Betrayed (The New Yorker)

by M. O. Kenyan

  “Reno,” Lisette said in understanding. It had to be really bad. AJ didn’t say wait for Dad or Mum. He said wait for Reno. Lisette couldn’t. She needed to know now. “I get to decide what Reno knows and what he doesn’t know. If you won’t tell me, I will request a different doctor.”

  “You didn’t respond,” he whispered.

  “Are you crazy? I am responding. We are having a conversation, Adrian Jackson Ross Junior.”

  “I meant…” AJ swallowed hard.

  Lisette felt a sliver of fear course through her. Tears in her big brother’s eyes, she had never seen him cry. As AJ held onto her hand as he struggled to find words to give her the bad news, Lisette’s mind played the past two decades she had spent with AJ like a bad re-run. Nothing—she had no memory of AJ crying. As difficult as it was for her, she stilled the panicky emotion threatening to present itself as tears. She smiled, then waited. “I meant your legs, piggy. They didn’t respond to stimuli.”

  “Are you sure?”

  Keep calm, just relax. Heart, please don’t beat out of my chest. One, two, three…

  “We pricked the soles of your feet with a needle. You didn’t flinch, piggy.” Lisette bit down as a lone tear rolled down AJ’s cheek.

  “I’m…you mean to say…I can’t walk.”

  Four, five, six…

  “I didn’t notice I couldn’t feel my legs. Everything else hurt. I just assumed…”

  …seven, eight, nine…

  “But—I can’t walk.”

  “What do you mean you can’t walk?” Reno’s bellow filled the hospital room, bouncing off the white walls and settling deep inside Lisette’s heart. “You made a mistake, right, AJ?”

  “No, Reno, it’s not a mistake. She didn’t respond to stimuli.” With the two men staring at each other, Lisette took a well deserved second to freak out.

  I can’t walk. I can’t walk. I’m paralyzed. Disabled from the neck down. No, I can move my fingers, right?

  Lisette wiggled her fingers and was rewarded by movement. A startled look from AJ confirmed that she hadn’t dreamt it.

  “Repeat the test,” Reno demanded.

  Reno took AJ’s place beside her as AJ moved to the foot of the bed. She stared at the ceiling, praying to the Almighty that she feel the worst pain in her life. A few seconds passed, and there was nothing. No pain, no tickle, no feeling.

  “I’m paralyzed,” Lisette said aloud. She needed to accept it, to convince herself it didn’t matter. Coming out of the accident with her life was a major plus. She would have to do without her legs.

  “We are going to do some tests—” AJ begun but she cut him off.

  “More tests I can fail. Yippee!” The sarcasm dripped from her tone. “Whatever you do just make sure I’m still able to donate my bone marrow to Catalella.”

  “I don’t think—”

  “Then don’t. Don’t think, AJ. Whatever happens I am giving my sister bone marrow stem cells. I won’t fail at that too. God knows I’ve already failed her.”

  “You haven’t—”

  “Can I get some time alone, please?”

  “I don’t want to leave you,” Reno said.

  Lisette turned a deaf ear to the earnestness in his voice. He was hurting, his heart was probably breaking. Lisette needed a minute to digest it all without having to consider everyone else’s feelings. “I don’t want to be paralyzed, but here I lie. I just want a few minutes.”

  Reno nodded in understanding. “I’ll be right outside. I love you.”

  “I love me, too.” Lisette teased but the hitch in her voice betrayed her.

  She watched as Reno and AJ led the medical team out. Once alone, enveloped in a cloud of silence, Lisette froze in a singular moment,

  “You are going to dump him, and you know why?” Michael’s voice rang in her ears. But she now had a different reason to let Reno go.

  * * * *

  “She’s going to break up with me,” Reno confessed. Thinking about it in his head, fearing it in his heart sounded so different from actually uttering the words. Lisette was going to break up with him and there was nothing he could do about it.

