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Chapter 38; Half truth
publish date:
2026-09-18 19:06:45
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My stepbrother and his friends want me Chapter 86: Victoria's story
RHYSThe bruises had faded to dull yellow and green along my ribs. I sat in the apartment’s office with the city spread out beyond the glass and three separate reports open on the desk. The investigation had never stopped. Even on the days when breathing hurt and my father’s voice still echoed in the back of my skull, the work continued. People still answered to me. Information still moved when I told it to move. Victoria and her father had gone to ground, but ground was never permanent if you kept digging.The lab results arrived mid-afternoon.I opened the encrypted file myself. The summary was short and clinical. Genetic markers from the residual sample on the crushed test matched Victoria Marcelo’s known profile with a certainty high enough to erase every other possibility. The test was hers. The pregnancy was hers.For a long moment I only stared at the screen.Then the fury arrived, clean and sharp.I pushed back from the desk hard enough that the chair scraped. My pulse sat hi
My stepbrother and his friends want me Chapter 85; The name we don’t say
RHYSThe argument started over pasta.Cade thought the sauce needed more garlic. Theo thought Cade had already put in enough to kill a vampire. I sat on the kitchen counter with a glass of water, offering opinions neither of them had asked for and enjoying the fact that they were both taking me far too seriously.“You’re going to ruin it,” Theo warned, positioning himself between Cade and the spice rack.“Move your arm.”“No.”“Do you want to eat bland pasta for the rest of your life?”“I want to eat pasta that doesn’t taste like a garlic clove drowned in tomato sauce.”I snorted into my glass. Cade looked at me, betrayed. “You’re supposed to be on my side.”“I’m on the side of whoever’s cooking. It’s a survival instinct.”Theo laughed, and Cade muttered something under his breath before adding another clove anyway.It was such a stupid argument. I loved it for that.A few weeks ago, I might have watched them bicker and wondered how long it would take before something went wrong. Now,
My stepbrother and his friends want me Chapter 84; Soft
THEO “I’ve got to leave for a few days.”I looked up from the counter. Cade stood in the kitchen doorway with a duffel already hanging off one shoulder, expression tight the way it always got when he had to be somewhere he didn’t want to be.“Northern contacts need a face,” he said. “Nothing messy. Just time-consuming.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “I already told Emma. She tried to act like it was fine, but it wasn’t. Keep an eye on her for me. I don’t want her sitting here inventing disasters while I’m gone.”“I’ve got her,” I said.He nodded once, clapped my shoulder, and left. The elevator doors shut behind him with a soft finality that made the penthouse feel larger than it had five minutes earlier.I gave her an hour before I went looking.I found her in the library, curled in the same wide armchair by the window, earbuds in, the familiar dark cover of Daddy’s Angel open in her lap. She wasn’t really reading it. Her eyes moved across the page too slowly, and every so often s
My stepbrother and his friends want me Chapter 83; The quiet between us
EMMAMy morning started the way the better ones had been starting lately.I woke to the low sound of movement in the kitchen and the smell of coffee already brewing. Cade’s side of the bed was empty but still warm. When I padded out in one of his shirts, he was at the stove and Theo was leaning against the counter with a tablet, scrolling through something with intense focus. They both looked up when I appeared. Cade’s mouth curved. Theo’s eyes softened in that careful way of his.“Morning,” Cade said, already reaching for a second mug.“Morning.”It should have felt like enough. In a lot of ways it did. We moved around each other with the easy rhythm we had been building. Theo asked if I wanted to go over the updated security notes later. Cade muttered something about the gym and whether I felt like joining him for once. I told them both I would think about it, and the conversation drifted into nothing important. Laughter came easier than it used to and everything was fine. But unde
My stepbrother and his friends want me Chapter 82; A father's fury
RHYSA few days had passed since the letter went public.My father had not stopped calling. The messages stacked up in the same relentless rhythm short, furious, increasingly formal in the way that meant he had moved past private anger and into something colder. I ignored every one of them. There was nothing left to negotiate and I refused to give him the satisfaction of an audience on his terms.I was leaving a mid-town office building when the cars appeared.Black Escalades slid into place around the entrance to the private garage with practised precision. Doors opened in near unison. Men in dark tactical gear poured out, weapons visible, the unmistakable bite of silver riding on the air from the rounds chambered in their guns. I stopped walking. My own detail tensed behind me, waiting for a signal I did not give.One of the masked men stepped forward.“Alpha. Your father has requested a meeting with you.”A short, humourless laugh left me.“Request? And he sent all of you.” I let
My stepbrother and his friends want me Chapter 81; The letter
RHYS I drafted the letter in the early hours, when the city was still dark and the penthouse was quiet enough that my own thoughts felt too loud.The language had to be precise. There could be no ambiguity, no room for interpretation or quiet political manoeuvring. I sat at the desk in the office wing with three screens open and the formal seal of our pack ready to be applied. Every sentence was measured. Every clause was deliberate.The betrothal agreement between myself and Victoria of the Marcelo line was dissolved, effective immediately. No further negotiations would be entertained. No private amendments would be accepted. The alliance terms that had been contingent upon the union were hereby nullified on my authority as heir.I read it over once. Then again.When I was satisfied, I signed it, applied the seal, and initiated the distribution sequence I had prepared the night before.The letter went through the formal channels first. It was encrypted and registered for delivery to
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