All Chapters of The Scandalous Step Siblings: First Enemies, Then Lovers : Chapter 41 - Chapter 50

Anya’s POVThe word RUN seemed to pulse against the white cardstock. It wasn't a suggestion; it was a command, written in a jagged, frantic hand that looked like it had been scrawled in a hurry.I stood by the door, the envelope heavy in my hand, while Kai’s voice continued in the background—a low, rhythmic murmur as he dealt with Ethan on the phone. The luxury of the suite suddenly felt like a tomb. Every shadow in the corner looked like a person, every creak of the hotel's old bones sounded like a footstep.Kai hung up and turned around. He saw the paper in my hand immediately. His eyes, already dark with exhaustion, went completely flat."What is that?""It was under the door," I said, handing it to him.He took it, his bandaged hand fumbling slightly with the edge of the paper. He read it once, his face a mask of stone, before crumpling it into a tight ball in his fist."Ethan is coming up," he said, his voice devoid of emotion. "He found out your father was in the building. He’s

ANYA’S POVThe adrenaline from the stage was curdling into something cold and sour in my stomach, and as we sat in the back of a different SUV, I realized how quickly our big night had turned into a nightmare. Ethan had swapped the cars at the last second, which was a classic move for him, but the silence inside the vehicle felt heavier than any crowd noise we had left behind."The hotel isn't safe anymore," Ethan said, and his voice was as smooth and hard as a piece of stone. He was sitting in the front seat, staring straight ahead as we sped out of the Nashville city limits and into the dark, and he explained that the laser incident proved his security had been hacked. He told us he was moving us to a private house three hours east, a place with no press and no staff we hadn't checked ourselves, but I could feel Kai’s body get tight beside me. His hand was still gripping mine so hard that his knuckles were white, and I knew we both felt it—the "Safe House" was just a fancy word for

ANYA’S POVThe lunch Ethan had prepared was a sterile, cold affair—a plate of artisanal cold cuts and bread that tasted like ash in my mouth. We sat in the glass-walled dining nook, where the grey, oppressive light of the mountain afternoon bled through the windows, stripping away any pretense of warmth. It felt like sitting in a display case, waiting for a predator to decide if we were worth the effort.Kai had been in the basement for hours. Ethan had hauled in a weighted keyboard, supposedly to let the "genius" work, but the silence drifting through the vents was deafening. No music. No melody. Just a hollow, echoing void that made the house feel less like a retreat and more like a tomb.Ethan sat across from me, methodically folding a linen napkin into a perfect, sharp triangle. He hadn’t touched a single bite of his food. Instead, he just watched me. His eyes were like cameras, recording every blink, every nervous twitch of my fingers, every shallow breath I took."You're not eat

Anya’s POVTension everywhere, but I stood my ground, my chest heaving, refusing to flinch as Kai loomed over me.The argument had stripped us both bare, the jagged truths about London and Ethan’s control over him acting like gasoline on a fire."You think you can just walk in here and fix me?" Kai’s voice was a low, dangerous rumble that vibrated in the small space. "You're a critic, Anya. You tear things down for a living. You don't know the first thing about what it takes to keep this life standing.""I'm not trying to fix you, Kai! I'm trying to find the man who isn't a puppet!" I stepped closer, my finger poking hard into his chest, right over the frantic thud of his heart. "You’re so busy being a 'Monster' for the press that you’ve forgotten you’re the one holding the keys to your own cage. Ethan only has power because you're too afraid to look at the past."Kai’s hand shot out, catching my wrist. He didn't hurt me, but his grip was iron, pulling me flush against the hard, warm w

Anya’s POVI made it back to my room, but I didn’t go inside. I stood in the hallway, my back pressed against the cold, smooth plaster, trying to get my breathing under control. My heart was a frantic drum, and my chest felt tight under the cashmere of my sweater.Every inch of me still felt Kai. The weight of him, the heat of his skin, the way he looked at me like he wanted to devour me and destroy me all at once. It was a disaster. We were in a house owned by a man who treated people like chess pieces, and we had just handed him the winning move.I smoothed my hair, my fingers trembling. I had to look like the PA. I had to look like the girl who spent her afternoon organizing schedules, not the woman who had just been bent over a table in a basement.I walked toward the kitchen, needing water—needing anything to ground me.Ethan was there.He was standing by the floor-to-ceiling glass wall, looking out at the mist-covered trees. He didn’t have a jacket on, just his white dress shirt