  “I’m sure she won’t. She needs you.” AJ put a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

  “I don’t doubt that. I need her too, but she doesn’t need me here. She’s going to want to do this on her own.” Reno sighed in defeat. “And I’m going to let her.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “She needs to know I won’t stick by her out of pity, I don’t feel obligated. If I have to go away for a while, then come back and start afresh, I will. Lisette needs to accept her new reality and the changes it will make to her as a person.”

  “You must really love my sister.”

  “My heart beats for her. She controls me, possesses me, and owns me. She already is my partner because she is my soul mate, the love of my life. In a few months or years I will make her my wife. But right now she needs me to step back. It won’t be easy, but love never is.”

  Reno stepped back into the room, ready to accept the cruel loss that fate had dealt him once more. He was about to make it easy for Lisette, and tell her that he understood, and he would wait for her. However, he didn’t expect the battalion of words that punched him right in the heart.

  “I slept with Michael. I don’t expect you to understand. But you have to accept that we are done. It’s over. As soon as Catalella gets better, Michael will annul their marriage. We want to be together, Michael and I. You have to leave and you can’t come back.”

  “But—” the sound of blood rushing through his veins pounded in his ears. “Your virginity—”

  “It was mine to give and I decided to give it to Michael. When he married Catalella and you left, I realized he was the one I always wanted.”

  Through the haze of his tears, Reno couldn’t read Lisette’s expression. But in his mind he imagined her beautiful warm eyes turning icy as she shredded his heart with her wicked words. Reno’s body went numb. He back peddled out of the room. His legs began to fail him and he landed in his brother’s arms.

  “Reno?”

  “DJ, get me out of here.” He felt another pair of arms encircling his waist. His father was there, holding him up. “Father—”

  “It’s okay, son. I’ve got you.”

  At that moment he felt like a little boy. He was kicked back to when he was four years old, his knee scraped and his daddy lifting him up into his arms. He felt protected then, and now, he saw through the mist of betrayal with the eyes of a four year old seeking security in his daddy’s arms.

  * * * *

  Reno stared at the family portrait on his father’s penthouse living room wall. The four of them were smiling, they looked happy. He noticed something else. He and Rhyne weren’t in the picture. They weren’t part of the Kent family. They were the outsiders, one could say intruders. He didn’t belong in New York and if he hadn’t left the island he wouldn’t be torn apart from the inside out. He would be looking for his sister. He had to admit that without Kent resources he hadn’t got too far in the past. Now he had a lead.

  “I’m going to go back to the island.” His gaze never left Daniela’s smiling face as he spoke. “I don’t belong here.”

  “You have more of a right than I do.” DJ sat down on the sofa next to him, the ice cubes in his whiskey clinking against each other. “You are the first born remember, heir to the Kent fortune and name.”

  “I’m not legitimate.”

  “Let me not ever hear you say that,” Dennis’ gruff tone said from behind Reno. “You are just as legitimate as your brother and your sister. You are my son.”

  “That doesn’t matter. I need to leave this place.”

  “You can’t run away from your heartbreak, son.”

  “I’m not running away I’m just—” escaping. “I need to find Rhyne.” Reno took DJ’s glass and emptied the contents in one gulp.

  “I have people searching for her. You need to finish school and
learn the ropes at Kent-Corp.”

  Reno turned around and glared at his father. He was about to tell him that he didn’t have a right to tell him what to do. But, for a second he allowed himself to think. His ego had taken a definite beating but he wasn’t about to allow his pride to suffer as well.

  Michael and Lisette weren’t going to run him out of town. He wasn’t going to let them think they had beaten him. School and work was going to keep him busy. Hopefully it would take his mind off everything around him, silence the uproar in his heart. He needed a distraction.

  “I want to be included in everything about Rhyne. I’ll stay.”

  “That makes one of us,” DJ said.

  “I thought you came back for good?” Dennis asked.

  “I came back because Catalella and Lisette were in the hospital, and my brother needed me.”

