My Stepbrother's Dirty Little Secret novel Chapter 262

Chapter 262

“Gianna,” he called out without looking up. He knew exactly where I was standing.

I swallowed and stepped forward, my shoes feeling too loud against the polished floor. No one looked at me. Not one person. It was like I didn’t exist down here.

Raphael tapped once on the glass table in front of him.

The map vanished and the numbers replaced it. Columns. Endless columns. White and green, moving too fast for/ my eyes to catch at first. Lines connected to other lines. Small blinking dots. Wallet IDs. Time stamps. Transfers.

It looked like chaos.

It wasn’t.

“Come here,” he said.

I moved closer, stopping at his side. Close enough to feel the heat coming off him, even though he hadn’t looked at me once since the elevator.

He pointed at the screen.

“These are live transactions,” he said, “Crypto chains. Company transfers. Clean routes.”

Clean.

Even I could tell that word meant something else down here. I stared at the numbers. It was too much, too fast, too layered. My brain tried to read it like a page.

Failed.

Beside me, I felt him shift. My breath caught when I felt his hand brushing my arm, “Relax,” he murmured, right

near my ear.

My spine straightened on instinct. His other hand came to the edge of the table, caging me in without touching fully. He was behind me now. Close enough that I could feel the heat of his chest at my back, even without contact.

“You’re thinking too much,” he said quietly.

I swallowed.

“I’m not-”

“You are. Stop reading it,” his fingers slid lightly along my forearm, down to my wrist, like he was guiding me without forcing me, “Just look.”

Raphael didn’t look at what I was pointing at, he simply turned his head, his dark eyes boring into the side of my face, “Why?”

I opened my mouth but nothing came out. Words. I needed words. My throat tightened, “I— it’s just…”

I shook my head, frustrated, eyes snapping back to the numbers.

“It repeats wrong,” I said quickly, the words messy, “Like- like it’s trying to look random but it’s not. It’s too… even.”

I pointed again, more certain now.

“See this? And this… and this…” My finger moved along the chain, “Same gap. Same jump. Real ones don’t do that.

I held my breath, terrified he was going to laugh or tell me I was imagining things. I felt like the little girl in the doctor’s office again, waiting for the slap.

Then Raphael reached past me. His hand brushed mine for half a second. He zoomed in on the exact chain I pointed at. The screen shifted. More detail. More layers. He tapped something on the side and a new window opened.

Red lines appeared, warnings that were hidden before flashed on the screen.

My stomach dropped, oh my God, I did something wrong, didn’t I?