Someone's Someone

Someone's Someone - Chapter Thirty Seven

Henna....

Danny is standing behind me, looking large and intimidating as he does. Crushed and confused by his dark and disappointed glare, I express just how crushed and confused I am. "I don't know what you mean, Danny? I haven't done anything." I'm desperately trying to make my way through the maze of his now very remote mind, I'm trying to desperately understand his sudden hostility towards me.

Danny's reply becomes angrily weaponised. "I trusted you. I trusted you, and then you go and do this!" His eyes then dart to the man still standing on dad's doorstep, then scoldingly bring them back onto me. "How could you, Henna? How could you betray my trust in you?" There's a quiet and viscous veneer to all that's being evacuated from his mouth. He is angry and disappointed in me, yet I have no idea why.

Turning to face him, my answer is one weighted down with uncertainty and distress. "I haven't done anything, Danny! I don't know who this man is. He's literally just knocked on the door and said that he was looking for you. I don't know who he is or why he is here."

The man looks at me, then looks right at Danny as he takes one confident step forward. "Henna wasn't the person who contacted me, Danny. It was some guy called Keith who did."

In shocked unison, both myself and Danny ask. "Keith?"

"Yes, he contacted me at work and he told me that you were here." The stranger briefly explains with an awkward smile in both our directions.

Danny now doesn't know what to say. His eyes narrow and his shoulders hang low with the realisation that he has blamed me for something that wasn't of my doing. Hurt by him, I can't even look his way. Instead, my wounded stare falls on the stranger. "Can I just ask who you are?" Is my aggrieved question.

He smiles, holding out his hand to me. "I'm Nathan, Danny's brother." As our hands warmly meet, his awkward smile apologetically grows. "I really am sorry about this. It was never my intention to cause you any hassle."

Still too hurt to look at Danny, I keep my polite attention all on his brother. "No need to be sorry, please come in." As I allow Nathan inside, it forces Danny to sheepishly move out of my way.

He looks guilty as he shifts behind me. He also looks quietly shocked to see his brother now standing in my dad's hallway. His head is now low just like his burdened shoulders. But Nathan looks pleased and excited to see Danny, so much so, he goes right on ahead and gives him a big brotherly hug. "It's so good to see you."

Danny finds himself hugging Nathan back. "You too." He quietly admits. It is only as the enthusiastic embrace ends, do his eyes guiltily seek for mine. "Nathan, why don't you go on into the living room? I just need to speak with Henna."

"Sure." Nathan says with a happy nod.

Once alone, Danny repetitively swallows before speaking, keeping a respectful distance. "I'm so sorry, Henna. I never should have spoken to you like that. I thought you had gone behind my back and contacted my brother." His brown eyes lower and his anxious hands fidget down by his sides. "I can't apologise enough." He then tries to reach for me, but I flinch back.

"You doubted me, Danny. You don't trust me." I clutch my stomach, still feeling the churning hurt from his harmful and maiming rant over his brother. "I'm going to go and get dressed, then you and your brother can have some privacy to talk." I turn, just wanting to get out of the house for a bit.

Danny grabs my hand, forcing me to stop. But I won't look at him, I can't. "I want you to stay?" His tone is so soft and so very sorry.

But right now, all I can see is his anger and his disappointment that he'd not long thrown at me. My ears also keep ringing with the very same anger and disappointment. "Just go and talk with your brother, Danny. He's come all this way to find you, the least you can do is to not hurt him as well."

Then, without anything more to say, I slip my hand free from his desperately sorry hold. I know he is watching me walk away. I know he is watching me with regret and remorse. I know that. I truly do. But Danny has crushed me.

His doubt in me has smashed me up inside.

I need some time alone.

And he needs some time with his brother.