  Reno was touched by the tender look in DJ’s eyes. He really did come to make sure Reno was all right.

  “You need to stay.”

  “He needs to do what’s right for him,” Reno put in. “If he needs some time off, let him go. Besides, I’ll take care of his responsibilities while he’s gone.”

  “You don’t have to—”

  “I want to. I’m your elder brother.” Reno smiled and pulled DJ into a quick manly hug.

  “Thanks, big bro’. You know how to reach me.” DJ stood up and gave his father a quick salute before walking out.

  “DJ!” Dennis was on his heels, his tone of voice demanding obedience. Reno shook his head and chuckled. DJ was the rebel and reminded him so much of himself. His gaze shifted back to the portrait on the wall. Daniela’s smile pulled him in yet again. She looked so much like Rhyne. The only differences were Rhyne had a darker skin tone and was slimmer. Daniela was strong headed, so unlike Rhyne’s softness. Then again it had been two decades since he had seen his little sister. There was no telling the kind of person circumstances had turned her into. He was witness to how quickly people could change. Reno sat quietly as he dealt with his slowly building anger.

  * * * *

  Lisette couldn’t look to the side nor move at all. She was stuck staring at the white ceiling of her hospital room, as the moments she broke Reno’s heart played before her. AJ’s shuffling feet intruded into her thoughts every few seconds. She would hear his labored step, the confused sigh and the angry grunts. The only thing that saved her from the rant going on in his head was the fact she was trapped in her hospital bed.

  “Just ask me,” she muttered.

  “Why would you do that to him?” She felt AJ’s warmth as he stood by her bedside, but her eyes never left the ceiling. She was looking heavenward, praying for her lying. “He never left your side. He loves you. And you just lie to him that way? He was ready to let you deal with your immobility in your own way. He was going to give you the space you needed. Reno understood you and what you wanted. But you just had to stab him in the heart and twist the blade.”

  Lisette’s eyes flickered to AJ. Reno did understand her. She didn’t want him to see her in a weak state. She didn’t want him putting his life on hold as she went through rehab. Lisette had managed to expose her weakness and her cowardice. She might have stabbed him in the heart with the ice pick of her tongue, but the knife had gone through her own heart first. Deciding between Reno and Catalella wasn’t a choice.

  “He’ll understand, eventually,” she whispered as she struggled to blink back the cloud of tears and swallow the emotional cotton ball in her throat.

  “He won’t,” AJ warned. “He’s put up with a lot when it comes to you, Lisette. You know how Reno feels about betrayal. You didn’t trust him enough to tell him the truth. Hell! I don’t even know what the truth is. You need to face the reality of a future without Reno. If I were you, I’d start now.”

  Lisette’s gaze returned to the white-wash above her. She lay still, balancing her breath. When the door closed and the sound of AJ’s footsteps disappeared down the hall, she let the anger, sadness and pain tearing her heart apart out of her lips.

  “He’ll understand. He loves me. He’ll understand.”

  * * * *

  Three months later…

  “When can I get out of here?” Lisette grabbed a fist full of linen. She was finally sitting up, the iron cast was off, and she could finally move her legs. However, the pain that resulted from her movements was almost unbearable. She was trying to wean herself off the pain medications that she had been on for the past four weeks. She didn’t want to rely on them or turn into some pill junkie. Her determination and hardheadedness was the only medication she needed.

  “Soon,” AJ said absentmindedly as he pushed her knee up to her chest.

  His eyes searched her face for the slightest sign of pain, but Lisette was determined not to show it to him. Besides, nine out of the ten times she was in pain, it was from her heart and not her battered body. Reno hadn’t come back to see her, not even for her birthday, or the day Lisette had donated her bone marrow to Catalella, or when Catalella’s oncologist had announced she was in remission.

  He didn’t care anymore. Lisette had to watch Michael play the good husband, and bare AJ’s ‘I told you so’ looks. Rosalinda had finally stopped asking why Reno hadn’t shown up, and Adrian Senior just grunted his disapproval every time his name was mentioned.

