All The Truths - Rina Kent Page 0,74
like Mom’s.
The doctor shoves that light in front of my eyes and tells me to follow it. At first, I don’t comply because I don’t want to break eye contact with Reina. What if she disappears?
She nods at me, squeezing my hand encouragingly, so I follow the doctor’s instructions. He asks me to talk and say my name.
“Reina,” I whisper in a hoarse voice. “Reina Ellis.”
A few people may know the fact that I’m not, but we promised I’d be Reina Ellis and she’d be Rai Sokolov. Until she takes back her life, I’ll protect it. I’ll do whatever it takes to keep it afloat.
Reina’s face fills with so many emotions. My own would be similar if I could move it.
The doctor and the nurses fuss around Reina and me follows their every move, listening to the doctor and occasionally squeezing my hand to support it. The motions and the questions are almost a déjà vu of the last time I woke up in a similar bed with my memories wiped clean.
Only this time, it hurts more.
And this time…I slowly move my head around, but there’s no trace of Asher. A funny type of emptiness grips the center of my chest.
The doctor prescribes me some meds for the pain, and the nurse injects them into my IV. Then they leave, the door hissing closed behind them.
It’s only Reina and me now.
Just like all those years ago.
She sits on the side of the bed, still holding my hand, careful not to jostle my side. From what the doctor said, I broke one rib and bruised two.
I’m scared to look at my face and witness all the damage Ivan has done.
“Is he dead?” I ask Reina.
She must realize exactly who I’m talking about since she nods tightly. “I stabbed him in the fucking eye.”
“Good.” My voice turns emotional. “Mom and Dad can rest in peace now.”
I expected Reina to share my emotional reaction, but her expression hardens like a warrior before a battle. “I wish I did it earlier, but I couldn’t hurt him. The leaders in Grandpa’s closest chamber considered him the rightful heir, being a man and all. Ivan played a long-term game and made Mom and me appear like villains, like we brainwashed Grandpa. I had to get their blessing first, and I managed to persuade some strong allies, but the others wouldn’t budge. When I heard about your kidnapping, though, I couldn’t just stay still.”
Allies and leaders…all this mafia talk comes out of Reina’s mouth like it’s second nature, like it’s the only way she knows how to live.
“Will you…” I swallow. “Will you be okay now?”
She smiles a little. “Okay is my middle name, brat. You’re the one who’s always getting hurt.”
“Well, I wasn’t trained to stab people’s eyes.”
Her grin widens. “Grandpa taught me.” Then her face falls. “I wish you could’ve met him. He was a hard man with a good core, but he just didn’t know how to make Mom feel safe. That’s why she ran away.”
I gulp the saliva gathered at the back of my throat. “I think she ran away because she didn’t want that life for us, Rei.”
“Well, she didn’t succeed. It’s already too late.” She strokes the back of my hand. “I have to go back to my world.”
“Your world?” I choke and wince when my mouth aches.
“It is.” She shrugs. “I won’t let those who secretly allied with the fucker Ivan sully Grandpa’s legacy. He trusted me with it, and it’s my duty as a Sokolov to see it to the end.”
“B-but we’re talking about the mafia, Rei. The fucking mafia—they’re deadly.”
“I’m deadly, too. Grandpa didn’t raise me to bow to those fucking pigs.” Her shoulders straighten and her eyes lose their spark, turning cold and lethal. It’s almost like an entirely different Reina.
She’s not my sweet sister or the girl who trembled with me in the dark as we hid from Ivan’s men. She now seems more like those men, if not more emotionless.
What have they done to my twin sister all these years? What have they turned her into?
“R-Reina, we promised to be together, remember?”
“And we will. We are.” Her expression softens a little. “We’ll just have to cross paths like Dad and I used to, you in your world and me in mine.”
“No!” I shout, and my voice cracks. “That’s not what we agreed on.”
“We just promised to meet again.” She raises an eyebrow. “We never agreed on anything else.”
“Don’t get smartass on me, Rei.”
“It’s the truth.”
“Then…”