INICIAR SESIÓNCompartir
Closer to the Truth
Fecha de publicación:
2026-07-28 08:00:00Chapter 39
Derek’s POV
I met Lena the next afternoon at a quiet bench near the edge of campus, away from the main walkways.
The sky was overcast, the air cooler than usual, and the smell of damp leaves hung in the breeze. She was already sitting there when I arrived, backpack at her feet, phone in her hand.
“Thanks for coming,” she said as I sat down. Her voice was calm, but her eyes were sharp. “I didn’t want to do this over tex
Último capítulo
PINNED BY MY STEPFATHER (MxM) The Space Between Secret
Chapter 49Derek’s POVThe paranoia settled deeper over the next two days, the kind that lived in small sounds and ordinary pauses.A floorboard creaking in the hallway made me look up from my notes.Every unknown number that lit up my phone made my stomach drop before I saw it was spam or a campus alert.Marcus moved through the apartment with the same careful attention he had used the night he went to deal with the source of the messages, checking the windows before bed, listening longer than necessary when a car slowed on the street below.Mom watched both of us more closely than she used to.The questions about Portland still sat behind her ordinary conversation, unspoken but present every time her eyes lingered on him a second too long across the breakfast table.We kept the surface intact. Breakfast with the same mugs and the same quiet exchange about schedules.Campus lect
PINNED BY MY STEPFATHER (MxM) Running Out of Room
Chapter 48Derek’s POVThe next few days settled into a new kind of tension that lived under every ordinary moment.Mom didn’t bring up Portland again at breakfast, but the questions sat behind her eyes every time she looked at Marcus across the table.She was quieter than usual when she asked about his day. He answered with the same careful evenness he always used, but the space between their words felt wider.I moved through the apartment like someone trying not to step on a crack that kept widening under the surface.The anonymous messages stayed silent. Marcus said the source had been handled.I wanted to believe him. Part of me did.The other part kept waiting for a phone to light up with something worse.Every unknown number that came through made my stomach drop before I saw it was spam or a campus alert.The silence itself had become another kind of pre
PINNED BY MY STEPFATHER (MxM) Two Versions of Him
Chapter 47Derek’s POVMom was already in the kitchen when I finished pouring the coffee.She was dressed for work but hadn’t left yet.Her bag sat on the counter beside her keys.Marcus came out of the hallway a few minutes later, hair still damp from a quick shower, the same careful expression on his face that he used when he was managing something difficult.The photo from the night before might as well have been sitting in the middle of the table between them.“I need to talk to you before I go,” Mom said to him. Her voice was calm, but the calm had edges.“Someone sent me a message last night. About Portland. About a fire and a man who went missing. There was a photo of you.”Marcus set his mug down with deliberate care. “I know. Derek told me.”“Then you know I’m asking for an explanation.”I stayed near the counter, watching both of them. The morning light came through t
PINNED BY MY STEPFATHER (MxM) Marcus’s Hidden Past
Chapter 46Derek’s POVThe light under Mom’s door was a thin, steady line in the dark hallway.My phone was still in my hand, the message opened on the screen. The words sat there like something that couldn’t be unread.Derek, I just got a message from someone who says they know Marcus.They said there’s something I need to know about his past. They sent a photo. I don’t understand what I’m looking at. Can you come to my room?I stood in the living room longer than I needed to. The refrigerator hummed in the kitchen.Outside a car passed on the street, its headlights briefly washing across the ceiling.Marcus was still gone, dealing with the source of the threats. I was alone with whatever waited behind that door.I walked down the hall and knocked once.“Come in.”Mom was sitting up in bed, the bedside lamp on, her phone in both hands.
PINNED BY MY STEPFATHER (MxM) When the Truth Finds Her
Chapter 45Derek’s POVMarcus was standing by the window when I pushed the door open.The lamp on the nightstand was still on, throwing the same low light across the bed and the far wall.He turned at the sound of the door, and whatever he saw on my face made him go still.I held the phone out so the newest message was clear between us.Moving the drive doesn’t change what he did. It only tells us he’s scared. Tell him the next message won’t come to your phone. It will come to your mother’s.Marcus read it once. Then he took the phone from my hand, locked the screen, and set it face-down on the dresser like the words themselves might burn through the glass. For a long moment the only sound in the room was the faint tick of the hallway clock.When he finally spoke his voice was stripped of everything soft.“They’re escalating.”“They&rsqu
PINNED BY MY STEPFATHER (MxM) The Threat Gets Closer
Chapter 44Derek’s POVMarcus was already on his feet when I pushed the door open. The lamp on the nightstand was still on, the same low light from the night before. He didn’t look surprised to see me. He looked like he had been waiting for the knock, or for the moment I stopped waiting for permission. I closed the door behind me and held the phone out so the newest message was clear between us.He still hasn’t told you the part that matters. The money wasn’t the only thing he took from that warehouse. Ask him about the drive. Ask him what he buried on the way out of Portland.Marcus read it in silence. His face stayed carefully controlled, but something in the set of his shoulders shifted, a small tightening that said the words had landed where they were meant to. He didn’t ask me to sit this time. He just nodded once toward the chair by the desk and waited until I took it before he spoke.“The money was only part of it,” he said. His voice was lower than usual, stripped of the
También te puede gustar
One Night Mistake By My Fiance's Uncle
Ellise15.6K vistasMarked In His Rut: The Alpha's Forgotten Omega
AlphaKelly16.9K vistasBreaking The Ice Between Us
Donna Sheldon17.4K vistasMafia's Unexpected Prized Possession
YomWrites21.8K vistasThe Moonborn Omega
CathyWrites 129 vistasFalling For My Father's Best Friend
Ophelia104 vistasCaught In Between Lust And Desires Book 2
Amaka 925 vistasClaimed by my Fiancee's Stepbrother (BL)
Sweet Wine 316 vistas
