All Chapters of Ruined by my Stepbrother : Chapter 1 - Chapter 3

I learned very early in life that silence was safer than arguments, it did not cost me anything to stand still, it did not cost anything to lower my eyes, it did not cost anything to let my mother’s voice slice through the kitchen like a blade looking for something soft.Plates rattled in the sink, the television in the living room played a game show too loudly, the apartment smelled like stale gin and burnt stew and yet I all want is for her to just shut the hell up.“You think I don’t know where you go at night?” Sophia Denver, my so called mother screams her voice cracking through the air. “You think I’m stupid?” she adds, her red hair sticking to her face as she takes a menacing step forward.I force my gaze back to the cracked tile floor not wanting to incur her wrath so instead I counted the lines in tiles the way other girls counted money.One. Two. Three.“I’m working,” I say quietly, knowing any more words is just giving her more to attack me on.“You call that working?” S

CHAPTER THREEVictor Devereaux stands like a man who has never lost a thing in his life, crisp suit, silver watch and calm eyes that don’t blink too much. My mother is beside him, smiling like she just won the lottery instead of trading her daughter’s oxygen for security.And Kayden.Standing at his father’s side like this is normal, like this isn’t insanity and off the hoots “Ashley,” my mother says sweetly, too sweetly it's almost irritating.“Come greet your stepfather.” she says, nudging at Victor whose blue eyes look colder than the sea, dead even.Stepfather, the word scrapes down my spine as I look at Kayden.“You knew,” I say, he doesn’t answer immediately but that's enough.Victor’s smile widens. “Sophia and I had a small ceremony this afternoon. We wanted to keep it intimate.”Intimate, like a man like him could ever know what that means.My throat tightens. “You married him?” I ask my mother, unable to believe this.She shrugs lightly. “Security matters. You wouldn’t und