She strips off her clothes and steps into bed. Her eyelids begin to droop and she’s asleep before John returns from brushing his teeth.
RAYNA
BEFORE
It’s still dark in the room when Rayna rolls over to check her phone. She can’t tell if the darkness is due to it being night, or just because of her blackout curtains. Her phone says 4:00, which is completely unhelpful. She unlocks it and goes into the clocks app to find out for sure. Yep, it’s four in the afternoon, she’s slept all day again.
Rayna leans back on the pillows, debating if it’s even worth getting up now. It’ll be bed time in a few hours anyway.
Zeki’s side of the bed is empty, but she can’t bring herself to care.
She looks at her phone screen, devoid of messages and notifications of any kind. She doesn’t have any friends.
Rayna opens her texts, scrolling through the messages until she finds her sister’s name. The last text they exchanged was over a month ago, and she isn’t sure what to say. She finally decides to stick to the basics.
Rayna: Hey. How’s the roommate?
It doesn’t take long for her sister to respond, which is slightly unusual considering she should still be at work.
Remi: I barely see her, which is great I guess?
Rayna: What else is going on?
She watches as the little gray bubble indicating Remi is typing pops up. It stays up for a few minutes, and Rayna mentally prepares herself for a novel.
Remi: Not much, John and I went bowling this past weekend.
That’s it? That’s the novel? Rayna rolls her eyes and types back.
Rayna: You and bowling LOL
Remi: Yep, what are you up to?
Rayna sets the phone down on top of the comforter as she debates what to say. What can she even say? That her life is falling apart and it’s her own damn fault? No, she can’t say anything. She picks up the phone again to type in her nonchalant response. As she’s typing, another message pops up on her screen.
Daryl: Need you 2nite. U around?
Rayna doesn’t even have to think about it.
Rayna: No. Busy.
She switches back over to her message to Remi, figuring that will be the end of it, but another message quickly interrupts her once more.
Daryl: Plz. They want u.
Rayna rolls her eyes and ignores the message. He’ll figure it out eventually. She switches back to the text to Remi for the third time.
Daryl: Cmon u owe me.
When she sees the message, Rayna screams in anger and tosses the phone against the wall. She doesn't even care if it breaks. Who is this guy? Saying she owes him!
She sits in silence, waiting for Zeki to come ask what the noise was, but he never appears. He must still be at work.
Rayna sort of wants to watch TV, but she and Zeki don't have one in their bedroom, and she doesn't feel like heading downstairs. Getting out of bed is futile at this point. She closes her eyes and tries to drift back into dreamland, but it’s worthless, her body doesn't need any more sleep.
She debates getting out of bed. But then she doesn't. That’s where Zeki finds her hours later.
He walks into the room and flips on the light, giving her an incredulous look when he notices she’s still in bed and obviously undressed.
“Did you even shower today?” He wrinkles his nose in disgust.
Rayna rolls her eyes and debates pulling the blanket over her head like a little child. “I didn’t do anything today, therefore I’m not sweaty and can’t possibly smell,” she retorts.
He steps over to the closet, obviously somewhat annoyed, and begins to strip out of his work clothes.
“I can’t believe I have to work all day and all you do is sit on your ass.”
Rayna rolls her eyes. “You’re the one who told me to quit all those months ago.”
“Yeah, but I assumed you would do something. Clean the house, cook, grocery shop, anything but lay in bed all day,” he calls angrily from inside the closet.
“Hey, I do plenty around here!” She feels her rage boiling.
“Oh really, like what?” He pops his head out of the closet as he slides a t-shirt over his head. He’s already replaced his work slacks with basketball shorts.
“I do laundry.” Rayna can’t lie, she really doesn't do much, but she does at least make sure she does the laundry once a week.
“Oh, whoop dee do.” Zeki rolls his eyes and heads over to the door. As he does, he passes her phone lying on the floor. He picks it up and glances at the screen.
