My Stepbrother's Dirty Little Secret novel Chapter 617

Chapter 617

Neither guard argued. The nurse slipped her hand into mine. Her fingers were warm, “Come on,” she whispered, We’ll walk slowly.”

I nodded because slowly sounded good. The hallway stretched in front of me, longer than I remembered. The stairs appeared. I stared at them.

There were…

Too many.

The nurse stayed beside me, “One at a time.”

I stepped onto the first stair, then another..I kept one hand tightly around the railing. Halfway down, I stopped. My breathing had become uneven.

The basement returned again.

Denise.

The knife.

Blood spraying across the floor.

Raphael’s face.

So calm.

Like he hadn’t just…

I squeezed my eyes shut.

No.

No…

Morgan.

Emma.

Brianna.

Were they alright?

Were they still there?

Did…

Did they come home?

The thoughts wouldn’t stay in order. They kept crashing into each other.

I looked at the nurse, “I…”

She waited.

“I need…” My throat tightened, “I need to talk to her.”

The nurse frowned slightly, “To who?”

I stared ahead, everything blurred again, “Morgan… I need… to talk to Morgan,” a lump formed in my throat, “I have to…”

I couldn’t remember why.

No.

I could.

Answers.

I needed answers about Emma, about Brianna, about what happened after I closed my eyes.

I swallowed hard, “I need to talk to her.”

The nurse gently squeezed my hand, “We’ll find Mr. Capone first.”

I nodded slowly.

Yes.

Raphael. He would know. He always knew everything. He won’t hurt me. One more step, then another.

Slowly, we continued toward the study, while the pounding inside my head grew louder with every heartbeat.

The closer I got to the study, the quieter the house became. The polished floor kept moving beneath my feet. I wasn’t sure if I was walking straight anymore. The nurse never let go of my hand. Every few seconds, she glanced at me like she was worried I might suddenly fall over.

The voices reached us before the door did, they were deep and muffled, too many people talking at once.

I stopped.

The nurse almost walked another step before realizing I wasn’t beside her anymore.

“…you lose patience.”

My fingers tightened against the wall. Lose patience? With who? Raphael didn’t answer or maybe he did. Maybe I just couldn’t hear him.

The hallway tilted slightly to the left. I blinked hard. Everything doubled before slowly coming back together.

Vincenzo kept talking and I got closer to the door this time, “You become cold. You expect people to reach the standards you’ve already reached.”

“It doesn’t always work when you’re trying to love another person.”

My chest tightened.

Love.

He was talking about…

Us.

I barely realized I had stopped breathing.

Then came the sentence that made my stomach sink.

“Gianna isn’t like you.”

The words echoed inside my head, I could hear him clearly now through the wood, he wasn’t exactly yelling but he was talking loud enough to hear when you get this close to the door.

“She struggles with things that come naturally to you.”

I closed my eyes.

“…She reads differently.”

A sharp ache spread through my chest.

What?

“…She writes differently.”

I looked down at the floor.

“…She’ll forget things.”

My eyes burned. My fingers began trembling. My chest felt strangely hollow. He was talking about me. He had to be.

Who else read differently? Who else mixed letters together? Heat rushed into my face. I knew those things already. I lived with them every day. I didn’t need to hear someone else list them out like flaws.