Mel’s bright orange prison jumpsuit drew Luke’s eye, and he spotted her the second she came around the corner, escorted by a guard. Her hands were cuffed behind her back, and he wasn’t sure if it was a precaution in case she bolted, or if she’d been violent with the guards previously. Luke wouldn’t have been surprised if she’d gotten physical. She’d never been the most stable individual.

“You have fifteen minutes,” the guard said. She pushed Mel down into the plastic chair across from Luke, and Mel glowered up at her. The treatment was rough, but Luke couldn’t blame the guard. He knew how his sister could be, and judging by the look on her face, she was causing as much trouble as she could already.

The guard went to stand across the room. Mel turned her attention to Luke, and the hostility melted off her face. She batted her eyelashes at him and leaned forward as best she could with her hands tied behind her back. “You’re here to pay my bail, aren’t you, Luke?”

“No.” Luke didn’t want anything to do with her release. If it was up to him, she’d be in jail for as long as she was sentenced. “I came to ask you what the hell you thought you were doing, pulling a stunt like that.”

Mel’s eyes flashed. The innocent, charming look she’d given him before was replaced with irritation. “Really?”

“Yes, really!” Luke’s temper was starting to boil over. He knew he shouldn’t let her get under his skin, but he was already stressed from his confrontation with Freddie earlier that week, and he couldn’t take any more abuse. “What you did, Mel? That was evil. You ruined people’s lives.”

Maybe even my own...

“You’d think you’d thank me for giving you work to do,” Mel said callously. “You’re always talking about how dead it is at the station, and since county laws don’t allow any residents to do controlled burns, it’s not even like you have that to keep you busy. I wanted to make a fire, and so I did. I made you useful for a few hours while you put the fires out. So what?”

There was so much wrong with what she’d just said that Luke couldn’t even begin to think of where to start. Unpacking what she’d just said was impossible. How was he supposed to understand a mindset like that? Pointless destruction and evil for fun? To prove a point? Luke didn’t get it.

How could he be related to someone like that?

“All of this because controlled burns aren’t allowed?” Luke asked, doing his best to keep his voice steady. “Is that really why you did it? You didn’t get what you wanted, so you flew off the handle and took it to the extreme?”

“You wouldn’t understand.” Mel sighed. She looked at him with dead eyes. “There are only so many things to do for fun around here, Luke. Why not do something like this? Would you rather I get into drugs? Drinking? Sleeping around?”

Luke’s mouth hung open, and he pushed back in his chair as if he was going to stand. “You’re blaming me for this?”

“No. Maybe.” A smirk curled the corners of her lips. “I mean, you were the one who told me that I couldn’t, so it is your fault, when you get to the bottom of it.”

“You’re delusional.”

“You’re in denial.” Mel sat back in her chair and rolled her shoulders as best she could. The handcuffs kept her motion limited. “That’s what the guilty always do, don’t they? They deny, deny, deny. I’m not denying shit, Luke. I set the fires. I didn’t try to hide it. But you? You played a role in it, too, and if you want to deny it... I guess that makes you just as responsible, doesn’t it?”

She was twisting his words, trying to get under his skin so she could drive him crazy. Luke didn’t want anything to do with what she had to say. He’d come here to find out why she’d done what she’d done, but the only thing he was succeeding in understanding was that his sister wasn’t there. The lunatic who sat in her place needed specialist help.

“I sincerely hope that one day, you’ll understand that what you did was terrible,” Luke said. He kept his voice low, doing his best to hold off on what his impulses were begging him to do. Mel’s smug face and the bitterness in her soul made him want to lash out. He wanted to scream at her for what she’d done or slam his fist into her face until she snapped out of her horrible mindset. He wanted to knock over the table where they sat and kick his chair to the floor.

She was playing games with his head, and he refused to fall for them.

“I sincerely hope that one day, you’ll realize I was the only one with sense all this time.” She ran her tongue along her teeth, then shook her head. “All of you are living in boxes. Tiny, self-contained boxes bound by rules that other people invented. You’re all sheep.”

“You need help, Mel,” Luke said softly. He stood. He couldn’t stay here with her any longer. “I sincerely hope that as you’re serving your time you will find a way out of the dark headspace you’re in. You don’t have to be like this.”

“And you don’t have to be like how you are, either,” she said. Her eyes were hardened coals, the friendliness in them gone. Luke didn’t see his sister anymore — in her place was a creature bearing his sister’s resemblance, but whose soul had been stripped from her body. “You don’t have to live by anyone else’s rules, Luke. You’re in charge of your own life. Not one single person on this planet should be able to tell you what you can and cannot do. Not me, not them, not anyone.”

