My Stepbrother's Dirty Little Secret novel Chapter 491

Chapter 491

Raphael

I stood in front of the grave with my hands in my pockets and stared down at the stone.

The grass had been cut recently, the flowers were fresh. Claire replaced them every few weeks.

The wind moved through the trees above me, leaves rustled softly. I looked at my mother’s name then I looked away, then back again.

I wasn’t sure how long I stood there, ten minutes. Maybe thirty. Time felt different in cemeteries.

The words kept replaying inside my head over and over like a broken recording.

What kind of child doesn’t cry when their mother dies?

My jaw tightened as I looked down at the stone, “I know,” I said quietly.

The sound of my own voice felt strange. I didn’t talk much when I came here. Usually I just stood. Usually that was enough but today wasn’t.

Today Gianna had taken something I spent years trying not to think about and shoved it directly in front of my face.

I understood why.

She was grieving, she was angry and she was terrified. That didn’t mean her words hadn’t stayed with me, they had. They were still there, sitting in my head, refusing to leave.

I stared at the grave, “I did care.”

The words came out flat, not because I didn’t mean them because I wasn’t good at saying things like that. I never had been.

A normal person would probably know how to talk to a grave. A normal person would probably know how to talk about feelings.

I didn’t, so I settled for facts. Facts made sense. Facts were easier.

“I remember the hospital.”

My eyes drifted toward the rows of graves beyond hers.

“I remember the smell.”

Antiseptic, medicine, those strange plastic curtains. I remembered all of it. I remembered exactly what she looked like the last time I saw her alive. I remembered the color of her blanket. The shape of her hands. The way her wedding ring looked loose on her finger. I remembered all of it.

I swallowed, “I remember being angry.”

I remembered not understanding why everyone was crying, not because I didn’t care because my brain was busy trying to solve the problem.

There had to be a solution.

There was always a solution.

There should have been one.

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