首頁 / Romance / Falling For My Stepbrother On Ice / 第 81 章 - 第 90 章

《Falling For My Stepbrother On Ice》全部章節：第 81 章 - 第 90 章

118 章節

81

August's POV"What do you want?" I asked him. My father turned to face me. His hands stayed in his jacket pockets, and his mouth was a flat, emotionless line. With a flippant shrug of his shoulder, he answered:"What, can't a father come watch his son play a game?""Oh, cut the bullshit! You and I know you're not here because you suddenly care about me or my hockey career." I snapped at him. "So what do you really want? Are you here to ruin what little happiness I have left? Because if that's the plan, you might as well forget about it and leave now."Ignoring everything I just said, he pulled his hands out of his pockets and gestured toward the rink behind me. "I can see you're playing again. Your suspension hasbeen lifted, I take it?""Yeah. No thanks to you."He inclined his head towards me. "I also noticed Kade's in town. Saw him in the stands with that ridiculous banner."I didn't respond. With a mocking raise of his eyebrows, he continued. "You didn't tell me your cousin was vi

82

August's POV Dona had called me twenty minutes ago and told me to meet her at The Grind, a cafe near campus where they served actually decent food. She wanted to celebrate the win of the game and I'd tried to tell her I wasn't in the mood, that I just wanted to go back to the hotel and sleep, but she wouldn't hear it. "Come on, Augie. Just for an hour. Please?" When had I ever been able to say no to her? So here I was, walking down the street toward The Grind with my hands shoved in my jacket pockets and my head pounding with a headache. The adrenaline from the fight was gone and it had left behind exhaustion and a dull ache in my ribs where my father had managed to land a hit. I pulled my hands out of my pockets to check the time on my phone when I noticed the blood on my right hand. It was dried now, dark and crusted around my knuckles. Some of it had smeared across my palm. I stopped walking and stared at it. Dona was going to ask questions if I showed up looking like this.

83

Samantha's POV I simply couldn't wait for the next Monday to roll by. I was so excited for my job that I got to the hospital and hour earlier than I should have. I walked through the automatic doors of St. Mary's Private Hospital and immediately spotted Dr. Mei Chen waiting for me near the reception desk. She was dressed in her usual white coat, and she smiled when she saw me. "Samantha! You're in early. Welcome to your first day!" "Thank you, Dr. Chen. I'm so excited to be here." I replied. "Sammy, I have told you to call me Mei. We're colleagues now." She gestured toward the hallway. "Come on, I'll show you around and get you settled in." I followed her down a long corridor, past rooms with closed doors and nurses pushing carts. Everything was so bright and clean and very familiar, even after so many years of being away from this world. I'd missed being in a hospital. "Your office is on the third floor," Mei explained as we stepped into the elevator. "You'll be working with a

84

Samantha's POV Just as I was trying to get my family and life together, another part of Peter was here to haunt me. I'd never hated Peter as much as I did now. I didn't take the hand that Russell offered me, and eventually the hand fell back to his side. He looked younger than I'd expected, possibly in his late forties, around Peter's age too. But there was something almost boyish about him, the way he walked with a swagger and the cocky tilt of his head. He looked like he'd fit in a college class with August and Dona. "You're even prettier in person," he murmured, his eyes dragging over me. "Look at your blonde hair, nice figure. Peter always did have eyes for pretty little things, I'll give him that." He moved closer while I staggered backwards. But he didn't stop. He reached out and touched a strand of my hair, twirling it between his fingers. "Why are you a gynecologist instead of a hot blonde model?" he asked. "You'd definitely make a lot more money, I assure you." As he ta

85

Samantha's POV "Oh, God!" I gasped. "Oh, fucking—" Swearing under my breath, I ran back to my desk, sank into my chair and grabbed my phone with tremulous hands. It took a whole thirty seconds to find Dona's number and dial it. Thankfully, she picked up immediately. "Mom?" There was noise in the background, voices and music and the clatter of dishes. She was somewhere loud, probably her campus cafeteria. I hoped she could hear me. "Dona, hi sweetheart. Is everything okay?" "Yeah, I'm fine." She replied. "How's your first day at work going? Are you loving it?" "Yeah, yeah. Dona, listen to me." I stood up from my chair and started pacing the length of my office. "I need you to be extra careful, okay? Don't go anywhere beyond school and Piper's apartment. Do you understand me?" "Um..." Her voice changed instantly. "Mom, what's wrong? You sound weird." I walked over to the window and pulled the blinds aside, peering down at the parking lot below. Was Russell still here? Was he wa

