My Stepbrother's Dirty Little Secret novel Chapter 319

Chapter 319

I walked up the wooden steps, my whole body trembling from the cold and the fear. I reached out, my fingers wrapping around the rusty brass doorknob.

I turned it, pushed the door open, and stepped inside.

The small front room was packed. Sitting on a mismatched plaid couch and crowded onto the faded rug were all of them. Bri was painting her nails a bright neon pink, Emma and Morgan were sharing a bag of chips, Tasha and Jas were arguing over a phone screen. And sitting in a rocking chair in the corner, a cup of tea held in her hands, was Mama D.

The front door was loud as I stepped inside. Every single head snapped up. For a second, the tiny room went completely dead silent.

“Gianna!” Bri shrieked, dropping her nail polish directly onto the carpet.

In a flash, they scrambled off the couch and up from the floor, rushing toward me. Before I could even blink, five pairs of arms wrapped around my shoulders, pulling me into a massive hug. The familiar warmth of them hit me all at once, making my throat tighten.

“Oh my god, where the hell have you been?!” Emma scolded, pulling back just enough to smack my arm, though her eyes were wet, “We’ve been calling you for two weeks straight! We thought you were dead!”

“You literally scared us to death, G,” Jas chimed in, squeezing my waist tight. “Don’t you ever do that again.”

Morgan and Tasha were both talking at the same time, and Mama D slowly stood up from her rocking chair. She walked over, her face lined with deep exhaustion, but her eyes were full of a soft, motherly relief. She reached out and gathered my face in her warm palms.

“Look at you,” Mama D murmured, her voice shaking slightly. “You’re freezing, baby. Come sit down.”

“What happened?” I whispered, as I looked around the tiny, cramped room, at the peeling wallpaper and the small window with the gray tape, “What is this place? What happened to the Rose Garden?”

Instantly, the laughter died.

The girls all went completely silent, dropping their arms away from me one by one. Bri and Morgan left the room. While the rest sat back in their places.

Mama D let her hands drop from my cheeks. She let out a long, heavy sigh that seemed to drain the last bit of strength from her body.

“Come sit with me, Gianna,” she said softly, turning back toward her rocking chair.

“No,” I said, “Mama D, please. Tell me. Why did we leave the Rose Garden? Why is everything gone?”

Mama D stopped. She didn’t look at the girls, she kept her eyes on her teacup as she sat back down.

“I sold it, baby,” she said, her voice flat and quiet in the dead room.

I blinked, the words bouncing backward in my brain. “You… you sold it?”

“I had to,” Mama D whispered, finally looking up at me, her eyes full of a deep, painful sorrow, “Cole’s people… they were coming every night, Gianna. The threats were getting worse. I couldn’t keep the girls safe there anymore. So I put the building on the market. I sold the property, took every single dollar of that money, and I gave it to Cole.”

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My heart stopped completely, dropping straight into my stomach.

“I made a good sum from the sale,” Mama D continued, trying to force a small, reassuring smile that didn’t reach her eyes. “It was enough to pay off a huge chunk of what we owed. Cole took the money, and he agreed to give us more time. He promised to keep his boys away from us while we figure out how to raise the rest of the debt. No more threats. No more guns at the back door.”

A terrible, suffocating heartbreak slaitimed into my chest, breaking whatever was left of my spirit.

“But… the Rose Garden,” I choked out, the tears finally bursting over my lower eyelids and streaming down my cold cheeks. “It’s gone.”

I looked at the girls. None of them would meet my eyes. The Rose Garden wasn’t just a building. It was our sanctuary. It was the only place in the entire city of Chicago where we could lock the doors and feel safe from the monsters outside. It was the only home these girls had ever known, the only place where Mama D could protect them.

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