My Stepbrother's Dirty Little Secret novel Chapter 624

Chapter 624

I could feel myself getting frustrated. The words started climbing into my throat before I could stop them, “This is ridiculous.”

The headache behind my eyes pulsed harder. My heart beat faster. I almost kept going.

Then…

Mom’s voice quietly found me.

Work with them.

Don’t fight every hand trying to help.

Promise me.

I closed my eyes. I swallowed everything else I wanted to say. When I opened my eyes again, I gave the smallest nod, “…Okay.”

Relief crossed the nurse’s face, “Thank you.”

I didn’t answer. I simply turned around and continued toward my bedroom. The footsteps followed again. This time… I didn’t tell them to stop.

The door to my room stood open. I walked inside slowly. Everything looked exactly the way I’d left it.

A small black box rested neatly on the blanket. A brand-new phone sat inside, still wrapped in its protective film beside it rested a folded piece of paper.

My heartbeat quickened.

I already knew whose handwriting I was about to see. I picked it up carefully, even unfolding the note made my head ache. The paper carried only a few lines.

“This phone belongs to you. It cannot be tracked by anyone outside my system. Nobody will read your messages. Nobody will listen to your calls. You don’t need to worry about using it.”

My fingers slowly traced the last line. A tiny smile tried to reach my lips before disappearing almost as quickly as it came. I sat carefully on the edge of the bed, holding the phone in one hand and the note in the other.

He’ll spend his whole life slowing himself down… for me.

I looked down at the phone resting in my hands. Even after everything… Raphael was still making my life easier.

And I didn’t know if I was doing anything except making his harder.

I turned the phone over in my hands. It was already on. He hadn’t simply bought me another phone. He had rebuilt mine, everything was exactly the same.

I squeezed my eyes shut. I didn’t understand how one night could tear my whole world apart. Twenty-four hours ago, I would’ve thrown myself into his arms without thinking.

Now…

Now I didn’t even know if they were still the place I was meant to be.

“I need a shower,” I whispered.

I chose the bathtub, the hot water poured in, sending soft clouds across the mirror until my reflection disappeared.

1 slipped into the water carefully. The heat wrapped around my sore muscles almost immediately. I let out a shaky breath.

“One day he’ll resent it.”

Then…

Salvatore.

“The doctors already told us her heart is weak. One more serious shock… And it could kill her. You want that? You want your mother to die knowing the daughter she raised was sleeping with her own stepbrother?”

“You end this. You stay away from Raphael.”

I squeezed my eyes shut.

Stop.

Please…

Stop.

I slid lower into the water until it reached my chin because the thoughts were coming back, the same bad thoughts that always told me I was useless, but this time they were louder.

They screamed inside my head.

I looked at my hands floating in the soapy water. Why was I even here? Everyone I loved either hurt me, sold me, or had to bleed to keep me alive. I was just a burden. A broken girl who couldn’t even read a page without the letters turning upside down. I was slow. I was flawed.

To Denise, I was just a price tag. To the Capones, I was a constant problem they had to use maximum violence to protect.

If you weren’t here, nobody would have to bleed, someone whispered in my mind. If you just stopped breathing, the danger would stop. The pain would stop. Everyone would be free. My mother would join me up there somewhere, if there’s an afterlife.