Chapter 34 Rain
RAIN
Rachel grimaced as she closed the door behind her which had me lowering the volume on the TV. “I need to speak to you.”
I arched a brow at her. “It’s too late for the birds and the bees. We covered that a while back.”
“You’d better not have gotten a girl pregnant,” she grumbled which made me smirk.
“Nah. Not yet.”
She huffed.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, studying her as I straightened up.
I was used to Rachel looking exhausted, but this was worse than usual. Especially when she bridged her fingers together and started wringing them.
“I need to tell you something.”
Patting the cushion at my side, I said, “Come on. Take a seat. Whatever it is, it can’t be that bad.”
“It’s not bad, exactly. It’s something that I should have shared with you a long time ago but didn’t have the guts to.”
“You’re entitled to your privacy,” I told her softly, trying to ease her guilt. Rachel didn’t wear that look well. She was too bullheaded for guilt.
“I am, but this is, I guess, I didn’t think the day would come where it would be an issue. For most of her life, just thinking about her was painful, never mind talking about her.”
“Talking about who?” I questioned, perplexed.
“When I was…” She swallowed, hesitated, restarted, “When I was seventeen, I was raped. It made things very difficult for me. For a long time, you were what got me through the day, and it made me delay some plans I had for college. Rex made sure I went—”
“That’s what happened to you? That’s why you were late starting college?”
I’d always known something had broken my sister.
I could feel the blood in my face draining, but I had to be strong. This was her pain, her truth, and she was finally sharing it with me.
God, I knew why as well.
I was a man now.
Not just an adult, but a man.
Fuck.
At school, I might have been dismissed as nothing more than a hormonal teenager, but Rachel was trusting me with her truth. At last.
“Yeah,” she admitted, her face bowed as she stared at her fingers. “I started late, and because Rex, when, I mean, because he helped me, I was grateful and we hooked up.”
“Okaaaay.”
“I got pregnant, Rain.”
My mouth rounded. “What?!”
“I went to college and I dealt with everything, and then there was an issue with my dorm and I moved into an apartment with some roommates—”
“Hunter and Rory?”
She smiled—it was the first sign of ease she’d shown since she’d come into the den. “Yeah. Hunter and Rory. But Rory was married back then, and her husband… he liked me.” Rach said it in a way that made it clear she hadn’t returned the favor. “He attacked me and afterward, I broke down—”
I stared at her blankly as I tried to process what she’d just said. When it hit home, I blurted out, “He raped you? When you were pregnant?”
“I know it’s tough to believe—”
“No!” I snapped. “It’s not that.” I grabbed her hands. “I’m so fucking sorry, Rach. Men are such bastards—”
“Not all of them,” she said with a wry twist of her lips. “I know a lot of good men too.”
I shook my head. “I can’t believe this.” When I saw her expression fall, I squeezed her fingers. “No! I mean I can believe it but I don’t want to have to.”
Warily, Rach nodded. “I understand. I’m telling you this because—”
I didn’t let her finish. “What happened with the baby?”
“After I was… you know, raped, I found it really hard to cope. I-I stopped eating and I lost a lot of weight. I was hospitalized for a while.” I could feel my eyes growing larger and larger in my face. “I ended up, we ended up putting the baby up for adoption.”
“You have a kid? I-I thought you meant you got an abortion.”
“No. She’s Rex’s, Rain. I could never do that.” She sucked in a breath. “I barely thought about her these past seventeen years, but recently, we, she and Rex and I, we reconnected.”
“I have a niece?” I muttered blankly.
“You do. But she’s a year younger than you,” she said dryly. “So it’s not like you have much authority over her.”
“I have a niece,” I repeated. “What’s her name?”
“Wynter.” Her smile twisted. “She’s not had it easy recently. I tried to get her to come to the funeral, but…”
“Is that why you’re telling me now? Because you want us to meet?”
“Of course I want you to meet! And no. I don’t think she’ll come. She has time to change her mind but I don’t think she will.” She rubbed her brow. “I just… I wanted you to know. I hope you can forgive me for keeping this from you.”
I was mad.
I wasn’t going to lie.
But I’d been a baby, and she’d been traumatized, and, fuck, I had no right to be mad. To be sad, sure. For her. For my niece. For Rex even.
Life had fucked with them so much.
Gently, I squeezed her fingers and I told her, “Rach, whatever happiness you get, you’ve earned.”
Her lips trembled. “Not sure life works like that.”
“I know it doesn’t, but I wish it did.” I reached forward and hugged her. “Thank you for trusting me with your story, and thank you for telling me about Wynter. I can’t wait to meet her.”
She squeezed me back. “I hope… One day, I hope you get to catch up.”
That one day had better be soon. There was no way in hell I was going to enlist without having met my niece.
My goddamn niece.
I was an uncle.
I grinned at her. “I’m gonna teach her everything I know.”
For the first time, Rach released a heavy sigh and she shined a megawatt grin at me. “Wynter’s seventeen, Rain. She knows about as much as you.”
“Nah. I got a year’s extra knowledge, that counts. Plus I’m an Eagle Scout.” My chest puffed up. “There’s plenty still to teach her.”
She kissed my cheek. “Thank you, Rain. Thank you.”
“Sis, you don’t have anything to thank me for.” I grabbed her wrist and tugged on her arm. “The men who hurt you, did Rex…?”
“They’re dead,” she said flatly. “You don’t have to worry about that.” She placed another kiss on my cheek and said, “I love you, Rain.”
“Love you, sis,” I rasped as she walked away, I figured, to go and cry in private.
I’d never seen Rach cry so much in my life, but the baby was messing with her something fierce.
“I’m sorry, man.”
Jerking in surprise, I twisted around to find Harlow climbing into the den through the window via the veranda. “You heard?”
“Most of it. Was having a smoke out there.”
“Those will kill you.”
“Good,” he said grimly before he sat down beside me. He was quiet a second before he rumbled, “We got more in common than we originally thought.”
I swallowed.
He was right, and how I wished he were fucking wrong.