Semua Bab Bound By Blood: The Step-Brothers' Temptation: Bab 141 - Bab 150

_Amelie’s POV_She stood at the foot of my bed with a kitchen knife gripped tightly, ready to kill me with it.Gabrielle.Her blond hair clung to her face in damp strands, cheeks hollow, eyes empty.It was the blankness that scared me most. I’d seen fury. I’d seen spite. But this?This was something worse. Like she had given up and decided this was the best thing to do.Well fuck.“You took him from me,” she said softly.I didn’t move. Not yet. My fingers were still curled around the letter opener beneath my pillow. Sweat slicked my back. I kept my breathing even, shallow. Pretend to sleep. Pretend you didn’t hear her.But she stepped closer and my heart hammered harder in my chest.“You think you won, don’t you?”I didn’t answer. My eyes stayed half-shut, lashes low, just enough to see her outline.“I waited for him,” she whispered. “I waited through blood, through bullets, through everything—just for him to choose you.”Was she talking about Luca? I thought Matteo was the one she wa

Amelie’s POVI didn’t sleep that night.I lay on my bed, staring hard into the darkness but sleep decided to punish me.Even after the door clicked shut, after his shadow disappeared from under the crack and I was left alone again—alone—I just lay there, eyes wide open, staring at the ceiling.Because what else could I have done? The room smelled faintly of antiseptic and sweat. My bandage itched. My side throbbed. Each breath tugged against the gauze like punishment. But that wasn’t what kept me awake.Nah, I could easily have fallen asleep if it had been just that.But his words….“Don’t make me care again.”“Next time, don’t expect me to save you.”They looped in my head like a slow, cruel lullaby.One that kept you awake instead of putting you to sleep. And how much I hated those words. They were not yelled at. They weren't even whispered. Just spoken like a fact. Like the weight of them didn’t belong to him anymore. Like he’d dropped it in my lap and left me to figure out what

Amelie’s POV…His head turned slightly from the impact and for a moment I felt very proud of myself.The hit wasn't as hard as I would have wanted it to be, but it still works for me.A slow smirk spread across his face. Not angry. Not mocking.Just Impressed.Impressed that I had hit him?“Good,” he said. “Do it again.”I blinked. “Seriously?”I found it hard to believe that a hit as sloppy as that made him this impressed with me. Matteo stepped backward, lifting his hands. “You think I’d waste breath lying to you?”I didn’t answer. I just squared up, fists raised—awkward but determined.He struck first this time, a slow jab. I blocked it—barely—and retaliated with a hook that went too wide.“Too slow,” he barked, sidestepping. “Commit or don’t bother.”I scowled, then moved in again. He caught my wrist and flipped me easily onto my back.“Oof,” I grunted as I fell on my back.The air left my lungs in a rush and I lay there, blinking at the ceiling like that had all the answers rhat

Luca’s POVI had buried myself in paperwork since then. Ink bled across contracts I wasn’t reading, I signed documents I didn’t give a damn about. My eyes moved, my hand scrawled initials, but none of it mattered. Not when every second felt like a war—my body burning with restraint, my mind screaming for silence.Silence from the echo of her voice. Silence from the memory of her doubt.Because all I could think of at this point was her. And her betrayal. The look on her face when I asked her to believe me, and she said she couldn't. She hadn’t believed me. When I told her the truth, she had looked at me like I was the monster under her bed. And maybe I was. But not to her. Never to her.So I stayed away, because that was the best thing to do. Because keeping my distance was the only way I wouldn’t do something reckless. Something I couldn’t take back.Like drag her into my arms and kiss the apology out of her mouth. Like ruining her just to feel whole again.And God knows just ho

The silence in Luca’s office felt like warm after what they had shared.Amelie sat on the edge of the leather chair across from his desk, her fingers loosely knotted in her lap. Her clothes were back on, hair tucked behind her ears, but her skin still hummed from what they’d shared. She wasn’t sure if she felt whole or shattered. Maybe both.She hadn't regretted anything they did, but some part of her questioned it all. Especially since she had told him she loved him. At that moment, Nico and Matteo had flashed through her mind. And she wondered what their reaction would be when they found out. Luca didn’t say much after. Just a quiet hum as he pulled his shirt back over taut muscle and went back to shuffling papers. He hadn’t dismissed her. That mattered to her in ways she wasn’t ready to unpack.Then—he brushed a hand gently down her back, fingertips pressing just enough to make her breath hitch.“You’re quiet,” he said, not looking up.But he felt it, she was thinking of so man