She woke up in the morning two days later, after drifting in and out of sleep, with a splitting headache and rolled over to her side. The sun was bright in the room she once shared with Mabel. On the nightstand was an open bottle of whiskey. She had poured herself a glass the other night when Mabel finally left – she had cried until her throat was sore so Mabel had stayed in the room with her - but left it untouched before nodding off. Even now as she looked at it her belly churned. Since when did whiskey make her sick?
Outside Ermernia was waking up for another day in the field but she wasn’t ready to get out of bed yet, she wanted to wallow in misery a second longer, maybe a day or two, give or take, and she would be great to face the sunshine again.
She rolled on her back again and closed her eyes. The smell of the whiskey was really getting to her. Just then the door opened and Mabel peeped in.
“Hey.”
Rachel cracked an eye open.
“How do you feel?”
“Like shit. What’s for breakfast?”
“Germs if you don’t get out of bed to brush your teeth.”
Rachel groaned. Her mouth did feel like she chewed on a wad of tissue soaked in garlic oil – the specificity of that thought made her frown. She ran her tongue over her teeth and decided that she truly needed to get out of bed to clean them.
“Also your phone has been ringing off the hook.”
“Throw it away.”
Mabel chuckled. “Okay, anything else I can do?”
“Could you get rid of this whiskey for me please?”
Mabs raised a brow in surprise but said nothing as she entered the room to pick up the bottle and the glass. She watched Rachel get out of bed and noted the ashy tone of her sister’s skin.
“Come downstairs for breakfast when you’re done Rach, you truly look like shit.”
Rachel searched her through her things for her toothbrush and paste and went to the bathroom. Looking through the bathroom mirror she agreed she looked like something a cat ate and threw up. It was all his fault.
“No,” she said to herself. “It’s all my fault. He only hurt me because I let him. Twice I have been betrayed by men.” She squeezed her eyes shut. Says a lot about me if I got hurt twice in a row. She didn’t want to dwell on her hurt though, there was so much more she could do instead of sitting around moping. She finished in the bathroom and went downstairs to a plate of eggs and potatoes. She could barely look at the eggs but the potatoes she wolfed down greedily.
“Mrs. Smith might come around this morning, I saw her peeping over her fence.”
“She’s welcome to come and see Ermenia’s disgraced crown. I have nothing to lose.”
Mabel cleared the plates of eggs. “I won’t let you wound down any destructive path, baby sis…”
“I don’t plan to. I’m over what happened already and I just want to move on.”
“Won’t you tell me what happened?”
Rachel took a deep breath. She could feel the whole story choking her and she hated it. If she was to move on she knew she had to let it all go. Besides, her sister deserved the truth after putting up with her tears for two days. So she told Mabel the whole thing leaving no tale untold. With each sentence, Mabel’s eyes widened until it looked like they were going to pop. Rachel couldn’t blame her. Who would have thought that goody two shoes Rachel Rivers would love to be tied and fucked?
Mabel was lost for words when she finished her story. She could only stare incredulously at her sister, her baby.
“I wouldn’t blame you if you took this story to the nearest publishing house. No publicity is bad publicity.”
“Rach…why did you keep all these from me?”
She shrugged. “I didn’t think you would like to know how and why I was getting my brains fucked out so ..” she shrugged again.
Mabel had to struggle to regain her composure. She needed to keep her wits about her for her sister’s sake. Rachel may look like she was holding herself up but Mabel knew if she showed any sign of weakness whatsoever Rachel would break down and slip into an abyss of depression. And this time Mabel feared she would not recover.
“Do you regret?” she asked.
Rachel’s eyes watered. As stupid as the thought was she didn’t regret it – no that wasn’t it. She regretted that it ended the way it did but she didn’t regret the experience, she never lived on the wild side for once, she deserved it after Jacob made a mockery of their marriage. If there was one consolation she had it was that the bastard had nothing against her now. With Nate now out of the way she would fight Jacob tooth and nail, expose the bastard for who he was and fight for everything she made in their marriage.
“I don’t.”
Mabel understood what she wasn’t saying but didn’t probe further.
“And Mabs,” Rachel said. Her throat was tight with her unshed tears but she was done crying. Last night she had cried so hard that her head hurt, right now she didn’t have any tears left. She may not regret what happened with Nate but she hated him. He was a bastard like all the rest of them. They came in different shapes, sizes, and heights but as long as they had their limp dicks between their legs they were all the same. “We are never going to talk about Nathaniel Madden again. I’m moving on from here and I don’t want anything to hold me back.”
Mabel smiled filled with pride. Rachel never let anything hold her back, she envied that about her. She was happy about her growth but she was worried about the look in Rachel’s eyes, it was one of determination and hate. Right now she would not be able to reach out to Rachel but she hoped and prayed that eventually, she would help her heal.
It was later that afternoon after skillfully turning away Mrs. Smith that they got a visit from the two strangers.
Two men dressed in black – Rachel immediately referred to them as Men In Black – appeared on their doorstep asking to discuss an important matter with her.