavier. The voice of Ben.
“What the hell is this?”
I pivoted. Ben was standing at the rear gate with a tray of beverages that had spilled at his feet. The plastic cups were rolling on the grass and the liquid was seeping into the ground.
Sophie’s words were stumbling over one another as she spoke quickly.
“Ben, I can explain; it was just a game, I didn’t think—”
“You didn’t think?” Ben’s voice soared, piercing and menacing. “You brought my fiancée’s ex to her bridal shower and didn’t think?”
Now, people were moving, putting Ben and Jake at a distance. My cousin took Jake by the arm. Jake allowed himself to be drawn toward the direction of the gate, but his gaze remained fixed on me.
“Hannah!” His voice broke the commotion.
“He deliberately pursued you. I had to leave to keep you safe. Ben is not who you believe him to be.”
After that, three of my bridesmaids pulled him out. The gate behind him smashed.
Ben paced in front of me like a tiger in captivity when Morning found me in the kitchen with a mug of coffee.
“That was sick,” he said into his voice. “Appearing in that manner? It’s obvious that the man is still fixated on you.”
Slowly, I raised my gaze. “He said you’re not who I think you are.”
Ben gave a brief, brittle chuckle. “Because he’s not getting married and I am? Hannah, that’s textbook projection.”
“He said it like he knew something.”
Ben’s pace ceased. With a look a lawyer gives a jury, he put his hands on the back of a chair and stared at me.
“Hannah, don’t let him mess with your head. You’re superior than it. You are aware of who I am. You’ve slept next to me, lived with me, and created a life with me.” His tone became softer. Jake is merely the one who fled. It’s clear that he’s the kind of guy who becomes really serious when someone calls his bluff.
However, I was unable to let it go.
Sophie was wearing sweatpants and a soiled T-shirt when she answered the door that afternoon. She appeared to have not slept either, and her eyes were red.
I was not quite ready to enter, so I crossed my arms in the doorway. “You should have told me you’d invited Jake.”
Sophie gave a pitiful nod. “I understand. He told me he had to warn you about something when we met three weeks ago at that downtown coffee shop. He appeared to be sincerely worried about you.”
“But what he said makes no sense!” I raised my hands. “He and Ben have never even met…”
With a shrug, Sophie grabbed her phone off the table in the foyer. She held something out to me after scrolling through it.
“You want his number?”
I gazed at the display. Ten numbers that had the power to either solve all of my problems or ruin what little life I had left.
I grabbed the phone and entered my own number.
I made plans to meet Jake at a park the following day after sending him a text right away. When I got there, he was already there.
I skipped the welcome and said, “You said Ben isn’t who I think he is,” instead.
Jake gave a nod. “He’s not.”
“Then tell me who he is.”
Jake inhaled deeply. “He’s my half-brother.”
That was not one of the things I had hoped he would say.
“Our father is the same. Two years ago, I learned about it from one of those DNA matching firms. I took a seat next to him, allowing room between us, and he took a seat on a bench. I made contact. You know, I was thrilled. Siblings had always been my dream. We had coffee together.”
“And?”
And he hardly spoke to me at all. left after paying for his own drink. Jake lowered his voice. However, a few weeks later, I made another attempt. Things were eerie at that point.
Jake went on, “He agreed to meet, but he wasn’t there when I showed up.” “I believed he had escaped. He was waiting outside my flat when I arrived home.”
A shiver went through my body. “What did he want?”
“He said it was unjust and that I didn’t deserve to live a nice life. I assumed he was just a damaged, irate man. He was not taken seriously by me. I made that error.”
“What happened?”
“Everything broke down. They blamed my job loss on budget cuts, yet I had recently received an excellent review. I was abruptly given 30 days to vacate by my landlord. Years of clients suddenly stopped coming to me for no apparent reason. It was as though my existence had been methodically destroyed.”
I was ill. “You think Ben did that?”
“I’m positive he did. Remember the evening we spent watching the fireworks by the river?”
I gave a nod. Naturally, I recalled the final evening I had spent with him prior to his disappearance.
“When I arrived home, he was already there. He threatened to ruin me and everyone I cared about if I didn’t disappear after showing me a photo he had taken of us at the park.”
I had trembling hands. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
Jake’s voice broke. “Because I was afraid. of him. Of his treatment of you.” I believed that if I listened to him and walked away, he would stop and leave you alone. I noticed tears in his eyes as he turned to face me. “I didn’t think he would come after you. I felt nauseous when I came across your announcement of engagement online. I had to return to caution you.”
Everything I believed to be true changed into something darker and more repulsive at that very instant.
The apartment was dark when I got home that evening, with only the TV’s blue light flickering across the living room. Ben appeared completely at ease as he sat on the couch.
I blocked his view of the TV by standing in front of it. “Today, I talked to Jake. He filled me in on everything.”
Ben didn’t flinch at all. “So he fed you his sob story.”
“Is it true?”
Ben studied me, leaning back.
“The truth is that when I was two years old, our father left my mother and me. While I bounced around foster care, Jake grew up in a pristine picket-fence-lined suburb.”
His eyes become piercing, and I noticed a coldness in them that I had never seen before.
“He had it all. I had nothing. I simply balanced the scales.”
“You made him lose everything.”
Ben’s head cocked. “Siblings are supposed to be equal, aren’t they?”
“Equality is not that. That is cruel.”
Ben carefully got up from the sofa.
“I deserve you, but he didn’t. You were merely going through the motions before me, but I inspired you to go further. I improved you.”
I flinched. “I wasn’t loved by you. You got me.”
Whatever you want to call it. It’s me that you accepted.
I took off my ring of engagement. As I carefully set the diamond on the coffee table, it caught the TV light.
“Not anymore.”
Ben remained still. He simply gazed at me with his lifeless, icy eyes.
“You’ll regret this.”
“I already don’t.” I picked up my handbag and left.
I went directly to Sophie. She just drew me in and hugged me as I sobbed without asking any questions.
We ate ice cream right out of the container while sitting in pajamas on the floor of her living room that evening. Everything that had changed made the air feel thick.
“I messed up everything,” Sophie said.
My head was resting on her shoulder. “No. I would have married someone who never truly loved me, but you saved me.”
Something that had been constricted in my chest finally relaxed when she squeezed my hand.
I threw a backyard brunch at my mother’s house three weeks later on the day I would have been married.
In the early morning light, Sophie assisted me in setting up tables. My mother repeatedly touched my shoulder as if she needed to confirm that I was real and that everything was alright.
Then Jake showed up. He was unsure as he stood at the gate with a small present package in his hand.
When he said, “I’m not here with expectations,” “Just some respite. that you are aware of.”
I approached him and picked up the box. The leather bracelet I had given him years before was inside.
He remarked, “I thought you’d want this back,” “Clean slate and all.”
I could definitely see our past when I looked at him. Both the positive and negative aspects, the love and the loss. Furthermore, I felt positive that I was at last free of it.
“Keep it,” I said. “It looks better on you anyway.”
I turned to see all the women I loved seated around the tables when Sophie screamed my name from the other side of the yard.
I rushed to be with them.
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