CHAPTER 221: Fuck You!

“She’d look over her shoulder when we were walking home from school,” I went on, voice cracking a little. “Like she expected someone to be following us. Wouldn’t tell me what. Said she couldn’t. That it was better if I didn’t know. I pushed, Miles. I pushed so fucking hard, but she just hugged me and said, ‘I dont want to drag you into this. You don’t understand how messy it is.’ I thought she was being dramatic.”My hands were shaking now, not just from the cold.I pressed them against my thighs to stop it. “And then she was gone. Her, her mom, her dad, Ethan. The house empty like they’d never lived there. And yet the police act like it’s a cold case already. Like four people don’t matter enough to keep looking.”I finally turned my head toward him to find his face pale under the hood, glasses catching the faint orange from the distant streetlight. He looked… wrong. Frozen. Like I’d just dropped something heavy on him and he didn’t know how to pick it up.“When did she go missing?

Last Updated : 2026-01-12

CHAPTER 222: On Me

I spun so fast my hood fell back, snow flying off like confetti as my heart slammed against my ribs. I was ready to swing and scream… until I saw his face. Jake. Breathless, cheeks flushed from running, hair sticking up in wet spikes under his beanie. “Jesus, Tess, where the hell have you been?” His voice cracked on the last word, lower than usual, rough from shouting or cold or both. He didn’t let go right away, fingers tight around my sleeve like he was afraid I’d vanish if he did. “I’ve been driving around for an hour looking for you. Mom’s losing her mind.” I yanked my arm free, the sudden motion making my shoulder twinge. I rubbed the spot where his grip had been, more out of habit than pain, and let out a long, shaky sigh that fogged the air between us. “I’m fine,” I muttered, even though the words tasted like a lie. “I just… needed to walk.” “You needed to walk for three fucking hours? In a snowstorm? Without answering your phone?” He ran a hand through his hair, snowflak

Last Updated : 2026-01-24

CHAPTER 223: What The Fuck Is That Look?

I stared into the steam rising from my tea, watching it curl and dissolve, trying to force my brain to focus on something normal. “Tessa, can you hear me?” Mom’s voice cut through the fog, soft but insistent, the way she spoke when she was trying not to startle me. I blinked hard, tea sloshing against the rim of the mug. “What?” I asked, startled enough that my shoulders jerked. “What did you say?” She was sitting on the armchair across from me, knees pressed together, hands clasped so tight her knuckles were white. Jake hovered in the doorway to the kitchen, arms crossed, looking like he wanted to disappear into the wallpaper. Mom took a careful breath. “What do you think about us moving? After your final exams.” Moving out? I felt my whole body go rigid, mug trembling in my hands until hot tea splashed over the edge and burned my thumb. I set it down on the coffee table a little too fast and the liquid pooled around the base. “What?!” “It’s a nice place, I promise,” sh

Last Updated : 2026-01-24

CHAPTER 224: Staring At Nothing Yet Feeling Everything

The words landed like a brick through glass. My mouth opened, but nothing came out at first. Just air. Just the sudden, hollow rush of understanding why the house had felt wrong for months, why Dad had been sleeping on the couch more nights than in their bed, why Mom’s smiles never reached her eyes anymore.“You’re… what?” My voice cracked on the last word, sounding younger than I’d sounded in years.“We’ve been trying to figure it out,” Mom continued, words tumbling faster now like she needed to get them out before she lost her nerve. “We’ve been in counseling for almost a year. We thought we could fix it, that we could wait until you graduated, until things settled down. But after Camila… after everything… it just became clear we can’t keep pretending. We’re hurting each other more by staying together. And we’re hurting you kids by dragging it out.”Counseling for a year??!I could stop the ugly bark of laughter that slipped from my mouth.“You’ve been in counseling for a year? A

Last Updated : 2026-01-24

All Chapters of Claimed By My Stepbrother : Chapter 221 - Chapter 224

CHAPTER 221: Fuck You!

CHAPTER 222: On Me

CHAPTER 223: What The Fuck Is That Look?

CHAPTER 224: Staring At Nothing Yet Feeling Everything