Betrayed (The New Yorker)

by M. O. Kenyan

  “She’s strong, my little girl. She’ll live, even if it’s just to tell you she loves you.” Rosalinda cupped Lisette’s limp palm against her cheek. “She’ll live. She has to. I can’t lose both my babies.”

  “Catalella will be fine.” Reno tried to reassure her. AJ had told him that they had caught the cancer early. Catalella was already on radiation, a few sessions of that and she would get a transplant from AJ. Before they knew it Catalella would be as good as new. And maybe her new lease on life would make her realize that she was wasting her time with Michael. Reno had done everything to hold himself back from pummeling Michael to a pulp. He had only seen him once since he had arrived. Either the worm was staying out of his way or he hadn’t been to visit his wife.

  Reno looked up when AJ entered the room with his supervisor. The man didn’t look like he had slept for a year. AJ had taken residence at the hospital On-Call room. He was never too far from his sisters whenever they needed him.

  “I see she’s still being stubborn,” AJ teased. “Hey, piggy, wake up or I’m going to shave all your hair.”

  “You wouldn’t dare,” Reno put in.

  “If she doesn’t wake up she’s going to end up bald.”

  “Don’t worry, mija, I won’t let your brother do that to you,” Rosalinda said. “How is Catalella?”

  “She’s asking for you.”

  “I’ll be right back, piccolina. Reno will protect you from your brother’s threats.” Rosalinda gave Lisette a blessing then left.

  Reno saw the looks AJ and his supervisor exchanged. There was something they didn’t want to tell Rosalinda. She didn’t take the news of Lisette’s drinking well, so whatever they were hiding was bound to drive her off the edge. “All right, let’s move past the bullshit and you tell me what is really going on with her.”

  “Reno, you are like my brother. I just want you to be honest with me.” It was obvious AJ was struggling with what he wanted to say. “Are you and my sister sexually active?”

  The question hit him like a ton of bricks. He took a step back. For a moment he thought about lying but he couldn’t. What if Lisette was pregnant? He couldn’t claim the baby as his. When Lisette woke up she was bound to call him out on the lie. “No, we are not. Why?”

  “I want to do a rape kit.”

  “What?”

  “Lisette had traces of Rohypnol in her blood. We were so busy trying to stabilize her we didn’t look at the lab reports. I’m so sorry,” AJ said.

  “You think she was raped?” Reno could hear the hard beating of his heart fill his ears. Had he left Lisette alone after she had been assaulted by Michael? He thought back to that night…she had seemed to be out of it.

  But Reno had thought the surprise of him finding them out was what had her in a daze. He could punch himself. No, not himself, but the bastard who had done this to her. “I’m going to kill him!”

  “Who?”

  “Michael Mathews.” Reno dropped into the chair his hands covering his face from the shame of looking into AJ’s eyes. His sister had been his responsibility. AJ had entrusted him with his little sister and Reno had let her get raped. Then he didn’t even stick around to make sure that she was all right. He had left. And now Lisette was lying in bed, a brace around her neck, her head and back. Lisette had fractured her spine, had a head injury. She had a broken arm, leg, and a couple of broken ribs, a punctured lung, and a tiny rip in her heart muscle. While he had been away pining about his broken heart, Lisette was literally broken.

  “We have to tell the police,” the doctor put in.

  “No, that’s not what Lisette would want. Catalella is sick and Lisette would want to protect her,” AJ said.

  “She wouldn’t be against us taking matters into our own hands.” Reno and AJ exchanged a look—and that let him know AJ was on board. There was one thing he had to ask of AJ and expected the man to go against him. “Don’t do the rape kit. I know she’ll feel violated.”

  “What you mean to say is that you don’t want it confirmed. You don’t want to upset my parents by making it public. I’m angry at you, Reno, but I know that there are things that are taken out of our hands.”

  “She wouldn’t call me back, and when I found Michael with her, I assumed—”

  “You assumed she was cheating on you. She hates Michael. Anyway I’m glad you gave him a beating, but he’s due for another.”

  “Agreed. Do you know when she’ll wake up?”

