Semua Bab My Stepfather’s Forbidden Desire: Bab 11 - Bab 19

Roxy“I’m back,” I said, walking into the grand foyer.Every corner of the mansion was silent, quiet as a graveyard.“Young Miss,” David called out, stepping into view. “You forgot this in the car.”“Thank you, David.” I took the library book from his hands. He didn’t mention the drive home, and neither did I.Anxiety had kept me from sleeping, a thick knot that never fully loosened no matter which way I turned. I’d lain there, going over the same moments again and again.His eyes on me across the dinner table, the staircase, and the way he’d said my name like it belonged to him more than it did to me.This morning, I’d bolted out of bed, thrown on some clothes, and slipped out of the estate before breakfast was served, telling myself it was about avoiding Evander. Somewhere inside, I knew it wasn’t only that.If Anna hadn’t dragged me to the cafeteria later, I probably would have starved just to avoid running into either of them.I hurried up the grand staircase, desperate to disappe

Evander Two years of silence, and the first thing my father said to me on the phone was that he was getting married again. I hadn’t even gotten past hello before he was telling me about her—the woman, the wedding, all of it already decided, as if my opinion had never been part of the equation. My mother was still out there, still waiting for the man he used to be, the man who had stopped existing the day he threw me out for standing up for her. He’d never once apologized for that. I doubt the word was in him. Everyone on the outside thought Dorian Sinclair doted on his son. The magazine profiles, the photos at galas, his hand on my shoulder whenever a camera caught us together, all of it looked like affection if you didn’t know better. I knew. Only I knew what I actually was to him: an asset, groomed to run the empire once he got too old to enjoy it himself. He even banished me from home because I’d stood in his study and demanded to know why he hated my mother. I wanted answer

Roxy“What are you two doing?”Dorian’s voice cut through the room, calm and level, and I scrambled backward so fast my head spun.“Dad, I can explain—” The words were out before I could stop them. I clapped a hand over my own mouth.I’d been seconds from kissing my stepbrother in his father’s house, and my first instinct was still to confess it to the man standing in the doorway.Evander stood up calmly, tapping my shoulder as if nothing had happened. “What is there to explain, Roxy?”My pulse hammered in my throat. He couldn’t possibly be about to bring up our history now, in front of him.“Will someone tell me what’s going on in here?” Dorian’s eyes moved between my face and Evander’s blank one. For a split second, something dark moved behind them, not anger exactly, something colder and more interested than that.I braced myself for being thrown out. Getting thrown out in disgrace wasn’t how I had planned to leave this house.“Dad, relax.” Evander stepped between us. “I’m helping

Roxy“Roxy,” Dorian called. I slowly turned around to face him.“Dad.” I forced a polite smile. I hated being in the same room as this man.“Why are you in here?”I hadn’t expected him to question me like this. “I came to check on Evander.”“Why? I heard you found him first.”“Is there something wrong with checking on my own brother?”He went quiet, his dark eyes locked on me, like he was looking straight through me.“You’re a grown woman,” he said softly. “You shouldn’t be in his room alone.”I held his gaze. Everything Mary and Evander had told me was true. He was pushing away anyone who cared about his son.He was using me as a weapon against his own son. He was a sinister man, and he and my mother were truly a match made in hell.“Are you implying something inappropriate might happen between us?”“Don’t misunderstand me.” He took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. “Why would I think that?”“Maybe you’re trying to keep me away from him.”For half a second, he looked caught off gu