My Stepbrother's Dirty Little Secret novel Chapter 148

Chapter 148

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After the last lecture ended, I felt my phone buzz in my pocket. I pulled it out to see a text from Raphael. It was short and blunt, ordering me to get to the office immediately.

I stared at his name on the screen for a second, my heart doing that annoying little skip. I didn’t reply. I didn’t even lock my phone. I just shoved it back into my bag and turned my back on the campus. I ignored the order and headed straight for the only place that actually felt like home.

As I walked toward the bus stop, my head was a mess. My mind kept spinning in circles. We still needed so much money, and the clock was ticking. Waitressing tonight was better than nothing, but the tips were never enough to make a real dent in what we owed.

Tasha and I had been trying to land a stripping gig again at one of the fancy clubs downtown for a week now. I didn’t care about the clothes or the stage. I just knew it paid three times as much as carrying heavy trays all night Right now, I was thirsty for that kind of cash. The sooner this debt is over, the sooner things can finally go back to normal. I just wanted to breathe again.

I turned the corner into the alleyway where the Rose Garden’s entrance was hidden. I was already reaching into my bag for my keys when I stopped.

The heavy steel door was hanging off its hinges.

The metal was twisted, the frame splintered like something huge had just smashed right through it. My stomach dropped into my shoes.

“Tasha?” I called out, my voice coming out as a thin whisper, “Bri?”

I ran inside. I burst into the main room and froze. The beautiful bar I spent every night polishing was cracked in half. Glass was everywhere, thousands of tiny, sparkling shards of liquor bottles littering the floor like ice. The tables were flipped over, their legs snapped off, and the red velvet curtains had been ripped from the walls.

“Mama?” I screamed, my voice cracking.

I scrambled over a broken chair, my breath coming in terrified gasps. I found her behind the wreckage of the booth.

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