Page 100 of Second Alarm
"I'd end you."
"I know."
"Get off my floor."
I get off the floor — slowly, knee protesting, lip bleeding down my chin onto my shirt. Hanna is at the counter with herface in both hands. The coffee in the cone has over-extracted. The kitchen smells like bitter coffee.
Cal looks at his sister.
"You're my — " his voice cracks " — you're my sister, and you're the best thing in my life, and you've been lying to me for ten years."
"Yes."
"You told me you were going to Portland to make a difference."
"Yes."
"You cried at the airport."
"Yes."
"I drove you." Something breaks open in his face. "I drove you to the airport, Hanna. I watched you get on that plane crying, and I thought I was watching my sister leave to do a big brave thing for herself. I flew out to see you five times. I sent you gift baskets. I told everyone I knew how proud I was of my little sister going to the big city — and you were running from my best friend."
"Yes."
"Who you were — who you had been — "
"Yes, Cal."
"Hanna."
"Yes."
"You're supposed to — "
"I know."
"I loved you so much, Hanna."
"I know."
"I didn't need a secret from you. I was going to love you if you had told me. I was going to love you, Hanna — did you think I wouldn't?"
Hanna isn't crying. Her face is the specific dry stillness of a woman about to say the truest sentence of her adult life.
"I thought you wouldn't love him, Cal."
Cal stops.
"What?"
"I knew you'd love me. I didn't think you'd love him. I thought you'd cut him off. And I thought that would kill him. And I couldn't take his brother from him. So, I left."
Cal looks at me.
I look at the floor.
"Brennan. Is that true?"
