All Chapters of A Forbidden Kin: Stepbrother Stories: Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

THE CORNERINGI sat in a hard wooden chair and folded my hands in my lap as I fixed my eyes on the window. The glass was wet with rain, and the outside city was cold and miserable which matched how I felt inside. Three days ago, my mum and my stepfather were alive, three days ago, I had a family. I had a mother who called me every Sunday and a stepfather who sent me stupid memes on WhatsApp, though I'm not complaining, and I'd had people who loved me. But now, I was sitting in a sterile office, as I listened to a stranger read their will. I couldn't cry, though the tears were there, but they wouldn't come cause I was too numb and empty.The lawyer cleared his throat drawing my attention to him. He was thin and average tall. “According to the will,” he said. “The house and all assets will be split equally between the two children; Raven Blackwood and Lucian Blackwood.”I didn't react because I knew what was coming. My parents had always

Chapter 1: THE STRANGER The first thing I saw when I opened my eyes was the ceiling.It was white, bright, and harsh, and the fluorescent lights above me hummed with a low, annoying hum that made my head throb. I tried to turn my head, but a sharp pain shot through my skull, which made me wince.Where was I?I blinked, as my vision was blurry and I tried to focus. There was a machine beside me, beeping steadily, there was a tube in my arm, and there was a cold, sterile smell in the air.A hospital. I was in a hospital.But why?I tried to remember as I tried to put together the fragments of my mind, but there was nothing. Just a void, like a black hole where my memories should be."She's awake."A voice, a doctor. He was standing over me, his face kind, and his eyes professional. He said something about a car accident, about being unconscious for two weeks, about a head injury, and something like memor

If I were told I'd come back to this house, I'd never believe it. Now here I am.The driveway was overgrown with weeds, creeping up through the broken concrete as if nature were gradually reclaiming what had once been hers. The paint on the walls was peeling, curving at the edges like old skin. The windows were dark and empty, as they stared out at me like hollow eyes. It looked like a ghost town, a remembrance of the past, and a reminder of everything I'd lost.The for-sale sign was stuck in the front yard, as it wobbled in the wind on a rusty metal pole. I'd been avoiding this moment for months, I'd told myself I wasn't ready, and that I needed more time. But now I had no choice— my childhood home was being sold, and I had to pack up my things, sign the papers, and say goodbye to the only home I'd ever known.I sat in my car, as my hands gripped the steering wheel so tightly it turned my knuckles white. My heart was pounding so loudly I could hear it in

THE RETURNI was curled up on the couch, wrapped in a thick blanket, watching some mindless reality show I wasn't really paying attention to when the knock came, and it was 11:59 pm. The rain was thumping against the windows like small fists requesting to enter. The wind was wailing, and clattering the glass, which made the old building howl and creak. It was the kind of night that made you want to stay inside forever and never want to leave. The kind of night where every sound made you jump, making you feel completely, and utterly alone.I wasn't expecting anyone, cause I hadn't spoken to anyone in days, and I made sure my phone was dead. I was alone in my small apartment, wrapped in my own isolation, and I had talked myself into telling myself that I chose it that way.I wasn't expecting him.I walked to the door, annoyed at being disturbed. Then I started asking myself questions like– Who on earth would be out in this weather? And who would be

Chapter 1: HE's HEREI knew he was coming.My mother had called me a week ago, her voice trembling with a mixture of anticipation and fear as she warned me and I could hear the tears in her voice, and the weight of three years of pain finally lifting."Nora," she'd said. "Elias is coming home, he's been released."I dropped the phone as my hands started shaking, and it seemed my heart had stopped. The world had wobbled on its axis.Elias.My stepbrother, the man who'd engulfed my life, the man who'd shattered my whole family. The man who'd broken my mother's heart.He'd been in prison for three years, three years for a crime he kept swearing on that he didn't commit, three years of letters and phone calls and desperate pleas that I'd very much ignored, three fucking years of me telling myself I didn't care, and three years of me pretending he didn't exist to me.I hadn't visited him once, nor had I written a sin