3. Confession

Various thoughts that approached Bonita could not make her fall asleep despite trying to close her eyes. When she finally opened them because they felt very sore, Velica was already asleep.

She sighed irritably and took her phone lying nearby, but there was no news from Benjamin, which made the wound in her heart widen and start to feel suffocating. Now, the bad feelings churning inside her heart turned into waves rolling uncontrollably.

'He must be busy, right? Busy making love.' She thought despairingly.

Her chest throbbed painfully at those words. She could imagine what Benjamin and the model named Zayna were doing as if she was actually seeing it in front of her eyes. Something she had never done with Benjamin in their four years of relationship. However, she was an adult woman. She knew exactly what happens when a couple makes love.

'Get a grip, Boo! You should let him go if he really is cheating on you! Be strong like your father!' Her weak heart scolded.

The burden that approached her increased. The trust she tried to give to a man was shattered just because there was a woman willing to have an affair with her boyfriend.

'Who should I blame? Bee for cheating on me or Zayna for agreeing to the affair? Or ... myself for never giving Bee the chance to make love with me?'

Bonita's mind still tried to reject the fact that Benjamin had betrayed her, but her heart was too pained to imagine how the trust she had placed in her boyfriend had been destroyed just like that. It took her years to entrust such confidence to a man, and only regret remained within her now.

Her mother's face flashed in her mind. The woman who gave birth to her left with another man. Bonita still remembered calling out to that woman to stay, but she ignored her and chose to leave with a jerk whose name had long been forgotten.

Bonita forced her eyes shut as her mind grew more restless. She wanted all those bad thoughts to go away. However, they stayed and echoed like the drums of war.

The phone's alarm made Bonita open her eyes. She turned off the alarm and went to the sink to wash her face. When she returned, Velica was still asleep.

She wrote a message on a piece of paper and placed it under Velica's phone, then took her bag and keys before leaving the room. Her feet walked quickly towards the car to return to the hotel where Benjamin was staying. She parked the car in front of the restaurant where she had dinner with Velica the previous night and watched everyone passing by the hotel across the street.

It was still very early when Bonita noticed a secluded door in a corner of the hotel that she hadn't seen the night before. A few people who looked like cleaning staff were hurriedly going in and out. The door wasn't guarded by anyone and seemed safe to enter.

Bonita got out of the car and walked about twenty meters to the left before crossing the street. She followed the steps of two women heading to the hotel and slipped in through the secluded door. Her heart pounded in rhythm with her quick steps down the quiet hotel corridor.

'Now what should I do? I don't even know where their room is. Should I just go back to the car?'

Just as Bonita arrived in front of an elevator. She randomly pressed the button for the fourth floor and entered the elevator when its doors opened. She intended to look around the hotel and leave if there were no signs of Benjamin or Zayna.

The elevator doors closed and reopened upon reaching the fourth floor. A man in formal attire greeted her as they passed each other. Bonita returned the greeting awkwardly and walked away, worried about being recognized as an intruder.

"Why didn't I ask him where Zayna's room is? He might know." Bonita muttered as she realized her mistake.

She clicked her tongue in frustration at her own foolishness and continued walking down the hallway with many doors on both sides. Each door had sequential numbers. She was sure that Benjamin and Zayna were in one of those rooms, though she didn't know which number.

A woman who looked drunk came out of a room about nine meters away from where Bonita stood. They passed each other without exchanging glances or words. Bonita continued walking and turned, finding another corridor with doors on both sides. The corridor and doors looked the same as the previous ones.

Bonita sighed heavily, feeling her efforts were in vain, and turned back the way she came. Instead of using the elevator, she descended the emergency stairs to the third floor. She was about to continue down to the second floor when she heard a familiar male voice. She stopped to listen carefully. The man's voice was light and sounded soft to her ears.

"News about us needs to be confirmed," the man said urgently.

Bonita was sure it was Benjamin's voice. She peeked by shifting her body slightly towards the elevator. Her suspicion was correct. Benjamin was standing in front of the elevator with a graceful and sexy woman whom Bonita recognized from photos as Zayna. Zayna was hugging Benjamin's arm and resting her head on his shoulder with a coquettish gaze as if Benjamin belonged to her. The scene Bonita saw suddenly looked disgusting.

'They're really doing it. They're really making love, aren't they?' Bonita thought with growing hatred. Anger surged through her veins, making her tense and speechless as she searched for the right words to curse the two cheaters.

Just as Bonita was about to speak up and confront them, they entered the elevator. She quickly moved towards them and made eye contact with Benjamin just as the elevator doors were about to close.

Benjamin released Zayna's embrace from his arm when he noticed Bonita's presence, just as Bonita ran down the emergency stairs with a broken heart, unable to say anything. The intention to channel her anger at Benjamin and Zayna evaporated when Bonita saw the guilty look in Benjamin's eyes, which seemed like a confession of his actions.

"Boo!" Benjamin shouted, trying to force the elevator doors open. Unfortunately for him, the doors opened very slowly. "Wait!"

"Forget it. She won't listen to you," Zayna said casually, reaching out to hug Benjamin again.

Benjamin brushed off Zayna's hand. He ran after Bonita, but her steps were too fast to catch up.

Bonita no longer cared which door she used. The pain in her heart made it impossible to think clearly. She headed towards the main entrance and left without looking back, with Benjamin's voice calling her name repeatedly echoing in her ears.

Bonita's initial doubts were now firmly resolved. She would leave Benjamin and live alone forever. The one thing that had been etched in her soul for years, which had been forgotten over the past four years, now returned to her.

Why?

Because if one intends to leave, then the other must let go. Just like the relationship that happened between her parents.

***