  “Anybody heard from the Kent family?” Lisette asked in a tone that she hoped sounded nonchalant.

  “The whole clan, or just Reno in particular?” AJ asked a mocking smile curving his lips.

  “I haven’t heard from Uncle Dennis in a while.” Lisette ignored AJ’s remark as she stared past him and at her father.

  “Hawaii,” Adrian said.

  Lisette waited for him to expand on that but he never did. “Okay. Did they locate Rhyne?”

  “Really guys, no one is going to tell me anything?” Lisette looked around the room and immediately knew they were keeping something from her. Her mother picked nonexistent lint from her father’s sweater with his assistance. AJ just smiled like a Cheshire cat and flashed another I told you so grin.

  “What no one wants to tell you is, Reno took his new girlfriend to Hawaii. In fact the whole family went. Even DJ came back from Paris so that he could attend the family vacation.”

  “What was the occasion?” Lisette’s insides lurched as her heart slammed against her ribcage. She had been replaced, just like that—as if she hadn’t been the love of his life.

  “What you are really asking is who the girl is.” AJ tilted his head and skimmed his gaze over her. “I will tell you, dear sister, because I warned you about your little lies. Her name is Veronica or something. The Kent family is celebrating Rhyne’s birthday.”

  “Rhyne’s birthday, that’s sweet.” Those were the words that left her lips. The ones that stayed in were turning rancid in her mouth. Victoria that was the name AJ meant, and that was the name of the biggest bitch in New York who would soon be a dead bitch.

  “You gave him up, remember that before you tear the state of New York apart in search of the interloper.”

  “Her name is Victoria. I won’t have to look far because her bleached blonde hair is always close to Reno’s side,” she ground out through clenched teeth.

  “Careful, sweetheart, your claws are showing.” AJ threw his head back as his roar of laughter echoed in the small room.

  “I want a new doctor.”

  “Unfortunately for you, I’m the only one you are unable to bully and chase away with your sunny disposition.”

  “When can I get out of here?”

  “Reno won’t be back for a week. He won’t want to see you. Besides he’ll be busy with his finals and learning the ropes at Kent-Corp,” Adrian Senior put in.

  Lisette could see the protective shield he was already erecting around her. Everyone seemed to think that Reno would reject her without even granting her an audience to plead her case. To tell the truth, Lisette knew it to be true. She also knew that if she could get him to listen he
would forgive her. However, Lisette wanted to leave the hospital for a different reason altogether. She needed to get back to her life, to run from the nightly nightmares and panic attacks. She needed to feel strong again, and home was where she could rejuvenate her strength.

  She couldn’t tell her family just yet, how terrified she was about getting into a car. The thought of being trapped in by the four sides of metal sent cold chills down her back. Somehow she would have to overcome it.

  “You are going to be in a wheel chair and then crutches for a while, Lisette. Don’t push yourself too hard. Take your time and let your body heal properly.” AJ jotted some notes on her charts as he spoke.

  “Is that your medical advice, or are just trying to make sure I don’t run out of this place the first chance I get.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Three months later…

  Reno looked at the tiny crawl space which had been his apartment the past year and a half. He didn’t have many memories in it. Just one, when Lisette spent the night in his arms after a night of talking and consoling one another. He sighed as the movers took the last of the boxes. Most of them were books generously given to him by his father. Books that he needed to successfully complete his degree. The other boxes held his clothes and mementos from Hawaii. His whole life had been packed in boxes once again and was being moved to a different part of the city.

  Dennis had offered him a room in his penthouse home. He had wanted them to be a family. Reno only felt as if he was expected to fill the gap DJ had left by moving to Paris. Even now he was the only one who knew his brother’s exact whereabouts, and his contacts. The secret had somehow built his and DJ’s relationship. They established trust and dependency and even though there was distance between them, love.