86

Samantha's POVI stepped slowly into the house and found Peter sitting in one of the chairs in the living room, with a cigarette between his fingers. Thick, cloying smoke filled the room and my throat."Put that out!" I snapped at him as I coughed. "Don't fill my house with that nasty smell."Peter ignored me, just sitting there with the most enraging blank look on his face. That expression always scared me. The last time I'd seen it was two weeks ago when he'd grabbed my neck and slammed me against my dresser, all because I'd asked questions that he didn't want to answer. It was that same empty look, like there was nothing living or working behind his eyes.When he still didn't respond, I hissed impatiently, walked over to the windows and started opening them one by one. Fresh air rushed in and I breathed it in gratefully."You'd make a good wife," Peter said from behind me. "Look at you, opening windows and telling me not to smoke."I paused with my hand on the last window latch, an

87

Dona's POV That evening, I was huddled in one of Piper's chairs with my knees tucked to my chest, and listening to August and Piper talk in hushed murmurs in the kitchen. Kade wasn't here; he had gone back to August's hotel because his contacts at the State Attorney's Office had called with updates on the hearing envelope that I'd found. I knew that August and Piper were discussing what my mom had told me on the phone earlier, which I'd relayed to them the moment August arrived. I was too terrified to join their conversation. Every time I tried to think about Russell and his threats, my brain just shut down. Sometimes I imagined he was outside right now, watching the apartment and waiting for the perfect moment to hurt one of us. What could we really do to stop someone like that? The sound of the fridge opening in the kitchen jolted me out of my thoughts. Piper came back into the living room carrying three beers, and August was following behind her. She handed me one and I opened

88

Dona's POV Everyone was watching my mother. August had propped himself against the wall near the window with his arms folded. Piper was hovering near the doorway, chewing on her thumbnail and staring at my mother. "Tell me everything, Mom." I repeated. Mom took a deep breath and looked down at our joined hands. Her thumb traced circles on the back of my hand, and her leg was bouncing, a nervous habit she'd had for as long as I could remember. "After your father died, we had nothing, and the medical bills buried us. I was working as a nurse at the time, you know that, and the pay wasn't enough to cover rent, groceries, your tuition, all of it. I was drowning, Dona. Every month I fell further behind." Her eyes had started to mist up with tears again. "So I um... I started stealing prescription medications from the hospital pharmacy. Painkillers mostly. OxyContin, Vicodin, Xanax, whatever I could get my hands on without getting caught. I sold them to drug dealers to make ends meet.

89

Dona's POV Night had fallen by the time I stepped out onto the balcony of the apartment. The air was cool and refreshing, even though it carried the smell of car exhaust from the street below. August and Kade were out there, leaning against the iron railing and talking in hushed voices. Kade had arrived about an hour ago with updates on his investigation into Peter. I caught the tail end of their conversation just as I slid the glass door open. "...just need a few more days to confirm," Kade was saying. "My contact at the CPD is digging through the files, but there's a hell of a lot to sort through, so you might have to be a little patient." I watched August nod stiffly. "Yeah. I get it." Kade glanced up and saw me. Then he patted August's back and gave him a look that said they'd finish this conversation later. He turned to me and offered a reassuring smile. "Hey, Dona. How's your mom doing?" "She's sleeping," I replied. "Piper is inside with her." "Good, that's good." He s

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Samantha's POV I'd returned to my house this morning despite Dona and the others begging me not to. They were worried Peter would come back and hurt me, or worse. But I'd told them I needed to get ready for work. I couldn't afford to disappoint my new employers by missing days this early on. Dona and the others had reluctantly let me go, but only after making me promise to call if anything felt wrong. Now here I was, standing at the front desk of St. Mary's Private Hospital and signing in for my second day. My hand moved across the clipboard on autopilot while my mind wandered somewhere else entirely. I kept wondering if Russell was waiting for me in his office right now, possibly with a bullet in a gun for me. But then I reminded myself that he had given me till Thursday to get the money. It was still Tuesday, surely he wouldn't harm us so quickly. "Samantha!" I snapped out of my gloomy thoughts and looked up. Dr. Mei Chen was standing beside me, with a concerned expression on h

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