Maya (Book #3)

Chapter 46

I ran upstairs after we both grew tired and decided to head to Dominic's room to thank him for being nice after the movie ended. I paused outside his bedroom and leaned against the door so I could hear if he was asleep or not. I heard voices and began to back away before I heard my name. I pushed back gently, leaning up on my toes to get a good angle. The door was cold against my cheek, but I could hear their voices when I pressed firmly.

Damon and Dominic seemed to be having a discussion about today. I strained to make out what they were saying to each other. Luckily, they weren't very quiet.

"It wasn't very safe of us," Damon argued, making the bed squeak somehow. I could hear Dominic's swivel chair moving and I pictured him turning to face his brother.

"She needs to go out sometimes and feel like she's a normal kid. He doesn't get to take everything from her," he stated in a voice that didn't leave room for discussion. Damon sighed.

"I know you're right," he agreed, surprising me, "She's just a teenager."

Dom made a weird sound in his throat, and I could tell he didn't agree somehow. I would've laughed at him if I was in the room and yelled at him to spit out what he was thinking. Damon waited politely, surprising me once more.

"It's more than that," he finally said. "She's a teenager but she's also a little kid. I can see it sometimes in her eyes that she just wants someone to tell her what to do and protect her. She needs someone who can play with her and look out for her and love her. And maybe Asher is going to be that person someday but for now, she needs us." His voice was firm with conviction, and I could picture his desire to do the right thing ablaze in his eyes. They always seemed to shine brighter when he was sure about what he was doing.

The realization struck me a moment later and I tried to keep from gasping. Dominic had pinpointed something in me that I had never been able to articulate. A deep part of my heart ached for exactly what he had stated. I didn't have parents growing up, I had a monster and people who didn't protect me from him. Was it so wrong that I wanted someone to be firm with me, while also loving me? I couldn't tell.

They still hadn't spoken following Dominic's declaration. I wondered what he was seeing. I pictured Damon running his hand through his hair as he did when he was thinking deeply about something.

"I think you're right, even if she doesn't always realize it," Damon said.

"We need her too," Damon added after a moment of thought.

"How so?" Dominic asked. There was pride in his voice as if he was impressed by his brother.

"Ever since Bella and Dad died, we've all been lost. Maybe Maya is what we needed the whole time. Having her here changes everything, in the best of ways." He complimented, offering Dominic the kindness he never would've told me himself.

I dropped down onto my feet and stepped back to think about that. I always thought of the ways that I could help the Anders... by serving their family and protecting them if something happened. I never thought that I could help them simply by being myself. I scooted closer again but missed Dominic's answer to that. Damon spoke again.

"I hate to think about what her uncle did to her," he added darkly. "What kind of monster could hurt someone so sweet?" I cringed at the excess of kind words and felt awkward. I remembered talkingto Charlotte about cognitive dissonance. When the kind words we heard didn't align with the vision we had of ourselves, sometimes it could feel uncomfortable, even disgusting.

"I know," Dominic said. "Where do you think he is? Just waiting out there for her to be left by herself?"

His words sent a chill through my body, and I turned both ways down the dark hallway to check that I was alone.

"I'm not sure," Damon said. "But someone has to teach him a lesson."

"I can be dangerous, too," Damon said angrily. I knew his eyes would be ice cold and his fists would be clenched. He would be scowling at the floor or Dominic, inadvertently scaring those around him.

"Damon," Dom said in a strict tone. "Don't."

I heard an angry exhale and then the bed shifted. I wondered if Damon was leaning back or standing up.

I had to interrupt; I couldn't bear to hear whatever conversation was to follow. I took gentle steps back down the hall and then loud steps forward before knocking on the door harshly. It was a bit exaggerated, but as I was pulling them abruptly from their conversation, they probably wouldn't notice.

"Come in!" Dominic called out, so I poked my head into the doorway. I walked in to find that my guesses had been accurate. Damon was lounging on the bed with his head against the wall and Dominic sat in the swivel chair facing him. They were both dressed in pajamas that they probably didn't notice were similar: dark gray shirts with plaid pants.

I ran towards the bed and jumped beside Damon, squeezing up next to him. I wanted to thank him for the nice things that he said but I wasn't about to get in trouble for eavesdropping, so I just hugged him. He smiled down at me and then faced Dominic once more.

"And that's why I think I should join the military," he said, deadpan. If I hadn't heard the earlier part of their discussion, I would've believed him.

"You can't!" I argued, shaking his arm. "We need you here!"

"Oh," he said, pretending to think about it. "Alright then."

"You're giving in that easily?" Dominic asked with a chuckle, turning back to his computer and sliding on his blue light glasses. 

"Come on," Damon said, nodding his head in my direction. "Look at those eyes." I changed the topic immediately, trying not to look embarrassed.

After we finished hanging out, I went back to my room and got into bed. Without intending to think about it, the story that Charlotte had told me about her life came flooding through my mind. Everything she shared with me had to be examined and adjusted to fit the picture of the woman I thought she was. It all seemed to add up. Her bad experience with her boyfriend had led to her passion for helping others, and her good experience with her husband had pushed her to follow her dreams. I hoped that I could do something that good with the badness I had faced. What she had overcome seemed so much worse than what I'd experienced.

As my mind rolled over the tragedies of her story, I realized something. She said that the man who became her husband had been taking care of his son before they got married. I sat up in bed and tried to shake the tiredness from my body so I could figure it out.

There were only two logical conclusions I could see; his son was no longer with them when they had gotten married, or their first son wasn't Charlotte's biological child. But Caleb was their first son. I gasped in the darkness of the room.

Was Caleb not Charlotte's son? Did he know? Did someone tell him?

And just like that, another secret crawled inside my heart. I clutched my chest as I tried to fall asleep. I wasn't sure how many more of these I could take.

Suddenly, my phone buzzed on my nightstand and lit up, illuminating the dark room in its blue glow.

I grabbed it and opened messages, to find one from a blocked number. It said:

Looks like your mom has some secrets. Wait till you find out the biggest one. Still waiting for you to tell her yours. Clock is ticking.

I deleted it without thinking. I couldn't have someone reading the last part of that message. I knew without question that it was a message from my uncle. But what did the first part mean? Charlotte didn't have secrets. She was the most honest person I'd ever met.

I sat up in my bed and pressed my pillow against my face firmly. I screamed as softly as I could, making an odd, strangled noise before cutting it off. Thinking about what my uncle told me felt like I was listening to him, following his orders. I didn't believe him, and I trusted Charlotte a hell of a lot more than I trusted him.

But there was something she wasn't telling us about Caleb. Was it possible she was keeping something else from me?