My Stepbrother's Dirty Little Secret novel Chapter 533

Chapter 533

Denise looked down.

Vincenzo wasn’t finished, “If she shows up, you send her away. And if she begs, you still send her away She belongs with people who can protect her, not with people who keep giving her reasons to destroy herself Make her hate you if that’s what it takes but make sure she never feels responsible for this place again.”

Denise’s face drained of color but she didn’t say a word.

“And if you don’t…” he looked around the room once before returning his attention to Denise, “Then the next time I come through that door, we won’t be having a conversation. You’ll hear a knock.”

His jaw tightened, as he dragged out another cigarette, and lit it, blowing out the smoke.

“And then you’ll hear a gunshot.”

A sharp breath caught in someone’s throat.

“Your debt is your problem. Your bad decisions are your problem but if any of you drag my sister into this mess again… I will make sure every single thing you’ve spent years building disappears. So choose carefully,” he straightened his suit jacket, “Because I’m being polite today.”

Three Days Earlier

The monitors covering the far wall continued displaying shipping routes, financial reports, security feeds, and enough information to run half the city.

My eyes remained fixed on the screen in front of me. I hadn’t read a single word in nearly ten minutes.

Vincenzo’s voice kept replaying in my head. The part that was currently irritating me… was “sweet little rabbit.”

My jaw tightened because somehow Vincenzo had convinced himself that keeping my distance meant surrender.

That stepping back meant I was finished. That wasn’t what happened, not even close.

I leaned back in my chair and rubbed a hand across my face. Gianna needed space right now to focus on herself So I gave her space.

That was it.

Fucking Simple.

Fucking Logical.

Fucking Reasonable.

The correct decision… at the time but every day that passed made that decision look worse.

As if there were scavengers hovering around something that didn’t belong to them.

Waiting only worked when the thing you were waiting for stayed where it was. Gianna wasn’t staying where she

was.

People kept moving toward her.

Leone Caruso.

College.

Life.

• 15 Berius

The future.

Every day that passed created another opportunity for something to change. Another opportunity for somebody else to put themselves where I should have been.

The realization settled heavily in my chest like discovering a flaw in a security system. The longer you ignored it, the bigger the risk became.

I looked toward the city beyond the glass, then I stood. The decision arrived with surprising clarity.

I have had enough of waiting, enough of the distance. Enough pretending that I was somehow helping by staying

away.

Because if I waited much longer, I might lose her and that was unacceptable.

I left the office and went straight home. I stepped inside my bedroom. Medusa lifted her head from inside her

enclosure.

My attention was already on the far wall. Most people thought my safe was hidden behind a painting, or behind a bookshelf, or inside the floor.

Something stupid and predictable.

Mine wasn’t visible at all. There wasn’t a keypad, or a lock. There wasn’t even a door, just a section of wall identical to every other section.

I crossed the room, placed my hand against the surface. The system immediately scanned my palm, heat signature, pressure points, heart rhythm.

A second scanner activated. Retinal verification, then voice confirmation.

Then another.

A tiny needle extended from the wall and collected a blood sample before retracting immediately. Five separate systems, three independent processors, no external network connection, no wireless access, no backup override.

Nobody on earth could open it except me.

The wall separated. A narrow compartment slid forward. Inside sat several items, Passports, encrypted drives, emergency cash, a gun, and a portion of my mother’s jewelry that I had kept.

After her death, Vincenzo divided her belongings equally among all of us. He wanted each of us to carry a piece of her with us, always.

And one small velvet box that didn’t belong to that part, it was simply mine, because she gave it to me herself.

My hand moved toward it automatically. I opened it. The necklace rested inside exactly where I’d left it.

2/3

+15 Bory/4