Uh oh.
“Who the fuck is Daryl?!” Now he’s seething.
Rayna tries to think of what the text could possibly say. She hopes it doesn’t give anything away. She crosses her arms across her chest.
“If you must know, I was looking at jobs and Daryl is an old patron from the restaurant who said he may have one for me.”
“Oh, really?” Her boyfriend cocks one eyebrow. “And what sort of job is this?”
“I didn’t really get that far,” Rayna lies.
“Then why is he saying he will pay you double this time, hm?”
Crap. She wracks her brain, trying to think of something, any sort of excuse. “I worked for him back in the day before I met you. He’s offering me double what he used to pay me.” It rolls off her tongue easily. Phew.
Zeki chucks the phone at her head and it’s only thanks to her quick reflexes that she ducks. “Well, either take the damn job or start doing something around here. I swear to God, if I come home and find you in bed again…” His rant fades as he heads down the hallway. Rayna isn’t sure if there’s an end to the threat or not, but she really doesn’t want to find out.
She picks up her phone from where it landed on the bed, touching the screen to make sure it still works. It does.
As much as she wants to hate Zeki for the fight that just happened, she understands. It’s probably infuriating for him to spend all day at the bank, then come home at six p.m. to see she hasn’t even gotten out of bed yet. She’ll try to do better. She can watch YouTube videos and learn to make recipes. That will probably make him happy.
She sighs and slips out of the bed, pulling on a pair of sweats and a t-shirt she’s pretty sure is hers. She glances toward the en-suite master bath, debating taking a shower, but decides against it. Sounds like too much work.
She glances at her phone screen, debating what to do. She really doesn’t want to work for Daryl anymore. She just can’t. Every time she leaves that hotel she feels absolutely horrible. Scratch that, she feels absolutely horrible all the time these days, it seems.
Rayna looks in the mirror, touching the bags under her eyes. No matter how much she sleeps, they’re always there. Her hair isn’t perfectly done like it used to be. And she hasn’t put on her signature eye makeup in months. In fact, besides dinner the other night, she hasn’t really done anything regarding her appearance in months.
“Alright girl, pull yourself up. Whatever this is you think you are doing, it has to stop.” She chuckles at the fact that she’s talking to herself, but she hopes it will help.
She follows it up with a few deep breaths, like her mother used to make her take when she was angry. She can do this.
Tomorrow she’ll start looking for jobs, and if things go bad, she can always go ask for her old restaurant job back—she left on good terms.
She won’t need to work for Daryl anymore. The money was great but this feeling isn’t worth it. She’s done this before.
But you’ve always had Remi to help, her brain reminds her.
“So what?” She looks at her reflection again. “You don’t need Remi. You can do this on your own. You can.” She adds a slight growl at the end of the sentence. Actually, it’s more like a pathetic whimper, but she’ll make it a growl.
Tomorrow. Tomorrow is the day she’ll start turning her life around.
RAYNA
NOW
She sits awkwardly on the couch while
the two detectives stand. They’re all waiting for Zeki to walk through the door.
They wait a few minutes, and nothing happens. He doesn’t walk in. Rayna feels something isn’t right.
“Uh, we had a fight, maybe he doesn’t want to come in…” she says quietly as she crosses the living room and opens the door connecting with the garage.
It’s empty.
She doesn’t notice the detectives have walked up behind her until Detective Brown says, “he probably saw the cop cars. I bet they spooked him.”
Both of them push past Rayna and look out the open garage door and down the street. The car is nowhere in sight, meaning Zeki probably didn’t even pull into the garage at all.
They turn to look at her. “Why would your boyfriend not want to come home?”
Rayna sighs. “I told you, we had a fight this morning. Maybe he thought I called in a domestic violence?”
“Did he hit you?” Grady obviously doesn’t believe this excuse.
She shakes her head. “No, but you saw the room.”
Both of them continue to stare at her. They don’t believe one word she’s saying.
