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She turned her head in my direction, and stared at me with desolation in her eyes. “He slept with someone else.” This time it was a whisper, so broken and hollow that I felt my heart cracking for her.

“You love him,” I stated quietly. Maddy’s never said it, but right then her eyes, her shattered expression, told me I was right on the money. She loves my brother.

And he was a fucking pig.

“So much,” she whimpered.

I wrapped my arms around her, and comforted her as best I could. Seeing her this way brought to the fore a mixture of emotions I didn’t know how to make sense of. I wanted to cry for her, but I was also absolutely livid with my brother. Sympathy and rage made a heady combination, rage being at the forefront. Before I had time to evaluate why I was so angry, or why it felt like more than just wanting to defend Maddy, I helped her walk to the bathroom and clean up. I stuck her in a hot bath, hoping it would help sober her up a little, and then I gave her a clean pair of pajama’s to change into.

“Are you leaving?” she asked, climbing into bed. I didn’t want to lie to her, but I also wanted to avoid upsetting her further.

“I won’t be long.”

Maddy curled up under her comforter, her breathing evening out as quickly as I’d hoped. I fished her keys out of her handbag and locked the apartment door behind me. I was on autopilot while I walked to the car, completely focused on one thing and one thing only. I whipped my phone out, noting that it was just past eight p.m., and dialed Aiden’s number. He answered on the forth ring, and the speaker is filled with loud music and raucous laughter before I heard his voice.

“Hey Squirt. What —”

I cut him off with, “Where are you?”

“Uh,” he hesitated.

“Where Aiden?”

“Dad’s house.”

Something in my voice brooked no argument, and once Aiden told me what I wanted to know I asked him, “Is Jackson there?”

The line went quiet, and then Aiden’s voice came back. “Yeah, he’s here. What’s going on?”

I climbed into the front seat of Maddy’s Prius, and keyed the ignition.

“Do me a favor? Don’t tell him I’m coming.”

The call ended before Aiden got a word in, and the car was in drive before I realized it was the first time I’d driven a car since my accident. It had to be adrenaline or something, and hell if that didn’t frighten me a little. I was so mad, seething in fact, and all I could bring myself to focus on was that my best friend was crying because of my brother. I didn’t know why it was so important, or why my reaction to how Maddy’s taking all of this was so visceral — but I felt it as keenly as if it were me, as if I were the one who was told by the man I loved that he slept with someone else.

My grip on the steering wheel tightened, instinctually I think, but I shoved any lingering uneasiness back down my throat, and kept driving until I stopped outside my childhood home. There were a few trucks in the driveway, and on the curb. Did it stop me from stomping across the front yard and straight through the front door?

No.

I was one severely pissed off best friend.

And I had an axe to grind with my dear brother.

I was wholly prepared for a fight, but what I wasn’t prepared for was the young boy who ran at me as soon as I was inside.

“Kenzi!”

My body went rigid.

The boy wrapped his arms around my waist, and squeezed. I had no idea how to respond.

“I’m so glad you’re okay,” he said, looking up at me with earnest blue eyes. “I really, really missed you.”

“Daniel,” came a brassy voice.

I looked up, and found Vaughan regarding me with a hard expression. The young boy let go of me, and turned towards Vaughan.

“I thought you said she won’t remember me?”