My Stepbrother's Dirty Little Secret novel Chapter 313

Chapter 313

Mom sucked in a sharp breath. It sounded like someone had punched her in the ribs. The sorrow in her eyes flipped instantly into a dark, burning fury, her jaw clenching so tight the skin around her mouth went white.

“Fine,” she spat, “Just the doctor then. Please, Gianna. You have to do this for me. If I get enough evidence of what they’re doing to you in that room, I can use it. I can get you out of that hell permanently. I can take you away from your father and that monster forever.”

I blinked, “Take me away? Like… I’d never have to go back to Philadelphia?”

She nodded, her hand covering mine again, squeezing until it hurt, “Yes. Forever.”

“But Dad will kill you,” I whispered, panic rising in my chest, “He’ll find us. He has people everywhere.”

A strange, hard smile touched her lips. She didn’t look scared at all. She tilted her head toward the back corner of the diner, pointing with her chin toward the tall man standing in the darkness behind her booth.

“He can’t touch me,” Mom said, “That’s Don Salvatore Capone. His family owns Illinois, Gianna. Your father… he’s nothing. I’m not afraid of him anymore. I have the power behind me now to protect you. There will be no more pain.”

My chest heaved as I tried to process it. No more doctors. No more screaming. It sounded like a dream.

But then my mind caught on the one thing I couldn’t leave behind.

“But you don’t understand,” I argued, tears blurring my vision as I checked to make sure Leone couldn’t hear us.” We’re together. We’re husband and wife. I literally cannot live without him.”

Mom slammed her hands flat on the table, “Gianna, you are fifteen years old! You are nobody’s wife!”

“Yes, I am,” I insisted, as I leaned across the table, desperate to make her understand the depth of it, “I am his wife. In every single way.”

Mom froze. Her eyes went completely still, wide and dark, as she stared at me. Her gaze slowly traveled down my face, looking at the blush on my cheeks, down to my shaking hands, and back up to my eyes. She was reading me, digging deeper into the secrets I didn’t even know I was giving away.