My Stepbrother's Dirty Little Secret novel Chapter 445

Chapter 445

Of course he felt the distance, the indifference and the complete lack of warmth.

I could practically hear him trying to figure me out, trying to find the version of me he remembered. The version that wasn’t there anymore.

His voice softened, “Are you okay?”

A year ago that question would have affected me, now it didn’t. It was strange. I had expected anger, pain and

longing whenever I thought about what we had in the past. Instead I felt absolutely nothing.

“I’m fine.”

“You don’t sound fine.”

“You didn’t call to discuss my feelings, did you, Leone?”

“You texted me first.”

The reminder immediately made my jaw tighten. A mistake. A stupid moment. A weak moment.

I closed my eyes briefly, “I know.”

His voice grew gentler, “I wasn’t expecting your message.’

I shook my head, “I shouldn’t have sent it.”

“What?”

“I said I shouldn’t have sent it.”

“Why-”

“It was a mistake!”

His breathing changed, just slightly, “You don’t mean that.”

“I do.”

“No.”

A small smile touched my mouth. There it was already, the Leone I remembered. The one who heard only what he wanted to hear.

“You sent me a message after years, Gianna…” he trailed off.

“And?”

“You reached out and you told me that you missed me.’

I rolled my eyes, “It doesn’t mean what you think it means. I was having a bad day.”

“That’s all?”

“That’s all.”

“You expect me to believe that?”

My face scrunched up in annoyance, “I don’t care what you believe.”

The words came out snappier than I intended. For a second neither of us spoke.

Then he sighed, “You’re still angry.”

“No.”

“You’re still hurt.”

I wasn’t either of those things, not angry, not hurt, “No.”

“Gianna, you have no idea what I went through after you-”

I pushed away from the wall and started walking, “I only answered because you wouldn’t stop calling. That’s it I wanted to tell you to stop.”

“Gianna, I kept calling because I was worried,” his voice tightened, “You reached out to me after all these years and then vanished. What was I supposed to think? I thought something was wrong. I thought maybe you needed me. Maybe you needed help-”

His voice turned softer, “I’ve missed you.”

His words didn’t stir up anything inside of me, no butterflies, no ache. Nothing. The realization hit me so suddenly that I nearly stopped walking.

Oh.

Oh.

I really didn’t love him.

Maybe I never did.

The discovery should have been sad instead it felt freeing like cutting the final thread tying me to a life I had already outgrown.

“Leone.”

His voice immediately warmed, “Yeah, my love?”

“Don’t call me that,” I walked down the stone path, “My head is clear now.”

“Gianna-”

“No. Listen,” I cut him off and for once, he did. I took a breath, “I don’t want this.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means stop calling.”

His tone changed instantly, not much, the softness remained but something harder appeared underneath it, “I waited years for you.”

I shook my head once, “I didn’t ask you to do that.”

“You reached out first. That has to mean something! Why did you text me?”

I rubbed my forehead because the truth was embarrassing. For one stupid moment, I had been lonely and lost inside my own head.

And when everything started feeling too complicated, I reached for something familiar, something from my past, something I already understood.