Chapter Thirty-Seven:

The room was dimly lit, and the curtains were still closed, although it was nearing midday. Hazel stood at the doorway, peeking in; she could just about make out the subtle flickers of light drifting from beneath the covers, indicating that Ria was awake.

"Hey, Ri?" Hazel called out, dragging her satchel off her shoulders and letting it crumple to the floor with a clamorous thud. The russet-haired girl glimpsed up at her from behind her phone; her eyes drooped and blood-tinged from the sleep deprivation. Hazel could hear the hushed chatter from Ria's phone beneath the covers. "What you watchin'?"

Ria somewhat reluctantly swerved the phone toward Hazel to show her the subject of her attention.

Hazel's mouth sank open almost comically. "Really, Ria? You're watching the Jeffrey Dahmer documentary? That might not be the best choice of distraction right now."

"Who says anything about a distraction? I'm actually interested in it."

"Hmm, let's see. It's past noon on a Sunday, and you're yet to leave your bed. Instead, you're watching a documentary about a serial killer." She said unhurriedly as though it were the single most nonsensical thing in the world. "I mean, what happened to the early bird catching the worm?"

"Who needs the worm when you've already caught the snakes?" Ria uttered the words so quietly that Hazel nearly missed them. And that was presumably the intention.

Hazel soughed as she glided into the bed beside Ria, shoving her along the mattress with her intrusion. "Do you want to talk about it?" Hazel knew she didn't even need to say his name for Ria to know precisely what and who she was alluding to. It was evident in how Ria's nose flared and crinkled for a brief interlude before she recovered composure. "Everyone's talking about it. The news reporters keep calling him the wolf in sheep's skin. It gives me the creeps."

Ria hadn't realised she'd been holding her breath until she felt her chest expand, forcing her to expel the torrid breath. Despite Sihem's efforts to shield Ria away from the news outlets' version of events, she'd watched the news that morning. Ria had heard he'd been taken directly from the hospital to the station for questioning only five days ago. And how he'd confessed almost immediately, corroborating the audio clip Ria had handed to the police, prompting his arrest. She'd felt her heart dip impossibly low into her stomach as the reporter stated how he'd been refused bail. The severity of the act, the class A drug use, the drink-driving, the disposal of evidence and the close links he had with the Aslan family made him both a flight risk and at risk of breaching his bail conditions.

She'd read between the lines, under and above them, and she knew Blaine was going down for this. For a long time.

Ria recalled how she'd rapidly deviated her eyes when his photo popped up on the screen. She'd told herself it was because she never wanted to set sights on him ever again, but even she knew she was kidding herself.

Both Sihem and Reid had reprimanded her the day she'd returned home after handing in the confession to the police, much to Ria's initial dismay. It was an accident, they'd said repeatedly until she'd wanted to scream. Ria knew she had acted on sheer impulse. Would she have made a different choice if she'd stopped to think about the implications of her actions? She wouldn't let herself think about the answer to that question.

"Ria, I can't believe it. I don't believe it." Hazel whispered, her empathic forest-brown eyes meeting Ria's lighter caramel-hued ones.

"I don't either." Ria breathed, her eyes firmly glued to the ceiling. "But he told me himself, and you should have seen the conviction in his eyes. I even offered him an out. I told him he could tell me the truth, or I'd go to the police, and he still said he did it." She could feel Hazel's delicate fingers scouring through her hair soothingly.

"You and I know how to pick 'em, don't we?" Hazel murmured half-jokingly, "I don't know who's worse, serial cheater Zeus with chlamydia or murderous love-rat Blaine?"

Ria winced at Hazel's words but bit back a defensive comeback. "You know what the worst part is?" She didn't pivot toward Hazel, but she knew she was listening from how her head bobbed against her own. "I miss him. I really miss him. And not just because of the last few months but even before that. He was always there, like a part of the furniture. He let me get used to him and trust him knowing...what he did." Ria turned towards Hazel, a melancholic expression on the latter girl's face that Ria was sure was mimicked her own. "How can I miss him, Hazel? How can I miss him after everything? My dad would be turning in his grave."

Hazel gaped at her thoughtfully. "Maybe you don't really miss him...maybe you're just ovulating?" There was a fleeting moment of silence before both girls bursted into laughter.

"Thank you, Haze," Ria whispered honestly. "For being the one person who hasn't lied to me."

"Well, if we're getting technical, I did sleep with your brother." And then, noticing the bemused expression on Ria's face, she corrected herself. "I mean, yeah. No problem. What are besties for, huh?"

