Chapter 31

(RANDY)

“WHAT. THE FUCK. IS THIS!”

We both stood there horrified as dad held the picture of us in his hands. It looked as if the frame was going to crumble into a million pieces any second. He never took his eyes off of us the whole time he was waiting for an answer, and we were too scared to give him one. I’ve never, I mean never, seen dad this angry, there was no way in hell we’d be able to talk our way out of this one, at least an still be in one piece.

“I’M WAITING! WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS!”

He looked like he got even angrier as he held the picture up so we could see it. Within seconds of him yelling again we heard footsteps quickly ascending to the top of the stairs, and were met with an on edge mom and Aunt Lisa as the came in the room with their eyes wide open.

“What is going on here? I can hear you yelling downstairs Mike what happened?” mom asked.

“What’s going? You wanna know what’s going on? What’s going on is your kids are fucking KISSING each other in this picture!” dad said as he threw it on the bed by mom.

Mom picked up the picture, looked at it and sunk, for dad because she didn’t want him to know she knew, and for us because we were so careless and got caught. Aunt Lisa walked over and looked at the picture and did the same thing mom did, then they did a double take at us and tossed the picture back on the bed, and then looked up at dad.

“You see this? Our kids are kissing each other Anna! What kind of shit ... how the hell ... I don’t even know what to say right now. OUR KIDS ARE FUCKING KISSING EACH OTHER ANNA!”

“Mike calm down, yelling isn’t gonna help anything, it could just be an innocent...”

“A WHAT? LOOK AT THE PICTURE ANNA, THEY LOOK LIKE LOVERS! THERE’S NOTHING AT ALL INNOCENT ABOUT THAT PICTURE! WHAT ARE YOU CRAZY?”

“No I’m not crazy Mike, I’m just trying to keep an open mind here.”

“AN OPEN MIND ABOUT WHAT? THAT THEY DECIDED FOR THE HELL OF IT TO JUST TAKE A PICTURE OF THEM KISSING LIKE THAT? BROTHERS AND SISTERS DON’T KISS LIKE THAT ANNA, AT LEAST NOT THAT I KNOW OF! IF THEY’RE DOING THAT THEN THEY’RE PROBABLY DOING OTHER ... I DON’T WANNA EVEN THINK ABOUT WHAT ELSE THEY’RE DOING!”

The whole time we were just standing there, afraid, not knowing when to jump in, or what to say, or how to say it, dad just kept yelling, and yelling, and yelling, and mom kept trying to calm him down, but it wasn’t working, it only made him more angry. No matter what mom said, he had a rebuttal for each argument. We were in a lot of trouble.

“They’ve always been close Mike, this shouldn’t come as a surprise to you,” mom said.

“SO WHAT! THAT DOESN’T MEAN YOU CAN GO AROUND KISSING YOUR SISTER! I DIDN’T, YOU DIDN’T, THIS IS NOT OK ANNA! WE DIDN’T RAISE THEM TO ACT LIKE THIS!”

“They’re twins Mike, it’s different for them, especially after everything that happened...”

“NO, DON’T BRING THAT UP, THAT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS PICTURE!” He turned his attention from mom and looked directly at us. “You are gonna tell me exactly what’s going on is that picture, and you are gonna tell me right now!”

“Mike, just let...” Aunt Lisa started.

“I DON’T WANNA HEAR IT LISA! Let them talk,” dad cut her off. “What am I looking at, was this a one-time twin thing, or has this been going on for a long time?”

Rita’s hands were shaking. We were in one hell of a spot. On one hand I knew if we told the truth dad would completely explode, but on the other hand if we told a lie he might calm down, and he would be suspicious of us forever, and then again on that same hand if we got caught in a lie it would only make things ten times worse than they already are, and things were already bad enough. I knew we had to tell him the truth, I just didn’t want it to come out like this. We had to tell him about us, there was no putting it off anymore, we had to tell him everything and we had to tell him now, but I had to be the one to tell him. I slowly locked my fingers with Rita’s, as scared as we both were, and looked dad straight in the eye.

“It’s been going on for a long time dad.”

He just about lost it. He went to say something, but stopped before any words came out, turned away from everybody and clasped his fingers together behind his head, paced around the floor with his hands on his hips, and finally turned back to us, to me, with clenched fists.

“What is ‘it’? Is it kissing and touching, or is it more than that?”

I sighed and took a deep breath, maybe my last. “More than that.”