  “The swelling in her brain has gone down. We reversed the medical coma we put her in. Now it’s up to her.” AJ stroked her hair lovingly.

  “What about the body brace?”

  “That will have to stay until her spine has healed. She needs to be as still as possible, to prevent further damage and allow her body to heal.”

  “I’m going to kill him,” Reno growled.

  “It’s a good thing he is in a hospital.”

  Chapter Nine

  “What’s going on here?”

  Everyone was silent as Catalella’s terrified eyes darted around the room. With a forced laugh she tried to mask her fear. Seconds ticked by and she realized no one was laughing with her.

  Reno’s heart shot to his throat. He blinked back the tears threatening to spill out of his eyes. He and Catalella didn’t have that kind of friendship where they talked each other’s ears off. She was seven years younger than he was and honestly not interested in the topics that he was. But Catalella was AJ and Lisette’s little sister and that was how he felt toward this wilting lily.

  He looked over at AJ. His face was an image of composure. Reno knew AJ’s fingers were balled into fists hidden in his lab coat. He was ready to fight for his little sister. The enemy wasn’t tangible and that killed him even more. He hated imagining Rhyne or Daniela in this position, but he forced himself to. His heart cracked under the pressure of the painful emotions running through him.

  “Okay, you guys, you’ve even got the Samoan Hulk worried.” Catalella teased pointing at him. Reno awarded her strength and brevity with a smile of his own. “Even his tattoos are starting to frown. Maybe you could take Michael to get some done.”

  “He’s going to get something done to him, all right!” AJ hissed.

  “How far do yours go?” Catalella had decided to ignore AJ’s comment.

  “Uh-my tattoos?” Reno didn’t think Michael had the stomach to do a tribal tattoo as extensive as his was. He rolled up the long sleeves of his flannel shirt, pointing at where the tattoo started mid-bicep. “They start here and cover my left pec and the left side of my chest.”

  “Lisette must be crazy about them, I know I would be,” she giggled. Then Catalella let out a frustrated sigh. “Okay people, give it to me. I can take it. Before you give me my death sentence, get me my big sister. I don’t understand why she’s not here if she’s already come back from Hawaii.”

  “You told her Lisette went to the island with me?” Reno blurted out.

  “Yes, we couldn’t tell her. Catalella had passed out. She had just found out her prognosis. We couldn’t tell her at that moment,” AJ defended.

  “Tell me what?” The trembling fear in Catalella’s tone silenced the room. As if to announce her fear, her heart monitors started beeping faster than usual.

  “Relax, peanut,” AJ soothed.

  “What happened to Lisette? Tell me!”

  “After you relax!” AJ barked.

  Reno was about to chastise AJ at his bedside manner. It was obvious that Catalella was scared for her sister, but barking at her didn’t seem the proper way to handle the situation. Reno was proved wrong when Catalella took a deep breath and firmly shut her mouth. The whimpering disappeared and the tears seemed to freeze in her eyes.

  “Lisette had an accident, but she is doing great.” AJ smiled reassuringly. Who was he trying to convince, Catalella or himself? “We put her in a medically induced coma so her brain could heal. She’s doing fine. You know she wouldn’t want you to worry about her. She would wa
nt you to get better.”

  Catalella nodded her head. She forced her lips into a faltering smile. Reno could almost see her resolve break. She held firm, her eyes stuck on AJ. It was like it was just the two of them in the room—everyone else could have disappeared for all they knew. That was what pained him most about not having Rhyne with him. Catalella burst into a storm of tears and AJ just held her. Reno was angry at the envy he felt of the picture before him—a big brother comforting his little sister. Feeling out of place, he started to retreat.

  “Reno?” He stopped at the sound of Catalella’s muffled cry.

  Reno moved to the side of the bed and stood next to AJ. He held onto her free hand and almost collapsed at the strength he felt surging through her dainty fingers. It was then that he realized that he did have a little sister. In the mean time he would hang onto Catalella’s love until he found Rhyne.

