Hidden Motives

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I smiled at Max. I loved when he called me Tsunami. We had a connection, but it threatened to falter at any time. We were tied together with a thin string. It had been retied so many times, but here we were now. Closer than ever. 

Thinking back I realized that Melissa had practically disappeared. So had any connection I had with the FBI. No one had contacted me in forever. Even when I went on that mission no one stopped me. It was all so weird. Why would they let me do that? And Melissa hadn't reached out to me in ages? Something felt very wrong, but I couldn't quite get it.

Something about Melissa had always felt off, but I trusted her. I hoped that it was nothing. Maybe I was just overreacting. Either way, I had to shake this off and focus on the task at hand. Time was against us.

I looked up and Max was focusing on the road. He saw me watching him and said "So are you going to explain to me what's going on in your mind. I know you have some really crazy fucked up plan. Not that I mind you watching me drive."

I rolled my eyes and blushed. He caught me staring. I really needed to stop that. I took a deep breath and said "So as you know my father is responsible for this. For my mother, for Maddox, and for Dave. Do you notice a trend?"

Max shrugged "Not really, but I can kind of see where you are going with this."

"Yeah so basically he is hurting everyone who is like 'family' to me here. First, my real mother, who still had contact with me. Then he hurt Maddox who is like my brother. Now he KILLED Dave who was my father figure. I have a feeling Adyline's next. And he let Maddox live for a reason. He wants Adyline and Maddox to watch the suffering with me. He can't kill me until he gets what he wants." I said while trying to understand my own words. I had confused myself a bit.

"Oh I see. That makes sense. I didn't know he was that crazy. You have to be a psychopath to do that. Anyways what are we going to do?" Max asked. 

"Ok here's the plan. I'm going to need you to lure my father out. He doesn't know you and I think telling him you have information on me would help. We just have to find him first. We need to find his connections and then manipulate them into telling us his location. After that, you will 'take' me to him. I'm not going to involve Adyline, Maddox, or Mary, but I am going to tell the director of the FBI about my plan. It's my case so he has to listen to my plan even if he doesn't like it. I'll ask for about 10 agents to be on standby and 6 to come with us. My father isn't dumb, he's going to have guards planted everywhere. Even if you can't see them. We are going to be careful. I want him gone once and for all. Maybe...maybe then I..I can go back home?" I said.

"Home? What do you mean 'home'. This is your home! Or at least your new one." Max argued.

"Max this will never be my home. I can't even be myself here. I have to be 'Zara', but..but really I'm Sierra. It's not me. I can't even be myself around people who have shown me nothing but transparency in their character. Rene, Kailyn, James none of them could even guess what's going on in my life. I hate that. Don't get me wrong. I..I love it here. But after I get my degree I'm going home. I..I don't know. I just can't stay here, especially as someone who isn't me." I voiced as tears started to form around my eyes. I knew this was going to hit Max hard.

He was silent for a couple of minutes. He said nothing. We got to his house and he just got out of his car and left me in there. "Come in if you want. Or not. I don't care" he yelled from the door. He was angry. He couldn't even look at me. 

I sighed and sat in his car for a while thinking. His cologne was still a fresh scent in the car. I was never able to fully understand Max's opinions on me. But I had just hurt him. I had already assumed that he knew I was going to leave eventually. Besides we had time. It was never my plan to live here.

Finally, I decided to go inside. I quietly opened the door and went into the guest bedroom. It was dark and a glass was sitting on the floor smashed. A bottle of alcohol was on the dresser. Max was in here. He was gone now. But when he came inside he most likely went straight to this room. Had a tantrum. Broke some things. Drank a bit. Then went to sleep. Max was crazy impulsive. This showed how toxic he was. In my head he overreacted. This is something he should've assumed. I never even planned for a second to live here forever.

I cleaned up the glass carefully and put the bottle of alcohol in the kitchen. Then I sprayed the room with some perfume to cover the scent of hard alcohol. Finally, my head hit the pillow and I attempted to fall asleep. I was going to go to school tomorrow. It had been a week since I last went. I didn't have time to think about Max and his childishness.