Miss Margaret was becoming so weak that she could only whisper the words in my ear. I knew time was running out.
Although I hadn’t planned on returning to the hospital anytime soon, the whole scenario kept playing over and over in my mind. It was all I thought about. Could it be that Roman was my twin, and not Paris? That would be entirely devastating for me and her. Paris was more than my sister. She was my best friend, and we shared an unbreakable bond. I couldn’t imagine sharing that kind of relationship with anyone else, not even an identical twin brother.
Paris was a Duncan in every sense. She had equal parts of our parents: my mother’s beauty and strong intuition, and my father’s no-nonsense attitude and low tolerance for bullshit. I couldn’t imagine her not being the child of Chippy and LC Duncan. But if that were the case, then who was I?
I had no choice. I had to go back and talk to Margaret and get to the bottom of all of this before it drove me crazy. When I arrived at her bedside and saw how sick she was, I knew I had to get the story from her before it was too late. She had a different plan, though. She told me she wouldn’t speak on it until Roman was there too. So, I had to go to his house to get him.
I heard a commotion coming from inside the house just as I was about to knock on the door. Standing on my toes, I looked through the small window at the top of the door. Roman was running up the stairs with a white guy right on his heels. What the fuck?
I tried to open the door, but it was locked, so I ran around to the back door and found that it had been kicked in. I took out my .22 automatic and stepped inside. There was a woman’s body bleeding on the floor. One look at her eyes and there was no doubt in my mind she was dead.
I didn’t have much time to think because there was a loud crash above me. I bolted up the stairs two at a time and followed the noise to Roman’s room.
The man was standing over Roman with a gun in one hand and a stun gun in the other, zapping the shit out of him. Roman looked like he was having convulsions as the electricity entered his body. It was like an out-of-body experience watching someone who looked just like me on the floor with an attacker hovering over him. So, it was almost like self-defense when I raised my arm and fired two shots into the white guy’s back. He landed on Roman with a loud thud.
Blood oozed from his body, forming a deep red pool underneath. There was no doubt he was dead. I grinned, thinking Pop would have been proud of my marksmanship.
“You all right, Roman?” I asked when I saw him start moving. He pushed the body off of him.
“Who the fuck are you?”
“I’m Rio. I’m your brother.”
He didn’t say anything, but I could see him studying my face.
“Kind of like looking in a mirror, right?” I said as I helped him to his feet.
“Yo, thanks for that,” he said, looking down at the dead man. “As far as what you just said, I don’t know who the fuck you are, but I know I don’t have no brother.”
“Actually, you have a few,” I said.
He shook his head like he was trying to clear his thoughts, then yelled, “Shit! Aunt Coretta!” He pushed me aside and ran down the stairs.
I followed behind him but stopped in the doorway to the kitchen to give him some space as he knelt down and caressed the dead lady’s head. If she was his aunt, then was she mine also?
“Listen, don’t worry. It’s gonna be okay,” I told him.
“How? How the fuck is this gonna be okay? There’s a motherfucker dead in my bedroom, and he fucking murdered my aunt.”
I took my phone out of my pocket, and he started spazzing out.
“Don’t call the cops! What the fuck is wrong with you?”
I stepped back so he couldn’t snatch the phone away from me. “First of all, chill out. Ain’t nobody calling no damn police.” I put the phone to my ear.
“I need you. It’s an emergency,” I said when Junior picked up the call.
“What is it?”
“I don’t need you to ask a whole bunch of questions, but I need a cleanup crew for two.” I pulled my phone away from ear because I knew he was going to yell.
“Two! Rio, what the hell did you do?”
“I promise you I’ll explain everything when I get home. Just take care of it for me, please.”
“Fine. Text me the address,” he said. “But I’m telling Pop.”
Any other time, I would’ve pleaded for him not to do that, but I figured everything was going to come out soon enough. I was also worried about getting back to Margaret’s room before it was too late. I didn’t want to waste time arguing with Junior.
“Come through the back door. It’s open. And Junior, thanks,” I said and hung up.
I turned to Roman, who was looking at me like I was from another planet.
“What?”
“Cleanup crew?” he said. “Who the fuck are you, James Bond? What the hell is going on?”
“I’m your brother and the man who just saved your fucking life. Now, let’s get to the hospital if you want answers. Your mother’s the only one who’s going to give either of us the answer we want,” I said.
“My mother? She knows about this?”
“Let’s put it this way: she’s the only one willing to talk about it.”
I checked my watch. Junior’s people would be there in another twenty minutes, and I wanted to be gone by then. “Listen, you need
