Chapter 25

Rachel was the first time I got to watch Melisa resort to sledgehammer diplomacy to get what she wanted when her manipulations failed.

"So why aren't you?" she asked after a minute of silence.

I smiled at her attempt to change the subject away from her dad.

"Why aren't I what?"

"Why aren't you nervous about Rachel and me?" she asked meeting my eyes.

My smile widened; her eyes flashed with annoyance at my amusement.

"Can you really imagine me nervous?"

She shrugged and smiled her annoyance aside. I leaned my head to the side and studied her.

"It wouldn't be Rachel," I said finally.

"What?"

"If you left, it wouldn't be with Rachel," I said.

"Why not?"

"When you lie in bed with her, I'm there between you."

She nodded and walked around the room for a couple of minutes.

"So do you want to tell me the truth?" she asked after her third circuit of the room.

"Do you really want the truth?" I asked seriously.

"I think I'd like it better than 'I'm there between you'," she said leaning against the desk.

"I'm not there when you kiss her?"

She shrugged as if it was unimportant point. I nodded and sat back.

"Why aren't you with your dad?" I asked.

"What?" she said tightening up.

"You wanted the truth," I pointed out.

"What does my dad have to do with it?"

"I have a... feeling, he's between us when it's just you and me," I said.

She gave me a hard look, which I shrugged off.

"I'll lie to everyone out there," I said pointing out the window.

"I'll lie to everyone out there," I repeated pointing to the living room. "I'll lie to you."

I was quiet for a second.

"What I have never done is lie to me," I said. "So here's your chance at the truth, why aren't you with your dad?"

She circled my bed a couple of times. I thought she was considering how to answer the question without answering it. She leaned against my desk again.

"You lie to me?" she asked with pursed lips that teased slightly.

"You don't lie to me?" I asked by way of reply.

"I won't tell you things, which isn't really lying," she said with a raised eyebrow. "But that doesn't mean you can lie to me."

"Who made that rule?"

"I did, of course," she teased.

I nodded and rocked a little in the chair.

"You're not going to agree to that, are you?" she said with a small laugh. "I wasn't expecting you to, but I had to try. You might have been REALLY different from my dad."

I maintained my silence.

"So why would you lie to me?" she asked again.

"The truth?" I asked.

"Yes, David."

"Why aren't you with your dad?"

She bit her lip in anger as she tried to stare me down. She sighed and looked away realizing there was nothing for her to push against.

"The Brotherhood isn't the real world, Melisa. If anything can be said to be the 'real' world," I said. "You can be with your dad how you want to be. He would move to a different city, somewhere that no one knew he raised you. You could wear his crest."

She nodded and looked at the doors to my room with tears in her eyes. A couple of minutes later, she brushed them away with the back of her hand.

"There are thousands of Siblings," she said enunciating each word. "There are two that wear his crest. There is only one blonde-haired angel in his life."

Silence reigned for a minute.

"The only differences my dad recognizes between Siblings are crested and un-crested, or his crested Sibling and another Brother's," she continued. "He treats Joanne and my mom like they're interchangeable, which would make me one of three exact same things that he holds tightly to his heart."

I nodded.

"My dad can't have children; he jokes that it was an 'industrial accident'. Joanne and my mom want a baby but they're going to adopt a boy," she said looking at me hard. "If my choices are to be treated like one of thousands, one of three, or to be the only baby girl in his life; then no matter what I want, I choose to be that little girl. Only-daughters do not have to share the sparkle in their daddy's eyes."

"You have to share me," I pointed out after a moment.

"Not like that," she replied.

I smiled at her.

"Okay, the truth," she said returning the smile. "You're not like my dad so I don't have to share the part of you that is mine. There IS a part of you that will only ever be mine."

"Is that why you're here?" I asked.

"No," she said quietly not wanting to tell me the truth but wanting to be someone I told the truth to more. "A daddy never believes anyone is good enough for his little girl but mine thinks you are."

"You believe him?"

She walked around the room much more agitated than the previous times. It took her longer to calm down and lean against the desk again.

"When my father hit me in the middle of that argument, I stopped believing in a lot of things like my mom's judgment," she said in a sad voice. "I cried in my dad's arms that night. I didn't know he was going to become 'my dad'; he was just a cop whose arms made me feel safe again. He whispered that he would never let anyone hurt me again, not even my father. I believed him, and since that night I've only believed the things that my daddy tells me. He's never said the words, but he has told me plenty of times that you're his choice for me."

"I can't promise you won't get hurt."

"I'll bet my life, David, that it won't be you that hurts me."

I nodded.

"If I can't be with my dad," she continued, "then I choose to be here. You've never treated me like any other Sibling so I have to think that maybe the one true thing in my life still is; daddy knows what's best for me."

I nodded again.

"Siblings and Brothers say I'm different from other Brothers," I said quietly. "I have a... feeling that I am, but not where it matters."

"I don't understand," she said forgetting the question she had asked.

