Wrecked

Chapter Seven

I woke up feeling like someone took a hammer to my skull.

My mouth was dry, skin hot. My eyes didn’t want to open, because light was a personal attack. I groaned and tried to roll over, and that’s when I felt it.

Not my sheets. Not my clothes.

Something bigger and Soft smelled like cedar and clean soap. I cracked one eye open.

Rubben.

He was in the chair beside the bed, No shirt. Head bent, elbows on his knees, fingers laced together like he was holding onto the last of his patience.

My stomach did a stupid, swoopy thing.

Because God, he was… Rubben. Shoulders wide enough to block out the sun. That line down his stomach I wasn’t supposed to notice. A scar by his ribs I’d never seen before. His hair was a mess, like he’d been dragging his hands through it all night.

I should’ve looked away but I’m no saint. I didn’t.

And then my brain caught up with my body.

Last night.

It didn’t come back slow. It hit hard all at once.

The alley, cold and wet and smelling like trash, My lip stinging. Rubben shouting my name over the rain like he’d been scared. His arms around me, no questions, no hesitation. Just gone.

The car, . He put his jacket over me and didn’t say a word about the leather.

The panic room.

“Deep breaths, Lia. Look at me. Just me.”

Then his bedroom.

“Need to get this off you,” he said, and his voice was wrecked.

He didn’t wait for me to answer. He just… did it. Zipper down. Fabric peeling off my shoulders. His eyes fixed on the ceiling like looking at me would kill him. His knuckles brushed my waist and he jerked back like I was fire.

Then the shirt Black, His. He pulled it over my head and I disappeared into it. It went to my thighs. It smelled like him. It was warm. It was safe.

And I ruined it.

Because I was shaking, and cold, and tired of pretending, and I looked up at him and said it.

I love you, Rubben.

I said it again, not like like a sister nor friend. I said it the way you say it when you’ve been holding it in so long it claws its way out.

He froze.

His whole body went still like I’d pulled a gun.

Then he reapted the same phrase he had always said.

“You’re my sister, Lia.”

I don’t remember after that. Just his chest. His heart going crazy under my ear. The dark.

Now it was morning.

And I was in his shirt. In his bed.

And he was right there. Shirtless. Real.

Shame moved in fast. Up my neck, into my cheeks, behind my eyes. I yanked the blanket up to my nose like that would undo anything.

The blanket smelled like him too. I was drowning in Rubben.

I peeked down.

Yeah. Just the shirt. My dress was folded on the chair Neat. Like he took care of it. Like he took care of me.

He undressed me.

He saw me.

I wanted to die. Just a little.

“Lia.”

His voice. God. Rough from no sleep. From too many words he didn’t say.

I couldn’t look at him. If I did, he’d see it all over my face. The memory, the want. the embarrassment.

“How do you feel?”

Like I confessed to my stepbrother and lived to regret it.

I shook my head under the blanket. Please don’t make me talk. Please don’t be kind.

The door opened.

“Lia, baby.” Mom. She was on me in a second, hand on my forehead, eyes glassy. “You’re burning up. You scared me.”

“I’m okay.” Lie. My voice was a mess.

“You’re not.” She turned, and softened when she saw Rubben. “Thank you. For bringing her home. For staying with her. For… everything.”

Rubben was at the window now. Back to us. Every line of him was tight. “Don’t thank me.”

“I will.” Mom brushed my hair off my face. “Sleep, baby. Doctor’s coming. And you,” she looked at Rubben, “sleep too. You look worse than she does.”

She kissed my forehead and left.

The door clicked.

And it was us again.

Rubben pov

She was awake.

I hadn’t slept. Hadn’t even tried. How could I, with her in my bed? With my shirt on her? With I love you, Rubben playing on loop in my head?

She hid under the blanket like that erased it. Like I could forget the way she looked with my hands on her zipper. Like I didn’t see the little scar on her hip, the freckle on her collarbone, the way she shivered when I pulled the shirt over her head.

I told myself I was helping. That it was survival. That any decent person would’ve done it.

Lies.

I did it because the thought of anyone else touching her made me want to break things.

She loved me. She said it. And I gave her _sister_.

Because mine would’ve started a war I couldn’t win.

She shifted. The shirt slipped off her shoulder. Bare skin. My jaw locked so hard it hurt.

Sister.

Sister.

Sister.

Say it enough and maybe it’d be true.

.........

just then , my phone vibrated on the marble an unknown caller.

Lia is upstairs , she said she doesn't need a doctor, she was fit to take care of herself , she checked her pulse , she took her own temp, wrote it on a sticky note like she was charting a patient.

My phone rang again, i answered.

Hello, C.E.O

Marriott??

i griped the phone , "How the hell did you get this number?"

I have a lot of things Rubben, your address, Your sisters work schedule at St hospital.

he know where she works

I kept my voice even, "what do you want Marriott?"

" everything you and your wrecked father has built over the years , the boards, the contract , the name Carter on the building.

You won't have that marriot.

I will, brick by brick just the way your father took it away from me untill you're left with nothing.

"Try"

"I will, this call is the first piece."

what's the second.

just then , the call ended.

I was about dropping my phone on the marble when I got an email

no subject, attachment only.

it was a video file , eight second long.

me , age ten......... crying.

behind me , a voice i haven't Heard in twenty years,

my mother saying a name I've never heared her say.............

Marriott.