My Stepbrother's Dirty Little Secret novel Chapter 476

Chapter 476

And suddenly I understood why everyone had been acting strange.

Why Salvatore looked at her the way he did.

Why Vincenzo insisted on taking her to the doctor himself.

Why Claire checked on her constantly.

Why everyone seemed careful around her.

God.

God.

God.

My stomach lurched.

Mom’s voice broke, “Every day that passes…. is one less day. One less day with you. One less day with Jules and one less day with this family.”

Then suddenly a chair scraped violently against the floor. Jules was already running.

Tears streaming down her face, “No! No!”

She launched herself at Mom, practically climbing into her lap. Her arms wrapping around her mother’s neck so tightly it looked painful.

“No, Mommy.”

Mom immediately wrapped her arms around her, holding her close, holding her like she never wanted to let go.

Jules buried her face against her shoulder, “No, no, no. Mommy, don’t say that.”

Mom started crying harder. So did Claire. Maddie turned away completely.

Jules clung tighter, “So we’ll fix it. We’ll get doctors. The best doctors. Papa Sal said he has lots of money. We’ll buy better doctors,” her little hands grabbed mom’s face, “We’ll buy all of them. We’ll fix it.”

Mom broke completely, pulling Jules against her chest, crying into her hair. Meanwhile I stood there frozen unable to move, unable to think, unable to process.

Because suddenly every strange thing from the last few months made sense, every conversation, every look, every moment. My mother’s words kept echoing inside my head.

ALS.

ALS.

ALS.

Every single person at this table knew, every single one, except me, except Jules.

My eyes moved around the room slowly.

Claire.

Maddie.

Vincenzo.

Adriano.

Salvatore.

Raphael.

All of them.

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