Everyone was seated around the table with plenty of room to spare, since it was so long—Dad at one end and Mom at the other, as far away from each other as they could get.
Mom pursed her lips in my direction. “I thought you said you were working late?”
“I am. Was.” I’d already assumed Jean-Paul would keep me behind, and if he hadn’t, I was going to use the time to go somewhere—anywhere but home—to study. Mom and Dad hated how I was still completing two classes. I’d been too tired to actually follow through with my plan, though, and now I had regrets.
Dad rolled his eyes and leaned to his right, saying something quietly to my eldest brother, Giles. They laughed, and embarrassment had my cheeks flooding hot. I glanced down at the floor, shame giving me a bad taste on my tongue. I’d never fit into this family, no matter how hard I tried.
“Am, was, they have two different meanings, Maxwell. Speak in full sentences. Are you no longer working late?” Mom finally turned in her seat to stare at me, lips pursed so tightly they were paling under her deep crimson lipstick. She had dark hair cut short to her ears and her favorite pearl earrings were visible. According to Dad her appearance made her look like “a real ballbuster,” and she was. No one wanted to go into court with her as their judge. She ran her hands down her already pressed black jacket and skirt, her annoyance obvious in the way she flicked her finger at the empty seat opposite my brothers. Next to the children.
“I’m not. I was, but I was told I could go home.”
“Why? What did you do wrong?” Leon, my other brother, asked as he grinned at his wife. Apparently they all had secret jokes when it came to me. Leon and Giles had never liked me, though.
“Nothing,” I said harshly, an onslaught of anger making me suddenly protective of myself. “I always do everything correctly. I’m the perfect employee.”
“Not according to Kay McBride,” my sister-in-law Evelyn sang with glee.Ugh, her and Leon deserved each other. “She said there are whispers around city hall that the deputy mayor hates you.”
“That’s not true,” I argued as Brea dragged me to the seat mother had indicated and forced me to sit down. All I wanted to do was run straight back out of the house. Sleeping on the streets, or even at the office, would be better than being here. Maybe Jean-Paul was right, I should apologize. Would that make all this drama go away? I doubted it, and I was too proud to tell Jaxson fucking Bell that I was sorry. No way in hell.
“What do you mean?” Mom shot a look at Evelyn and I knew I was in trouble. I’d get lecture after lecture about the Kalinski name and what it meant to be one of us.
“Well, according to Kay, Deputy Mayor Elwoodhatedthe idea of giving Maxwell a job in his office, but he was asked to by the mayor.”
“That’s not true,” I repeated, this time with less force than before. It was useless. I had no chance of winning against Evelyn, trauma surgeon and the perfect wife.
“Then why would Elwood put Maxwell in that position? Why did Midberry want him in it?” Dad asked, thick eyebrows furrowed.
I was used to this—the speaking as though I couldn’t hear everything they had to say. To them I was nothing more than a dog, listening intently but not understanding the words. Being a pet would have been a lot easier than being their son. Our actual dog, Biscuit, a Pomeranian-spitz, got treated better than I did.
I let them drone on throughout dinner, ignoring the way my brothers’ kids stared at me like I was an insect—a very weird-looking insect—and focused on the food when it finally came. I slumped farther in my seat until Mom glared at me and I straightened again.
“I want to know when Maxwell will finally get himself a respectable woman and get married,” Giles said, and the sound of my name brought me out of my daze. I glanced at him, lips twisted down in irritation.
Mother sighed. “Who would marry someone who hasn’t graduated yet? No use hitching yourself to the last tugboat in the race.”
“You’re right, Mom. No woman would want to marry him.” Leon snorted and they both laughed. The humiliation returned, roiling my gut until bile burned at the back of my throat. None of my family knew I preferred men, not even Brea. It was embarrassing enough being the disappointment of the family, but to add in that I liked men? My parents wouldn’t forgive me.
“I have a girlfriend,” I said, and blanched after the lie slipped out of my mouth.
“Oh really?” Leon leaned forward, his mouth twisting into a Cheshire grin. “Who?”
“I…. Her name is Jena.”
“Jena who?” He pushed further, as though he knew I’d made her up.Fuck, it was a lie, and there was no way I could get around this. I’d fucked up. Ruined everything.
“That’s none of your business!”
Leon and Giles laughed harder, and hot tears filled my eyes as I shoved myself to my feet, ignoring Mom’s firm instructions to sit back down. I fled the room and rushed up to my bedroom, grabbing as many clothes as I could and tossing them into a duffel bag. The door creaked open, and I ignored whoever was there.
“Max?” Brea slid in, her dress, as always, so fucking fluttery and perfect. I hated how easy life was for her.
I wiped at the tears on my cheeks angrily and continued to stuff clothing into the bag, and when that was done, I went to my closet to grab the suits on hangers, careful not to crush them as I laid them on the bed. If I ignored Brea long enough, maybe she’d leave again.
“You shouldn’t let them upset you,” she whispered, her voice soft and kind, so unlike the rest of them. Dad barely said anything to me at the best of times, but when he did, he had nothing nice to say, either.
“I don’t.” I sniffled, though, and I was so angry at myself for crying. I hated crying because of them, just as much as I hated crying because of Jean-Paul. Yes, I’d blackmailed Jaxson and Vane, and maybe I deserved to have them hate me, but it was only because I was trying to make my parents happy. I should have known that was impossible. I’d never be the Kalinski son they wanted.
“You can’t leave here. You have nowhere to go.”
