Raine
I nodded slowly.
My chest felt so tight I could barely get the words out.
“I’ll tell him.”
”Promise me, Raine.” I stared at her not saying anything.
“Please, Raine.
I don’t want to lose you.” I took a deep breath and promised.
“Alright.
I promise to tell Miguel today.” She nodded with a proud smile.
She stood up and hugged me, but I didn’t really feel it.
My head was spinning too fast.
All I could think about was the tiny life inside me and the man who would hate me for it.
I walked down the hospital hallway with my head down.
I was trying to get to the exit without being seen, but then I saw them.
Miguel was pushing Raina in a wheelchair.
They looked like something out of a movie.
She was smiling up at him, looking soft and pretty, and he was looking down at her with a gentle expression I had never seen directed at me.
They looked perfect.
They looked like they belonged together.
My stomach twisted.
I tried to turn around and go the other way, but Raina saw me first.
“Raine!” she called out.
Her voice was sweet, like it always was.
I froze.
Miguel looked up, his eyes locking onto mine for a second.
For one stupid moment, I thought he might see how pale I was.
I thought he might ask if I was okay.
But his gaze slid right off me like I was a stranger.
Like I wasn’t even there.
Raina didn’t ask if I was okay, either.
She just tilted her head.
“What are you doing here?”
”I came to see Lena,” I said.
Raina’s face turned sad.
“You haven’t visited me in weeks, but you can come see your friend?”
I didn’t know what to say to that.
How could I tell her that it hurt too much to watch them play house while I lived in an empty apartment?
I just stayed quiet.
Raina looked at Miguel.
“Can you leave us for a bit?
I want to talk to my sister.”
Miguel hesitated.
He looked at me with his jaw tight, like he was actually afraid I might do something to her if he wasn’t there to protect her.
The thought stung, but I didn’t say anything.
“I’ll be fine.”
He finally walked away, but he kept looking back.
Once he was gone, Raina reached out and took my hand.
“I asked him to leave because I wanted to be alone with you.
I’ve missed you.”
I felt a pang of guilt.
I had been avoiding her, and seeing her look so thin and weak made me feel like a bad person.
“I really want to see the garden at the back,” she whispered.
“Miguel is too worried to let me go.
Please, Raine?
Just for a little bit?”
I looked at the path.
It was steep and the ground was uneven.
I told her it wasn’t a good idea, but she kept pleading with her big, watery eyes.
“What’s the point of being alive if I can’t even see the sun?”
I sighed and gave in.
I started pushing her toward the garden.
As we rolled past the grass, she started telling jokes.
We laughed together, just like we used to when we were kids.
For a few minutes, I forgot about the pregnancy and the rejection.
I felt like I had my sister back.
“Let’s go a little further down,” she said, pointing to the slope.
I started pushing her carefully down the hill.
But then, everything happened in a blur.
My foot caught on a thick root.
I stumbled, my body jerking forward.
I tried to grab the handles of the wheelchair, but my fingers slipped.
I watched in horror as the chair tipped.
Raina tumbled out and rolled down the grass with a sharp cry.
“Oh my God…Raina!”
Before I could even reach her, my mother was there.
She must have been following us the whole time.
She screamed for Miguel, and he came sprinting over.
He pushed me aside so hard I almost fell again, and he scooped Raina up in his arms.
She was crying, clinging to his neck.
My mom turned on me.
Before I could explain, her hand flew across my face.
Smack.
The sting was sudden and hot.
It was the first time she had ever hit me.
I stood there, stunned, holding my burning cheek.
“Why would you do that?” my mother yelled.
“Are you so jealous of her that you would push her down a hill?
Just because of a man?”
”I didn’t…
I didn’t do it,” I stammered.
The tears were starting to blur my vision.
“I tripped.
I swear, it was an accident.”
Miguel looked at me then.
His eyes weren’t just cold anymore; they were full of pure hatred.
He held Raina tighter against his chest, shielding her from me like I was a monster.
“I’d never hurt her,” I said, looking straight at him.
“You have to believe me.”
He didn’t say a word.
He just turned and started walking toward the hospital.
As he passed me, he leaned in.
His voice was a low, terrifying whisper that only I could hear.
“Pray with everything you have, Raine.
Because if anything happens to her, I’m going to make sure you regret the day you were born.”
I felt like my blood had turned to ice.
I stood there on the path, frozen, as they all walked away.
My mother didn’t even look back at me.
She just followed them, fussing over Raina.
I was completely alone.
I put my hand over my stomach without thinking.
My cheek was throbbing, and my heart was pounding so hard I felt sick.
In my bag, the test result felt heavy.
I was supposed to tell him tonight.
I was supposed to tell him we were having a baby.
But as I watched him carry my sister away, I knew I couldn’t.
He would never believe it was his.
Or worse, he would think I got pregnant just to keep him from leaving me.
I looked at the empty wheelchair lying on its side in the grass.
Everything was broken.
My family, my marriage, and my heart.
I turned around and walked toward my car.
I didn’t cry.
I couldn’t.
I just felt a cold, hard stone forming in my chest where my love for them used to be.
They wanted me to be the villain?
Fine.
I would be whatever they needed me to be, as long as it got me far away from here.