My Stepbrother's Dirty Little Secret novel Chapter 467

Chapter 467

NOTE: I highly recommend listening to All the Things She Said by t.A.T.u. while reading this chapter. Trust me, it enhances the experience by at least 87% and the emotional instability by 200%.

Raphael

At three-fifteen in the morning, I was standing on the front porch of Dr. Walker’s house.

The neighborhood was quiet.

The kind of place where people worried about lawn care and property taxes instead of money laundering, cartel routes, and dead bodies.

The porch light flicked on. A few seconds later the front door opened. Dr. Walker stared at me. He was wearing plaid pyjamas, a faded university t-shirt, and a pair of glasses I had never seen before.

“Raphael,” he said.

“Doctor.”

“It’s three in the morning.”

“I’m aware.”

He looked past me toward the black SUV parked at the curb and at least thirty men surrounding his home then he looked at me again.

“Did somebody die?” 1

“No.”

“Is somebody trying to kill you?”

“No.”

“Then this can wait until your appointment.”

I took a step forward, “No.”

Dr. Walker sighed. I was beginning to hate that sigh. Everybody had been sighing at me lately.

Gianna.

Adriano.

Vincenzo.

Now him. 

“What part of ‘I don’t do emergency sessions’ was confusing?” he asked.

“You make exceptions.”

“I don’t.”

“You do for me.’

His eyebrows lifted, for a second neither of us spoke, then he rubbed his face slowly like a man questioning every life choice that had led him to this moment, “Five minutes.”

I walked inside immediately.

“Raphael.”

“What?”

“I hadn’t agreed yet.”

“You were going to.”

Dr. Walker closed the door behind me, “I charge double for this.”

“I’ll pay triple.”

He glared at me, “I wasn’t negotiating.”

“You are now.”

He pointed toward the living room and I immediately sat down. Dr. Walker dropped into an armchair across from

“Why would that be shocking?”

I stared at him. What the fuck kind of question is that? Because it was shocking. Wasn’t it?

I had built an empire worth billions. I had cracked military encryption. I had broken banking systems. I had written algorithms governments couldn’t replicate.

I solved problems.

That was what I did. That was who I was.

“I don’t understand it.”

Dr. Walker nodded, “Okay.”

“No, that’s not okay,” I leaned forward harder. The frustration scraping raw against my throat, “You don’t understand. My entire life,” I said, “I have been the person with answers.”

I jabbed a finger toward my chest.

“People come to me when things stop making sense.

Another jab.

“I solve problems.”

Another.

“I find patterns.”

My breathing had gotten heavier. I hadn’t even noticed.

“So explain this.”

Dr. Walker remained silent, analyzing me with his beady eyes.

I stood abruptly, the energy under my skin was unbearable, so, I started pacing.

“I can’t focus,” I said. “I sit down to work and end up staring at the same screen for twenty minutes. I can’t sleep worth a damn. I can’t think straight.” I laughed once, but there wasn’t anything funny about it. “I could be moving millions of dollars across three continents, and somehow my brain decides that’s the perfect time to wonder where she is.”