My Fake Boyfriend Is the School Bad Boy novel Chapter 76

Chapter 76 A Past Built on Unexpected Sacrifice

He opened his eyes. The dark, impenetrable bad boy was gone.

“I thought I could control it,” he whispered. “I thought I could keep the darkness away from you. But the second Miller insulted you in the hallway, I lost my mind. I hit that locker because I wanted to break his jaw. I wanted to tear him apart.”

A shiver raced down my spine. The intensity of his confession was suffocating.

“You proved Vanessa right,” I said, my voice cracking.

Ryder flinched. The tiny, involuntary movement broke my heart.

He dropped his hands from the brick wall. He stepped back, putting two feet of empty, agonizing space between us. He looked at his own hands, staring at the heavy silver rings and the fading pink scars across his knuckles.

“I know,” he said. The fight drained out of his posture. His broad shoulders slumped under a crushing, invisible burden.

He looked back at me. The golden shards in his eyes drowned in a deep, absolute despair. The impenetrable armor he wore to survive Crestview Prep shattered, leaving behind a boy bleeding out on the dusty floorboards.

“I have a brother, Ryder murmured. The confession scraped against the quiet.

My eyes opened wide. A brother. The Crestview rumor mill cataloged every detail of the Steinmann family. Richard Steinmann’s corporate acquisitions, his late wife’s charity galas, Ryder’s suspensions. No one ever mentioned another child.

“His name is Leo, Ryder said. He pulled back a fraction of an inch, enough to look into my eyes. His gaze was dark, haunted by ghosts I could not see. “He is two years younger than me. He does not go to Crestview. My father hides him.”

I kept my hands flat against my sides. “Why does he hide him?”

A bitter, jagged sigh tore out of Ryder’s throat. “Because Leo is soft. He is kind. He likes painting and stray dogs and comic books. In my father’s house, kindness is a liability. It is a weakness. My father looked at Leo and saw a target. He saw a kid who could never inherit the

family empire.”

I traced the seams of my skirt with my thumbs. I pictured a younger, softer boy living under the crushing, suffocating pressure of Richard Steinmann’s expectations.

“Sophomore year, Ryder continued. The muscle in his jaw ticked. “Leo wanted to prove he belonged. He wanted my father to stop looking at him with disgust. He fell in with a bad crowd on the edge of the city. Kids who did not care about the Steinmann name, or maybe they cared too much. They saw a rich kid with a massive allowance.”

Ryder paced a tight circle in the narrow corridor, his boots scuffing the dusty floorboards. The shadows seemed to cling to his broad

shoulders.

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12:55 Fri, Jul 10

Chapter 76 A Past Built on Unexpected Sacrifice

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“There was a guy from St. Jude’s, Ryder said. His voice turned cold, stripped of all warmth. ‘Marcus. He was seventeen. He dealt drugs out of a rusted Honda. He figured out Leo was an easy mark. Marcus fronted him product, forced Leo to hold it, and then demanded payment. Leo did not have the cash. My father controls every cent in that house. Leo panicked.”

Ryder stopped pacing and turned to face me. “Leo came to my room in the middle of the night. He was shaking. He told me Marcus wanted to meet behind the gas station on Route 9. Marcus said if Leo did not show up with the money, he would come to the house. He

would go to our father.”

Ryder swallowed hard. His Adam’s apple bobbed in the dim light.

“I told Leo to stay in his room. I took the keys to my truck. I went to the gas station.”

The silence in the corridor stretched, tight and brittle as a wire ready to snap.

“I did not bring a weapon, Raisa, Ryder whispered. The confession was a raw, bleeding wound laid bare between us. “I went there to pay Marcus off. I brought my own savings. I wanted to hand him the cash and tell him to leave my brother alone. But Marcus did not come alone. And he did not want the money. He wanted to make an example.”

Ryder looked down at his own hands.

“Marcus pulled the tire iron out of his trunk, Ryder said. The words fell like stones hitting the bottom of a deep well. “He swung it at my head. I dodged. The iron caught my shoulder. I went down. Marcus stood over me, laughing. He told me what he planned to do to Leo.

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