Till Death Do Us Part: A Paranormal Why Choose Romance (Vows Duet Book 1)

Chapter 40

Present Day

Rhea finally got over me blocking the door, bringing me more Nutella pancakes yesterday as what I assumed was an olive branch.

Which is why, when she shows up as I’m leaving for school and asks me to hang out with her for the day, she catches me off guard.

My hand freezes, the key still in the door as we stand outside the front door. “You want to hang out?” I repeat. “Don’t you need to sleep?”

Rhea shakes her head. “I’m good. We haven’t spent a lot of time together, and I want to start over.” She fidgets with her own keys. “I’ve been really distracted lately and I think I was kind of bitchy.”

I snort, then clear my throat when she looks up with a narrowed gaze. “I have class…” I trail off as her expression tightens, panic leaping up my throat that I’m upsetting her. “I can skip today,” I hurry. “I’ll just ask my friend if she can take notes for me.”

Rhea’s eyes seem to narrow further. “What friend?”

I give her a tense smile. “My friend, Tilly. She’s really cool. You might like her. Or not,” I add when her face twists with distaste. I unlock the door again.

Rhea follows me inside. “I just don’t trust outsiders, Nova. Most people will just use you up and throw you away. The only people you can really trust are…well, the only person you can trust is me.”

My lips purse. “Well, who do you trust? There’s got to be someone.”

“I don’t trust anyone,” she answers, setting her purse on top of the messy dining table. I really need to get that cleaned up.

“What about me?” I ask, putting my hands on my hips.

She observes me for a long moment, then shrugs. “I guess.”

I give an incredulous laugh. “Sheesh, Rhea. Thanks.”

A real smile graces her face, and I relax. Those smiles are so rare for her that when I see them, I know she’s doing okay.

“So what are we doing today?” I ask, pulling out my phone. I shoot Tilly a text to let her know I’m skipping.

“I don’t know. Maybe a movie?” she answers, digging through the pantry. Suddenly, she pauses, turning to the refrigerator. Rhea glances at me and then pulls the freezer door open. “Do you want to try veal?”

I wrinkle my nose. “I don’t think I want to.”

“Come on, Nova,” she coaxes. “I swear it tastes like any other meat. You’ll like it.”

Something slimy and nervous slides into my gut.

I laugh nervously, worried I’ll upset her. “Heck. No. Keep all the veal to yourself,” I say, hoping my light tone will earn me a pass from her ire.

A grin crawls onto Rhea’s face. “Fine.” She turns back to the pantry again and holds up a box of popcorn I bought last week. “Normal movie snacks?”

“I’m game,” I say cheerfully. “We could watch that new one.”

She keeps looking through the pantry. “The one with the actors?”

“Yep. With the faces.”

I am rewarded with another of those genuine smiles at our long running joke, and it makes me wish Rhea was like this all the time.

We go about gathering way too many snacks for the two of us, unceremoniously dumping them on the coffee table. When she disappears to her room to change into comfy clothes, Theodore appears next to me.

“What’s going on?” he asks, concern lining his face.

I glance toward the hall, then give him a reassuring smile. “Rhea felt like having a movie day, so I’m staying home.”

“That’s…not like Rhea,” he says carefully.

I squint at him. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Rhea’s door closes down the hallway.

His frown never leaves his face. “We’ll discuss later.”

He’s gone by the time Rhea steps back into the living room, wearing a pair of tight fitting sleep shorts and a crop top.

“Ready?” she says brightly.

I almost frown like Theodore had, his words settling into me. “Are you sure you’re okay?” I ask.

She clicks through the movie lineup on the TV. “Yeah, why?”

“You just seem really…different.”

“Because I’m in a good mood?” she jokes, but I’m not sure it’s really a joke.

“I don’t know,” I say slowly. “Just checking in, I guess.”

Rhea shrugs. “I’m just enjoying my time with my girl.”

She flashes me a smile before pointing out a movie she thinks we should watch. I barely hear her, agreeing to the movie I know nothing about. She settles into the couch, dragging the bowl of popcorn off the coffee table to plant between us.

Theodore’s words fill my ears. That…isn’t like Rhea. He’s not wrong. Her behavior today is so different from normal. Under any other circumstances, I probably wouldn’t have thought twice about it. But now that it’s been pointed out to me? Rhea may have been more like this before, when she still lived with me and Dad. It has been very clear that she’s different now, though.

I force myself to pay attention to the television, becoming more and more horrified by her choice when less than halfway through the movie I’ve endured countless scenes that disgust me, including one were the main character slurps—slurps—water from the drain that also had another guy’s sperm in it.

I shudder as he slurps again. Drains are disgusting.

But it is when the same character begins having sex with—my eyes glued to the screen in horror—a pile of dirt on a grave that I finally speak up.

“Rhea, this is gross,” I groan, throwing a hand across my eyes. “The bathtub freaked me out, but this part…this is weird.”

She laughs, a dark sound. “What’s gross about it?”

I peek at the screen, my nose wrinkling up. “He’s literally humping a dead person’s grave.”

“Would it be better if he was humping the dead person?”

That question narrows my focus to her, furrowing my brows. “Rhea. Ew.”

Hypocrite. You’ve banged three ghosts in the last couple of months.

“It depends on your perspective,” she replies, licking her fingers clean of the chocolate-covered pretzels she’d started munching on.

“I don’t think perspective makes necrophilia better,” I deadpan.

“Have you ever used a dildo?”

My muscles go rigid at the personal question, my mouth staying clamped closed.

“Come on, Nova,” Rhea complains. “You’re not a little girl. You can tell me.”

I shift, uncomfortable. “No,” I mutter.

“Really? Hmm. Well, that makes my example less compelling.”

