When Love Finds You

Chapter 10

*TRIGGER WARNING: TALKS OF ABUSE*

"Kinakabahan ka ba?" Olga asked as they sat in a booth down the street from the hospital.

"Konti," Leona said, sitting down across from the brunette.

"Relax, Leo." It had been two weeks since the dark haired woman had returned to her house to gather some of her things, only to find her husband at home. In those fourteen days, she had still only hung out at the apartment, keeping herself sheltered under the roof of the apartment. She told the brunette it was okay to tell her friends, but Olga could tell the dark haired woman was still uncertain about it, so she kept quiet about Leona until she was ready to face the world. "It'll be okay," she said glancing across at her, then looking over her menu. "Natawagan mo na ba siya?" She asked.

"Oo," Leona was talking to Olga a few nights ago and told her she thought she needed to call her husband and try to talk some things out with him. "Sabi ko sa kanya I wanted an annulment."

"At?" She looked up over her menu.

"Hindi siya masaya. He says he misses me," she sighed. "Hindi ko maintindihan. It's not like I meant anything to him. Especially in the last two years or so," she finally looked up at Olga. "Gusto niya magkaayos kami."

"Seryoso ka ba?" She asked in disgust. "After lahat ng ginawa niya sa'yo, umaasa siyang magkakaayos kayo?" She couldn't believe after their run in, that Carlos was willing to take her back so easily. She knew he was just trying to butter her up for the moment and she hoped Leona saw right through it too.

"I guess so," she shrugged, looking down at her menu. This was the first time the two had been out in public together and Leona was a little nervous, but if Carlos hadn't figured out she was in Batangas by now, odds were he wouldn't.

"Ano iniisip mo?" The brunette asked after a few minutes of silence.

"Hindi ko alam," she shook her head and rested her face in her hands. "It's like he's trying to be sweet. Like the man I used to know," she breathed as the waitress came and took their order. "I've known him for eleven years and have been with him for six of those years. Ang hirap lang, alam mo ba 'yon?"

"Mahal... mo pa ba siya?" Olga asked after they placed their breakfast order. The brunette felt sick to her stomach when she saw the woman in front of her wrestle with her thoughts. She was afraid she would fall back into that life.

"Ha," she scoffed. "I once did. Minahal ko naman siya, pero lumipas ang panahon the loved I had transformed into hate." She whispered. "Namiss ko siya." She said shyly.

"Namiss mo siya?" Olga couldn't disguise her shocked face.

Leona thought about that question for a few minutes, before she answered truthfully. "I miss the person I used to know. The fun, outgoing, lovable, caring man he once was. I don't miss the man he is now," she never envisioned her life ending up like this.

"Oh."

"Hindi naman siya laging ganito, Olga. Naging mabuting asawa din naman siya sa akin. He really was," Leona could tell that Olga was becoming a little hesitant with the way she was talking about her husband. "My head knows he's no good for me, but my heart says maybe magbabago siya kung bibigyan ko siya ng pagkakataon."

"Bibigyan mo ba siya ng isa pang pagkakataon?" She asked, concerned.

"I can't take that chance again. I can't live my life with uncertainty. And if I went back that's what I would be doing. Waiting for the shoe to drop again, because let's face it, it would happen eventually."

"What happened to turn him into this guy, Leona?"

"I have asked myself the same thing, for more than two years."