  “She’s not going to die. She’s already planning her wedding to you.” Reno feigned shock and that got a laugh out of her. “She’s also planned the marriage. The house just outside the city, not too far from Mama and Papa, and how many kids you are going to have. She wants two girls and one boy.”

  “Let me guess—so the girls could torture the boy. My poor son.”

  The room erupted into laughter. But their joy was dampened when Michael walked in. “What’s going on here? You shouldn’t be crowding her.”

  “Since I’m paying the medical bills, I decide who gets to be here and who doesn’t.” The threat in Adrian Senior’s deep timbre stunned the room into silence. For a few uncomfortable minutes Adrian and Michael stared at each other. Reno scoffed at how brave Michael was trying to be. He was no wimp, but Reno knew better than to try and out stare the mountain that was Adrian Jackson Ross Senior.

  “I didn’t mean it that way,” Michael said, his ego taken down a few notches.

  “How exactly did you mean it?” Adrian Senior shot back.

  “Actually, since I am the doctor here, I say we all leave little miss Catalella to rest,” AJ put in.

  “Mrs. Mathews,” Michael corrected.

  “You’d better hope I don’t forget that,” Reno threatened, his lips pulling into a slow grin. The fear that reflected off Michael’s eyes was reward enough for him. In Catalella’s hospital room, he wouldn’t make a play for the sniveling rat. Out in the hallway…Michael was fair game.

  “Wait, you haven’t told me what happens next,” Catalella said.

  “With Lisette?”

  “No, with me. What happens after the chemotherapy and the radiation?”

  “We caught it early but there’s just one more procedure after radiotherapy.” AJ turned back to her and pulled out his doctor voice. Reno had to admire that in him. He went from being big brother, to angry big brother then to doctor in a flat second. Now he talked to Catalella as his patient, to reassure her and make her understand the steps she had to take on her way to recovery. “You will get a bone marrow transplant, from me.”

  “I want Lisette to be my donor,” Catalella announced.

  AJ’s schooled feature fell and Reno could see the hurt in his eyes. “No offense, dummy,” said Catalella, “but I’d rather have you play doctor to both Lisette and me. We don’t need another Ross occupying a hospital bed. You need to be looking over the other doctors’ shoulders and making sure they do everything right. Plus, I don’t want any boy germs in my body.” Catalella scrunched up her nose like a nine year old.

  To Reno, Catalella was exactly that, a child. He threw a nasty glare at Michael. Surely even through the haze of his greed Michael Mathews could see that Catalella was a child too. Sure she was seventeen, but she had been coddled all her life so she’d never had the opportunity to face life head on. She had AJ, Lisette, and her parents as a buffer. What the hell was Michael Mathews going to do with a teenager in the hours that he isn’t sexually harassing the rest of the female population? Shame on him.

  “Boy germs huh? How I wish,” AJ muttered the last part under his breath.

  Reno caught it and he couldn’t help but feel the same way too. How he wished Michael’s boy germs never got into Catalella. “You make a good point, Ross number three. I will talk it over with Lisette’s team of doctors and let you guys know. Reno, come with me?”

  “Sure, see you later number three.” Reno gave Catalella a quick kiss and left the room. He couldn’t help the pleasure he felt when Michael moved out of their way and ran to Catalella’s bedside like a little boy hiding behind his mother’s skirt.

  Once they were in Lisette’s room, Reno let out a groan of frustration. “I just wanted to nail his face into the wall.”

  “Trust me, so did I. We can’t do that now.” AJ put his hand on Reno’s shoulders. “I need to talk to the doctors. Lisette’s immune system isn’t compromised, but they might not think Catalella’s idea is the best one.”

  Reno walked away from AJ and headed toward the window. He stared out at the New York view and all he could see were buildings and more buildings and people hurrying around doing their business. They were oblivious of the hearts breaking in the hospital, of the hard decisions being made every second that ticked by and the frustration a man in love felt having no say over the life of his girlfriend.

  “What do you think?”

  “About what?” he answered distracted.

