My Stepbrother's Dirty Little Secret novel Chapter 176

Chapter 176

She shook her head, her silver wig sliding further askew as she found her footing.

“It’s my life. I’ll dance where I want, and I’ll be whoever I want to be. I was curious about you. That’s all you were… a curiosity,” she paused, her eyes dropping to the heavy bulge beneath my towel with a look of feigned boredom, “And honestly? I’m not impressed.”

Before I could wrap my fingers back around her throat and teach her a lesson about lying, she twisted out of my grip with a desperate agility.

“You don’t get a vote in how I live my life, Raphael,” she spat, “Keep your nose out of my business and your hands off my skin.”

She scrambled toward the door, her heels clicking unevenly against the floor in a panicked staccato. I sat there for a heartbeat, watching her fumble with the lock. I stood up slowly, my muscles coiled with tension. Reaching for the white towel discarded on the seat, I snapped it around my waist, tying the knot with a violent jerk that nearly shredded the fabric.

“I’m going home,” I said, my voice dropping into a flat monotone that cut through her rage, “And I’m going to tell your mother everything. I don’t give a shit if my father’s marriage burns to the ground or if your mother cries her eyes out until she’s blind. I’ll tell everyone.”

That stopped her. Her back went rigid, her hand freezing on the handle.

I took a step toward her, “I’ll tell Jules exactly how talented her older sister is. I’ll describe, in detail, how good you are at taking a man’s cock.”

If she wouldn’t listen to reason, I’d use the only language I was born to speak: ruin. I’d torture her into submission with the truth, and I’d enjoy watching her break.

She turned slowly, her face twisted in a deep, horrified frown as if she were seeing a monster for the first time.

I looked down at her finger against my skin, then back into her eyes.

“I’m not paying you for that,” I countered, “I’m ordering you to tell me what you need. You’re coming back to the

office, and I’m putting you back on the payroll. I pay my junior analysts fifteen thousand a month, is that enough? I will pay you to do your job, Gianna. I will pay you for your mind, your time, anything to get you out of this filth, but you are done here.”

Silence stretched between us. I watched the gears turning behind those fake blue lenses. The reality of the corner I had backed her into was clear on her face. She looked away for a moment, her jaw tight, she looked at the discarded mask as if she were mourning the secret life she was about to lose.