Lahat ng Kabanata ng ONE NIGHT STAND WITH MY STEPBROTHER: Kabanata 41 - Kabanata 43

Michael. I don’t tell anyone, not Trey, not Kiari, not even Yubi, especially not Yubi.I sit alone in my study long after the house has gone quiet, the echo of Abel’s voice still ringing in my ears, the image burned behind my eyelids no matter how many times I blink. Ten seconds. That’s all he gave me. Ten seconds of Naomi tied to a chair, her hair matted, her face thinner than I remember, her eyes God her eyes still fighting even through the grainy video.I close my laptop slowly, deliberately, as if that might lock the image inside it instead of my head.If I tell them, I will give them hope.And hope is dangerous.Hope makes people careless. Hope makes people talk. Hope makes people call the police when they shouldn’t. And if Abel is bluffing if that video was old, if Naomi is already, I can’t even finish that thought then I will not drag the children through that kind of whiplash.And if she is alive, if she is still breathing somewhere, waiting for me to do the right thing then

Yubi.I don’t even wait for the dust from Trey’s tires to settle before the feeling hits me, something is definitely wrong. Not the usual wrong, the tense silence wrong, the unspoken feelings wrong, the we are dancing around each other wrong. This is deeper. He didn’t look angry when he drove off. He looked hunted. Like someone had just lit a fuse inside him and he was racing against it burning down.I stand there in the driveway for two seconds too long, Chanel shifting against my chest, my heart pounding so hard it makes my ears ring.He lied, I know he did.And whatever he is running toward is dangerous.I turn on my heel and rush back into the house.The living room is quiet, almost eerily so. Michael isn’t here. That realization lands heavy, confirming the dread curling tighter in my stomach. Kiari is in the kitchen, pacing slowly with her phone in her hand, worry etched across her face in a way I’ve never seen before.“Kiari,” I say breathlessly.She looks up, startled. “Yubi?