But Max Carter walked into this house acting like he's better than us. Superior. Closed off. Too good for us. Too good for this family. Too good to even try. Playing the wounded victim while Margot falls all over herself trying to make him comfortable. Bending over backward. Worrying. Crying when she thinks no one's listening.
Fuck that. Fuck him. Fuck his secrets. Fuck his pills. Fuck whatever he's hiding.
I walk to the bathroom and dump the pills into the toilet. One by one at first. Then all of them. A cascade of white against porcelain. All of them. I flush. The water rises. Spins. Drains. Taking his pills. Taking his secrets. Taking whatever control he thought he had.
Gone. Simple. Final. Satisfying.
I toss the empty bottle onto his bed. It bounces once. Lands on the pillow. Obvious. Unmissable.
Let him panic. Let him spiral. Let him feel out of control for once. Let him know his shit isn't safe here. Nothing is safe. Nothing is sacred. Nothing is his. Let him know that nothing in this house belongs to him, no matter what Dad and Margot say. No matter how much she loves him. No matter how much she wants him to fit.
He doesn't. He won't. He can't.
I'm halfway to the door when I stop. My hand on the frame. My body half-in, half-out. Something makes me pause.
That smell again. Stronger now. Sweeter. Coming from somewhere in the room.
Sweet. Warm. Wrong. No… dammit, not wrong. Different. Intriguing. Pulling me back when I should leave.
There's a hoodie on the chair by the desk. The one he was wearing earlier. The one he wears all the time. His comfort item. His armor.
I shouldn't. This is worse than the pills. More personal. More invasive. More wrong.
I pick it up anyway. Can't help it. Need to know. Need to understand what that smell is. Hold it close. Press it to my face. The fabric is soft. Worn.
I breathe in. Deep. Long. Filling my lungs with it.
Fuck.
Vanilla and honey. Sweet. Decadent. Like dessert. Like something you want to taste. Something darker underneath—smoke or caramel or something I can't name. Burned sugar. Charred wood. Something primal. Something that makes my hindbrain sit up and pay attention. It makes my mouth water. Literally. I feel my tongue go wet. Feel saliva pool. Makes my cock twitch and harden. Sudden. Unexpected. Wrong. So wrong.
What the hell. This isn't— This doesn't—What the fuck is this?
I drop the hoodie like it burned me. Let it fall from my fingers. It crumples on the chair. Innocent. Harmless. Lying.
This is Max. Margot's son. Our stepbrother. The kid. The outsider. The problem. Margot's precious son. Our unwanted stepbrother. The kid who looks at us like we're the problem. The one who won't try. Won't open up. Won't fit.
And I'm standing in his room, hard, cock straining against my jeans, uncomfortable, insistent, demanding, smelling his fucking clothes. Like a pervert. Like something sick. Like something wrong.
I need to leave. Now. Before this gets worse. Before I do something I can't take back.
Now. My feet move. Finally. Finally I'm moving toward the door.
I glance back one more time. Can't help it. One last look. One last violation.
The empty pill bottle sits on his bed. Obvious. Damning. Orange plastic on gray linens. Impossible to miss. A message. A warning. A threat.
Good. Perfect. Let him see it. Let him know.
Welcome home, little brother. I smile.
You're gonna learn real quick that this family doesn't play nice.And now you know it. Now you'll understand. This was just the beginning.
Later, I'm in my room, door locked, trying to ignore the fact that I'm still hard, painfully hard, cock throbbing, begging for attention I won't give it, when I hear a car pull up. The crunch of gravel. The purr of an engine. Margot's hybrid. That means—
Max. He's back. He's home. He's about to find what I did.
I listen. Press my ear to the door. Hold my breath. Wait. Footsteps on the stairs. Light. Careful. Trying not to make noise. Trying not to be noticed. Like always. Light. Careful. Like he's trying not to disturb anyone. Like he's trying to disappear. Like he thinks he can make himself invisible if he's just quiet enough.