Rayna glances up at the ceiling. She knows what she’s about to do will change her life forever. She pinches her eyes shut and interlaces her fingers.
“Zeki thought Remi…uh…stole his drugs?”
“Maybe we better go inside and sit down.”
Rayna doesn’t realize her hands have started shaking, but when she looks down she can see she’s trembling. What’s wrong with her?
She nods and follows the detectives back to the couch. Once she’s situated, the questioning begins.
“How long have you known your boyfriend was into drugs?”
“I swear,” Rayna takes a deep breath, “I just found out this morning when he was tearing up the room.”
“You had no idea? No indication?” Grady speaks to her with a firm tone, and Rayna has a feeling she isn’t on her side anymore.
“He told me he was a banker. I mean, I guess he always made plenty of money, but I just assumed…” She trails off, unsure where she was going with the sentence. “Oh, God. Do you think he took Remi?”
Neither of the detectives speaks. They glance at each other, then turn their attention back to her.
“Do you think he took Remi?” Detective Brown cocks one of his eyebrows.
She drops her head into her hands. “I…I don’t think so. I mean…”
“You said Remi and Zeki had never gotten along.”
Cold realization rolls over her entire body. Does Zeki hate Remi that much? No. It isn’t possible.
She shakes her head. “I mean, they don’t get along, but I can’t imagine Zeki would hurt her. He knows how much she means to me. We’re twins, after all…”
Detective Grady’s phone rings from her pocket and she turns and walks to the kitchen to answer it. Rayna continues to stare at the empty doorframe, hoping it’s good news. Detective Brown continues to observe her silently.
Finally, Grady walks back in, hanging up her phone. “We need to head back to the station.”
Detective Brown nods in acknowledgment.
“What? Why?” Rayna asks pleadingly.
“There’s been some new developments,” Grady clarifies, “and we would like you to come with us.”
Now, Rayna isn’t dumb, she’s seen cop shows. “Am I under arrest?” It sounds more feeble than she intended.
Grady shakes her head. “No. We would just like to ask you more questions. You can leave at any time. And if anything changes, we will notify you.”
She feels like that’s a sort of round-about answer, but it doesn’t seem she’s in serious trouble or anything, so she stands and heads to the door to slide on her sandals.
The ride to the station is uneventful. Neither cop speaks, and Rayna has a feeling that’s because they don’t want to discuss whatever this ‘new development’ is with her.
When they arrive, she’s led inside to a waiting room with a couch, a soda machine, a water jug, and a stack of magazines. How homely. They tell her to make herself comfortable, then they leave the room, shutting the door behind them.
Rayna looks around at the white walls and scratches at her hand nervously. She picks up a magazine, but she can’t seem to focus on any of the words. All she can think of is her sister.
She tries closing her eyes and relaxing. She tries to summon up Remi in her mind like she’s seen in all the movies. She pictures her sister and tries to see if she feels any different. Nothing happens. Nothing comes to her.
She and Remi have never shared that twin ESP thing everyone talks about, so Rayna isn’t surprised she can’t sense anything now. Growing up, her parents always tried to test it, but even though they looked alike, their brain waves must’ve been on completely separate wavelengths. Try as they might, they could never communicate or sense things about each other. And that hasn’t changed.
With a sigh, she pulls her phone out of her pocket, only to see there were no texts or notifications on the screen. Zeki is in the wind, and she doesn’t really have any other friends.
The door to the room opens and a tired-looking John is pushed through. Rayna feels her eyes narrow.
“You! This is your fault!” she yells before she even realizes what she’s doing. She launches herself at him.
He artfully dodges her attack. “Whoa, whoa, settle down. I’ve been cleared. That’s why I’m in here with you.”
Rayna is still seething, but she takes a couple of deep breaths. “Cleared?” she mutters through gritted teeth. “How?”
John sighs and sinks down onto the couch. “I have an alibi.”
“Oh really, who?” She’s still furious.
