Bully stepbrother

60. This is not who you are

MADISON

After three days of nightmares, I finally got to see him.

Through the past days, he had been constrained and denied any visitors.

I pleaded until I gave up.

Although I stayed in the station all day every day and returned home every midnight to slide against the door and cry my eyes out until morning.

Home became vacant; I became vacant.

I still don't believe the news. I had denied all that the officers had said because I've known Caden for years, and I know he wasn't that person who will almost kill a human... A woman.

He had hurt me emotionally, but he never did it physically. He was the kind whom tears easily make weak. He will make up with me anytime I cry.

There was no way he will do something like what he's being accused of.

There has to be some mistake.

Not after him promising to be there for me when I need him. He wouldn't get himself in such trouble knowing it could take away his future.

On the third day, when a female officer found me sitting on a bench with a small bag packed with fries and a burger, hopeful as I had been every day to deliver it to Caden, and like a dream, she granted me ten minutes to see my stepbrother.

I didn't know how I hugged her, but I did. I was very grateful that I've never been in my eighteen years of life. After she pulls away, she leads the way.

When I walk into an empty room with a table between two chairs, I found Caden sitting on the chair with his head in his hand...

"Hey?" I exclaimed. "You okay?" almost dropping the food.

"Mad! You came." He bolts upright, wrapping his arms around me, his head buries in my hair, sniffing me just as I do him from his chest.

After what felt like hours, he pulls back and presses his lips against mine, kissing me hard and deep.

The warmth of him steamed in my eyes and brought tears dripping from my closed eyes.

I pull away and held his face smeared with fractures, in my hands.

What if I never feel this again?

"Is a lie right? You didn't? You wouldn't hurt her... You did not hurt her..." My voice stuck in my throat.

His eyes watched me quietly when he says: "I did." I shake my head at him.

I know he is lying. I know he was everything but violence. Mostly he wouldn't attack a vulnerable creature... Not a lady.

"No! You didn't." I objected.

He shrugged off my hands from his face and turned away from me. His back to me, his shoulders tense as he exhales loudly.

"Mad. I repeatedly hit her head against the concrete wall."

"No! I don't believe you..." I circled and met his thin eyes, full of confusion. "This is not who you are. They framed you." It has to be the only explanation for this situation. "Did they force you to say all this? I mean look around." I throw my hands around us.

Tears streaming down my face. "Kaiser's family owns this state, this country. They're powerful. Tell me they framed you." I held his arms, practically shaking them, hoping to wiggle out the truth from him.

"Daisy Esteban's father killed Cara." He muttered.

What? "What?" I audibly asked.

"He was the man who hit Cara eight years ago."