Spectrum

Chapter 18

It was morning when I went down to the dining hall in a peach dress for breakfast when I noticed Riana wasn't there.  She was an early riser and normally the first to the breakfast table but I just brushed it off and sat to have breakfast with Chandler, she was probably just not used to being in a place outside of her home.

It was when she had not shown up for lunch that had me worried, she couldn't just skip on two meals, so after I ate I asked for a tray to bring to her room and here I was, standing in front of the mahogany door of the second-floor guest room.

I raised my hand to knock thrice, after, I heard some shuffling before the door was opened and I was staring into her dark brown eyes. 

" You skipped breakfast, so I brought you lunch, " I said before removing the metal covering over the food.

During all of this, she muttered not one word to me as she watched me set up a place for her to eat.

" I'm not hungry, " She said going over to the bed to sit, she seemed to have gotten ready this morning as she was clad in black trousers and a simple white frilly shirt and not pyjamas.

" Well, you have to eat, " I said trying my best to be hospitable.

" Why do you care? " She asked staring in my direction.

" I don't, " I said, which I really didn't, I just didn't want her to have any complications in Chandler and I's care.

" Then why are you here? " She said scowling at me.

" As I said before, you need to eat and I'm not going to leave before you do, " I said sitting beside her " You look like you have something on your mind, care to share? " I said.

" I know you don't care Milan, so stop trying to act as if you do, " She said getting up off of the bed before heading towards the small table to the corner of the room where I had laid the tray down for her, she pulled out one of the chairs to sit in.

" I don't, but it wouldn't hurt to get some things off of your mind, " I said.

" Aren't you curious about what last night was about? " She asked completely disregarding my before statement.

" I am, but I don't want to purposefully deluge into something I know will evoke strong emotions from me, the truth will find me when it's ready, " I said playing with the rings on my finger.

Deep down, I knew what last night was about, but to just think that he would bring danger into the house where I was residing, peacefully sleeping for that matter, where anything could have happened, hurt me, far more than it should.

Riana sighed " This is not the life I want to live, the life I had planned for myself you know, " She said eating some of the fruits.

" Like all teens, I said by the time I'm eighteen, I'm moving out, never coming back, but look at me now, in the same situation I said I would've escaped from by now, " She said gingerly taking a bite of the bread.

" You're eighteen, right? " She asked, I nodded towards her, I had turned eighteen a few days after the party incident and Mason would be nineteen by the end of the summer, I found it weird how we were born so close to each other with just a small interval between, he was only older by eleven months, every time I think about it, I think about how crazy our parents must have been going at it.

" Well, I'm nineteen going on twenty now and I'm still in the same house, the same situation and the same position, how sad is that? " She said, her voice cracking a bit to the end.

" Imagine having a mother who only wants power and money and a father who only acknowledges your presence in private and when he does in public, he's hit and abused by your power-hungry mother, " Riana rolled her eyes at her statement.

She turned to face me " I don't want this for myself Milan, continually having to find myself boyfriends and girlfriends for protection so that my mother doesn't even think to try to take advantage of me and even that doesn't stop her from forcing me to do her dirty work, I wouldn't even wish this on my worst enemy because God knows the thing that I've gone through that I can't even in the slightest bit think to talk about, I just want to get me and my father out of this situation. "

" I don't even want to go back after this Milan, " Riana broke down crying after this forcing me to go over to her and embrace her in the best way I could, " I've never left the house like this before, I don't know what she's going to do to me and worse, I took you with me, I honestly don't know what pushed me to leave, I shouldn't have but you were down the hall and I didn't want to leave you in a house filled with purely heartless people, "

" Those people wouldn't have hurt you, I know that for a fact, they live up to a code, but that code doesn't include not randomly spraying bullets around the house and I couldn't even think of living with myself if I had left you there and any one of those stray bullets even by chance, hit you, " She said snuggling up to me and all I could do was hold her.

" You're my little sister, whether half or not, we're still blood and what kind of person would I be to leave my own blood behind, " She smiled at me and I could really see that she genuinely meant what she was saying.

She sat up a bit, wiping her tears allowing me to slip in the chair across from her " Believe it or not, I was excited when mom said you were coming to stay for the summer because believe it or not, I'm not the most likeable person, " She chuckled " But you should know that I really didn't mean to ignore you or you know, project my anger onto you, I really just didn't want you to get caught up in all this and it worked, it kept you away from the house for a good amount of time and it made you friends in the community, "

" But why though, I know I'm being a bit dense but why would you want me away from the house? " I asked, I knew it was a dumb question but I just wanted to hear the answer from her.

" Many things happen in that house daily, you're just not there most of the time and if you were, mother would take advantage of that and that really couldn't fly by me but the difference is that you have your father backing you, you don't know this but he's actually keeping you safe from all of this despite how far away he is, " She said.

" Why does everything lead back to Mason, " I asked taking note of what she had said.

" Isn't it obvious? " She asked " He's probably behind this all, " She rolled her eyes, " I barely know anything because that's one thing they have left me out of, but from what I can infer, he's messing with people who he shouldn't be messing with, " She said.

" He's not my favourite, though I've seen him a good amount in my short little life span, " I stared at her confused and she must've gotten what I was confused at because she continued " He used to come to visit mother a lot before you two were sent here for the summer, "

This new piece of information not only confused me but angered me, why would Mason consistently visit the woman who abused him? It was just not adding up and there were only two conclusions that could come up with, he was either lying about the a***e or mother dearest had some kind of mental hold over him.

" So, what do you want to do? " I asked Riana as I watched her finish the rest of the food on the tray.

" Do about what? " She asked

I smiled at her " Meaning, do you want to stay here a bit longer before going back? "

It's like she forgot for a moment that we had to go back before her eyes widened " I don't think it would be sensible for me to stay back for too long especially with you, " She frowned before sliding the empty tray to another section of the table.

" We should go back tomorrow, " She said " The earlier we go back, the smaller the consequence, and the people don't stay for more than a night to do what they need to do, "

" What do they even do? " I asked.

" You don't even want to begin to know, " Were the last words spoken from her to me for the rest of the time that we were at Chandler's home.