That was the last straw. Dad lunged at me so fast I barely had any time to react. I had just enough time to push Rita into the hallway before dad had me by my shoulders pinned to the ground. He slammed me to the ground pretty good before mom tried to grab hold of him.

“MIKE NO! DON’T HIT HIM!” mom pleaded as she tried to pull one of his arms back.

“DID YOU JUST HEAR HIM ANNA! HE SAID IT WAS MORE THAN TOUCHING, THE ONLY THING MORE THAN TOUCHING IS SEX! HE’S FUCKING HIS OWN SISTER!”

He turned his attention back to me. I was about to get the shit beat out of me, I just knew it. mom was trying her hardest to hold his arm back, but he was starting to overpower her, at least he was until Aunt Lisa came up and grabbed hold of his other arm.

“LET ME GO LISA! LET GO OF MY FUCKING ARM!”

“I’m not letting go until you calm down Mike!”

They were trying their hardest to hold him down, but I knew it wouldn’t last forever. He was Hulk mad, and everybody knows you can’t contain Hulk mad. They put up a good fight, but just as I knew it would happen dad eventually broke free, causing the three of them to fall backwards. Dad quickly hopped back up and was ready to jump right back on me when Rita threw herself right on top of me with the most fearful look on her face I’ve ever seen, and he looked at her and saw it. As mad as he was at me, at us, even after all this, she was still his little girl, and he knew it, and slowly, but surely, dad finally managed to calm down. Just like the Hulk when he was mad, dad had that same defining weakness, the girl, in this case, his daughter.

“Daddy please don’t do this!” Rita begged.

“Rita. Move outta the way. Me and your brother are gonna have a little talk.”

“You mean you’re gonna punch his face in? No dad, I’m not moving!”

“Rita move outta the way.”

“No dad I can’t, I can’t let you hit him.”

“RITA MOVE! I’M NOT JUST GONNA LET THIS PASS! HE HAD SEX WITH YOU ... IT JUST HURTS MY EARS EVEN HEARING MYSELF SAY IT LET ALONE THINK ABOUT IT!”

“Why are you just mad at him dad? He didn’t rape me, I was there too. This wasn’t just some spur of the moment thing going on dad, we love each other.”

Dad stood all the way up and squeezed his fists together. He gave me a death stare that I couldn’t help but get locked into for the sake of him lunging at me if I took my eyes off him for one second. “Get off of him Rita, let him stand up, you’re not gonna fight his battles for him, I raised you to be a man, now stand up and be one.”

“Dad please, you’re just gonna hit him, I don’t want...”

“I said let him stand up! You’re not gonna fight his battles for him!”

“I’m not fighting his battles for him, I’m fighting our battles with him!”

In a way dad was right. While I laid there on the floor mom and Aunt Lisa held him back, and when he got free Rita went Pocahontas on me and threw herself on me like I was John Smith. I touched her arm and slowly lifted her off me, she was reluctant to move, but I still did it. “He’s right Rita, I need to stand up and face him like a man.”

She hesitantly moved away as I stood up, but she didn’t stand more than a foot away from me as I got to my feet and squared up with dad. Mom and Aunt Lisa were still behind him just as fidgety as Rita was, ready just in case dad tried another lunge at me.

“I’m gonna be calm. I got all of my rage out, don’t worry honey,” dad said to mom.

Mom, being the human lie detector she was, looked at him and breathed a sigh of relief, and when she relaxed, the rest of us did, mom knew dad better than any of us, and if she believed him when he said he was calm, then he was calm. He gave her a little half smile to help reassure her, and she gave one back, and I thought the situation at least had somewhat taken a step in the right direction, but when he looked at me he instantly went back into demon mode.

“So you thought it was ok to screw your little sister? What’s the matter with you?”

“Dad, it’s not just that, we love each other, I mean we really love each other.”

“THAT’S INCEST! Don’t you know it’s illegal, and morally wrong? You could go to jail if someone found out, and did I mention it’s morally wrong!”

“Dad! How do you think we as a people got here? Adam and Eve had to start somewhere, it’s not like random humans that weren’t related just started popping up at the right time...”

“Don’t give me that shit Randy I don’t wanna hear about Adam and Eve, I’m talking about Randy and Rita! Anna can you believe what we’re hearing!”

Mom held on to her poker face, not showing sighs that she knows about us already, or signs that she’s taking dad’s side, she just looked like a concerned mother all the way through to her body language. Aunt Lisa moved to sit on the bed with her arms crossed, she didn’t say anything, she just looked at mom to try to gauge a reaction.

