All Chapters of You’re supposed to be my Brother Inlaw: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

I woke before the alarm, the house still hushed, Eva and Ian somewhere down the hall in their own bedroom. My duffel sat half-packed by the door, textbooks, charger, the black swimsuit rinsed and folded like evidence. School started tomorrow, it was senior year, the final sprint and I needed to be gone before the weekend’s fragile peace cracked. I slipped into the hallway bathroom, locking the door out of habit more than trust. The mirror showed a girl with faint shadows under her eyes but a steadier gaze than yesterday. I stripped, stepped into the shower, and let the hot water drum against my shoulders. Steam filled the small space, carrying away chlorine and the last ghosts of smoke from the grill. I closed my eyes, shampoo foaming between my fingers, and rehearsed the drive home, the words I’d say to Jake, the clean slate I was desperate to believe in. The lock clicked and I froze, suds sliding down my spine. The shower curtain rustled, Ian stepped in fully clothed a

The gravel still crunches under my heels like brittle bones when I remember the first time Luca kissed me. I was seventeen, home for Christmas break, and the estate was draped in white lights that made the bougainvillea look like bleeding stars. Papa had thrown one of his infamous parties, politicians in Brioni suits, wives dripping diamonds, bodyguards pretending to be waiters. I’d slipped away to the old greenhouse at the edge of the property, the one Mama used to tend before the pills and the bathtub.Luca was there, cigarette glowing between his fingers, leaning against the cracked glass wall like he belonged to the night. He was nineteen then, all sharp cheekbones and reckless eyes, the son of Papa’s oldest enemy, Don Salvatore Rossi. The families had been at war since before I was born, ports, shipments, bodies in the bay. Yet there he was, trespassing on Marino soil, daring the devil to notice.“You shouldn’t be here,” I’d whispered, heart hammering so loud I was sure the

“It might not leash your mind but your body will belong to me and if you try to run, I’ll burn the earth to find you” She spins, eyes blazing. “You’re insane.”“Calculated,” I correct. “There’s a difference.”I expect her to lunge. To scratch, bite, scream. Instead, she studies me like she’s trying to see past the monster to the man i could be underneath it all. “Do you love me?” she ask quietly. “At all?.”“Love is a liability, I was taught that early”- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -The ring is a 4-carat black diamond, flanked by rubies like drops of blood. I put it onto her finger in the back of a Rolls, on our way to the courthouse. “You’ll smile for the photos,” I tell her. “Or I’ll have Luke’s body consumed and fuck you in front of him”She goes pale and looks away from me, looking out the window. The ceremony is quick. A judge who owes me favors. Her family and mine. Zara signs and my cock twitch. I sign and that was it.When the judge pronounces us married

The words on my phone screen burn hotter than any touch he’s ever given me.He can’t satisfy you, you’ll always be mine.My breath catches and I lock my phone instantly like it might bite me, shove it into my bag, and force a smile at Jake as if all was fine..“Ready to go?” Jake asks unaware of the war happening under my skin.“Yes,” I whisper.He opens the car door for me like a gentleman, and guilt stabs deep. I slide in, smoothing my dress, but all I feel are his hands on my thighs, my waist, my neck. Jake walks around the car, humming happily as the driver starts the car.As we pull out of the lot, I stare out the window, Eve’s excited voice still ringing in my ears, and Ian’s eyes carved into my mind. He looked at me like I was something he owned. Like Jake’s hand on me offended him personally. Like he wanted to walk over, drag me away, and remind everyone who I belonged to.The car lights flicker across my reflection on the window. I could barely recognize myself.Jake break

I didn’t go home that night. I texted Eva some lie about a client emergency in the city and turned my phone face-down the second the message showed delivered. Then I took hand, pulled her into the shower, and washed her slowly, every bruise I’d left on her thighs, every smear of paint on her skin until the water ran cold and she was trembling from my cock thrusting in and out of her. We didn’t talk about what came next. We just dressed up, her in a tiny black dress I’d never seen before, me in the spare shirt I kept in the car and I drove us downtown like a man possessed. The club was underground, a red door in an alley, a bouncer who knew my face from too many nights I’d spent here trying to forget her. He stamped our wrists without a word and the bass hit us the second we descended the stairs. Inside it was pure sin, it had low crimson lights, bodies grinding in cages suspended from the ceiling, the air thick with sweat and gin and sex. It was just want I wanted. No one