Page 130 of John + Siena: The Complete Duet

Silence answered Jordyn’s statement.

John decided in that second that he had enough. This whole day had all been quite fucking enough for him.

He crossed the last few steps to the kitchen entryway, and instantly the two women inside noticed his presence. Siena looked as though she didn’t know what to say. His mother only dropped her arms to her sides, and let out a soft sigh.

“Is this why you asked me to bring her to church and dinner, Ma?” John asked. “So you could corner her like this, and tell her all the reasons why I’m such a fuckup to you, and the rest of this family?”

“John, no,” his mother said. “That’s not what I was doing at all.”

Her denials meant less than shit. He knew what he heard her saying to Siena, and he wasn’t fucking stupid.

He looked to Siena. “Are you ready to leave?”

She nodded once. “If you are, sure.”

“Let’s go.”

Siena darted for him, and discarded a dishcloth on the edge of the counter as she passed it by. “Sure, John.”

“John, wait,” his mother said.

John let Siena pass to exit out of the room before he turned and pointed at his mother. “Out of everyone, Ma, I trusted you the most. I didn’t think you would do something like this to me.”

“John, I was only trying to help.” Jordyn stepped forward, but he took one giant step back. Siena had already passed through the dining room, and was gone. “I don’t even think you realize it, but a lot of your behavior lately suggests you’re slipping into another manic phase. I only wanted to warn her, so that she would understand and know how to help.”

“You’ve got a strange fucking way of helping.”

“You’re not listening. That tells me I’m right, John. Listen to me.”

“I am fine!”

“Are you?”

“Go to hell, Ma.”

“John!”

Her shout echoed at his back. He found Siena at the front of the mansion. He helped her to slip on her coat.

“John, she meant no harm,” Siena murmured. “She wasn’t saying any of that to hurt you, I swear.”

“It doesn’t matter. They’re all the same.”

Siena frowned up at him. “What?”

“This whole family. They’re all the fucking same. They talk about loyalty, but they don’t know what it means.”

“John.”

Her whisper made him look down at her. Siena kept searching his gaze like she was trying to find something. He didn’t know what.

“They love you, John.”

Do they?

It was hard to tell when he was like this.

Siena laughed as John pulled her up the steps of a brownstone that was only a few blocks away from Fifth Avenue.