All Chapters of My Stepbrother's Secret Obsession : Chapter 71 - Chapter 73

The first thing Inés heard when she woke up was an silence. The kind that feels wrong.She lay there for a moment, staring at the ceiling of the bedroom she shared with Carlos, watching the pale morning light stretch across the room. Carlos's side of the bed was already empty and cold, which wasn't unusual. He was always up before her, already showered and dressed.She reached for her phone out of habit. And that's when the silence ended.Notifications flooded in faster than she could process them — Instagram, Twitter, WhatsApp, email, missed calls — the numbers climbing so fast they blurred together.*247 missed calls.**1,842 unread messages.**Instagram: You have been mentioned in 3,291 posts.*Inés sat up slowly, her heart beginning to beat too fast, knocking against her ribs like it was trying to escape.She opened Instagram first because her brain chose the familiar over the unknown, and what she found made the air leave her lungs in one silent, devastating exhale.Photos. Her p

By the third day, the world outside their building had become a living thing.Inés stood at the edge of the floor-to-ceiling window in the living room, careful not to get close enough to be seen, and watched the media circus that had taken root on the sidewalk below. Photographers with long lenses pointed upward like rifles. A cluster of reporters in neat blazers rehearsing their stand-ups for the camera.She stepped back from the window."You should eat something." Carlos appeared in the doorway of the living room. He was working from home, he'd said. He wasn't going to leave her side during something like this."I'm not hungry.""Inés." His tone carried the gentle, firm quality of a man being very patient with someone who was being unreasonable. "You haven't eaten since yesterday morning. Starving yourself won't make the photos disappear."She turned to look at him. "I know that.""Then come eat."She followed him to the kitchen because it was easier than arguing, and because she wa