MAXWELL

How ridiculous we must have looked standing in that doorway, neither one of us saying a fucking word. I knew the reason for my hesitation. I needed a haircut, my clothes were a mess, and oh yeah, I hated this woman. The longer I waited, the more I pictured myself reaching my hands around her neck and choking the life out of her. I could see the wheels turning in her head as she gazed upon me. She probably wondered if this was some kind of joke and she was the brunt of it. I shifted my footing from side to side. The tension broke in our combined features. I felt like that little boy trapped in the basement longing for my mother’s warm touch as she held me. Time continued to tick away, and I prepared to return to my car without preamble. Coming had been a huge mistake, one that was time to rectify. Before I had the chance to step away, her unexpected greeting stopped me cold and killed all hopes I had of escaping.

“Oh, my God, Maxie, is that really you? My beautiful, beautiful boy.”She hurled herself from the entrance and threw her arms around my neck and embraced me. My body stiffened at her touch. I felt the sudden urge to vomit right there on her overpriced shoes, but I swallowed it down. I’d expected rejection, disbelief even, but that overjoyed reception was not something I was prepared for. If I hadn’t known any better, I’d even go so far as to say she was expecting me, as if the last fifteen years had never happened. Every single one of my instincts screamed at me to get the fuck outta there and never look back, instincts I’d grown to trust over the years, especially in my professional life. I even ignored Buck’s voice inside my head that told me not to trust this woman. Never trust a happy jack smiley motherfucker. They smile in your face and stab you in the back at the same fucking time, boy. As dumb as it had sounded at the time, he was absolutely right. The rich and famous perfected the art of lying with a smile and a handshake, which I knew from experience. I’d never let that fool me before, and I wasn’t about to let it fool me now. I wasn’t the man she remembered, and it was time I proved it.She let go and backed away with a huge-ass grin on her face, like a school girl who just met her favorite boy band in person. I was cautious but entered the foyer when she stepped aside with a sweep of her hand to urge me forward.

“Come in, come in. Let me get you a drink. You must be exhausted. I’ll have the cook make you something to eat. You must be starving. Did you travel a long way? Why didn’t you call and let me know you were coming? I would have been better prepared.” The faster she walked in those high-heeled shoes across the floor, the more questions she fired off. Her talking became white noise as I took a look around and found the entire mansion had been remodeled. Demure hues of brown and beige, unpretentious on its face, with typical layout of a home inhabited by an upstanding member of society. The interior design was textbook right down to the various vases filled with freshly cut flowers, an expansive library filled with political textbooks, and the oversized mahogany desk filled with photographs of the senator and other high profiled dignitaries. It was all so fucking perfect, the gold standard of political elitism and upper-class bullshit. What a fucking joke.

“Maxie? Did you hear what I said?” My mother’s voice broke through my observations. She was waiting for me to give her an answer. Too bad I hadn’t heard a fucking word she said. She sat on one of the chairs, back straight and legs crossed at the ankles. Her hands rested primly in her lap, just like the well-bred woman she was or wanted everyone to believe. She perfected that act of playing the submissive wife years ago, long before I was born, and had it down pat. I was immune to the bullshit. I knew the other side of her, the sinister side. She wanted to play nice and put on that ‘welcome home’ show, but I came here for another reason entirely; and it was time to get down to my business. My emotions were all over the place: crippling fear one moment, then teeth-grinding anger the next. She did this to me, made me feel weak and unsure of myself. Her very presence caused me to lose control over the entire situation, but I would not waiver.

I was no longer that simpering, scared-shitless boy, afraid of the dark, who pissed his bed at night or hid in the closet. Buck gave me the tools, along with my brothers, to fight those feelings of weakness I knew as a boy. Never run from your enemy, boy. Look that fucker straight in the eyes and demand your respect. There is strength in you, boy, I can feel it. Now it’s time to show the world. Sitting before me was that enemy he spoke of, and she would give me the answers I came for; she owed me that much. She didn’t know what I was capable of, the man I grew to be. It was time I set the ground rules for this little family reunion.

“Let’s get one thing straight, Mother. Don’t ever fucking call me Maxie again. That person…is dead. You may call me Maxwell or Max, nothing more. Get it?”

