"Ace, my love, I don't know why you look so surprised. You knew I wasn't shit when you married me. I reeled it in for you, but then you unleashed it again, and here we are."
Unfortunately, I can't argue.
So before I go to bed, reluctantly as fuck, I check the only box that makes even a little bit of sense and hope that, at the very least, she'll let me be there to watch.
34
Ace
I'm hard at work when I get a phone call. I don't recognize the number, but I answer anyway. My life is too chaotic right now to chance missing a phone call.
"This is Ace.
“How you doin’, man? This is Rashad. I’m Raya’s brother.”
Oh, shit. I'd forgotten all about my conversation with Tori. Raya's little note wiped about twenty-four hours from my short-term memory.
“Okay, yeah. Good to meet you.”
“Yeah, you, too." He clears his throat. "My aunt said you wanted to talk.”
“Not really. I know you’ve been calling Raya, so I figured I’d gauge if the conversation is worth you bothering her.”
“Okay. Damn. It’s like that?”
“Yep. What’s on your mind?”
It takes him a while to answer. The silence feels unbearable to me given the fact that I'm at work, but something tells me to wait. And then he drops the bomb.
“Basically…I’m on my way out. I got terminal cancer.”
“Fuck. I’m sorry to hear that, man. How long?”
“Months. Maybe a year. It’s not looking good, so, you know, I’m just taking it day by day.”
“That’s understandable.”
He blows out a sigh. “I figured I need to make amends with people before I go. My doctor told me to do that for them so they don’t feel guilty or regretful.”
Despite the seriousness of the conversation, that makes me smile. “You honestly think Raya would feel either of those things?”
He chuckles. “So she ain’t changed, huh?”
“Nope.” I sit back in my chair. “Lemme ask you something, man. Why didn’t you believe her?”
“Oh she told you about that.”
“Of course. And I’m asking because I got sisters, too. They get on my damn nerves sometimes, but if I ever found out somebody was hurting them, I’d gladly go to jail for the rest of my life. But you called your sister a liar and believed her abuser over her.”
“Well…no offense, and I’m sure you’re probably aware of this, but Rayaisa liar.”
Got me there.
“If that girl told me the sky was blue, I’d look up to check. But even past that, I was young. Older than her, but young. I didn’t know who or what to believe. My mama had left, my sister was acting weird, and I just…didn’t know how to process it.”
“Didn’t you at least wanna investigate?”
Rashad is quiet again before saying, “I regret that I didn’t.”
