My Stepbrother's Dirty Little Secret novel Chapter 122

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Chapter 122

Then, she looked back at me.

Our eyes locked for a heartbeat. There was no warmth there. Her face hardened, her brow furrowing into a deep frown of pure disgust.

It wasn’t jealousy, it was the look of someone who had just stepped in something foul and couldn’t get the smell out of her clothes.

She snapped her gaze away, turning her back to me as if the mere sight of my presence was an insult to her morning.

“Go,” I told the girl, my hand applying a final, bruising pressure to her spine to send her toward the front doors

“What?” Claire’s glare was sharp, but the corner of her mouth quirked with the kind of dark humor we traded like currency, “No tip? No ‘thank you for your service to the patriarchy’? You really are a prick, Raphael. Alessia is right, you’re a lost cause. You need to find a nice girl and settle down.”

Before I could fire back a retort, she gasped, her eyes lighting up with a truly evil idea.

“That’s it. I’m setting you up on a blind date. Someone wholesome. Someone who will make you miserable.”

Then I was again cut off by Claire’s husband.

“Sit down, Raphael,” Vince ordered, “We need to talk. And next time, you keep your… women out of the common areas. This is where our kids play. It’s a home, not your personal clubhouse. Don’t make me say it again.”

“I was trying to sneak her out before the rest of you woke up,” I said, my tone dry.

It was the truth, even if it didn’t change the fact that I’d been caught. I moved toward the couch, feeling every eye in the room on me.

“We have a leak in the encrypted ledger,” Vincenzo continued, “Someone’s been probing the offshore nodes in the Caymans. I need you to trace the handshake before the markets open in New York.”