All Chapters of The stepbrother I ran from is my new professor.: Chapter 71 - Chapter 80

Chapter Sixty-Nine— kiss★Maliya's POV★I couldn't sleep.The safe house was quiet. Too quiet. Every creak of the floorboards made me jump. Every shadow seemed threatening.I lay in the unfamiliar bed, staring at the ceiling, and tried to process everything that had happened in the past six hours.Micaiah was a criminal. Daemon was a criminal. They were enemies in some war I hadn't known existed.And I'd been caught in the middle, used by both of them.The pregnancy came back in flashes. The panic. The pain. The way Mom had held my hand while calling me a disgrace in the same breath.The scar on my stomach that Micaiah had never noticed. Had never asked about.Because he'd been too busy lying to me.My phone sat on the nightstand, turned off. I'd ignored it for hours, not wanting to see the inevitable flood of messages from Micaiah.But curiosity won.I turned it on.Sixty-three missed calls. Forty-nine text messages.Most from Micaiah. A few from Stephanie asking if I was okay. One

Chapter Seventy-One — Richard★Maliya's POV★I almost didn't go.That's the thing I kept telling myself as I drove to the coffee shop. I almost stayed in the safe house with the door locked and my phone off and let everyone figure out their own mess without me.But Richard had said he knew about the pregnancy.And that was the one thing I couldn't ignore.The café was small. One of those places with mismatched chairs and handwritten menus and jazz playing low enough that no one could hear your conversation. I got there first, picked a table near the window, and ordered a chamomile tea I didn't want.He walked in four minutes later.Richard Anderson looked exactly the same as he had at the wedding. Tall. Silver-streaked hair. The kind of face that made you trust him on instinct. He was wearing a gray coat and carrying his phone in his hand, and when he saw me his whole expression shifted into something that looked like genuine relief."Maliya." He pulled out the chair across from me an

Chapter Seventy-Three — Silk★Maliya's POV★I couldn't leave it alone.That was my problem. Always had been. I'd pull at a loose thread until the whole thing unraveled and then stand there surprised by the mess.I picked my phone back up.The "death wrapped in silk" chat was still open. His last message sitting there like a dare.Since the night you came home.I typed: That's not an answer. That's a confession.Three dots appeared. Disappeared. Appeared again.Then: Maybe it's both.I pulled my knees to my chest and leaned against the headboard. The safe house was quiet. Too quiet for the noise going on inside my head.I typed: How did you know Richard came to see me?Because I know everything that moves around you. That's not arrogance. That's just fact.I know Richard came to see you. Don't trust a word he said.He'd sent that message within minutes of Richard leaving. Which meant he wasn't guessing. He had eyes on me, or eyes on Richard, or both.I typed: Are you having me followed

Chapter Seventy-Five — Same House★Maliya's POV★I came back.That was my decision and I made it alone, which was the only way I trusted myself to make anything right now. No one talked me into it. No one guilted me home. I just woke up in the safe house at seven in the morning, stared at the unfamiliar ceiling, and decided I was done letting everyone else move around me while I stayed still.Running hadn't worked two years ago.It wasn't going to work now.I packed the few things I'd brought, locked up the safe house, and drove back before I could change my mind.The house was quiet when I got in. Morning light coming through the kitchen window, coffee already made, the kind of silence that meant someone was home but not moving.I put my bag down by the stairs.Then I walked into the kitchen.Micaiah was standing at the counter with his back to me, pouring coffee into a mug. He was in a dark shirt, sleeves pushed up, hair not yet fixed for the day. He heard me come in. I could tell b

Chapter Seventy-Seven — What He Knows☆Daemon's POV☆The photo came in at 11:47 p.m.I looked at it once. Put my phone face down and finished the drink in my hand. Then I picked it back up and looked at it again.Me and Maliya on the couch. Her head on my shoulder, both asleep. Taken from outside the window, close enough that whoever held the camera had been standing maybe four feet from the glass. Patient. Still. Waiting for exactly that frame.I called Zane.He picked up fast. "Boss.""The safe house on Mercer. Who was on the south perimeter last night."A pause I didn't like. Then I heard him moving, keys, a door closing."Zane.""Pulling it now." More movement. Then he went quiet in a way that told me he'd found something before he said anything. "Luca. He had south from ten to two."I hung up.Luca Marre had been with me for six years. I'd pulled him out of a collapsing operation in Vegas when he had nothing and no one and I'd given him a place and a salary and more trust than I