My Stepbrother's Dirty Little Secret novel Chapter 489

Chapter 489

He was watching the girl he claimed to love get broken into pieces, and he was the one who had locked the door.

“That will be all for today,” Doctor Vance finally said, his voice completely calm as he wiped his bloody hands on a white towel. The wet fabric turned a bright, sickening pink, “The neural pathways have received a sufficient baseline. We will continue on Thursday.”

He didn’t help me. He just walked over to his sink and started running the water, the loud splashing noise filling the room.

The leather straps around my wrists had already been undone, but I hadn’t moved. My arms were shaking so violently they were practically jumping against the armrests. My fingers were completely ruined, dripping dark red onto my lap, throbbing with a massive, burning pain that made my whole body feel sick.

Get out… my brain whispered through the thick fog of pain. You have to get away from him.

I forced my weak, trembling legs to move. I slid my body forward, my clothes sticking to the leather chair from my own sweat, and tried to plant my boots on the slick floorboards. But the moment my feet took my weight, my knees completely gave out. My muscles felt like water.

I fell hard, my body crashing straight down onto the cold white tiles. My ruined hands hit the floor first to catch my fall, and a sharp scream tore out of my throat as the fresh injury slammed against the stone.

“Gianna!”

Before I could even blink, a pair of strong hands grabbed my shoulders. Leone was on the floor beside me in an instant, his knees sliding into the pool of my blood. His face was completely ruined now. His hands were shaking as he tried to slide his arms under my back to lift me up against his chest, “Gianna, don’t move. I’ve got you. Let me carry you. Please, just let me help you up.”

My legs were trembling so badly I thought they would break, but I forced them straight. I stood up on my own two feet, my breath coming in gasps, my chest heaving.

I didn’t look back at the doctor, and I didn’t look back at Leone. I turned toward the door and began to walk.

Every single step was a battle. The room was spinning in lazy, nauseating circles, the white walls blurring together. I had to reach out with my forearm, sliding it along the cold wall to keep myself from crashing back down onto the floor.

I stumbled, my boot catching on a stray piece of metal, but I gripped a doorframe and kept moving, dragging my body out of that sterile hellhole.

“Gianna, stop. Please, just listen to me for one second,” Leone begged, but he didn’t try to grab me again, he was too scared of my reaction but he stayed right at my shoulder, his voice breaking in a way I had never heard before. He sounded like a little boy, “I had to do it. If your father found out from someone else, it would have been worse. I was trying to protect you. I love you, Gianna. Please, let me help you bear this.”