Page 21

“Can’t be pregnant unless it’s imac-, imaccu- Oh, what’s the word? When you get pregnant without sex?”
The doctor laughed.
“Immaculate conception?”
Maxie snorted.
“Yeah, that. I’m a…”
We all leaned in.
“A virgin.” Maxie turned unfocused eyes on me. “Coulda lost it at eighteen but no one wanted it. I’m an old… Old Maid! Like the game.”
Mills swung around like there was something he wasn’t supposed to see.
“Make her stop talking.”
I wasn’t sure I remembered how to breathe. I locked eyes with Rhett and he seemed to be as shocked as I was. My stomach twisted and sank all at the same time. She was a virgin.
“Bianca?” Maxie snuggled into Rhett’s arms tighter. “Your office chairs are great. This one’s a little pokey but I don’t mind.”
Rhett’s face went redder than Maxie’s. He cleared his throat and brushed her hair out of her face.
“Alright. So, medicine?”
I looked up when the door opened and four more Hellstones filed in, one being so massively pregnant that she was using her brothers to keep her steady. The small room got much smaller, especially when the door opened again and Arlo stepped inside.
“Okay, this is ridiculous.” Doctor Bianca shook her head. “Who even let you back here?”
“What’s wrong with her? Is she okay?” Vera wedged herself closer to her sister. “Maxie?”
Maxie’s head rolled back and forth on Rhett’s chest. “Whoa. Did someone die? Why is everyone here?”
“We’re here for you, Maxie. Tate called us and told us you passed out.” Nellie held Vera’s hand, both of their eyes filled with concern.
“No one comes for me. No one comes for Maxie.” Maxie’s bottom lip poked out, the state of it knocking a gasp from both of her sisters. She whimpered. “No one cares about Maxie.”
It didn’t make me feel less murderous to see tears in her sisters’ eyes. They’d let Maxie feel that way. I didn’t understand how but in the ten years we’d been gone, they’d somehow dropped the ball so magnificently that Maxie felt alone and uncared for with the weight of the world on her shoulders.
I moved forward, putting myself between Maxie and her family. “Just tell us what to do and we’ll take her home. Toourhome, where she’ll be cared for.”
“No, she’ll come back home, where she lives.” Tate shot me a dark look. “You don’t even know her.”
Rhett’s voice was quiet as he spoke, the darkness in it landing just as heavily as if he’d screamed in their faces.
“Home? To a place where everyone is so willing to take from her without giving a thing in return? That’s the home you want her to go to? The home that allowed her to get to this point? Where she’s so distraught that she’s dug holes in her palms andchewed her lips bloody? There is nothing any of you could say that would make me feel okay about leaving Maxie with you. No. We’ll take her to our home and we’ll take care of her, the way she should’ve been taken care of all along. She won’t be cleaning your house or cooking every fucking meal for you anymore. She’s not coming back there until she’s well enough to decide for herself.”
They all looked at Mills but he was staring a hole in the floor, shoulders hunched. With a deep sigh, he ran his hands over his face and shrugged.
“Fine.”
West and Tate started to argue but when Mills turned and left the room, they swore and hurried after him. Tate stopped in the doorway and glared at me.
“I want a text every other hour about how she’s doing.”
Vera looked conflicted about leaving Maxie with us but Nellie wrapped her arm around her sister.
“They’ll take care of Maxie. Maxie has her own little pack of rabid dogs protecting her now. Just like you. Just like me.”