All Chapters of My Stepbrother's Dirty Little Secret : Chapter 41 - Chapter 50

Gianna ━⊰ ❦ ⊱━ "Actually, Gianna," he voiced, making me go still. I stopped just as my hand reached the heavy brass handle of the door. The click of his keyboard ceased, replaced by the sound of a drawer sliding open and I turned immediately. He didn't look up from his monitor as he reached into a crate beside his desk and pulled out a stack of thick, bound ledgers. "Since you have the capacity for high-volume data entry, I need these processed," he said, his eyes scanning a line of code on his screen. "These are the legacy acquisition files from when I started the firm. They’re all physical handwritten inventories, shipping manifests, and non-indexed hardware specs." He set the stack on the corner of the desk. "The OCR software can’t read the handwriting, and the encryption keys used back then are obsolete," he continued, finally shifting his gaze to me, "I need them manually transcribed and mapped into the new SQL server. Every line item needs a verified digital sig

Gianna ━⊰ ❦ ⊱━ The heavy doors to his office clicked shut with a sound that felt like a trap springing into place. I followed him. The files and my laptop were hugged so tight against my ribs that the corner dug into my skin. He wasn't sitting behind his desk. He went to the floor-to-ceiling window, looking out at the city lights. The fabric of his dress shirt stretched tight across his broad shoulders as he moved, the white cotton crisp against his skin. I walked toward him, my reflection falling onto the glass windows right next to him. My brain was a messy soup of flickering numbers, dancing letters. I was feeling dizzy, as if the world was tilting slightly to the left, but I had one goal. I wanted him to see. I put my laptop onto his desk. My hands were shaking, the red marks on my knuckles from the ruler standing out like angry warnings. I pulled out the printed sheets and flipped open my laptop, the screen glowing bright enough to make my tired eyes ache. "It’s done,

Gianna ━⊰ ❦ ⊱━ The wall was freezing against my bare back, but my skin was screaming. "If you’re still standing here in the next few seconds…" Raphael’s voice wasn't just a sound. It was a vibration that started in the floor and crawled up my legs, settling right in the pit of my stomach. "…I’m not stopping anything that happens after that." My brain was screaming at my legs to run, to find my room and lock the door until the sun came up but I stayed. My heels were glued to the floor. My breath came out in short little puffs that felt too hot for the cold air. I could feel the space between us shrinking, the molecules of air vibrating with a pressure I couldn't name. My top felt too tight, the silk dragging against my skin with every shallow breath I took, making my chest ache. I looked up, and the hallway light caught the edge of his glasses. And through the glass, he was looking at my mouth. It was so silent that i could hear his watch ticking. I could hear the slow hum o

Gianna ━⊰ ❦ ⊱━ I turned and slammed the metal bolt of the door into place. Now, it was just me and the water. And I deserved every bit of what was coming next. I needed to drown out the noise. The sound of Morgan’s sobbing, the memory of Cole’s smile, and the strange feelings I felt for my stepbrother. It was all too much. I grabbed a clean towel from the cabinet. I turned the cold water on. It didn't just flow, it roared, splashing against the porcelain sink and spraying my shirt. I didn't use the sink. I went to the tub and lowered myself in it, my back against the freezing porcelain. I folded the towel over my face, covering my eyes, my nose, and my mouth. The world went black. I grabbed the detachable showerhead and turned it to the highest pressure. I didn't hesitate for another second, I aimed the spray directly over my nose and mouth. The water hit the fabric, and for a split second, it was just cold. Then, the towel saturated. It became a heavy, sodden weight that

Gianna ━⊰ ❦ ⊱━ I let my body go limp, then tight, then limp again. I closed my eyes and let the bass of the music fill the hollow spaces in my chest where my heart used to be. Because at this moment, I felt nothing. Up. Twist. Slide. My mind kept flickering, like a broken lightbulb. One second I was here, the next I was back in the bathtub, the water stinging my nose. I pushed the memory down. I had to focus. I have to save her. I have to bring Morgan back before Cole ruins what is left of her. I wondered where she was right now. Was she in a room like this? Was she looking at the ceiling, trying to count the cracks to stay sane? Whatever I had to do tonight, whatever parts of me I had to sell, it couldn't be worse than what Cole was doing to her. I swung into a high arc, my legs pointing toward the ceiling. The world was upside down. It looked better that way. A heavy shadow moved at the edge of the stage. I didn't stop, but my skin went cold. A man in a dark suit was stan