Page 55 of Nineteen Eighty

Colleen’s eyes flew open. “Is that what Maureen wants?”

“If it is, you’ll support her,” Edouard demanded.

“I never said I wouldn’t, but last time…” Colleen trailed off. Edouard may be family, but he was a stranger.

He curled the corner of his mouth into a bemused laugh. “She told me this wasn’t his first. But don’t you think it’s our responsibility to make sure it’s his last?”

“Our responsibility is to Maureen and her emotional health right now,” Colleen said, turning again toward her sister. She knelt by her side. “Sweetie, tell me what you want to do.”

“I want Charles to pay for this!”

“How? What does that look like for you?” Colleen tangled her hands through Maureen’s which were drenched in tears. Her heart caved inward. “He’s lost his mind, Maureen. I don’t know what else to say, but he’s a madman now. He’s not the Charles we grew up with.”

“He’s always been this Charles, just now the dial goes to eleven,” Maureen said coldly.

“What do you want to do?”

“You ask me that, but you already know you won’t help me.” Maureen ripped her hands away. “There you go, like you always do, talking to me like a goddamn child.” She jumped off the couch and grabbed Edouard by the arm. “Come on, we’re going to Ophélie. I want to look that bastard in the eyes and make him tell me what he did. I want him to say it!”

Edouard’s wide eyes met Colleen’s. She had no wisdom. Not anymore. Not about this.

“Let her go,” Colleen said. “If she needs this, she needs this. We can’t protect Charles from himself anymore. I’m not sure we ever should’ve tried, if this was going to be the consequence.”

Edouard nodded, half-carrying Maureen as they left.

When they were gone, Colleen turned to find Noah standing on the stairs.

“How much did you hear?” she asked.

“Enough,” he replied, descending. “Maybe it is time to stop protecting him.”

“I don’t know what to do.”

“Why does it have to be you?”

“Maureen came to me. She could’ve gone to anyone else.”

“Leena. She’ll do what she feels is right. And if she decides to turn him in, you should let her. You should realize that some things are more important than family. Why should Charles be the only one who never has to learn the hard lessons? Why does he get to keep hurting others, simply because you all share the same ancestry?”

Colleen collapsed in his arms.

Maureen was out the door before Edouard stopped the car. He called after her, but she didn’t stop, she couldn’t stop. An energy unlike any she’d ever had propelled her forward, and there was no slowing it.

Cordelia’s polite answering of the door faded to deep confusion as Maureen blew past her, screaming her brother’s name.

“Hang on, let me get him,” Cordelia offered, jogging up the stairs.

“You do that!”

Maureen paced the cypress, forcing herself to breathe through the erratic electricity radiating through her veins, out through her limbs. She was afraid she might combust, or take off, flying into the heavens, never to return.

“Maureen?” Charles wiped away sleep from his eyes. His matted hair drove her anger over the edge. A man who could sleep, after what he did!

“Look me in the eyes and tell me what you did!” she screamed before he’d made it down the stairs.

Charles paused at the center of the staircase. His hands dropped to his sides. “Excuse me?”

“Tell me what you fucking did, Charles!”

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