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Chapter 1
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2026-08-07 16:52:09Amelia's POV
My phone buzzed against the nightstand, breaking the silence of my small room. I already knew who it was before I looked. Victoria never called unless she wanted something.
"I'm sending you an address," Victoria said, without so much as a hello. Her voice carried that familiar sharpness, the tone she used when she expected obedience and nothing less. "You're coming to my new husband's house. Today. And Amelia, behave yourself. Don't embarrass me."
"Yes, Mum," I said quietly, the words automatic, worn smooth from years of repetition. It didn't matter that they tasted sour in my mouth every time I said them. Victoria demanded it, and I had learned long ago that refusing cost more than it was worth.
"I mean it," Victoria pressed. "This one is important. Don't ruin this for me."
"I understand, Mum."
The line went dead.
I set the phone down and stared at the ceiling for a long moment. A new husband. A new house. A new man to smile for, to be careful around.
I muttered to myself as I rose from the bed. "Another stepfather. Let's hope this one isn't as foolish as the rest."
The others had been easy to read men, who mistook Victoria's beauty for warmth, who never noticed that Victoria was only there for what they could offer, who found some quiet pleasure in mistreating me. I didn't expect this one to be any different. I just hoped he wouldn't be as unkind as the others had been.
I picked up my phone again and dialed Maya.
"She's married again," I said, before Maya could even finish her greeting. "I'm heading to his place today."
"Already?" Maya sighed on the other end. "You okay?"
"I will be." I moved to my closet, pulling out a small worn bag. "It's just another house. Another man to stay invisible around. Another man to call 'dad,' or by his name, if that's what he'd prefer."
"Call me the second you get settled," Maya said. "And Amelia, if it gets bad, you call me first. Promise me."
"I promise." My voice softened. "Thank you, Maya. I don't know what I'd do without you."
"You'd survive," Maya said gently. "You always do. Just be careful today, okay?"
I hung up and turned to my desk, my favorite spot, where I kept the magazine, my little secret, the one only Maya knew about. I picked it up carefully, the way I always did, like it might crumble if I wasn't gentle enough.
Leonardo Moretti stared back at me from the glossy page, jaw set, eyes unreadable even in print. I'd read the article a hundred times. I'd memorized every detail of his face long before I memorized the words.
My fingers traced the line of his jaw, then up along his cheekbone, slow, like I could feel the warmth of real skin instead of cold paper.
I pressed my lips to the magazine, a small, almost embarrassed gesture, and folded it back with careful hands before sliding it deep into my bag, beneath my clothes, where no one would think to look.
‘I wish I could meet you one day,’ I thought.
Then I zipped the bag shut, took one last look around my small room, and left.
The address led me to a penthouse that made my breath catch the moment I stepped out of the car. Glass walls rose toward the sky, catching the afternoon light in sharp, clean lines. I felt uneasy for a moment, double-checking the address on my phone to be sure I was in the right place. Once I was certain, I stepped inside.
A doorman greeted me with practiced politeness and led me up in a private elevator that opened directly into the apartment.
The space inside was vast marble floors, floor-to-ceiling windows, furniture that looked like it cost more than everything I had ever owned combined. I stood in the entryway for a moment, gripping the strap of my bag, that same uneasy feeling settling low in my stomach.
Then I saw him.
He was standing out on the balcony, his back to me, one hand resting on the railing as he looked out over the city. Dark hair graying faintly at the temples, broad shoulders beneath a perfectly tailored shirt, the kind of stillness that suggested a man used to being obeyed rather than questioned.
Something about the shape of him tugged at my memory, but I dismissed it, surely my mind was playing tricks, drawing comparisons where there weren't any.
He must have heard my heels against the marble, because he turned.
And the world stopped.
It was him. The same face from the magazine. The same sharp jaw. The man I had wished to meet my whole life. The man folded away in my bag at this very moment, pressed against my side like a secret I hadn't meant to bring with me.
Leonardo studied me for a moment, something unreadable passing behind his eyes, and then he offered a small, polite smile.
"You must be Amelia." His voice was low, measured, carrying the same quiet authority I remembered even from a photograph. "Victoria told me you'd be arriving today." He extended a hand toward me, unhurried, certain. "Welcome. I suppose that makes me your stepfather now."
My whole body went still.
The bag on my shoulder suddenly felt impossibly heavy. I couldn't believe my ears. My mouth opened, but no sound came out.
He's the man from the magazine. My crush.
He's the man Mum just married.
He's the man I was supposed to hate.
And instead, standing a few feet away from him, alI I could think was that I never wanted to stop looking at his face.
I swallowed hard, forced my frozen lips into the ghost of a smile, and reached out to shake his hand.