“We’re done here,” Luke said to the guard. “Thank you for bringing her out.”

“Let’s go, Masterson,” the guard said as she made her way across the room. Mel didn’t look at her. Her dark eyes bored through Luke. “Time to get you back into holding.”

“Goodbye, Luke,” Mel said coldly. Luke watched as she rose from her chair, her gaze glued on him until the guard took her by the arm and pulled her away. “We’ll see each other again soon.”

Luke hoped that wouldn’t be the case. As long as his sister stayed like this, he never wanted to see her again.

* * *

“You can’t expect her to be in a good place mentally at the moment,” Luke’s mother, Daphne, chided. Luke sat at the kitchen table. He’d come straight from his visitation with Mel to his parents’ house, looking for answers. His father was out, but his mother was home, and she was laying down the law mercilessly. “Of course she’s going to be unhinged. She was just arrested. What kind of a person could be in a healthy mental state after being thrown behind bars? She’s looking at years in jail — a huge chunk of her time eaten up for what, a false accusation?”

“Mel admitted to the crime.” Luke refused to be manipulated by her control tactics. Not now. He wasn’t a little boy anymore — he was a man who knew what was right and wrong. “The evidence the forensic team collected and the additional investigations launched after they determined the incidents were arson all prove it, too. This isn’t a false accusation. Mel is guilty.”

Daphne’s dark red lips twitched. She folded her hands on the table and looked at Luke expectantly. “You can’t be serious. She’s your own sister, Luke. Of course she didn’t commit those crimes. She was confused.”

“I went to see her in jail today,” Luke said stiffly. “Have you seen her since she was arrested? Have you talked to her?”

“Of course not! Your father is far too busy to visit a place like that, and I refuse to go somewhere so vile without him.” Daphne’s lips pinched together. “It’s not safe there for a woman. I’ve already told your father that if anything happens to Melanie that we will be suing.”

The delusion, it seemed, didn’t stop with Mel. Luke’s stomach sank, and he shook his head. He tried hard to love his family, but when they showed their true colors, it was so exceptionally hard. All he wanted was to make things right, but when there was nothing but evil and greed for him to work with, he had no idea how he was supposed to continue.

“She’s your daughter and I understand that,” he said. “I know that if I got in trouble, I’d want your support... but there’s a difference between trust and willful ignorance. Mel isn’t innocent. She needs help. Why are you enabling her?”

Daphne’s face darkened. “She doesn’t know what she’s talking about. She’s confused. If you actually cared about her, you would see that. What is it that you have against your sister, Luke?”

“No.” Luke wasn’t going to take it. This wasn’t about him. He wasn’t going to win with her, and he had to accept it. He stood, no longer wanting any part in this. “I’m not letting you drag me into this. I’m not going to play your mind games. Mel needs very specialist help, and I hope that she gets it... and I hope you come around to see how wrong you are, and how you’re enabling her to continue down this dead-end path.”

“Sit down right now, Lucas.”

“No.” Luke shook his head. He didn’t want to leave, but staying was only going to hurt him. He had to respect himself. “I’m sorry, Mom. I love you, and I love Dad, but you have to get your heads out of your asses. Mel needs help, and she’s not getting it when you keep telling yourselves that everything is fine. I won’t be bullied into ignorance. I won’t hold my silence. She committed those crimes, and now she’s going to pay for them... I just hope we can all come around to see the truth so we can help her as a unit.”

He knew it wasn’t going to do much, but at least he’d said his piece. He got up from the table and left the room. His mother scrambled to follow him.

“Lucas!” she barked. “What are you doing? Don’t you walk out of this house!”

Luke turned to look at her from the door. He shook his head. “I’m sorry, Mom. Until you change your mind, there’s nothing I have to talk to you about. I’m not going to be manipulated anymore. I won’t budge on this. Mel needs help, and I’m not going to stand by and pretend that nothing is wrong.”

“You’re a fool if you walk out of this house right now, Lucas.”

“Then I guess I’m a fool.” Luke laughed. He opened the door and stepped outside. “But I’d rather stand up for myself and what I know is the truth than stand in solidarity with those I know are avoiding what’s right because it’s too hard.”

If his mother said something, it didn’t make it to his ears over the rushing of his pulse. Luke followed the path to the driveway and his car, then swung down into the driver seat and got the hell out of there.

His loyalties were invested elsewhere now. His heart had made its choice. And even if that avenue was closed to him now, he would stay true to it. He wouldn’t stand idly by anymore.

He’d be the man Freddie needed, and a role model Reagan Ann could follow and be proud of.

He’d do it for them.