My Stepbrother's Dirty Little Secret novel Chapter 407

Chapter 407

I looked at her once and that was enough answer for her.

Her eyes narrowed, “Wow.”

“I opened the request.”

“And?”

“And I closed it.”

“Why?”

I went quiet for a second, because the answer sounded stupid in my own head. Because it made no logical sense. Because it was the exact opposite of how I usually operated.

Finally, I looked at her again, “By then,” I said evenly, “you stopped feeling like a file.”

I rubbed a hand slowly across the back of my neck before continuing.

“I didn’t want to know you that way.”

Her throat moved once, “What way?”

“Artificially.”

The word sounded strange coming out of my mouth.

“I didn’t want reports telling me who you were before you told me yourself,” I looked at her steadily, “That’s not how I wanted to know you.”

Something shifted in her face for a brief second. Her eyes softened slightly, the anger easing just enough for me to notice it. Then she shut it down again almost immediately.

“But you looked into Leone.”

“Yes.”

Her face hardened all over again.

“Because he’s not you,” I added.

Gianna stared at me and for the first time since this conversation started, she didn’t immediately throw another argument back at my face.

She just looked at me quietly like she was trying to find something underneath the words I was saying. Her fingers tightened slowly around the folder in her hands until the papers bent at the corners. She looked down at them for a second, blinking once too hard.

Then again.

And that’s when I realized her eyes were getting glossy.

My stomach tightened strangely, “Gianna,” I said carefully.

She laughed softly under her breath before shaking her head once, “You know what’s crazy?” she asked quietly, still looking down at the file, “You actually think that was supposed to make me feel better.”

I frowned immediately, “It was better.”

“How?”

That was clearly the wrong thing to say because her face crumpled for half a second before she turned away from me completely.

“You seriously don’t get it,” she whispered.

I genuinely didn’t. I could read financial behavior patterns across six countries. I could predict security breaches before they happened. I could tell when someone was lying within the first thirty seconds of a conversation.

But this?

This shit felt like trying to read a language I’d never learned.

“Then explain it to me,” I said, frustration slipping into my voice now, “Because I’m obviously missing something.”

“You talk about me like I’m different from everyone else,” she said softly, “but you never say why.”

I opened my mouth immediately because the answer was obvious. She was different but the second I tried putting it into words, everything in my head just… stalled.

“See?” she whispered.

“I care about you,” I told her, the words came out rougher than I expected.

She looked at me for a long second after that, “Yeah,” she said quietly, “Like family.”

“I don’t understand what you want me to say.”

“That’s the problem.”

I rubbed a frustrated hand over my face. The room suddenly felt too hot and too fucking complicated.