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“No, Maggie, I really mean it. You should have told me.”

“I know.”

He lets out a breath and looks away for a second, jaw tight. He’s still angry. I can see it. But under that there’s something worse, something that makes me feel about twelve years old.

He was scared.

And I made him find out like that.

“I found out from People’s Today,” he says. “About my own sister. Do you understand how insane that is?”

“Yes.”

“And then you still didn’t call me.”

“I didn’t know what to say.” That comes out quieter than I mean it to.

He looks back at me. “You could’ve started with literally anything.”

I laugh once, weakly. “That was the problem.”

He stares at me for another second, then shakes his head and walks toward the couch. “Sit down before you make me more nervous.”

I sit.

He stays standing a moment longer, then drops beside me, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees. For a while, neither of us says anything.

That’s when I know he’s really upset. Nate doesn’t do silence unless something matters.

Finally, he says, “Were you actually going to tell me?”

“Yes,” I say.

“When?”

I open my mouth. Nothing comes out.

He nods once, looking away. “Right.”

“I mean it,” I say quickly. “I was. I just—things kept getting worse before I could figure out how to say it.”

“That sounds like your whole personality.” His mouth twitches. Not quite a smile, but enough that I feel my chest loosen a little.

He looks at me again, and his voice changes. Softer now.

“Are you okay?”

And that does it.

Not in some big dramatic way. I don’t burst into tears immediately. I just feel something in me give a little, because he’s my brother, and he’s angry, and he’s hurt, and he still asked me that first.

“No,” I say.

He nods, like that’s the answer he expected. Then he shifts closer and puts his arm around my shoulders.

That’s when I start crying.

I hate it immediately. I make one annoyed sound into my own hand. “This is humiliating.”