“How long has this been going on, you two?” dad asked.

“A little over ten months, since our birthday last year,” I replied back.

“Ten months? Wow. Ten months. So out of nowhere you just decided to have sex. Decided to have yourselves an incest birthday huh? So every time we’re not here you’re probably taking that time to screw the pants off of each other! What I wanna know is, how you were able to keep it secret from your mother, aunt, and I for so long. How did I not notice anything!”

“Dad we were gonna tell you, we weren’t gonna hide it from you forever,” Rita said.

“Yeah right you were gonna tell me. If I hadn’t seen that picture I never would’ve known.”

“No dad, we were gonna tell you, all of you,” I said throwing that last part in to cover mom and Aunt Lisa. “We were trying to figure out how, in case something like this happened.”

“In case something like what happened? Me acting the way I’m supposed to act upon finding out my son has been fucking his sister for the last ten months!”

Now it was my turn to get upset. “DAD IT’S NOT JUST ABOUT THE SEX, I LOVE HER!”

“You better lower your damn voice and remember who you’re talking to!”

I was in a mode, too late to turn back now. “THEN STOP DEGRADING IT! YOU’RE MAING IT SEEM LIKE WE HAD NOTHING BETTER TO DO, IT’S NOT LIKE THAT AT ALL!” I stopped and took a deep breath when I saw dad’s face start to get red a little. “It’s not like we planned this dad, it just happened. We’re twins, we were in the same womb together, we’ve never been apart from each other, it just seemed, inevitable, destined. We just have that bond, and this, me and her, it just feels right dad. I’ve never wanted to be with anyone more in my life.”

“Me too dad,” Rita jumped in. “I never want to be with anyone else. Please try to understand.”

Dad took a minute to soak in what we just said, and in that time Rita came and rested her head on my shoulder and held my hand. She looked at me with her big blue eyes that looked like they were on the verge of letting out some water works.

“Thank you for standing up for us.”

“I couldn’t claim to love you if I weren’t willing to.”

Dad grunted upon hearing my last statement. “(sigh) You know what, I believe you. I do believe that you two are really in love, but that doesn’t make what you’re doing ok. It is illegal, and I will not stand for it in principle or in my house. You two are to stop this ... thing, now.”

“We were completely floored. That was not the answer we were expecting. “What!”

“You heard me, you are to stop this relationship right now. You are not husband and wife, you are brother and sister, it’s time you started acting like it.”

“DAD NO!” I yelled. “DID YOU HEAR EVERYTHING I JUST SAID!”

“Yes I heard everything you just said, now hear everything I’m saying. You two are to stop this charade right now and go back to your lives before this mess happened.”

“Dad please, you can’t do this, we can’t just pretend like none of this happened!” Rita said.

“You can, and you will. You will go back to being brother and sister as of this moment.”

“Mike, maybe we need a couple days to cool our heads,” Aunt Lisa said.

“I don’t need to cool my head, I said what I needed to say and that’s it, case closed. Randy, get your stuff out of here, you two won’t be sharing a room anymore, you can sleep on the couch until Lisa moves out then you can have your room back,” dad said as he headed for the door.

I couldn’t let it be like this. Rita is the girl I’m supposed to be with, I can’t just sit back and let that be taken away from me. I overcame worse odds than this when I got shot, I had to stand up to dad, no matter what the outcome was, I had to, for Rita. “Dad, no.”

“He stopped dead in his tracks and turned to look at me. “What did you say?”

Like I said before, I came too far to back down now. “I’ve never disobeyed you in my life dad, because you always did what was best for me, but not this time. Rita is what’s best for me dad. I love her, and she loves me. You want me to tell the girl I wanna spend the rest of my life with I can’t see her anymore? I’m sorry dad, but sister or not that’s something I can’t do, I won’t do. I might be asking for a beating saying all this, but so be it, I have to say it. We’re meant to be together, and I’m sorry dad, but I can’t let you get in the way of that. She is my girlfriend, and I know it hurts for you to hear it right now, but I will not stop seeing her, no matter what.”

For a while he said nothing, he showed no emotion, he didn’t even move, it was like time stopped only on him, and we were waiting for him to pop back to the present. We all looked around at each other to try and gauge a reaction, but noone knew what to make of it. After some time in deep thought, dad, finally moved, and looked directly at me.

“You’re sure you feel like this? Nothing can change your mind?” dad asked.

