Page 21 of Maid for Love

“Danielle, it isn’t what you think,” I begin.

“Oh yeah? Then what is it?” the curvy brunette demands, her eyes practically shooting fire. “What could possibly justify a brother and sister being sexual together?”

“Danielle, that isenough,” I snap. “Flora, do you want to explain?”

The raven-haired woman immediately shakes her head.

“No, I’ll let you handle this, Barron. Clearly, I’m in over my head,” she says before slipping past Danielle and exiting the bedroom.

When the door clicks shut behind her, Danielle turns back around to glare at me, and I sigh before taking a seat on the bed. It seems the weight of the world is on my shoulders … and now, I have to explain what’s already a sad situation.

10

DANIELLE

Barron sighs as he runs a hand through his ebony locks.

“Danielle, this is not what you think it is.”

“Yeah, you’ve said that before,” I huff. “So, tell me what it really is then.”

“Well,” he murmurs. “For starters, Flora and I aren’t biologically related. We’re not biological siblings, so we don’t share genetics or DNA.”

I side-eye him, staring at him with a suspicious gaze as I try to figure out whether Barron’s telling me the truth or not. Yet his eyes are honest as they stare into mine, and my heart races in my chest as the wheels start turning in my brain. If they’re not biological siblings, then…well, that changes everything.

“You’re not really related?” I question skeptically. “But you two look very much alike.”

Barron chuckles, nodding his head a little. “We get that a lot, but I don’t see it. Just because we both have black hair and blue eyes doesn’t mean that we’re automatically twins,” he says in a wry voice.

I keep on my serious face, crossing my arms over my chest as I quirk a brow at him. “But Star and Lacy said that—“

“Ah,” Barron sighs, rolling his eyes. “Those two. I should’ve known that they were the ones who told you.”

“Yeah, and theyshouldn’thave been the ones to tell me that you like fucking around with your sister,” I glare. “It should have beenyouexplaining the relationship. Long before Flora showed up at our house. How could you invite her over to watch us have sex without telling me about who she was to you first? Even if she’s not your biological sibling?”

“I know,” Barron sighs. “It was wrong, and I apologize for that. Ididreally want to tell you about her and about our complicated past, but I guess I could just never find the right time. Before I knew it, Flora was already back in town, and we’d already made plans and…I don’t know,” he shakes his head. “I’m sorry. This is all my fault, and this situation would have never blown up in my face or gotten out of hand if I’d just talked to you first.”

“Yeah, I agree,” I mutter. “But I don’t get it. If you two aren’t really siblings, then why were you calling each other brother and sister? Iheardyou just now. And don’t lie because I heard you guys talking about your childhood too. You clearly did grow up together.”

“We did,” Barron nods, “in the orphanage.”

“Oh?” my eyes widen as he nods again.

“Yeah. The two of us were placed in the same group home around the same time, and we grew up together there. We became very close, both because we were a part of a handful of kids who were there for a while, and because we suffered a lot of hardship together.”

“You did?” I whisper, suddenly feeling awful. Oh my god, I’ve completely fucked up. Meanwhile, Barron shrugs, his eyes going far away.

“Neither of us was very well-liked by the other kids,” he says on a pained chuckle. “We endured a lot of teasing because of the fact that no one was interested in adopting us. The longer we stayed there as other kids came and went, the worse the teasing—or I should say, bullying—got.”

“That’s horrible!” I gasp.

“Yeah, it is,” he states. “And on top of that, Flora was always a little on the smaller side when she was younger, and she was very shy and quiet, so she made for an easy target. I tried to protect her because I was a tough guy, even growing up, and very aggressive, but there were just too many of them. The other kids basically became animals, and they’d do everything, from taking our food for the day to stealing the few personal belongings that we had.”

“Kids can be so cruel,” I shake my head. “I mean, what reason did they have to do that to you guys anyways? You’d think that they’d want to come together and behave like a family, and not ostracize other kids that were in the same predicament as themselves.”

“You’d think,” Barron shrugs, his expression carefully controlled. “But I guess it was their way of coping with their pain. Regardless, Flora and I had to learn to look out for each other. We stuck together and over the years, we got closer and closer, until we became like each other’s family. Like siblings.That’swhy the two of us act like brother and sister. That’s why we affectionately call each other “Big Bro” or “Little Sis.” It’s just a term of art because we’re not really related.”

I pause for a moment, dumbfounded.

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