Chapter 2 The final decision

Reina's POV

This was not worse than when she tried smoking Oscar McCall's cigar at Courtney's ball, even worse than what I had previously considered the most blatant crime possible-when Janis was all raunchy.

No, this time, she had done the unimaginable. This time, she lay with a man. The swift stab of emotion I couldn't identify penetrated my breast and caused mine caused my cheeks to flame up as I covered my mouth with my fingers while paralyzed with the realization.

I was jealous.

The fact that my younger sister knows how it feels to be touched and caressed in a royal touchy way.

"All right, I won't visit a doctor," Janis conceded. "Sit down, would you? Before you faint and knock Mother's noble Eterna Del Rivera vessel down," I gestured at the vase on a nearby table.

I glared at my sister, seeing her now as a proprietor of invisible certainties, a woman who had crossed the sinful act and appeared unremorseful. Janis knew what it felt like to be kissed, not pecked in a stolen drawing-room moment, but kissed, open mouths- searching- hands- the way I once saw a lady with questionable morals kiss a man on the corner of Wall Street.

Janis knew what a man looked like naked; she knew what that bulge was, what it meant, what it could do, and what it felt like. She knows what the desire felt like. She now understands what generates the heat that grows underneath the noble gown. I sat down, stunned by the enormity of my curiosity.

"What?" Janis demanded with a tone of irritation in her voice, "Why are you staring at me like that? I didn't murder anybody, okay? Reina," I chewed on my lower lip, then realized what I was doing and stopped.

"What was it like?" I asked Janis softly, without thinking twice about how she will look at me.

Janis's eyes grew wary. "What? What was what?"

I pressed my lips together, appalled by my gross interest, but the persistence of the feeling would not abate. I couldn't stop myself from thinking so profoundly about the details of touching a man. "What did it feel like?" I repeat, this time, with knowledgeable eyes.

"What?" Janis asked irritably, and then comprehension dawned upon her; Janis raised her eyebrow and looked at me through heavy-lidded eyes, "You mean, it? The much-dreaded act? The desire that turned me into a young so-to-be mother?" I could only nod once. Janis' face softened by a fraction and a smile, unlike the sultry one she issued earlier, she caressed her lips.

"Oh, Reina," she called at me, "It was wonderful," Janis said breathlessly. "I never felt so good before in my life. I reckon the feeling."

The words were astonishing, but at the same time, strangely intriguing, after years of hearing the disgusting murmurs quickly hushed by the married women in our Mother's club, and then the sky whispered musings made amongst my contemporaries to speak with someone who knew about the deed and thought it excellent, was utterly unexpected.

And for some reason, I found it exhilarating. I tried to maintain my comfortable position. "It was wonderful?" I repeated breathlessly.

Janis closed her eyes and nodded. "Oh yes, Reina, it was so pleasurable; I can't stop recurring all the steps he gave and all the mysteries that were hidden in between our legs."

"Tell me who the father is," I said, leaning forward in the seat towards my sister, hungry to know the identity of the person who had wrought such pleasure.

Someone I know? How strange it would be that one of the shallow young men who hung around the streets of wall Street was capable of such a mystery. Which of those silly dogs were able to refurbish my sister so? But at the question, Janis' face closed up.

"No, I ain't spilling that; it's a secret,"

"Why not?" I exclaimed.

"Because I don't want you to know," Janis toyed with the fringed sash of the morning negligee.

I threw my hands up in frustration, and embarrassment swallowed me. "Alright, fine, can you at least tell me this? Will he do the right thing by owning up to his abhorrent behavior?"

Janis pursed her pretty lips and stared obstinately towards the Ireland marble fireplace, her fingers on the hems of her gown. She was fabricating a lie, I could tell; she always got that dazed look on her face when she was about to cook something up.

"He's dead," Janis turned her face back to me and raised her chin.

"How's that? He wanted to marry me, and now, he's dead. Will you help me now? will you make people accept that?"

I slumped into my chair, "They won't believe this, and neither do I" I ignored Janis' exasperated sigh. "There's only one thing left to do."

"What's that?" The stilling of Janis' pale hands told me more than I wanted to know about my sister's accurate measure of concern. For Janis to turn to me at all should have been evidence enough that I was desperate, despite Janis' casual attitude.

The both of us had never been close; I had always been the smart and authoritarianism one and Janis, the pretty one with the charm; while I used to think the enmity originated from Janis' side, my jealous reaction towards Janis' predicament shed an uneasy light on the subject.

"I'll help you," I said finally and looked Janis in the eye, "I'll do the only acceptable thing" my fists balled in Janis's lap. Janis licked her dry lips and looked, at once, defensive and expectant.

I swallowed hard. "I'll do the one thing that will allow you to have your baby and keep it too; I'll find you a husband."

"What?" Janis spat out with a surprised look on her face indicating-that's not what I ever expected of you, Reina McCarthy.

"I'll find you a husband?" I repeat, looking at her stunned face.

-

Authors note

1) what do you think about this chapter?

2) Do you think Janis lying?

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