My Stepbrother's Dirty Little Secret novel Chapter 465

Chapter 465

The monitors behind me kept glowing, steady and useless. My hands stayed still.

Adriano straightened slightly, like he’d said enough to get punched, “Patience is a virtue,” he muttered, almost to himself now, “Even for emotionally stunted assholes like you.”

I stared at him for a long second.

The monitors kept glowing behind me, green lines moving like nothing in the room had changed at all. But my attention wasn’t on them anymore.

Slowly, I turned my head back toward the screen. I wasn’t seeing the code, so I looked back at him again. I couldn’t believe he had actually just suggested that I sit around and wait for our stepsister’s mother to die just so I could get my hands on her. Something in me snapped into focus.

For a moment, I genuinely wondered if he had suffered some kind of head injury in childhood.

“Are you out of your fucking mind?” I asked, “No, seriously, let’s examine this for a second. Your solution to this situation is what, exactly? I wait around like some kind of deranged vulture?”

Adriano folded his arms, “You know that’s not what I said.”

“That’s exactly what you said.”

“It isn’t.”

“You literally fucking just suggested I prepare for her mother’s death.”

He just shook his head once, slow, “You don’t get to pretend you’re outside of it anymore,” he said. “Not after the way you’ve been acting. Not after the way she reacts to you.”

A short laugh left my nose before I could stop it.

“How do you even know how we react to each other?” I said. “You have the emotional awareness of a drunk gorilla.”

His eyes narrowed slightly, “And you’re in love with our stepsister,” he said flatly.

That made everything in me pause, not the room, not the sound.

Me.

I froze, staring at him. For a terrifying second, there was absolutely nothing in my head that felt usable. My entire system crashed.

Then, I forced the words out past my clenched teeth, my voice rough. “I don’t love her.”

Love wasn’t causing these frustrating memory lapses where all I could see was her dancing.

Love wasn’t responsible for that tight, suffocating pressure that kept appearing in my chest every single time Gianna looked disappointed or hurt.

Those were just symptoms. And symptoms had physical causes. Causes could be identified, they could be diagnosed by a doctor, and they could be solved.

“Okay, let me ask you a simple question,” Adriano said, “And you have to tell me the goddamn truth, Raph. When was the last time you went more than an hour without wondering exactly where she was?”

I opened my mouth to put him in his place, to give him a cold, logical answer that would shut him up for good.

And then I froze.

Fuck.

Janedoewritings Author

Hey, everyone!..

Looks like Raphael finally figured something out, didn’t he?