My Stepbrother's Dirty Little Secret novel Chapter 643

Chapter 643

She trembled, not with loud sobs anymore, just tiny shakes that never seemed to stop.

I rested my cheek against the top of her head, “I’ve got you.”

Her fingers tightened in the back of my dress, “I know.”

A few more seconds passed, then her quiet voice reached me, “No matter what happens now… we still have each. other,” she pulled back just enough to look up at me, “Right?”

I cupped both sides of her face, “You will never wake up one day and wonder if you’re alone, not while I’m breathing. I don’t care where life takes us. I don’t care how old you get. You could be ten or fifty. You will always me.”

Her lip began to tremble, “I’ll annoy you forever?”

A tiny smile touched my mouth, “You already do.”

She gave the smallest, weakest laugh. I smiled a little more. And then she simply clung to me with everything she had left.

“I miss her,” she whispered.

“I know.”

“I want Mom.”

“Me too.”

“I don’t know how to live without her.”

I held her tighter, “You don’t have to know today.”

I kissed the top of her head exactly the way Mom used to kiss ours.

“We’ll figure out…”

Someone touched my elbow, very gently, “Gianna…”

I turned.

Claire gave me a small nod toward the front of the room, “It’s time.”

For a second, I simply looked at her. I nodded and my feet carried me forward before my mind agreed to move. Every face in the room turned toward me.

I looked toward Jules. She was crying quietly into Claire’s shoulder.

“My sister and I never had to wonder whether we were loved. We knew every single day. Sometimes through hugs Sometimes through lectures,” I smiled again, “And sometimes by hearing our full names when we’d done something incredibly stupid.”

A few soft laughs echoed through the room.

“My mom didn’t leave us riches. She didn’t leave us power. What she left us is much harder to build. She left us our values. She taught us to respect ourselves. To protect the people we love. To apologize when we’re wrong. To stand back up after life knocks us down.”

My fingers tightened slightly around the edge of the podium.

Alump settled in my throat, “And life has found countless ways to knock me down. Sometimes harder than I thought I could survive. But every single time… she reminded me that intelligence means nothing if you use it to make people feel small. That strength isn’t measured by how much pain you can cause but by how much pain you can carry without becoming cruel.”

The room stayed completely silent.

“My whole childhood that I spent away from her, I thought something inside me was broken. And then she got my custody and I remember sitting on the kitchen floor because I couldn’t make the words stay still. I was crying. I told her I wished I had someone else’s brain.”

A tiny smile touched my lips.

“She sat down beside me, brushed my tears away, and said, ‘If I changed your brain, I’d lose the very thing that makes you… you. I don’t want someone else’s daughter. I want mine. Exactly as she is.'”