“Patrice, my, uh, my wife. I went to her place after seeing Remi last night.”
“You asshole,” Rayna yells, her anger fully renewed. Her hands are in fists at her side. Assaulting John will not help her right now, and she knows that.
“Listen,” he says, holding up his hands, “it’s not what you think.”
“Oh, so when you say wife you don’t mean you’ve been cheating on my sister for years?”
“No, it’s—” John runs a hand through his dark hair. “We got married really young, and we’ve been separated for years. I was about to go through divorce proceedings when I met Remi, and well, I swore I would tell her but I just fell in love so fast, and then it was too late and—”
“And you’re an idiot.”
He nods. “That, too.”
“So just when were you going to tell her?” Rayna crosses her arms, notices she’s still standing, and sits down awkwardly on the other end of the couch.
“I thought Remi was a fling. I never thought two years later I’d still be here.” He lets out a breath. “Patrice and I don’t talk, I mean I assumed she’d found someone else. But then she called me up last week, wanted to fix things.” He looks up at her. “I, of course, said that wasn’t possible. She started asking why, and well, I’ve known her for a long time and I started telling her about Remi and… God I fucked up,” he grumbles.
“And what?” she presses.
“I went and saw a lawyer earlier this week to have her served divorce papers, and, well, she won’t sign them. She really wants to fix things. I was just about to take things to the next level, where I divorce her anyway, when I guess she decided trying to ruin things between Remi and me was the easiest way to get what she wants.”
This story still doesn’t add up to Rayna. “Why does she suddenly want you back after three years?”
John looks down at his lap, taking another deep breath before continuing. “My mother loved Patrice, but my dad trusted my judgment. When we got married, my parents updated their wills and left everything to the two of us collectively as one unit. Anyways, fast forward a couple years and my parents meet Remi. My dad realizes she’s perfect for me—much less drama than Patrice—so recently, a couple weeks ago, he goes and has their wills updated, leaving eve
rything just to me and any offspring I may have. And well, even though my mom is happy with Remi, I guess she felt some sort of loyalty to Patrice and called and told her.”
“So she wants the money?”
“My parents are old, they had me when they were nearing fifty, and, well, they’re not in great health. Patrice knows that, and I think she just wants to prolong the marriage to get her share. Which of course is making me want to end it all the more quickly. I was going to tell Remi…but then you know what happened.”
Rayna nods. “I’m still mad at you for lying in the first place, and you’re definitely on my shit list, but I’m not as mad at you as I was last night.”
John presses his lips together in frustration. “I appreciate the half forgiveness but all I can think about is Remi. What if she doesn’t make it and the last thing we did was fight over a lie I’d been telling for years?”
“Don’t you dare say that,” she seethes.
“Say what?”
“Remi is fine.” Rayna feels her hands clenching into fists once again. “I just hope this isn’t your fault and she ran away because she was pissed at you.”
He shakes his head. “You know as well as I do it’s not like Remi to run away. She always faces her problems head on.”
Rayna doesn’t say anything. He’s right.
“Maybe your shithead boyfriend kidnapped her.”
She gives him a look. “And why would you say that?”
“Zeki and Remi were enemies and you know it.”
“Zeki wouldn’t hurt a fly,” Rayna argues, but her words aren’t even convincing to herself.
John raises his eyebrows. “You sure about that?”
She doesn’t get a chance to answer before an officer Rayna hasn’t met opens the door.
“Hello John, Rayna,” he acknowledges them both, then slides into the room, coming to sit on the sofa between them. “I’m Officer Leary.” He shakes each of their hands in turn. He opens the cover of an iPad in his arms. “Have either of you met Daisy, Remi’s roommate?”
He looks at Rayna first and she feels color creep up her neck. “No,” she mumbles, embarrassed. “I should have. I promised I would, but things got away from me recently.” She feels her eyes welling with tears as guilt fills her heart.
Before Now Page 10