Lahat ng Kabanata ng My Hot Step Brother Wants Me: Kabanata 81 - Kabanata 89

HASANI froze mid-kiss.Althea’s presence made the room collapse in on itself, thick with tension. Tatiana’s body stiffened beneath me, her breath catching as she realized, too, who had intruded. My hands didn’t release her immediately, but I felt the shift in her energy, the sudden awareness of eyes on us that were not mine.In the blink of an eye, Tatiana was pulled away from me as Althea’s hand fisted in her hair, yanking her off me with such force that the warmth of her body disappeared before my mind could process the movement itself.Tatiana stumbled, her balance thrown off as Althea forced her back. A sharp inhale left her lips, more shock than pain, but it cut through the fog in my head all the same.I should have moved. That thought came and went in the same instant because the heat inside me didn’t loosen its grip. If anything, it tightened, coiling through my body in slow, suffocating waves that made every limb feel heavier than the last.“What the hell do you think you are

TATIANAA breath left my lungs quietly, controlled, like my body was trying to hold itself together despite what my mind had already understood.Out of everything they could have used—They chose her.Because they knew. They knew exactly where to aim.Emily, who had already paid for my mistakes once. Emily, who had struggled on her own to rebuild her life after everything fell apart. Emily, who had nothing to do with any of this.I locked my phone, the image still burned into my mind, and pushed myself off the shelf.The bottle remained where I left it and moved toward the door without hesitation.The hallway felt colder when I stepped out, quieter in a way that made everything seem more deliberate. Like the house itself had withdrawn from me the moment I crossed that threshold, leaving me to stand in the open with nothing but the weight of my own decisions pressing down on my shoulders.And then I saw the van sat just beyond the gates, exactly where the message said it would be. The

HASANThe ringing of my phone forced its way in the air, slicing through the stillness of the night with a persistence that refused to be ignored. For a brief moment, my mind resisted waking, clinging to the remnants of sleep, but the ringing continued without mercy, dragging me out of unconsciousness with a steady, unrelenting pull.My eyes opened slowly at first, unfocused, staring at nothing in particular as awareness began to return in fragments. The ceiling above me came into view, dimly lit by the faint glow of the bedside lamp that cast long, stretched shadows across the room. I didn’t remember leaving it on, and for a second, that detail lingered in my mind, as though my thoughts were searching for something simple to hold onto before confronting whatever had disturbed the night.The ringing continued.My head turned slightly, my gaze landing on the bedside cupboard where my phone lay vibrating against the wood, its screen lighting up in intervals that punctuated the darkness.

TATIANAThe first thing that returned to me was the pain.It wasn’t sharp enough to make me gasp, nor sudden enough to jolt me upright. It settled instead, slow and heavy, like something that had been waiting patiently for me to wake so it could make itself known.My hand moved before I fully registered the motion, fingers pressing against my temple, then dragging slightly upward as if the pressure alone could quiet the ache.It didn’t and if anything, it made me more aware of it.I inhaled slowly, my eyes still closed, my thoughts slow to gather, slipping in and out of coherence like fragments that refused to settle into something whole. For a moment, I remained like that, suspended between sleep and wakefulness, unsure whether I wanted to open my eyes and confront whatever waited on the other side.Because something felt wrong. Not in a way I could immediately define, but enough that my body registered it before my mind could catch up.Still, I opened my eyes and they landed on the