Betrayed (The New Yorker) (13 page)

“That would never happen.” She
kissed him then laid her head on his muscled shoulder. “Tell me how your sister
disappeared.”

“I failed her. That was why I broke
up with you. I am a failure.”

“No you are not, and you only broke
up with me because my papa made you.”

“I couldn’t protect her…”

“Reno!” Lisette said as she wrapped
her arms around him.

“Help me!”

Reno ran
out of the kitchen and into the bedroom he shared with his two year old sister.
He didn’t think, he just
reacted.Kono’s
latest
boyfriend was trying to drag
Rhyne
onto the bed. Reno
leapt onto the man’s back, the sweaty, smelly body making him recoil. As much
as he hated the smell of him, he hated the sight of him.
Kono
had turned the tiny house into a whore house, a parade of men entering and
leaving once their month was up.

I hate you,
he swore in his heart. He would never forgive the man he called father for
abandoning them.

Reno heard
the front door open and he took a deep breath. With everything he had inside
him, he let out a shrilling yell. The sound of hurried footsteps approaching
them was a comfort. Reno did not let the hold he had around the man’s neck
ease. His tiny hands locked at the elbows as he pulled as hard as his little
body would let him. Eventually the man fell back and their next door neighbor
ran into the room.

“Run,
Rhyne
! Run!”

He saw her
frightened little face. Obviously she didn’t want to leave him behind. He could
see the stormy debate through her eyes, but Reno wasn’t going to let her get
hurt. Sure help had arrived, but he needed to make sure
Rhyne
was as far away from this man as possible.

“Run!”

Rhyne
took off,
her tiny feet carrying her away from the danger. Reno growled when he felt his
arms being pulled away. The attacker was limp, he wasn’t moving. Their neighbor
was trying to get Reno to release his hold.

“It’s all
right now, son. Let go or else you are going to kill him.”

“Let me
kill him.” Six years old and Reno had enough anger inside him to take another
man’s life. “He was trying to hurt little
Rhyne
.”

“I know
that, the police are coming. Let him go, and go find your sister.”

Reno let go
of his hold. He tried to move but his leg was trapped beneath the man’s weight.
Kicking with abandon, he didn’t stop until the man was off him. Even then he
added a few extra kicks for good measure. Reno ran out of the room and bumped
into
Kono
,
he gave her an ice-chilling stare and spat at her feet. “I hate you!”

That night
the police were called. Reno and
Rhyne
were both
asked to account their sides of their stories. He had been sure that he had
done his best and that
Kono’s
boyfriend would be far
away from his sister.

That night
he
lay
his head on his pillow feeling safe for the
first time that night. He had read
Rhyne
a couple of
stories to get her to sleep. It was the wee hours of the morning when she
finally got to sleep. Reno was so tired. His tiny body weary, his mind drained.
He slept knowing that all would
be all right, not knowing
that all hell would break loose.

“Reno!”

“Help me,
Reno!”

Reno was
startled awake by the sound of his terrified sister. He looked over to her bed
and she wasn’t there. He tried the door but it was locked. With everything he
had he kicked it, pushed it as hard as he could, but it wouldn’t budge. He
heard the lock turning and behind the door
Kono
appeared.

“It’s for
the best.” That was all she said.

Reno pushed
past her and searched the house, no sign of
Rhyne
.

“Reno!”

His head
snapped in the direction the scream was coming from. He ran, pushing past his
mother, not caring she had landed on the ground. Reno burst outside and all he
saw was darkness.
Kono’s
boyfriend laughed at him,
his leering smile claiming triumph.

“
Rhyne
!” he desperately yelled.

“Reno!”

He turned
toward the sound of tires screeching away.
Rhyne’s
hands were waving out the window. Her head appeared and she screamed for him
once more. His bare feet pounded the gravel as he chased the red tail lights.
He ran as fast as he could, as hard as he could and yet it was not enough. Reno
wouldn’t let himself get
tired,
he wouldn’t let the
painful sores on his feet stop him. He didn’t know how far he ran, but the red
tail lights kept fading…

* * * *

“I pushed myself as hard as I
could. I couldn’t let them take her. She was my responsibility.
Rhyne
was
mine,
the only gift life
had given me. I could feel my lungs burn, taste bloody soreness in my throat. I
couldn’t stop!” Reno wailed.

“
Shhh
!”
Lisette rocked him back and forth,
trying to soothe him. No matter how hard she tried he wouldn’t calm down. He
cried harder, the tears drenching her T-shirt. “It’s not your fault.”

“I still have nightmares about that
night. All I see is her tear-stained face, I hear her calling for me and I see
those red tail lights. It was like I was staring into the devil’s eyes. I
failed her.”

“Don’t say that. Never say that.”
Lisette lifted his head so that she could look into his eyes. “I am so proud of
you. You tried to save her, but you were just a little boy. We’ll get her back,
I promise you.”

Lisette hadn’t been able to sleep a
wink the whole night. Not even Reno’s comforting arms could lull her frenzied
mind to rest. Her heart was still in pieces. She had never seen Reno so broken,
never heard him cry as he did. In her heart, he was the bravest boy she had
ever known. In her mind her uncle Dennis was a coward, she hated
Kono’s
boyfriend and to an extent she hated
Kono
too. She wondered if Dennis knew the pain his eldest
son had gone through, how much he blamed himself, how Reno carried that pain
and blame with him everywhere he went. Pain and blame that rightfully belonged
to Dennis.

