All Chapters of CROOKED: In love with my cousin's boyfriend: Chapter 51 - Chapter 60

The same attendant who brought me my beer interrupted us to hand one to Maël. They exchanged a fist bump before he disappeared again. "Pay attention to me. Stop playing around." I gripped his arm. "Does Joao know or not?" He took a swig of beer. "Of course he does." My mouth fell open. "And he doesn’t—?" Maël cut me off with a kiss—one that, without the deafening music, would’ve sounded obscenely loud. "Relax. He’s my friend. He won’t say anything." "He’s also Fran’s friend." Maël’s expression shifted. "So?" "For God’s sake! He knows Nikko! He greeted him at the theater—they’re acquainted!" "Delu. Delu, Delu, hey." He set his beer down and cupped my face. "Baby, we’re here to enjoy ourselves, okay?" Another kiss, this one lingering. "Gerald and his crew are about to go on, and I brought you here so we could watch them together. Promise me you’ll calm down and actually have fun?" "Promise me nothing bad will happen?" I searched his eyes, momentarily mesmerized by the

I've always believed that what happens is for the best. And Nikko brought that truth crashing down on me—his drunken ambush at the rave was a glaring sign that something terrible was brewing that night. Yet just as suddenly as he had appeared, Maël vanished into thin air.Yes. After the near-disaster at the party, after returning to Braga with my brother and his friends, after locking myself in my room to replay every excruciating detail—Maël gave no further sign of life.I dared to text him. At first, just casual check-ins: "How are you? Are you back in Braga?" Then escalating to "Can we talk?" And finally, inevitably: "Why aren't you answering me?" For a week I bombarded him—texts, WhatsApp (after unblocking him), even emails. Nothing at all. Every call went straight to voicemail. Had he decided we weren't worth the trouble? Had something happened with Nikko? How am I supposed to know?That last question gnawed at me. While my ex had also gone radio silent, if he had found out about

The song ended, and I stood up to applaud. "This is incredible!" I ran to hug Sandra. "You’ve outdone yourself, girl. It was a real surprise, but why? For the play?" "For the play, for your success! I didn’t get the chance to tell you how happy I was to hear you were back in the game." "Since when have you been planning this?" "Me planning it? No, not at all! It wasn’t me. She was the one who wanted to come..." "Hey, you!" I interrupted Sandra when I saw Galev stepping away from the table. I pointed at him, motioned for him to come over, and hugged him. "You keep surprising me more and more, Russian. How did you get Liesje to come all the way here?" "Delu, come on, come on!" Sandrita cut in. "I’ve already taken a million pictures with her, but I didn’t post any so you wouldn’t see anything. Now it’s your turn." I followed her backstage. And as if the night wasn’t already a whirlwind of emotions, having Liesje right in front of me—greeting her, hugging her, getting to k

I stood there like a statue. "…Huh?" "I’m parked outside your house. Come down." «What?!» I rushed to my bedroom window, which faced the front of the house. Sure enough, tucked into a corner, slightly to the left, I could make out a dark-colored car with its low beams on. I stumbled back to the bed and sat down, stunned. "Have you lost your mind?" "Delu, I need to talk to you. Please, can you come down?" "But you’re insane, Maël. It’s past 2:00 in the morning. What do you want? And why are you showing up now?" "Delu, I don’t want to be seen. Please, just come here." "Oh, relax. If that’s your concern, don’t waste your energy. There’s no way my family would find it strange that my ex-fiancé’s cousin came to visit me in the middle of the night." "Enough with the nonsense and sarcasm, please, just come—" "What the hell are you doing here at this hour if you know it’s a huge mistake?" "If it weren’t urgent, I wouldn’t have come." "Tell me over the phone." "Da

We can be smeared with innocence, nearly knocked out by a hard blow, but there’s no blind conscience that limits knowing what one is capable of doing for love. We like good and bad in equal measure—I’ve always been aware of that. I wanted to be with him, so I went to the building he’d texted me about, and there he was, waiting for me at the main entrance. "Olá," he smiled, wrapping his arms around me. We stayed like that for several minutes. His cologne was intoxicating. He was wearing his famous long-sleeved black V-neck sweater, which suited him perfectly, and some well-fitted light jeans. I rested my face against his chest and let myself be cradled. "Thanks for coming," he said, kissing the top of my head. "Let’s go in." With my arm around his waist and his over my shoulder, we crossed a short hallway toward a staircase at the back. Then he took my hand as he led the rest of the way. The place was a residential complex of parallel buildings, each seven stories high.