Resume Of Romance

Chapter 31

Chapter 31

A sweet and sultry smell of sage and citrus hits Rylie’s nose as she is pushed inside an upstairs bedroom room.  She hears the knob turn, the lock clicks.  She kicks her foot at the locked door in frustration.  Looking around her the room is a nice size it has its own bathroom.  There’s one window she hurries over to try it of course it’s locked.  It started raining on the way here.  With nothing but the sound of the hard rain hitting against the window it soothes her keeping her sane for a while. 

This is not the result she expected to have when she made her grand exit from that restaurant.  She’s tired of the mess her life has become.  After talking with the detectives and police officer this morning at that coffee shop with Leland something snapped inside her.  She began to hate Monique for what she’s done.  Her hate started extending to Jayson for being an accomplice and enabler.  She knows those words apply to herself as well about Monique.  

She’s mad at everyone around her mostly for seeing what she couldn’t see and didn’t want to.  She feels like such a fool for wanting to believe her sister isn’t the person that has been slowly revealed to her and has now put her in harms way.  

Rylie’s ashamed, she saw the signs all along the way about Monique and ignored them.  She has been alone and lonely for some time.  Monique is her only immediate family.   When she came to live with her it gave Rylie a chance to spend time with her, do things sisters do.  They went out to lunch often and sometimes cooked dinner together.  Monique shared her love of trying out recipes they found on Pinterest together, they got the idea from watching their mother cook from the recipes she would clip from newspapers and magazine when they were small children.  She would always involve them it was her way to teach them how to cook. 

The two sisters went shopping together wearing each other’s clothes and fighting over each other’s shoes.  They laughed over stupid things only they understand and talked about their childhoods late at night over bottles of wine often falling asleep on the floor or in the same bed.  She had her big sister for a short time, Rylie had a family no matter how dysfunctional they were. 

Now she doesn’t have that and she’s alone again.  Her breaking point was reached several days ago in dealing with all of this.  She’s been hanging on raw emotion that came crashing down on her when she had the argument with Chace.  She wanted to hide in doing her job it’s the only thing she is confident she’s good at.  She thought if she did it well….well maybe things between her and Chace would settle down.  

She needs something to focus on but she’s cursing herself for letting the discord between Mason and Chace get to her causing her to end up here.  She isn’t sure if Mason is serious in his efforts to get her back in his life or if he’s just jealous of what he thinks she has with Chace which is nothing now she realizes even that’s her own fault. 

Taking off her coat she lays it across a chair and sits on the bed in the room.  She refuses to cry but it doesn’t stop the horrible thoughts that invade her mind.  The things she’s learned about this Mansion make her shudder.  She can’t stand the thought of strange men pawing all over her.  She could never sell herself the way her sister has.  

Sitting alone in the room decorated like a brothel with its hot pink wallpaper, high poster king-sized bed and black with gaudy gold accents she has nothing else to do but keep thinking of the things she was told Monique has done.  With all the time they spent together these last two years it hurts that her sister never felt like she could trust her with the truth of her life. It hurts her head to even think how she has fought for her, argued protectively in her favor against everyone about Monique’s character.