All Chapters of CROOKED: In love with my cousin's boyfriend: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

"Are you going to Braga this weekend?" I nodded at Nikko's question. I was sluggish that late morning, not wanting to get out of bed, just wanting to do little things with him until well after noon, struggling with the blessed song still stuck in my head. Fourteen days I had those infernal lyrics between my eyebrows. "I need you to stay." He planted a kiss on my mouth and headed for the bathroom. I sat on the bed, covering my nakedness with the sheets. "Oh, yeah? What for?" I asked. "A trip with the family came up. Would you like to travel with us?" "A trip? Like old times? Where are we going?" Nikko looked at me with a bored face. "To the same place as always, Delu." I rolled my eyes and smiled. I said yes, and in a few days, we were in a house in Arouca, a town in the northwest of the Aveiro District. A quiet town, with a modest flow of tourism but beautiful, simply beautiful. The house was one of the largest cabins in the "Casa de Camélia" hotel complex. It was not the fi

The night fell amidst family activities and few other things worth mentioning, and I didn’t get the chance to talk to Maël about that damned topic. I decided to let it go for the moment. I was fiercely eager to return to Braga, to my beloved Tenões, to stay at home with my parents, to call my brother and find out how he was doing. I wanted to be in my own environment, one where I would always be welcomed. And I don’t mean to say that I wasn’t welcomed at Casa Camélia or at Nikko’s house in Viana do Castelo. I was talking about the essentials—the adoration of a partner, where I was beginning to feel more and more that I didn’t belong. When we returned, I got out of one of the family cars and stepped into my beloved home. I had arrived with mixed feelings: personal disappointment for not having pushed harder to get information from Maël, and a desire to turn everything upside down with Nikko. The latter haunted me. When I entered the house, I was surprised to see my brother, Danilo,

I immediately removed the blindfold. "What...?" I looked at the door. I sharpened my hearing, and the absolute silence was too overwhelming. Without moving from the mattress, I scrutinized the bottom of the door, and the shadow told me someone was standing behind it. I swallowed hard and dared to ask: "Nikko? What's going on? Why aren't you coming in?" A muttered curse was exhaled from outside, and I gasped loudly. I grabbed the blankets and clenched them into a fist against my chest. "Who is it?" My voice trembled. The person took a few seconds to respond. "It's Maël." My eyes nearly popped out of their sockets, and my jaw almost dropped. «What...? Wha... Wha... What...? MAËL JUST SAW ME NAKED?!» I stood up on the bed. "What?!" "Delu. Sorry, I just came to tell you—" "You didn’t come to tell me anything, you pervert!" That ridiculous, then perverted Maël had just seen me naked. My God, Holy God, Holy Mother of God. "Delu?" he called through the d

I listened to my brother, and we hid like criminals in a hotel room that I had to pay for with my own money. I stayed with him for an entire week, taking care of him, with the most suffocating weight inside me. I questioned my brother many times, asking him how long he had known about the husband’s suspicions, and I scolded him for not hiding better, for moving forward despite knowing the danger he was putting himself in. I told him so many things, and he told me even more until my ears burned and then my whole body from exhaustion, rage, and worry. That week in that room, I felt like a fugitive—stupid and afraid. I never want to feel that way again, and I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. But it was my brother, and I know he would do the same for me. The legal advice was nothing more than guidance on what to do if that man decided to retaliate in other ways. Because of that, Danilo spilled the truth to Nikko, revealing the identity of the one who had hurt him—a name that meant nothing

"Press the Russian’s button already—do you plan on keeping us here forever?" the brunette demanded of his friends. Then Maël realized it was me. His expression shifted from amusement to shock, then from shock to confusion. And as the elevator began to rise, with the others still chattering loudly, oblivious to us, his features traveled from bewilderment to something else I couldn’t decipher. Yes, questions were written all over his face—I could see them from where I stood. He was wondering what I was doing in that elevator. I didn’t know if it was the literal "lift" of the elevator, but a surge of anxiety exploded in my stomach, replacing the butterflies and bees with what felt like furious ants. That explosion raced through my skin, turning into adrenaline. And I think he noticed my reaction too—he was asking himself the same questions I was. From that moment, I didn’t look at anyone else, only him: well-dressed, light jeans, a striped shirt that accentuated his height, smelling