I took three menacing steps toward her, fighting the urge to lose my shit and tear that place apart piece by piece. She didn’t so much as flinch at my little outburst and still managed to maintain her bullshit prim and proper demeanor. I continued with my verbal assault standing mere inches from her seated position. I felt powerful standing above her, which was thrilling. The high ground was the best advantage to have in warfare, and that’s exactly what this was…war.

“I want to know why you called my office looking for a publicist. Did you know it was my firm you were calling, or did you just open the phone book one day?”

“Well… Maxwell,” she emphasized my name and cleared her throat. “How could I have possibly known it was your firm? The company name is M. O’Neill’s, not Lancaster. Secondly, I was looking for the best representation available, and your name was at the top of the short list.”

“I appreciate the jerkoff compliment, Mother, but you still haven’t answered my question. Why were you looking to hire me?” Her stalling was pissing me right the fuck off. I was getting nowhere fast trading questions with this woman. She had the audacity to actually smile at me, as she puffed out her chest like a proud peacock. What did she have to be proud of? My accomplishments were mine and mine alone; she had jack shit to do with any of it. The wicked gleam in her eye told me she was calculating something, careful not to give away too much or too little, a skill few had mastered in their lifetime. How many countless others had she used that same smile on before she went in for the kill? I waited impatiently as she contemplated her next move like a chess master during a game before yelling checkmate. What the fuck are you hiding, Mother?

“You really have grown up to be such a handsome young man. You look so much like your father did at your age. It’s uncanny.” She perused my face with a slight frown.

“I wouldn’t know. Now, cut the shit and answer my fucking question.”

“The women must be lined up outside your bedroom door like it’s a Macy’s one-day sale. I don’t see a ring, so you must be single. Tell me, son, do you have a girlfriend?” A joke? I’m trying to salvage what’s left of my life, and this cunt was making jokes? I’d had enough and turned to leave.

“Alright, Mr. Sensitive, keep your shirt on. When I left you that voice mail at your office, I said the matter was…delicate. If I’d known at the time with whom I was speaking, I might have placed a follow-up call. As it stands, we’ve been handling it on our end for some time now.” I didn’t bother to respond. She wasn’t the first person to attempt to ease their way into the situation before dropping the bomb on the real issue. To the minds of the rich, verbalizing their scummy secrets out loud was totally different than whispering them secretly in the dark. It helped them feel better about whatever chaos they caused. Me? I couldn’t care less one way or the other; it never swayed my decision to help them or not.

I waited for the rest.

“The senator’s taken ill. We thought he was going to die, but as luck would have it, he survived. He’s unable to perform his duties in congress, so we’ve had to resort to desperate measures by…covering for him.”

“Covering for him? What the fuck do you mean, covering for him?”

“Let’s just say I’ve been able to learn a few things over the years, including signing my husband’s signature better than he can. The press can be handled as long as you throw them a bone every so often, and the quarterly meetings were handled by the top aide who happens to support my plan one hundred percent.”

“So, let me get this straight. You’ve been forging his signature, hiding the fact that he’s incapable to doing his fucking job, all for what? So you can continue to call yourself a senator’s wife and live in a fucking mansion? Are you crazy?”

“Precisely. I couldn’t have said it better myself. Such a fortuitous turn of events that you decided to return home,” she boasted proudly like the cruel bitch she was. I would never have taken the job even if she’d told me up front what it entailed. What she was doing was illegal. Fraudulently pretending to be a member of congress would land her ass in jail, to which I’d say good riddance. She couldn’t be redeemed. After all these years, she was still as I remembered: a selfish predator. The most I could hope for was the answers to my questions regarding my past so I could once and for all put my fears to rest and finally…live.

“Well…good luck with that, Mother. I’m sure it will all work out in the end.” I couldn’t hide the sarcasm in my voice, but I was done with this conversation. A few lingering questions and I was out of there. Fuck this shit.

“I need to know a few things before I leave, Mother. Things about…the past and the person in the shadows. I need you to tell me everything you know so I can move on with my life. It’s time.” I beseeched her to tell me what I needed to know in order to free me from this pain and let me go. She smiled.

“No. I don’t think I will tell you, Maxwell. The family needs your support, and I expect your assistance with this…delicate matter.”

“No? What the fuck do you mean, no? You owe me this!” I screamed directly in her face, but she didn’t even blink.

“Oh, Maxie, how you’ve grown to be such a bright young man. Let me fill you in on a little secret, son.” She leaned into me conspiratorially and whispered, “It’s so good to have you home again…right where you belong.”