My Stepbrother's Dirty Little Secret novel Chapter 194

Chapter 194

Vincenzo might be the boss, but he didn’t see what I saw. He didn’t see the way Gianna’s face looked when her own mother hit her. He didn’t see the fire in her eyes when she claimed her father’s name.

There’s a story there. And I don’t buy for a second that a man like Toricelli just wants nothing to do with his only daughter.

Gianna

I lay face-down on the bed, the fabric damp and cold against my cheek from the stream of tears. My face felt swollen, the heat of the slap still humming under my skin.

I wanted to stay here forever. I wanted to let the darkness of the room swallow me whole until I didn’t have to be a Capone or a Toricelli or anything at all.

Then, the red numbers on the bedside clock flickered.

9:15 PM.

I sat up so fast the world tilted. My heart suddenly kicked into a panicked gallop.

Cole Mercer.

The money.

Morgan.

Midnight was the deadline. If I didn’t get that payment through, we’d lose Morgan.

Every ounce of self-pity evaporated. It didn’t matter that my mother had turned into a stranger. It didn’t matter that Salvatore wanted to cage me. Nothing in my messy, broken life was more important than making sure Morgan was safe.

I’d let them slap me a thousand times, I’d let them chain me to the floor, as long as it meant she was okay.

I scrambled off the bed, wiping my eyes with the heels of my hands. I needed a phone, and I needed it now.

A soft, hesitant knock came from the door. It was the same one I’d been ignoring every half hour for the last ten hours.

“Gianna?” a tiny voice whispered. “Please, open the door.”

I rushed to the door, unlocked it, and yanked the small figure inside. I clicked the lock shut before she could even breathe.

I stared at her, my brain stalling, “Dante? Dante Capone?”

Jules nodded, a small, proud smile lighting up her face. “Since you’ve been so busy and… you know, stopped hanging out with me as much, I was really struggling with my math homework. Dante noticed. He started helping me every night. He promised that if I aced my big mid-term, he’d get me whatever I wanted. I got an A+, so he got me this.”

She held the phone like a trophy.

A cold, uneasy feeling settled in my stomach. I looked at my little sister, my innocent, sweet Jules and felt a wave of nausea. She was settling in. She was starting to feel at home with these people, the very people I was planning to run away from.

I couldn’t deal with that heartbreak right now. I had to focus.

“I’ll explain why that’s a problem later, Jules. Just… let me use it,” I said, my voice tight.

I grabbed the phone, and the letters on the keypad didn’t stay still, they danced and flipped.

“No, no, no,” I whispered, my thumb hovering over the screen. I tried to type my password, I couldn’t. I kept hitting the wrong keys, the characters looking like alien symbols instead of the words I’d memorized, “Jules, I can’t-the words are moving. I can’t make them stop.”

“Gigi? What’s wrong?” Jules asked, her voice small and scared.