———————-

"You didn't tell me! None of you bothered to tell me. I found out from a colleague on the way home from a night shift!" Indiya cried as soon as she spilt through the door, coming face-to-face with Sihem.

"Shh, Indiya!" Sihem hissed back as she tugged the girl into the house and to the lounge. "Ria and Hazel are upstairs." She declared as though that was reason enough to keep the girl silent. "I haven't known that long. I only found out a few days ago that Ria had gone to the police. I was just as shocked as you are, okay?"

"How could you let this happen?" Indiya paced back and forth, the dread clinging onto her skin until she felt it as a palpable itch that she desperately needed to scrape away. "Why didn't you stop her?!"

"I couldn't. Ria had already done it before I even knew." She replied meekly. "Look, this...was going to happen at some point. It's what we agreed. He confessed. That was his choice."

Indiya's eyes widened like a deer in headlights. "Are you hearing yourself right now? Blaine is innocent. He doesn't deserve to spend the next twenty-odd years behind bars for what Reid did." She panted slightly before adding. "For what I did."

"I don't know what you want me to do now," Sihem whispered, "Reid is my son. I have to protect him. It's my job."

"What about Ria? Isn't it your job to protect her, too?"

Sihem's lips flattened into a thin line. "I am protecting her, too." She asserted. "It would kill her to know that Reid was responsible for Rayhan's death."

Indiya scoffed. "You don't think it's killing her to think it was Blaine? The man she was sleeping with? The man she opened her heart to?"

Sihem didn't answer for a mere second. "She's young. She'll move on. She'll meet someone else sooner or later, and it won't hurt as much. But she won't move on from her brother. It'll ruin them."

Indiya permitted gravity to take over as she sank onto the sofa. "It's been a very long three years, hasn't it? Because you clearly don't know your daughter anymore." She sniped, "Ria will never open her heart to anyone again. That girl is so stubborn that she would rather stay single for the rest of her life than allow someone to get the better of her emotions again. Is that what you, her mother wants for her?" She waited for a painful few moments, but no response came from the older woman. "Could you at least...pay for a good lawyer for him? Someone who could help him get a reduced sentence? You were married to Rayhan. You must know lots of people."

"I can't, Indiya." Sihem whimpered.

"Why not?" Indiya reasoned, but a subtle stir chimed from the stairs before Sihem could offer yet another feeble response.

Sihem was thankful for the distraction as she scurried out of the room to notice Ria and Hazel clambering down the staircase.

"Where are you two off to?" Sihem called out.

Ria didn't halt to respond, so Hazel offered a sad smile. "We were just going to go to the movies. Maybe we'll grab a bite to eat after."

Sihem offered an uneasy laugh. "We could watch something on Netflix and order in, instead? It might not be the best idea to go out today..." Her words faltered, but it didn't take Einstein to deduce the words dangling off the end of her sentence.

Ria scrambled to the floor, tying her shoelaces and putting on a show of ignoring her mother's words.

"How long are you planning to ignore me?" Sihem enquired dejectedly.

"I don't know yet. Three years sounds pretty good, though." The sarcasm clung to every word with a vice-like grip.

"Ria, can we talk?" Indiya jumped out from behind Sihem. "I know you're angry at me, but I think you'll want to hear what I say. Please."

"Yeah, sure." Ria stood up from adjusting her boots. "Why don't we all light some scented candles, sit in a circle and hold hands? Maybe, we can even sing Kumbaya while we're at it?"

"I think they're just trying to help, Ria," Hazel spoke, the tension so thick and stagnant, she could taste its bitter aftertaste on her tongue.

"Except they're not. This is damage control. They're trying to keep their names clean." She snapped. "Well, you don't have to worry about it because the police haven't rushed here, have they? So Blaine's obviously kept your names out of it as much as he could."

"Ria, you have this all so wrong!" Indiya interjected. "It wasn't Blaine's fault!"

Ria screwed her eyebrows, her hands flying to her mane in sheer frustration. "This isn't a fucking game of Cluedo, Indiya. You can't accuse someone of murder and then take it back five minutes later!"

Suddenly, amid the chaos around her, Sihem stumbled. As though she were a ragdoll being jostled by a young child, she teetered forward and backwards before she caught herself.

"Sihem, are you okay?" Indiya pressed against the woman supplying her with bodily support.

"Ye-yeah. I'm fine. I didn't eat very much this morning. I'm fine now." She plastered on her most compelling smile as she enfolded her palm around the bannister.

