Unconditional

“There’s nowhere else for me,” she whispers.

“Maddie, you need to come with me. It’s not right…you, here with him. This isn’t healthy and he’s ruining you.”

“No!” she cries and I grip his arm harder, worried for a moment that I’ll pull his arm from its socket if he tries to take another step towards her.

“What would Aria say? What would Mom say? To know that you’ve been sleeping with the girl you raised?” He stares at me. The disgust is there. The judgment. The anger. But I sense something else hidden beneath the rage.

Worry.

Fear.

Maybe deep down, he knew this was more. But he knew. He knew the world wouldn’t let me have her.

Not without a fight.

A fight I was more than willing to give.

I’d burn the world to the ground for Maddie and the look in his eyes tells me he knows that.

“I would hope they’d understand that I love him…” Maddie interjects, her voice full of conviction. “You’re acting like he’s my dad, Henry…and he’s not.”

“That’s what everyone sees him as, Madeline. Tell me you’re not so naive that you think they won’t nail Cal to the wall for this.” He turns to me. “You can kiss your job, your praise, your accolades, all of it. Done. You’re finished here, Cal.”

“So, you’re planning to lead this witch hunt? You’re planning to villainize him?” Maddie asks. “What kind of big brother does that?”

His eyes flare with anger that I’ve never seen before. “The kind that is protecting a child.”

“I’m not a child, Henry. And no one has protected me better than Cal.”

“Maddie…” I nod at her, “can you please go upstairs?” I don’t want her around for the rest of this conversation, as I can’t be certain about what else will come out of Henry’s mouth. She nods obediently before turning to Henry.

“I understand that you’re shocked and confused and maybe a little…” I can tell she’s struggling to find the right word, “concerned…but Cal has never done wrong by me. In that regard, nothing’s changed.”

As soon as Maddie is out of sight, I let go of his arm and he turns to me, his stance is still combative and the disgust in his eyes sends a pang of guilt to my soul. My brother and I have always been close, and I could sense the rift forming and growing in our relationship by the second. “How could you do that to her?”

“Henry it’s not like that.”

“Oh?” He scoffs. “Then what’s it like?”

I rub the back of my neck. Despite my brother’s anger, I want to try to make him understand. If he didn’t, it would be the end of our relationship. I know that. I’m never going to give Maddie up, and if he doesn’t understand, I doubt he would want to be a part of the narrative that included her and me together. “Things have changed.”

“Yeah, no shit.”

“I love her…”

“You’ve always loved her…that’s the fucking problem,” he snaps.

“You’re making this into something dirty when it’s not. Tonight, was the first night we took that step. Tonight, was the first night I touched her…” I rub my index finger and thumb together. It was something I always did when I felt the need for a cigarette. I had quit smoking years ago when Maddie came home with tears in her eyes that she didn’t want me to die after a particularly harrowing lesson in her health education class. It took every patch, and gum, and ounce of willpower to quit, but I did. Because she asked me to. Although the craving still hits me in the face during times of stress. Like now.

Maddie will have a fit if you have one.

“I fell in love with her,” I continue.

“That’s bullshit. You fell in love with the idea of young pussy. Your dick got a hard-on for the teenager living with you.”

My blood boils and I push him against the wall, prepared to shove my fist down his throat. “Never refer to Maddie like that.”

“You’re going to ruin her. Hell, you probably already have. In five years, she’s going to be in a therapist’s office, explaining about how the one man who was supposed to take care of her, the only man she ever trusted, took her virginity because she was so confused and she thought she loved him. You should have been the adult that told her that this wasn’t it. This wasn’t right.”