  “What do you think about Lisette being a donor? You heard Catalella. You two are practically married. You have a house outside of the city with—”

  “—two girls and one boy,” Reno cut in, “I know.” He smiled, but something else ate at him. “Hearing that she’s already planned out our lives makes me feel terrible for thinking that she was cheating.”

  Reno walked over to the foot of her bed and held onto one of Lisette’s toes. He looked at her, and his heart broke away into little pieces. She was hurt, she was really hurt. Her right leg was in a cast and it was held up in the air by a set of traction pulleys. Her right arm was in a cast, and lay across her chest. As Reno walked over to the side of the bed, his hands smoothed the length of the metal brace that was holding her together. The ribs on the right side of her chest were all broken, she had a punctured lung and a broken collar bone. Half of her face looked like it didn’t belong on his beautiful Lisette. Her right eye was swollen shut and her beautiful brown skin was now black, blue and purple.

  Every time he took inventory of her broken body, rage burned white hot in his chest. He pulled back his hand when he realized how violently he was shaking. It was anger that possessed him, made his chest heave and his lungs ache at how fast and short his breaths were. Anger made his heart beat with such savagery, blood rush through his veins and pound in his ears.

  It was the weakness he felt in that moment that fueled the anger and made the murderous thoughts in his head vivid. Those murderous thoughts had Reno covering the distance between Lisette’s bed and the door in three long strides—he was going to kill Michael Mathews, consequences bedi’amned.

  Reno let out a feral growl when the weight of AJ’s body fell onto his back. “You can’t do what you are thinking, man!”

  “Get. Off. Me!” He bucked like a wild horse trying to throw AJ off but it didn’t work. It was worse when the object of his rage took that moment to emerge from Catalella’s room and stand in the hallway that divided the two girl’s room. A horrendously cruel laughter released from his lips when he saw the terror in Michael’s eyes. He forgot the man on his back and lunged forward for Michael. His attempt was foiled when another body charged at him from the front, sending all three men tumbling back into Lisette’s room in a great heap.

  “I’m going to kill him,” Reno hissed through clenched teeth. The door shut, taking Michael out of his line of sight. He tried to get off the floor but he couldn’t move, he was pinned to the ground. Who was the second man?

  “Whew! Hey, bro!” DJ’s boyish smile appeared before him. His bearded face burning bright with amusement. “For a second there I thought you would kill the bastard.
”

  “It’s a good thing he is in a hospital.” Reno stopped fighting them. “I am your elder brother, and I’m telling you to get off me!”

  “Since I like having a brother, I’m not letting you do anything.”

  Reno yielded to his brothers and they all lay on the sterile white hospital floor in silence.

  “I don’t want to alarm anyone, but hospital floors have all kinds of germs,” DJ teased.

  “You are such an idiot!” AJ shot back.

  “Says the doctor. You should know how many diseases are on this floor.” DJ jumped to his feet and the rest followed. Just then Dennis and Adrian burst into the room, confusion obvious on their faces.

  “What was all that?” Adrian asked.

  “A foiled attempt at murder.” DJ didn’t know when to stop.

  “What?” Adrian and Dennis exclaimed in unison.

  “I’m fine, he’s fine, everyone is fine,” Reno said. “No wait, everyone is not fine. If cancer was contagious I would blame him for that too.”

  “Who?” Dennis asked.

  “Michael Mathews,” DJ said. “Exactly what is going on?”

  Reno let out a frustrated breath. How was he supposed to tell them what happened to Lisette? These were the men in her life. He had entered her life, when they were taking care of her. The responsibility had been handed to him and he had fucked it up, royally. Laboring at finding the words, he decided the direct approach was the best. “The reason why Lisette was in the accident is because Michael Mathews drugged her.”

  DJ didn’t wait for any explanations. He opened Lisette’s door and said, “Forgive me for stopping you. You should definitely go kill the bastard.”

  “DJ, close that door,” Dennis ordered. “How do you know it was the Mathews fellow?”

  Reno explained that night to them, sparing Adrian Senior all the gory details as much as he could. He could see the pain in the old man’s face as he looked at his broken daughter, lying still in the hospital bed.