I sighed, relieved. “Yes dad, I’m sure. I love her and nothing you say is gonna change that.”

“Ok. Pack up your stuff, I want you out of here in the next fifteen minutes.”

Completely out of left field. “What dad? NO!” Rita screamed.

“I don’t wanna hear it Rita! If you don’t wanna separate willingly, I’m gonna have to make you do it, pack up your stuff, and get out of here, now!”

“Where is he supposed to go Mike? He’s just a kid!” mom said.

“We all know exactly where he’s gonna go, over to Chris’ house. He’s not gonna be in any danger, he’ll be away from Rita, which is exactly what they need right now. Some time apart is just what they need to realize what the hell they’re doing with each other!”

Dad headed for the door and Rita took off after him. “Dad no! Please don’t do this!”

“I’m doing this for your own good Rita, and for Randy’s. Brothers and sisters aren’t supposed to act the way you do, this isn’t normal behavior!”

“So the best thing to do is throw him out? How is splitting us up by force gonna help?”

“It’ll help stop this!” dad said as he grabbed the picture and held it up in the air. “This is gonna stop one way or another, even if I have to watch you 24/7, it’s gonna stop!”

“If you’re kicking him out then I’m going too dad!”

“No you’re not, you’re gonna stay right here until we can fix this.”

“Fix what dad? Nothing’s wrong with us! You can’t help who you fall in love with!”

“THAT is what’s wrong! You can’t fall in love with your brother. I won’t let you!”

“Mike, don’t you think...”

“I know what you’re gonna say Anna, and no I’m not being too harsh. Look at this, these are our kids Anna! I will not sit by and let this happen! Randy, call up Chris and tell him to come get you, Rita, you stay right here. THERE WILL BE NO MORE OF THIS IN MY HOUSE!”

In anger dad threw the picture at the wall and the glass shattered and fell on the floor. There was a mark on the wall where the picture hit and the frame had broken from the impact, but the picture itself was fine. Dad stared at the pile of mess then turned his gaze towards me.

“I mean it Randy, pack up and go, you got fifteen minutes.”

He left and went downstairs and as soon as he did Rita went to pick up the broken frame. The rest of the glass slid out of the bottom and onto the floor as she lifted it up into the air. She stared at it helplessly for a few seconds then turned and looked at mom and Aunt Lisa with tears forming in her eyes, and ran over to me and threw her arms around me.

“Don’t leave Randy, please! He’s just mad right now, he’ll calm down in a little bit.”

“Yeah, but he’ll still feel the same way. I have to leave before I make things worse.”

“No you don’t! please Randy, mom do something!” Rita pleaded.

For the first time in a long time mom didn’t know what to say. “I’ve never seen your father get THAT upset, I don’t know if there’s anything I can do, not right now at least.”

“So we just let him leave? I know dad is mad but kicking him out isn’t gonna help anything! How are we supposed to function without each other?”

“We’ll figure it out Rita, I promise, but right now me being here is a big problem, we don’t wanna do anything we’re gonna regret, let alone dad, I have to leave.”

Rita started crying. “I’m coming with you. I don’t care where we go, I don’t care if we have to sleep under a bridge, I’m coming with you!”

“Rita...”

“NO! I’m coming with you! There’s nothing you can say to change my mind!”

“There’s nothing I want more than for you to come with me, but you know dad’s not gonna let you leave, and who knows what’ll happen if he finds us together. This is the maddest dad’s ever been, even more than the last ten years combined. We have to tread carefully, we have to.”

“Randy, no, you can’t ask me to stay, please don’t ask me.”

“Only for a little bit, until we can figure this out. Once dad had a few days to calm down we’ll work it out, but for right now. This was not how he was supposed to find out, we can’t be mad at how he reacted. He’s not mad at you, he’s mad at me, he needs to not see my face for a while. The sooner I leave and get it outta the way, the sooner I can come back.”

She just looked at me and cried. I truly hated seeing her like that. She wrapped her arms around me as tight as she could, knowing I’d be soon out that door for who knows how long. I sent Chris a text asking if I could crash over and if he could pick me up, he responded yeah and said he’d be on his way in ten minutes, which meant I’d have to leave the house before he got here.

“Mom, please don’t let dad kick him out, go talk to him, please!” Rita pleaded again.

“I will, but Randy’s right Rita, as mad as your father is right now, he needs to not see Randy’s face for a few days, him leaving with help more than it will hurt,” mom said.

