My Stepbrother's Dirty Little Secret novel Chapter 680

Chapter 680

My fingers tightened beneath the table. I already knew where this was going.

“One way or another, you’re going to remain a Capone,” he looked at me, “Isn’t that right, Raphael?”

Every eye in the root shifted toward me. I didn’t answer. My heartbeat stayed perfectly even. My face/stayed blank but inside, everything stopped.

I looked at Gianna and she finally dooked back at me. For the first time since she’d spoken, her eyes/searched mine, waiting, hoping, and afraid.

A month ago…

I would’ve answered without thinking.

I would’ve told Vincenzo that she deserved time, space, choice but now, none of those answers came easily because love without trust wasn’t stable. It was dependency.

And I refused to build a future on that.

I still loved her enough that saying the wrong thing now could destroy whatever was left between us, enough that saying the right thing hurt even more.

So I kept looking at her, trying to find the woman who used to tell me everything, trying to understand whether she was still standing somewhere behind the silence she’d built between us.

I wanted to help her, that hadn’t changed. What had changed… was how.

I slowly shifted my attention back to Vincenzo, “I don’t believe people should be kept somewhere against their will. But…” I leaned back in my chair, fixing my glasses, “I also don’t believe someone in her current state should be making life-changing decisions.”

Gianna’s expression immediately tightened, “I’m perfectly capable of deciding where I want to go.

I looked at her, “No,” the word came out calm, “You aren’t.”

A flash of hurt crossed her face.

But that didn’t stop me from telling her the truth, “You’re grieving. You isolated yourself for nearly a month. You’ve withdrawn from everyone. You’ve made decisions based almost entirely on that. None of those things make you weak. They do make your judgment unreliable.”

She stared at me, “So now you think I’m crazy?”

“I didn’t say that.”

She glared at me, “You implied it.”

“I didn’t… imply anything. I simply said you’re emotionally compromised right now. My opinion would be exactly the same if this were Vincenzo, Adriano, Dante, or myself.”

Gianna didn’t even acknowledge him. She kept looking at me, “I thought… I thought you’d understand.”

“I understand more than you think,” I paused, “But understanding doesn’t require agreement.”

She blinked rapidly, “So that’s it? You’ve decided for me too?”

“I haven’t decided anything. I told you exactly what I think. And if you leave,” I stopped, the next words sat heavily in my chest, “…leave because it’s what you truly want, not because grief convinced you that running away will fix it.”

Her eyes widened, she was about to say something again but Vincenzo raised his hand, “The conversation is over. We’ll revisit this after everyone has had time to think,” he looked directly at Gianna, “But until then, you’re staying exactly where I can see you.”

Nobody challenged him, not even her. She simply sat there, staring down at her untouched plate.

Gianna

The cemetery was even quieter than the last time, only this time, there were more guns.

Capone soldiers stood along every pathway, near every entrance, and between almost every row of graves. Some watched the tree line. Others watched my father. A few watched me.