Chapter 48

Rossalyn hung the phone up with Roger and sighed. She'd been having a bad feeling the last few days, but surely it was just her twin intuition sensing the discord between her brother and Sarah. It was strange that Sarah hadn't confided in her, but she kind of understood. Though Sarah and her had gotten close over the course of her pregnancy, she was still Roger's sister and she could understand not wanting to confide in her about their marital problems. Sarah wouldn't want to put Rossalyn in a position to be inserted between them. She dialed up Sarah's number and it rang through to voicemail. She gave a long sigh. She'd hoped Sarah would at least answer her call.

"Whats wrong?" Josiah asked from next to her at the breakfast table.

Rossalyn looked at him and considered lying for Roger. But dismissed it immediately, Roger had used up all of her willingness to lie for him to anyone, but especially Josiah. She told him about the phone call and what Roger had said. Josiah's face went through a range of emotions as he listened to her tell him about getting caught at the casino and about fighting with Sarah over it. His face settled on anger and annoyance. A strange combination.

"Well, he couldn't honestly think that after he did that she wouldn't leave him. She hadn't even wanted to take him back in the first place. But she was really clear. So why is he surprised and hurt now?" Josiah asked coldly.

"That is true, but they may be the only people he truly loves. It would worry me if he was calm, cool, and collected telling me she left him like he didn't care." Rossalyn said giving him an eyeroll.

"Well, you have a point. I'd be worried he was a sociopath then. Fine, you can go have lunch with him and offer some comfort. Not that he deserves it." Josiah said, though he sounded really angry about it.

"Well thank you for your permission." Rossalyn responded testily.

"You know how I feel about the whole situation, Ross. I don't think a man who puts himself before his family deserves a family that puts him before them as well. All that he has put you through and you still want to rush to be his sister." Josiah said.

"He messed up Josiah. You may not think about it that way, but he has an illness. Family requires forgiveness. Sometimes repeatedly. You wouldn't want me to just give up on you if you messed up, even what seems unforgiveably." Rossalyn pointed out, struggling to keep her cool.

"You're right. I know. I just hate the whole situation. I've got to go. Call me if you need me, okay? And please try to get some rest today." Josiah said then kissed her forehead before leaving the room.

Rossalyn met with the head housekeeper like she normally did on Monday mornings. She went to the entertainment room and watched television until it was time to meet up with Roger. She had her two guards, one Josiah's and the other George's with her as usual. She was carefully ushered into the back of the SUV that transported her anywhere she needed to go. She got to the little diner that she and Roger used to go to all the time before everything got too hard between them and their relationship strained. She went inside and found Roger sitting at the table in the back corner of the diner, the same table they always used to sit at. She smiled when she seen him.

"Hey sis." He said, though his tone was strained.

"Hey bub." She answered as she gave him a smile, hoping to reassure him.

She took a seat at the table across from him. He didn't return her smile, though under the circumstances, she could understand why he didn't feel like smiling. She had a feeling of regret stemming from how strained their relationship had been the last few months. She knew that most of the strain stemmed from the actions he had taken but it didn't help much.

"I know that the reason she left was because of me. I have made so many mistakes and I haven't really tried to do the right things. I didn't take things too seriously. I should have but now it is too late." Roger said, sadness causing his voice to come out thick and almost choked.

"Well, maybe if you start doing the work on yourself you should have been doing from the start, you might be able to get her to come back. Maybe she thought you needed another wake up call?" Rossalyn said this as if it was a question, but it was as good an explanation as any as to why Sarah would have just up and left.

"Maybe you're right. I think I've just been so bitter about how everything played out that I didn't stop to think about the motives behind what you guys did." Roger agreed.

"We never wanted to hurt you Rog. Well, maybe Josiah a little." She conceded and was relieved when he smiled ruefully. "But Sarah and I agreed on doing this for your own good. Call it a radical intervention."

The waitress came to take their food order and they paused to order their usual meal. They spent the next few minutes talking about how the baby was doing and just general small talk about potential plans about therapy for Roger. Rossalyn was pleased that he was going to start taking his gambling addiction much more seriously. She had hoped the first round in rehab would have been enough to get these results, but better late than never. She just hoped that Roger hadn't managed to lose his entire family before he came to the realization himself.

"Roger, I'll be right back. I'm going to go to the restroom." Rossalyn said as she stood from her seat.

"I'll take you." Bart, her usual bodyguard, said as he stood up from the table next to them.

"No, I'll take her." Jake said motioning for Bart to sit back down and fell into step next to Rossalyn.

Rossalyn sighed silently. She was quite capable of escorting herself to the restroom, but she'd learned long ago that she'd never be able to go somewhere by herself again. Jake and Bart always took turns going with her and guarding the door while she was inside. She was surprised they didn't go inside and clear the room before letting her go inside. She went inside and locked the door behind her since it was a single stall restroom and paused in confusion when she heard an unfamiliar male voice just outside the door. But Jake would shoo the person off without too much issue, so she didn't think anything of it. A few minutes later, she opened the door to find Jake and another unfamiliar man standing outside the door. She looked at them in confusion.

"Come with me, Mrs. Roja. We are going out the back." Jake said, reaching out a hand and gesturing toward the back door in sight of the bathroom.

"Is something wrong?" Rossalyn asked and stretched onto her tip toes to see over Jake's shoulder toward the door that led back out to the restaurant to see if there was anything that she could see happening.

"We need to leave. Come on." Jake's gesturing hand went to reach for her and gave a frown of frustration when she quickly stepped away from him.

"Don't touch me. Where is Bart? What is going on here?" She demanded, her tone going from questioning and confused to angry with a touch of fear.

"We are leaving out of the back. Now don't make this into a scene." The unknown man said in a threatening tone as he pulled a pistol from his jacket waist band.

Rossalyn froze, her hands going around her belly is if to protect her unborn baby from the threat before her. Jake reached for her arm again but that time she didn't pull away from him. She kept her eye on the man standing before her with the weapon pointed at her. With a murmured encouragement to cooperate, Jake tugged gently on her arm and she started walking with him toward the exit. She immediately wondered what was happening but suspected George had something to do with it since Jake was being so cooperative with the man.