"I don't know enough about Sibling indoctrination, but no matter how much Doris Alex plays it down I know what it would take for me to trust her," I said. "But I trust her; Janet, Susan, and Michael too. Probably every indoctrinated Sibling because I know how powerful indoctrination has to be for anyone remotely like me to trust. Brothers trust Siblings, not with everything, but crested or un-crested there is trust."

"You don't trust me," she said with a tiny smile.

"You're not indoctrinated."

"Doris doesn't trust me either, or Janet, or Michael, or any other Sibling that I know," she said with a hint of pride in her voice. "Not even my mother."

I almost laughed at the happiness she got from being different.

"So you lie to me because you can't trust me?" she asked with a wide smile.

"I won't tell you things, which isn't really lying, right?"

She laughed openly at my choice of words.

"Getting back to what started this conversation then, why haven't you pulled back on my leash?" she asked.

"Rachel wanting you to kiss Michael is what started this conversation," I said.

"Yeah, well fuck her and she's lucky Michael knows better," she said angrily. "If she tries that shit again; I don't care how much you want her, she's fucking gone."

An angry Melisa was definitely one of the sexiest things in my life.

"She's just trying to figure out what you haven't told her," I teased.

She punched the table in annoyance.

"Change subject," she insisted.

I laughed at tone of her voice. She sighed and stuck her tongue out at me. I waited for her to ask the question again.

"So why haven't you pulled back on MY leash yet?" she asked.

"Take your clothes off," I commanded.

Her top was over her head before she caught herself. I heard a heartfelt 'bastard!' before she finished removing it. She gave me an exasperated look as she took her bra off. The shorts and panties fell to the ground with practiced ease to be kicked aside in annoyance.

"This doesn't prove anything," she said but sighed at her inability to sound convincing.

She pushed her hips towards me as she leaned against the desk. Her pubic hair was a thin line of blonde that I wanted to run my fingers through.

"You've lied to Rachel, Melisa," I said.

"I did not lie!" she said angrily.

I waited.

"I haven't told her everything," she said with a pout.

"You let her assume," I said. "You led her to those assumptions."

"I did not lie to her, David."

"Like I said, I don't lie to me," I said. "Whatever you think you did or did not do, Rachel will believe you lied to her."

"So what was I supposed to do," she said raising her hands. "Tell her about the Society, tell her that I planned to make her a Sibling; your Sibling"

I rested my head back and stared at Melisa.

"I couldn't let her leave if you did that, Melisa."

She straightened and I saw the calculating manipulation in her eyes.

"No!" I said in hard voice.

"What?"

"If you want to keep to your plan of making Rachel a Sibling, you have to allow her the choice," I said. "Telling her about the Brotherhood is making the choice for her."

"You wouldn't hurt her."

"Do you know what the difference is between being out there," I said pointing out my window, "And being in here?'

She shook her head.

"You," I said. "I don't need another Melisa in my life. Rachel will be indoctrinated so she must be allowed the one free choice."

"Indoctrination means other Brothers, David," Melisa said carefully. "You wouldn't share Rachel."

"She wouldn't be mine until she wore my crest."

"I don't wear your crest."

"Other Siblings make their decision once, you must make it every day for the rest of your life," I said. "Every morning that you wake up you have to decide to stay with me. It's a choice I also have to make every day. How many people out there consciously decide the rest of their life every day?"

"You can't tell me that Doris, Janet, and Susan don't make being in this house different than living in a dorm room!"

"What do they give me that Alyssa wouldn't, if I never met any of you?"

She let the air out lungs explosively.

"You're more mine now than Rachel could ever be. You've chosen this every day since your dad put my file in front of you. Steadfast, resolute and committed; I owe you years of loyalty."

Melisa looked away from my eyes.

"You feel something for Rachel that you don't feel for me or any other Sibling, David," she said. "That's why I want her with us."

I shook my head.

"I would prefer that you had taken Doris Alex's route."

"Doris would happily drown Rachel to make sure there was nothing outside the Society you wanted."

I snickered.

"Okay, maybe Janet's," I corrected.

"To fuck you and fuck you and fuck you until Rachel moved away and Doris drowned her so that there was nothing outside the Society you wanted?"

"There's no way around Doris Alex, huh?" I asked jokingly.

She shook her head seriously.

"I'm not indoctrinated so I don't know a lot about Siblings," she said staring at me. "I've never needed to know anything about the Society other than my dad and you, but that doesn't mean I haven't put things together. Doris is here because of you. She is as committed to you as I am... if I'm honest with myself she is more committed to you than I am."

I nodded.

"She's dangerous, David," she said carefully. "I've never met a Sibling like her. I think she'd drown me if I interfered with the plans she has for you."

"She would never touch you, Melisa."

"I..."

"The Brotherhood wants me inside, Melisa," I said quietly. "Your continued loyalty ensures mine. Doris Alex serves the Brotherhood with every breath; she would cut her own throat before she stood against us."

Melisa shivered and was quiet for a minute.

"You cannot tell Rachel about the Brotherhood until she's made her choice, Melisa," I repeated.

"How is she supposed to choose without knowing?"

"How did you?"

"I don't think I really wanted to be a Sibling," she said. "This is what my dad is and this is what you are so this is the choice left to me."