My Stepbrother's Dirty Little Secret novel Chapter 470

Chapter 470

Dr. Walker smiled faintly, “I think you’re a man who spent thirty years speaking a language he never realized he was speaking.”

I sank back into the chair, and I stared at the floor between my shoes.

For years, I had operated under the assumption that I was different, not better, not worse, just different.

I always felt like everybody else had received a manual for being human and mine had been lost somewhere in shipping.

And now this man was calmly suggesting that maybe nothing had ever been missing at all. Maybe I had simply been reading the wrong section.

“Different things. Sometimes childhood. Sometimes trauma. Sometimes neurodevelopmental differences. / Sometimes a combination,” I repeated his words quietly.

Then I looked up.

“So you’re telling me I’ve been feeling things this whole time.”

Dr. Walker nodded, “Most likely.”

A strange laugh escaped me. I leaned back into the chair and stared at the ceiling, “If that’s true… and if what Adriano said is true… If I love her…”

The words sounded foreign. My chest tightened again, not painfully this time, just enough for me to notice it.

“If that’s what this is…” I continued slowly, “Then I have to tell her.”

I looked back at him and one of his eyebrows lifted.

“Maybe, I don’t have the right words and I don’t know how people normally handle this but I know one thing. I’m not a coward.”

The words came out harder than I intended.

“I built a billion-dollar company from a basement before I was twenty; I graduated top of my class every single year from elementary school to university. I taught myself languages most people never bother learning. I can break into systems governments spend fortunes protecting. I’ve managed international operations, negotiated with men twice my age, and built financial networks that generate more money in a month than some corporations see in a year.”

I held his gaze.

“If I can do all of that, then I can tell one woman the truth.”

Dr. Walker watched me carefully, “Can you?”

“Right.”

“Anyway, I should go. I have… I have a lot of college work to finish before tomorrow. And I need to get some sleep.

“I mean, wasn’t it you who said we were open to dating other people? I was the one who said we should stay exclusive, you know, to avoid any messy overlapping or cheating. But… since you insisted on changing the rules, I thought, why not follow your lead?”

“I don’t remember insisting on anything,” I had said to her, “I simply suggested it was an option.”

“And I thought it was a wonderful suggestion, Raphael. It’s good for us. It keeps us both very aware of our reality… Stepbrother.”

“We keep this thing between us. Just you and me. No one else.”

“And what do we have, Raphael? What is this… thing?”

“This… whatever this is, Gianna. It’s our setup. And I’m not sharing it with anyone else.”

“It’s like you are only your real, crazy self when you are alone with me. You only let me see the real Gianna.”

“It’s… it’s because of you. You make me… you make me feel comfortable..You make me comfortable enough to be myself. With everyone else, I have to be careful. I have to hide. But with you… I can just be me. Even when I’m being annoying. You’re the only one who makes me feel safe enough to do that.”