The moment our palms touched, something shifted in the air between us, subtle, dangerous, unnamed.
Leonardo's grip lingered a beat longer than it should have. His eyes flickered, just slightly, down to my lips, then back up as if he, too, had felt something he couldn't name and didn't like that he'd felt it.
I still held his hand until the elevator chime sounded behind me.
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Forbidden Touch: Taming my stepfather Chapter 53
Leonardo’s POV“Speak,” I said.“Sir, I was running my usual review of the east corridor this afternoon.” He cleared his throat. “I almost skipped it. At 2:53, someone enters Miss Amelia’s room. The door was open. She had just stepped out with her friend. The person stays inside for about three minutes, then leaves. Quickly. Looking at the floor.”Three minutes. Long enough to cross a room, put down a piece of paper, and walk out again.“Who?”“One of the household staff, sir.” A hesitation. “I didn’t want to name her over the phone.”“Name her.”“Helena. From housekeeping. She joined the team last spring.”I s
Forbidden Touch: Taming my stepfather Chapter 52
Leonardo’s POVShe stepped inside, and I closed the door behind her.The click sounded louder than it should have. I stayed where I was, one hand still on the handle, and made myself look at her properly. She wasn’t flushed the way she’d been in the painting room. She was pale. Her fingers were curled around a small square of paper, and the knuckles had gone white.That was not the face of a girl who had come to tell me something sweet.I nodded once, slowly, the way I do when I’m reading a room. I opened my mouth to ask her to sit.“Someone left this in my room.”She said it before I could speak. She held the paper out to me with a hand that would not stay still, and I took it.It had been folded and unfolded so many times that the creases had gone soft. I carried it to the lamp. The handwriting was small and slanted and careful. Whoever wrote it had taken their time.I know where you slept last night. I
Forbidden Touch: Taming my stepfather Chapter 51
Leonardo’s POVI looked at her.I’ll tell you in your room.She had leaned toward me when she said it, her voice so low I almost had to read it from her lips. It was something she did not want to say here.“I hope there’s no issue,” I said, keeping my voice level.She didn’t answer right away. She bent a little closer over the table, as if the walls themselves might lean in to listen.“I’ll tell you everything,” she said softly. “In your room. After dinner.”Everything.The word settled in my chest and refused to move.I had a hundred questions, and every one of them was on my tongue. What was it? Why not here? Why not now? I swallowed all of them. Not with the staff standing
Forbidden Touch: Taming my stepfather Chapter 50
Amelia’s POVA horn blared somewhere outside.My eyes snapped open. For a second I didn’t know where I was. The room was dim, the lamp was low, and my neck ached from the way I’d slumped against the headboard. Something crinkled in my hand.The note.It was still there, folded and creased, my fingers wrapped around it so tightly it had gone soft at the edges. I had fallen asleep holding it. I had fallen asleep waiting for Leonardo.The horn sounded again, and I was off the bed before I could think. I ran to the window and pulled the curtain aside. Headlights swept across the compound, and the black car rolled through the gate, slow and steady.He was back.My heart did something stupid. It jumped, then stumbled, then started racing for no reason I could name.Calm down. Calm down, Amelia.I rushed to the mirror. My hair was flattened on one side. I smoothed it down and tugged at my top. I turned left, then right, then
Forbidden Touch: Taming my stepfather Chapter 49
Amelia’s POVI couldn’t stay still.I paced from the window to the bed, from the bed to the door, then back to the window. My bare feet slapped softly against the floor, the only sound in the room besides my own breathing. It was too loud. Everything felt too loud.Who could have put that note on my bed?My eyes kept drifting to it, that small folded piece of paper, innocent-looking, like it hadn’t just tilted my whole world. I turned away. Looked back. Turned away again.Should I call Maya? Tell her everything?No. She just left. She was sitting right here, on this very bed, laughing about something silly, not even an hour ago. Could she have…No.Maya would never do that to me. Never.I pressed my palm to my forehead and shut my eyes. The thought wouldn’t leave, though. It crawled back in, quiet and cold.Someone in the house.It had to be. Nobody else could have walked into my room without being stopped. No
Forbidden Touch: Taming my stepfather Chapter 48
Amelia’s POV“Something like what?” I asked, sitting up a little straighter, the warmth from a moment ago giving way to something more cautious.“Since you have come this far with him within a few days of Victoria’s absence, you need to be careful when she is around.” She said it slowly, deliberately, like she was choosing her words with more care than usual.“I know, but then Leonardo will not allow her to hurt me.” I said, though even as the words left my mouth I could hear how much I wanted them to be true more than I actually believed them.“Still, be extra careful. Play your game very well.” She said, holding my gaze for a second longer than necessary before leaning back, her tone shifting lighter again, the way it alway&z
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