Finding Contentus

Chapter 164: Give Up

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"Mina!"

Minaleese was there in no time, as if she'd materialised out of thin air. "What's wrong dear?" She asked, wide-eyed with worry.

"Nothing. I just wanted to see you," Neosa said, swinging her legs off the rooftop.

Minaleese just looked at her. "Nothing? You nearly gave me a heart attack."

Neosa grinned.

"You're grinning about nearly giving me a heart attack?" Minaleese raised a hand to her head, on the verge of fainting.

Neosa clapped her hands and laughed. "You're so funny."

Minaleese joined her on the rooftop once she'd regained her composure. "There's a question in your eyes."

Neosa kept swinging her legs. When asking questions that would take them to the murky rivers where hippos did their business like no one's business, she preferred to lighten the mood with a playful splash. "Why did it take you so long to leave Maxis?"

It didn't look like Minaleese was breathing as she stared at her.

Neosa stopped swinging her legs. "The way you described him confused me. I know you mentioned your duty. But you're super strong." Neosa squeezed Minaleese's arms. "You could have beaten him."

Something about that phrasing caused Minaleese to wilt.

Neosa panicked. Did she say something insensitive? She thought she was being helpful. Besides, it wasn't boasting. It was facts. Plain and simple. Her mother was super strong, even if she tried to hide it. No one just brought the strongest motherfucker in Constanshiya to their senses on a whim.

"I didn't believe I could beat him," Minaleese admitted softly. "My mental strength was not up to par, you see. That and... well, when you love someone, even if it's a romanticised idea of that person, some part of you believes that you can save that person." She cast her eyes down, brushing stray leaves off the rooftop. "I hoped that I'd be able to seal the monster and retrieve the man."

She smiled morosely at Neosa. "I'm sure you can see why I was so invested in Renero. At least at the start. Marriage is like walking into adversity itself. Not prosperity. Neither of you are prepared for when the tough times become a daily practice. All you know is that you have to make things work."

"And if the marriage doesn't work?" Neosa asked. The concept of an unhealthy relationship, hell, an abusive one at that, was completely alien to her, given her upbringings in Mootlakeng.

"Then you make other, more important things work. Your worth shouldn't be defined by your partner." Minaleese's eyes went round, as if stumbling upon the answer to Neosa's earlier question. "I suppose that's why it took me so long to leave Maxis. Who was I without him?" She gestured to herself. "In many ways, the woman you see before you today is a result of all the emotions he brought out in me. For that I am thankful."

Neosa didn't like the idea of thanking that maxed out monkey for anything, but she couldn't deny Minaleese's feelings. They belonged to her, after all, just as Kakara's feelings belonged to her.

"You were afraid, ah,neh?" Neosa cut straight to the beetroot.

Minaleese's smile lost its warmth. She started tracing Neosa's planetary marks on her upper left arm, as if to syphon courage from the beyond. "I was afraid. Even if I did escape, where would I go? I didn't have the most exciting personality by any means. I had to fake many things initially, including social activities. A needle was more exciting than I was."