“Can we just watch something else?” I ask, trying to change the subject.

“A dildo is really no different than a body part that isn’t alive,” she continues, like I haven’t spoken. “It can serve the same purpose.”

I know I sound horrified. “Rhea—”

She doesn’t seem to be paying attention. “Do you remember that dead rabbit we had when we were little?”

My head jerks back a little, the memory assaulting me. “We didn’t have it. You did. I found you playing with it.”

She chuckles and says something else, but I’m lost in the memory she just dumped on me.

“Rhea!” I call, climbing down into the wash. I check as I move, making sure there aren’t any snakes that will get me.

My sister snuck out of the house earlier, after Daddy locked us in our rooms for not cleaning our breakfast dishes. It could have been worse. His belt hurts a lot, and his fist hurts more. I saw her leave a few minutes ago and finally worked up the courage to follow her, leaving out my window the same way she did.

I hear a noise on the other side of the wash, beyond the thick mesquites. Crawling out, I hiss when a spiny weed scratches at my knee. I hurry around the thicket of full trees, sighing with relief when I see Rhea.

“Rhea!” I yell, running toward her. “There you are!”

She stops moving, her back to me. “You’re supposed to be in your room, Nova.”

I don’t like it when she talks like—her voice changes and sounds scary.

“You’re out here,” I accuse, putting my hands on my hips.

She whips around. “He’ll spank us both now,” she threatens.

But I stare at the lump in her hands. “What is that?” I whisper, eyes wide.

Rhea looks down, then lifts the bundle with one hand. The rabbit she holds up looks so soft and pretty, tan fur streaked with bits of black and white. But it’s the face that scares me and I recoil, crying out a bit.

“What happened to it?” I demand.

Shrugging, she dangles the rabbit by its scruff. “I found it dead like this. Something must’ve picked out its eyes.”

It isn’t just the eyes I realize, hollowed out and empty, as she swings it back and forth with a laugh. The belly has been ripped open too, worm-like stuff poking through the skin and fur. Even the teeth look scary, though, the poor animal’s mouth gaping to reveal long, blunt teeth.

“That’s gross, Rhea. Put it down.”

“No,” she says, pouting her lower lip. “I’ll play with it if I want to. You can’t tell me what to do.”

For being ten, she sure acts like a baby sometimes.

“It probably has bugs,” I say smugly. “You’re gonna have bugs now.”

Rhea rolls her eyes. “It does not have bugs, stupid.”

“I’m not stupid!” I screech.

“What in the fuck are you two doing out here?”

I scream as Daddy grabs me by the hair before I can spin around at his voice, dragging me toward Rhea. She stares at him through slitted eyes, baring her teeth, looking almost like the dead rabbit she still holds.

“Daddy, I’m sorry!” I cry, clawing at his jeans. “I promise I’ll be good and listen forever!”

“Shut up, you little bitch!” he says, his spit spraying on me. He glares at Rhea. “What do you have, girl?”

Without a hint of fear, Rhea raises the dead rabbit higher and then throws it at him, hitting him in the face before he can react. He releases me in his surprise, and I scurry away from him, huddling close to the thicket of mesquites.

I think I should run far away. Maybe I should run so far away that Daddy can’t hurt me anymore. But I can’t leave Rhea.

Daddy roars at Rhea, charging at her when he recovers from the bunny being thrown at him. I shriek when he catches her, even though she tries to get away from him.

“Rhea!” I scream, peeing my pants as I watch him shake her, her head snapping back and forth. He bellows at her, his hand swinging to slap her across the face. She tumbles to the ground with a grunt.

“Get up!” Daddy shouts, then kicks Rhea in her tummy when she doesn’t listen.

Slowly—so slowly—Rhea gets to her feet.When she’s standing, she stares right at him, not even looking afraid. “I’m going to kill you one day.”

She slams against the ground when he picks her up and throws her.

“Get back to that goddamn house!” Daddy glares my way. “You too!”

I hurry to obey, but Rhea takes her time. I see Daddy shove her when I look back and she falls again, right next to the dead rabbit.

“You know what?” he says, suddenly calm. “You want to fuck with this scrawny fucking rabbit, I’ll show you how to do it properly.”

I don’t know what that means, but he makes Rhea pick up the rabbit before he herds us back home.

“Oh, my God,” Rhea sighs. “Quit looking so freaked out. I was just kidding.”

I blink at her, realizing I’ve been staring without hearing a thing she said, stuck in the past. Bile churns in my stomach as the memories keep assaulting me, reminding me that Dad made Rhea clean and skin the rabbit, then cook it. Then, he made us eat it. When I threw it up halfway through, still reeking of urine, he tried to make me eat that, too. Rhea, never having stopped being furious, had distracted him long enough for me to hide in my room.

He never came after me that night, not like I expected him to.

“Rhea, the rabbit thing was awful,” I choke out.

She shrugs. “It wasn’t a big deal.”

“Dad—”

“Dad was an asshole,” she says, cutting me off. “But at least he taught me something useful.”

My throat feels tight. “Which was what?”

“That some people are bunnies, and some people are snakes. I’d rather be a snake, like him, than a bunny.”

Something cold settles into my chest. “And me?”

Rhea’s grin feels vicious. “You’re a bunny, of course, Nova. But that’s why you have me to keep you safe.”

She goes back to the movie, the same one that started this whole conversation, munching on more pretzels. I stare at her, still full of horror and fear from the things she forced to remember—the things that she doesn’t seem to have a single shred of emotion about.

I open my mouth and close it, trying to find the words. And yet, no matter how hard I try for the rest of the time the movie plays, I can’t find the words.

Otherwise, I might point out that snakes usually eat rabbits alive.