“It’ll help who? Not me! I hate this so much. We’re always being careless and leaving stuff out in the open. This time we got burned for it. if I hadn’t pulled the picture out...”

“Then it would’ve happened a week from now or whenever we decided to tell him, this was unavoidable Rita, the only good thing is we can get the hard part outta the way now,” I said.

“We haven’t even told him the full truth yet, about everything else,” Aunt Lisa said.

“No, don’t tell him that, none of you, he doesn’t need to know about that at all.”

“You don’t get to tell me what to do, I’m YOUR mother, or did you forget that?” mom asked.

“He doesn’t need to know about that mom, ever. All he should be concerned about is me and Rita, he’ll definitely blow a gasket if he finds out you guys are

involved too.”
“That might be true, but it’s not just your decision, he still should know.”

“Maybe he doesn’t need to know Anna. Think about it, he lost it when he found out about his kids, how do you think he’s gonna react if he finds out not only did we know about it, but we participated in it? He’ll lose his mind! He has enough to deal with.”

“So what, we just never tell him the whole truth?”

“Sometimes people don’t need to know everything. If in thirty years you still have a guilty conscience then you can tell him, but I won’t, and I don’t think they will either.”

Mom paused for a second and thought it over. “As long as he wasn’t listening outside the door the whole time,” mom said as she paused to go check. “Fine. We kept it away from him for this long, what’s another thirty years, by then, he’ll be too old to care.”

“I should probably get my stuff packed, don’t want dad storming back up here,” I said.

“This isn’t right! Why does Randy have to leave? I’m just as guilty as he is!” Rita said.

“Because he’s not gonna kick his little girl out, it’s way easier to send me off.”

“When he goes to sleep, I’m gonna sneak out. He can’t keep me locked up in here.”

“Don’t, all that’s gonna do is make him angrier, which is gonna keep me away longer.”

“So what are we gonna do, Skype all the time? I wanna see you!”

“You will, I promise, we just have to do this first.”

“You’re making it sound so easy, like you’re gonna get along fine without me.”

“This is far from easy Rita, I’m gonna be miserable over there without you, I’m just putting up a front so dad won’t see me weak. It’s gonna be hell not being able to see you every day!”

“THAT’S what I want you to say! I want you to miss me! I want you to not go!”

“It won’t be so bad. I’ll be staying with Stephanie and Chris, so it’s not like I’ll be living on the street. We’ll talk every day and we’ll still get to see each other, and who knows, this might help up, absence does make the heart grow fonder they say.”

“I’ve already had my absence, three months’ worth, I don’t need any more absence!”

“Rita, you’re making this harder on him than it already is,” mom said.

“Well I’m sorry, but I’m having a hard time believing this is the best thing to do.”

“Not necessarily the best thing, more like the only thing. It’s only for a little while.”

“FIVE MINUTES RANDY! LET”S GO!” dad yelled loud enough for us to hear from downstairs.

“I guess that’s my cue.” I said as I threw random clothes and items in my big duffle bag. “Don’t worry Rita, pretty soon this’ll all be over and I’ll be back before you know it.”

She walked up and hugged herself to my chest. “You promise?”

“I promise.”

“You never broke a promise to me Randy, you better not start now.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” I said as I softly kissed her forehead.

I guess she wasn’t satisfied with my gentle forehead kiss because she pushed her lips to mine in the way she does when she really wants me to know she loves me. Our lips were melded together perfectly as we embraced each other for the last time in who knows how long, which clarified why my forehead kiss was immediately shot down. Aunt Lisa and mom looked on without saying anything, knowing we were vulnerable and hurting, they let us have our moment. I grabbed my bag and smiled at everyone, holding my gaze with Rita a little longer, and headed downstairs before dad came back up looking for me. He was sitting on the couch waiting for me to come down, and when I did he got up and walked to the door.

“Dad, I know you don’t agree with what we’re doing, but we...”

“No I don’t agree with it, and I won’t agree with it. When you agree to stop seeing your sister in that manner then you will be welcomed back, but until then, stay away from her.”

He held the door open for me to walk out without even looking at me, no matter how hard I tried to make eye contact he just wouldn’t budge. I wanted to be mad at him for the way he was treating us, but how could I be? We’re committing incest and we hid it from him, save for mom and Aunt Lisa, and Ashley, this is the reaction we’d get from almost everybody else. I looked around one last time and walked out the front door, and no sooner than I was walking to the stairs did the door close and lock behind me. He didn’t even check to make sure Chris came to get me, but it was daylight, so I overlooked it. I texted Chris to see where he was, and he said he was on the way, which everybody knows means he didn’t even leave yet, so I just started walking until he text me back to let me know where he was. Ten minutes into walking I wished I picked a better bag because the one I had had a strap that was really starting to cut into my shoulder. I tried switching it to the other but it wasn’t helping much, being shot in that shoulder wasn’t doing me any favors either, so I decided to stop somewhere and wait for him.

