My Stepbrother's Dirty Little Secret novel Chapter 131

Chapter 131

My body felt like it was made of wet cement, sinking into the mattress. But I didn’t have the luxury of being tired.

Tired was for people who had a safety net. I only had the tightrope.

I’d drag myself to my morning classes, sitting in the back of the lecture halls with my eyes burning. The whiteboards were a disaster. The letters didn’t just dance, they revolted. They flipped upside down, mirrored each other, and slid off the screen. My dyslexia was a thick, gray fog that settled over everything. To keep the letters still, I’d reach into my bag.

Click. Zap.

The TENS unit would bite into my thighs under the desk. A sharp, electric sting would snap my brain back to reality. I’d grip my pen, forcing my shaky hand to move across the paper.·

By the time I reached the Orion Vector offices in the afternoon, I was running on fumes and caffeine. Aileen would give me that soft, worried look but whenever I needed it, she’d just nod and cover for me.

The archives were a nightmare of messy, handwritten ink. Thousands of pages of looping script that made my head spin. Every time the lines started to blur into gray smudges, I didn’t just use the TENS unit anymore. It wasn’t enough to keep the engine running.

I’d pull a heavy wooden ruler from the desk, a thick, solid piece of oak. I’d lay my hand flat on my desk discreetly and slam the wood down across my knuckles.

The pain was a cold, white light that cleared the static. I’d do the same to the tops of my feet.

“Stay awake,” I’d hiss to the cabin, “Work.”

I’d stay there until 8:00 PM, finishing the ledgers with a precision that would make Raphael satisfied.

Then, the transformation began.

The office girl disappeared. The Rose Garden girl took over.

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