Page 40 of Ruby Malice

“Auntie Rayne.” Lily elbows me when I doze off in the middle ofGrumpy Bunny.“Open your eyes.”

“Sorry, kiddo.” I open my eyes as wide as possible and power through.

Finally, night lights are on, kids are tucked in, and I close each of their doors and tiptoe down the hallway.

I pause outside of Lana’s room. Mitchell is still locked in his office downstairs. The kids spent a few minutes trying to slide notes to him under the door, but he shooed them away in a harsh bark and then pressed a blanket under the crack to end that game. But I hear voices coming from under my sister’s bedroom door.

I knock lightly with my knuckles in case I’m so tired I’m hallucinating.

“Come in,” she calls.

I open the door and Lana is propped up against her headboard with her phone resting on her knees in front of her.

"Sorry. I just wanted to let you know the kids are in bed. I'm going to go to bed unless you need—"

"Come here, Rayne." She waves me over. “Now, we’re all here.”

“Who?” I plop down next to her and see Alexis’s face on the screen. “Oh. A Garner sister reunion. Hi, Lexi.”

Alexis wrinkles her nose. “You know you’re the only person who still calls me that.”

“Because you make that face every time she says it,” Lana scolds. “Stop being bothered by it and she’d quit.”

I give Alexis an apologetic shrug. “She’s not wrong.”

“Once a little sister, always a little sister,” Alexis grumbles. “What are you two up to?”

“Rayne volunteered to put the kids to bed since I have a headache. So I got to lie down a little early today.”

Yeah, I put the kids to bed… and played with them, fed them dinner, brushed their teeth. But who is keeping track? Certainly not me.

“I don’t know how you do it, Lana,” Alexis says. “Dustan and I have been talking about whether or not we want to deal with kids, and I just can’t imagine it.”

“Considering you just said ‘deal with kids,’ I’m not surprised,” I laugh.

“I get so little time with Dustan as it is. If we had kids, I’d never see him. Plus, I’m approaching forty. Do you have any idea how long it takes me to ice roll my face in the morning? I’d have to wake up at the crack of dawn to depuff myself.”

Lana groans. “Don’t get me started. Managing a house and these kids and trying to see my husband… It’s impossible. Who has the time?”

As she speaks, I can hear Anna cleaning up the kitchen downstairs. I know that in the morning, the housekeeper will come to clean the house while Lana ships the kids off to day camp. From the outside looking in, she has an awful lot of time.

Again, not that I’m keeping track.

“Yeah, you’re not selling me on kids,” Alexis says. “I had to practically blackmail Dustan into taking time off work so we could come visit you.”

“You’re coming to visit?” I ask in surprise.

She nods. “Dustan has an ungodly amount of time off work that he never wants to use. But I finally convinced him to take a small vacation with me.”

I freeze. The air in my lungs turns stagnant.

Dustan has an ungodly amount of time off work. That’s what Alexis just said. I try to convince myself that I misheard her, but how could I have? They’re planning a vacation. Going on a trip.

But when I told them Mom was dying, that it was finally the end… Neither of them could make it. Not Lana. Not Alexis.

They didn't even tell her goodbye.

Both of my sisters made their excuses. So on the day our Mom died, I stood by her bedside alone.

---