Ria gazed at her mother, her resolve dwindling ever-so-slightly. "Are you dying? Is that why you've come back home?"

Sihem let out a high-pitched and relatively coarse-sounding chortle. "No! Of course not." She continued to cling to the bannister. "I already told you. I came back for you and Reid. My family."

Ria unfurled her mouth to deliver a snarking remark. Still, her mother's final statement circumnavigated around her mind like an incantation. "Shit." She bleated to nobody before angling her back towards the three women. "I need to do something, but I'll be back soon, Hazel, and we'll go out. Wait for me, okay?"

Ria didn't await a response from the girl before she dashed towards her car, grabbing her purse and looping it around her neck. Before driving towards her location, she emptied her purse and counted less than fifty pounds so she knew she would have to stop at the ATM on her journey.

As Ria pulled up outside the dilapidated house, she felt the familiar ripples of tension buzzing in her chest. It'd been just short of a week since she'd been here in more joyous spirits to celebrate Blaine's triumphant football trial outcome. She ploughed the thought to the back of her head, realising that there was a high chance that he would never play again.

She hopped out of the car; envelope clutched tightly to her chest. She banged on the door, half-expecting nobody to answer, but a few minutes later, the aged beyond her years dirty-blonde-haired woman, appeared, puffing at the door.

"You've got some nerve showing your face around here after what you did to my son." Tanya jibed through ragged breaths. Ria noticed today Tanya's pupils were dilated as opposed to how constricted they had been last week.

Tanya prepared to swing the door close, but her movements were severely lagging, so Ria managed to jam her foot into the doorframe before the woman even had the chance to shut the door on her. She dangled the envelope before Tanya and noticed the glimmer reflecting in the woman's abnormally dilated pupils.

"Is that--"

"Five hundred quid. For the month. For Ben." She emphasised the young boy's name.

The left side of the older woman's cyanosed lips curved upwards; as though a puppeteer had harshly tugged on strings on the left side of her mouth. She lunged forward, but Ria stepped backwards, pulling it out of her reach. "On two conditions."

"What?"

"I want receipts showing me that at least fifty percent of this is spent on Ben."

"Consider it done. What else?"

Ria moistened her lips with her tongue before continuing. "You attend a drugs support meeting with me. Every week for the month."

Tanya scoffed, "fat chance."

"Suit yourself then." Ria turned on her heel, eagerly awaiting the woman's objections which she knew were soon to come. If she knew one thing about drug addicts, it was that they would never refuse money.

"Wait, Ria." Tanya breathed. "Not every week. Every other week?"

"No. I don't do compromise."

Tanya sneered. "Of course you don't." Her shoulders sank slightly. "Fine. Once a week." She held her hands out as Ria dropped the envelope into her palms. Tanya scowled at the girl before preparing to close the door again.

"Wait, could I see Ben? Please?"

"He's at school."

Ria reeled from the older woman's words as realisation dawned upon her. "It's Sunday." She muttered through gritted teeth. "He's not here, is he?"

The woman's gaze flitted down to the floor, and Ria knew the act was motivated by pure shame. "I called social services as soon as Blaine got arrested. They've taken him into care." Her voice broke once, twice, thrice as she struggled to formulate the sentence.

"No." Ria breathed. "You knew that was the last thing he wanted. You chose drugs over Ben! Just like you always chose drugs over Blaine and Brody."

Tanya reverted her gaze to Ria, and Ria felt a chill transcend her body through the woman's icy-cold stare. "I can't provide for him. Not without Blaine's help. And he's not here anymore, thanks to you and your lies." She continued. "Blaine understands. I've been to see him, and he understands why I did it. It's the best decision I could've made for that kid."

"It's not my fault Blaine's in prison. He confessed himself," Ria murmured. But even as she said the words, she was no longer sure they were true. "How is he?" She stunned the woman with her query. "You said you saw him, so how is he?"

"Pretending he's okay like he usually does," Tanya whispered. She saw the way the younger girl's chest fell at her words. She saw how the expression on her face changed from stoicism to sheer sorrow. "You still love him."

"No." Ria breathed and shifted away, hauling her car key from her purse. From behind her, she heard the older woman's final damning words.

"You can deny it all you want, but your actions say otherwise. Deep down, you know Blaine wasn't responsible for your dad's death. Otherwise, you wouldn't be here right now. You wouldn't care about his mother or brother. You know Blaine didn't do it. I can see it in your eyes."

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Author's Note:

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