My Stepbrother's Dirty Little Secret novel Chapter 520

Chapter 520

1 reached forward, my hand stopped. I tried again, stopped again like glass stood between me and everything! wanted.

The orchestra swelled, the pressure grew. I moved across the stage, but never in a straight line. Something always forced me backward, sideways, away.

I knew exactly what it represented. The feeling of wanting to run while someone else held the leash. The feeling of never belonging to yourself.

My body folded inward, arms wrapping around my ribs, head lowered, making myself smaller, smaller and smaller.

The spotlight seemed enormous now. I felt tiny inside it, the dancers entered then, dressed in dark colors. They circled me slowly, and I kept dancing, trying to move forward.

Every time I did, one of them stepped into my path, blocking me, redirecting me, controlling where I could go.

The audience couldn’t know every detail, they didn’t need to, they only needed to understand the feeling of being trapped, being watched, being owned.

A hand caught my wrist, another caught my shoulder, another blocked my path. The shadows moved me around the stage like a doll.

I wasn’t leading anymore. I was being led. The music became louder, more chaotic. I spun between them, trying to escape, trying to find space, trying to breathe.

For one brief moment I broke free. I ran. The entire stage opened before me, freedom, just for a second. Then one of the dancers grabbed my arm, the movement jerked me backward.

I felt my chest tighten because I remembered exactly what that felt like, not the choreography, the feeling, thinking you escaped, only to realize the cage was still there.

The dancers slowly lifted their arms around me, creating bars. A prison made of bodies until it felt like I could barely move inside it.

I pressed my palms against the invisible walls.

The orchestra trembled. A single piano note echoed through the theater. My hands slowly dropped, my shoulders lowered.

Defeat.

For a moment, I stopped fighting. The cage had won, the shadows remained around me. The stage grew quiet so quiet I could hear my own breathing.

Then something cold touched my collarbone.

The necklace.

The tiny diamond resting against my skin, my fingers brushed it during the choreography, just for a second. A tiny movement no one else would notice but I felt it. The cool metal, the engraved words hidden on the back.

Ti amo.

His voice… his eyes..The way he had looked at me backstage. The way he had said the words without looking away.

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Something shifted inside me, just slightly and the cage shattered.

For a few seconds, I remained completely still in the center of the stage. My chest rose and fell.

I lifted my head slowly, and looked over my shoulder. Nobody was there. A tiny ache opened inside my chest, the movement began..I turned a few times.

Each turn ended the same way.

My eyes searching. My body stopping as if I expected to find someone standing behind me. Someone who never appeared. The audience couldn’t know his name. They couldn’t know who this part belonged to.

But they understood anyway.

Because everybody knew what it felt like to reach for something that wasn’t theirs. I took three slow steps forward.

Then extended my hand, not toward the audience, toward empty space beside me like someone was standing

there.

My fingers remained outstretched, nothing touched them. The music continued and I lowered my hand but it hurt

Then I began the pas de deux.

Alone.

Every ballerina knew the choreography. The man’s hand should have been on my waist. His arm should have guided the turn. His strength should have supported the lift.

There was nobody.

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