Promiscuous (Who's the slut?)

Chapter Twenty Eight

"Maire..."

I was trying to calm myself. First Riel, now Rave. Two R's. Both deceitful.

"Is there something wrong?" I flinched at his touch. I shoved him.

"Will you please leave me alone?" I said coldly. I huddled at the far corner of his bed, hugging my knees to myself.

His brow was knitted now. "Fine." He said frustratingly and raised his hands in a gesture of surrender. "Drink this before you sleep, I don't want you to catch cold." I watched him put the medicine down the side table. I frowned. Oh-kay, so it was very confusing...

Rave paused, pressing the button of his private line. He nodded when he heard it all just as I've had.

"You're jealous." He gave me a sidelong glance and a slow infuriating grin slowly spread in his face. I glared at him. "Of course not." He strode toward the bed. It sagged due to his weight. He jutted my chin up.

"Tracy is my childhood sweetheart." I smirked. "My father wanted us to marry. Well, for some reason we tried... to work things out." He sighed and gathered me into his arms. I struggled at first. But he was persistent.

"My father... he was dead." I looked up. "I'm... sorry." I felt him shrugged.

"My mother was..." killed... I breathed out a thin air. "dead also."

He arranged us into a comfortable position on the bed. I liked snuggling more, it was intimate than the act itself. My head was in the nook of his neck. He was caressing my back. I hadn't heard the last words Rave was saying, I was already half asleep.

"My father.... before he died, he wanted me to find my sister. And I'm afraid Maire..."

I felt the kiss on my forehead. My mother said it was a sign of respect and love. That was the last thing on my mind. The two words had pierced through my subconscious mind. Afraid? Why did he keep on telling me that?

I woke up with a start. I thought someone was... somehow staring at me. I reached my hand, expecting a warm body beside me, I opened my eyes quickly when I found out Rave's side of the bed empty.

Somebody coughed behind me. I sat upright.

"Tracy?" Great morning huh, I rolled my eyes heavenward. I didn't like to fight first thing in the morning. So I walked past her to the comfort room but she deterred me by blocking my way.

She smiled wickedly. What's she up to now? "Good morning... future sister-in-law."

I sighed. She was being sarcastic, eh? "Hi Tracy... I don't find any good in the morning just looking at you. And I'm not your future sister-in-law. Haven't Rave told you that? Well, I'm telling you now..." I smiled saccharinely sweet. But my eyes were blazing fire.

"Oh no... dear sister. So Rave... hasn't told you yet?"

I frowned when Tracy handed me an envelope. "Open it."

I was staring at it as if a snake was going to puff out of it soon. My heart was beating faster than the normal rate. I opened it. What shocked me was the stolen picture of myself with Laina behind and Mamita.

"So what's this? My picture? Don't tell me you're one of my fans now?" I snorted. I waved my hand in dismissal but she pulled out many photos of mine with Laina in different angles. Is Rave my stalker? No...

"Rave has been looking for you... for a year now. He's been searching for his sister."

Her words stung. I opened my mouth and shut it again. She's lying... she was just making this up to break whatever budding relationship I have with Rave.

"I'm Senator Rick Enrique's daughter, surely you know that." I hissed at her. I didn't want to welcome the uncertainty.

"Are you sure about that? It's clear in the documents the Private Investigator has sent Rave that... that you've been living with your family just a year now. Your mother... are you sure she has told you your real father?" She grimaced. Pity was written all over her face.

"You! You... scheming little b*tch. My mother is a decent woman. My good-for-nothing father booted her out of this country."

"Why did he do such a thing to your mother? and real daughter?"

"Stop this."

"Don't you like Rave as your brother?"

My whole world was spinning. Bile was rising up in my throat. I got to the kitchen sink in time to vomit. Rave... is my brother? No... I swallowed hard. I was gnawing my lower lip. What happened between the two of us... it was...

Goodness. Sweat was forming on my forehead. Is that why... I felt like I've known Rave like forever? My hands were trembling.

"Are you okay?" I wanted to pull out Tracy's hair but her concern looked genuine enough. I wasn't that idiot to know if it was feigned. She was going to tell me those things then asked me if I were okay?

We both turned when the door opened.

"Maire... Tracy... what's the..." He was beside me in a flash cupping my cheek. I avoided his gaze. I pushed him away from me. I couldn't get myself to look at him lest touch him.

"You're pale." He was worried. I was getting teary-eyed now. I shook my head violently.

"Tracy what have you done to---" I watched the myriad expression on his face seeing the pictures scattered on the floor. He was confused, shocked and angry.

"You're searching for her... I thought..." Tracy was backing away now from fear of Rave.

"Maire..." He touched me. I was cold. My eyes went unseeing. I felt a piercing pain through me. I was disgusted at myself. At him. Why didn't he tell me, all this time? We.... made love.

"No..." I shook my head in misery. "Listen to me."

How many times should I listen to them? To Riel? To Rave? To my estranged family? I'm fed up with the half-truths, the lies, the deceit. I was like a chess piece that suited them whenever and wherever they wanted me to move.

"Is that... the truth?" He was now rubbing his head. The hell I care if it was paining him. I hated him right at this moment. He was... my brother? That was a disgusting thought. But the words kept playing on my mind.

"No. Yes. I don't know... yet. Please.... Maire I..."

"Please... don't touch me." I was weeping standing in front of the shocked Tracy and desperate Rave. "I'll hate myself forever if you as much as touch me again."

I raced out of there. I had nowhere to go again. It seemed that these past few days I was running and running. I thought if I was brave enough to face the past that was haunting me, it would make me stronger. That it would make me complete. But why did it leave a hollow pit in my stomach? In my heart? I was... empty.

I was coming back... back to the house that had been my prison.

To choke the truth out of my father's mouth. If he is the real one...