STEP BROTHER DEAREST
Chapter 43
The library felt smaller somehow, tighter, as if the walls themselves were pressing in after the night we had spent in the fog. Ian sat on the floor, notebook open but untouched, his hands trembling slightly as he traced imaginary lines across the pages. Madison paced, her steps sharp and controlled, a storm coiled behind her eyes. And I stood, leaning against the window, watching the city outside, trying to feel the pulse beneath the streets, the same pulse that the stepbrother must have known all along.