My Stepbrother's Dirty Little Secret novel Chapter 385

Chapter 385

My eyebrows drew together, a deep frown settling onto my forehead. I stared down at him, my heart skipping a beat. He was opening up to me. For the very first time, Raphael Capone was showing me the messy, broken parts underneath his flawless surface.

“I try to say one thing,” Raphael continued, his words coming out slow, as if he were carefully picking each one from a minefield, “I try to tell you that I want to protect you, that I want to help you carry the heavy things. But when the words actually leave my mouth, they come out looking completely different. They come out harsh. They sound cold and unfeeling, like a machine.”

He slid his hand just a tiny bit higher, his warm palm pressing against my bare skin.

“Do you know that I have never cried,” he whispered, his eyes dropping to the dark sheets, “In my entire life, I don’t even know what it feels like to cry. I didn’t cry when my mom died. Vince cried for the first time right in front of me that day, and Adriano couldn’t even breathe. But I didn’t do anything. I didn’t shed a single tear. I was just… blank. I couldn’t put into words what I felt on that day, or anything that came after that.”

With a careful movement, he pushed the hem of my loose sleeping shorts up higher so he could look at the hidden marks. He traced the lines over and over with the tip of his thumb, his touch lighter than a feather.

“But I’m not a robot, Gianna,” he murmured, “I feel things. I’m just… I’m just not wired right in the head to tell people about it.”

I kept my face perfectly still, my jaw locked tight, but inside, my mind was spinning in absolute circles. The cold, logical king of the executive floor was sitting at the foot of my bed, telling me his own brain was flawed.

“And if you haven’t noticed,” he added, a small, sad twist tugging at the corner of his mouth, “and I’m pretty sure you haven’t, because you don’t seem to notice anything about me at all… I am a bit of a loner. I don’t have friends, Gianna. I have acquaintances, but not friends.”

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