It just so happened I walked far enough to be within sight of the ice cream shop that I was just thinking about where I was shot at, what are the odds. I was hesitant at first but it being daytime and seeing people sitting out there made it easier for me to suck it up and do it. I took a seat at one of the tables on the outside patio, the scene where it all happened. I haven’t been back since that day. The layout was a little different than I remember it being, but overall it was still the same place. I started having flashbacks of that night, from the guy drawing the knife on Ashley, to us wrestling through tables trying to gain control over the other, even the image of me taking two bullets popped in my head. I felt like a soldier coming back from war who had PTSD since this was my first time actually coming back here since that day. I needed to occupy my mind, think of something that would help me forget about what happened, or deal with it so I could move on, but without Rita being there, it made it that much harder. I contemplated getting an ice cream while I waited for Chris, thinking that would help me forget about what happened, but this was hardly the mood for it, that and I wanted Rita to be here when I finally did, so I just sat there and waited for Chris to text me back. When he finally did about ten minutes later he was outside my house, and I had to redirect him to the ice cream shop. I knew he’d be curious why so I told him I’d fill him in on everything once he got here. A couple minutes later I saw his Lincoln pull up and him get out ready to crack a joke, but when he saw I wasn’t in a joking mood and had a packed duffle bag fit for the Marines, he lost his smile.

“What’s up man? Why you have a big ass bag for a couple days?”

“I’ll fill you in on the way back, let’s get out of here.”

We walked back to his car and I threw my bag on the back seat and got in the front without saying a word. Chris obviously knew something was up but he waited until we left the ice cream shop before he asked me anything.

“So what’s up man? You and Rita have a fight or something?”

“Nope. We’re perfectly fine, at least for the moment.”

“Then what? You went from loving life to rock bottom in two hours, what gives?”

“Dad kicked me out.”

(RITA)

“Dad why are you doing this? You just can’t kick him out like that!”

“You two didn’t leave me a choice. Sleeping with each other, what were you thinking Rita?”

“We were thinking we loved each other and didn’t care that we were related!”

“You can’t love each other, not that way, not ever again. You hear me?”

“No dad I don’t wanna hear you. I love him, and he loves me dad, I know you can see that. You can’t expect us to just turn off our feelings for each other!”

“It won’t be easy, but yes that’s exactly what I expect both of you to do.”

“Dad that’s not fair! I can’t be with the person I love more than anything in this world because of some stupid society superstition?”

“I don’t wanna talk about this anymore Rita! You two WILL stop seeing each other!”

I was not gonna take no for an answer. “And what if we don’t?”

He was caught off guard, he didn’t expect me to say something like that to him. His face drew up with the look he gave Randy the moment he first found the picture. “You will stop seeing each other, or I’ll send him so far away it’ll be like he left this planet, got it!”

I could feel the tears start to well up in my eyes. He just didn’t understand. I can’t just turn off my feelings for Randy, I just can’t. I know he thinks he’s doing what’s best for us, but he’s doing the exact opposite, and to hear him threaten to send Randy away for good was it, I couldn’t deal with it anymore, I couldn’t stop the tears any more than dad could stop us from being together. One look at his crying daughter and he knew he’d gone too far, but he didn’t budge.

“Rita I’m doing this for your own good. I WILL NOT have it, it needs to stop! You can be mad all you want, but for now you are not to have any kind of contact with your brother for a while.”

“JUST LEAVE ME ALONE DAD!”

I ran up to our room and fell into the bed, pushing everything they brought us back from the trip onto the floor, I could care less about it at that moment. I cried into my pillow. The thought of Randy being far away from me with nothing I could do about it was the worst feeling in the world. Every time I pictured anything about the future, Randy was always there, even before we were intimate with each other, he was always there. I couldn’t let dad do it, not without sending me away with him. I know dad would never send me away, so I would have to find a way to play that to our advantage. I was so caught up in my thoughts and emotions that I didn’t know someone was in the room with me until I felt a hand on my back. I turned over expecting it to be dad and was relieved to see it was Aunt Lisa, who looked as sad as I did.