She stood at the window, peering
out as the first rays of sunlight touched the tops of the buildings in downtown
New York. She turned toward the peaceful sigh Reno let out. She studied his
face as the orange embers danced on his face highlighting his chiseled jaw. At
that moment the feeling of forever settled on her. She wouldn’t mind waking up
in Reno’s arms, having to gaze upon his face at first light, or be the first
and last thing she would see each day. The fantasy was almost perfect.

But there was a dark spot in that
perfection. She needed to get Michael Mathews out of the family portrait. She
had figured out a way to do it. It was extreme and she hoped her latest foolish
idea wouldn’t hurt her little sister or the man she was deeply in love with.
When Reno began to stir, Lisette knew it was time to bolt. She didn’t know when
she would be able to see him next. She hoped her sacrifice was worth it. Afraid
to move closer and wake him, Lisette blew him a kiss and left in a silence that
echoed their love.

Reno had done everything he could
to save his sister, he was still trying. Surely he would understand that she
had to save
Catalella
.

* * * *

Lisette felt numb. How else was she
to explain this nothingness that enveloped her? Even in the abyss, guilt
managed to pierce through.
Catalella
had been
sheltered her entire life. She had no skills for dealing with a creep like
Michael Mathews. It was her fault—she’d babied the girl and she had been the
one to introduce Michael into her family. Now it was her job to get rid of him.
As much as the thought of killing him and dumping him into the Hudson River
appealed to her, she wasn’t ready to give up her family, or Reno, for a bunch
of female inmates who would probably make a meal out of her. She would have to
settle for bribing him. All Michael wanted was money. The drop of his jaw to
his feet, the moment her father told him that
Catalella
had nothing to her name, told her so.

Lisette couldn’t help but chuckle.
Her father had a backup for the backup. He had so many fail-safes that no one
would be able to take advantage of them, financially at least. If only he had
one of those plans for a parasite like Michael. Lisette laughed again. She
thought Michael had turned a few shades of white when Adrian Senior told him
that all of
Catalella’s
intended trust would be
passed on to their children, skipping him altogether.

Luckily for her, Lisette had part
of her trust fund. It was a hundred thousand dollars, not much but hopefully
enough for the gold digger. Obviously he would want more and Lisette was
willing to offer it all up to him. In exchange she wanted her little, naïve
sister to be set free.

Lisette parked on the street, in
front of Michael’s apartment. She was amazed that in the few hours he had
become a Ross he hadn’t demanded a penthouse apartment in
Soho
.
Taking a few deep breaths for courage, she raised her fist to the door and
knocked. Lisette expected her sister to come skipping to the door, a wide grin
on her face, already turned into Susie Home Maker. But it was Michael who
opened the door. Scruffy wasn’t the word for how he looked, ‘downright
depressed’ described the ragged look he had. It seemed the session with Adrian
Ross Senior had worn the amateur out.

“Wow!” she chortled, “That’s what
you get when you get into the ring with the big boys. I see Papa chewed you up
and spat you out.”

“What do you want?” he growled.

“I want my sister, and then I want
you to get out of town.” Lisette boldly took a step into his apartment. She
looked around and frowned. It was a roach motel, no wonder the kid was willing
to do anything to get out of this situation. “Will my car be safe out there?”

“Safer than you sister will be in
here.” The
leery
grin he afforded her angered her.
Lisette bit back her retort, and dialed down her anger. She needed to be
agreeable, maybe even kiss his ass a little.
Whatever she
needed to do would be done.
Reno would have to forgive her for it later.
He would understand—he had a sister he was desperate to protect too.

“The only reason you aren’t in jail
for statutory rape right now, is because Papa wants to teach
Catalella
a lesson.” Lisette frowned at the brown sofa and
decided to stay on her feet. “What exactly did my sister say once you brought
her here?”

She didn’t put it past
Catalella
to cry. The little girl knew how to whine long
enough to put someone on edge. Lisette bet that
Catalella’s
first complaint was the tiny television, then the furniture, and that god-awful
pungent smell coming from the streets below.
Let’s not forget the location of this little shit
hole
.

“What do you want Lisette?”

The angry set of his jaw let
Lisette know that she had struck an exposed nerve. “Where is the little
princess?” She didn’t try to hide her smile. Maybe she wouldn’t have to do
anything after all. A week with the princess and Michael Mathews will give
little
Catalella
back to Papa.

“She went shopping,” he mumbled.

“With what
money?”
Lisette
asked,
an incredulous note in
her tone.

“Her
graduation money.”

“You mean gift cards.” The idiot
didn’t even know what
Catalella
was using to shop.
Their parents gave her Gucci, Chanel, Dolce and
Gabana
gift certificates. Sure, combined, they accumulated to almost twenty thousand,
but there was no way to cash them.

“I gave her some money for food
supplies too.”

Lisette’s body began to shake as
she tried to put a lid on the rapture of laughter threatening to explode from
within her, “Did you tell her what to buy?”

“What do you mean?”

“Oh my God!
Next time,
before you get married, do your homework.
Catalella
has no idea where food comes from. For all she knows it’s all made in the
refrigerator. She definitely knows that Mama and the maid put it on the table.”

“She can’t be that naïve.”

“She married you, didn’t she?”
Lisette exhaled and struggled to inhale her next breathe. The smell seemed to
be growing stronger by the minute. “I’ll give you a hundred thousand dollars,
if you agree to annul your marriage to my sister.”