My Stepbrother's Dirty Little Secret novel Chapter 437

Chapter 437

“Daddy, please-“I sobbed, reaching out with trembling hands.

“That woman spent years trying to destroy this family! She tried to ruin everything I built! And you were helping her!”

“No!” I rushed forward, the panic exploding in my chest. “It isn’t like that! Daddy, please, listen to me -”

“Then what the fuck is it like?” he screamed. His face was bright red now, his eyes wide and completely wild. You sneak around behind my back! You lie to my face! You betray your own blood!”

I started crying hysterically, my chest heaving. “I wasn’t trying to hurt you!”

My father looked down at me as if I had suddenly become a total stranger, a piece of trash beneath his feet. For a moment, that cold, dead look hurt worse than all his yelling. Then, his eyes dropped to the teddy bear in his hand, and something inside his brain completely snapped.

The first tear happened so fast I barely saw his hands move. With a brutal yank, his huge fingers ripped the bear straight down the middle. The heavy stitching burst apart with a loud pop, and white cotton stuffing exploded into the air, drifting down like snow. The tiny black recording device slipped out of the fabric and hit the marble floor with a clatter.

“No!” I lunged forward, my hands scraping the air.

But my father got there first. His shoe came down with a sickening, crushing force.

CRUNCH.

The plastic shell shattered instantly. He didn’t stop. He raised his boot and stomped on it again, again, and again, his face twisted in pure rage. Pieces of wire and metal scattered across the floor. The little red indicator light flashed once and died forever.

“No!” I dropped heavily to my knees, the hard stone hurting my joints.

My hands shook uncontrollably as I looked at the floor. The broken pieces were everywhere, small, mangled bits of plastic, sharp wire, a tiny green circuit board, clumps of white cotton, and shreds of brown fur.

When I tried to reach out a trembling finger to touch them, my father swung his boot and violently kicked the remains across the room. The pieces slid away from me, disappearing under the furniture. They were completely gone. Destroyed.

Month…. months of secret recordings. Months of crying into that bear. Months of pure, desperate hope. All of it gone in a single second.

The realization hit me slowly. He hadn’t thought of me. He hadn’t kept the bear safe. He had walked into this room and handed it over willingly. Leone had told him everything. I stared at him, the world blurring through my thick tears.

“Why?” I whispered, the word broken and bleeding. “Why did you do this?”

Leone finally looked at me, “I couldn’t let her take you away,” he rasped, “He would have hunted you down, Gianna. I couldn’t let her cause your death.”

A fresh sob escaped my lips, a painful sound that made my entire chest ache. Everything hurt. My heart felt like it had been put into a meat grinder.

My father raised his arm, his finger pointing directly toward the grand staircase, “Go to your room.”

I didn’t move. I couldn’t. My legs felt like lead.

“Now!” he roared.

I didn’t look at him. Instead, I dropped my eyes back to the floor. I couldn’t just leave it here. I couldn’t let them sweep my hope into the trash like it was nothing.