My Stepbrother's Dirty Little Secret novel Chapter 525

Chapter 525

Gianna | Age 16

The backyard echoed with Giovanni’s laughter.

“That’s cheating!” I accused.

“It’s not cheating!” Giovanni shouted back immediately, “You’re slow!”

“I’m injured!” I lifted both hands dramatically.

The thick white bandages wrapped around my palms made even the simplest things annoying. I couldn’t properly grab anything. I couldn’t climb. I couldn’t even tie my own hair without wanting to throw something.

Giovanni my six-year-old brother laughed, “Excuses,”

I gasped, then lunged for him.

He squealed and bolted across the grass. He laughed so hard he nearly ran straight into a flower bush. I took off after him anyway.

We circled the garden twice before I finally cornered him beside the fountain. Giovanni collapsed onto the grass, laughing so hard his face had turned red.

I dropped beside him. For several seconds neither of us could breathe properly.

“You lost,” he laughed.

“You cheated!” I told him.

From the shaded patio nearby, Perla watched us over the rim of her coffee cup. The smile on her face had been there for the last twenty minutes. The kind of smile that always appeared whenever she saw Giovanni and me together. Which wasn’t often, dad usually made sure of that.

According to him, my illness was something Giovanni needed to be protected from. He spoke about it like it could spread through the air, like standing too close to me for too long might somehow infect his son.

So moments like this were rare.

Rare enough that Perla seemed determined to enjoy every second of them.

A few moments later Gio spotted something across the yard and immediately sprinted away to investigate it, neither of us bothered stopping him.

Perla moved from her chair and sat beside me on the grass instead.

“You know,” she said casually, “I was planning to go shopping this afternoon,” I groaned immediately and she laughed, “I haven’t even finished speaking.”

“Because I already know where this is going.”

“You should come.”

I looked toward the sky, “See?”

Perla nudged my shoulder lightly, “I’m serious.”

I shrugged, “I don’t really care about shopping.”

1/3

15 Born

“You never care about shopping.”

“Exactly.”

Perla sighed dramatically, “You are a sixteen-year-old girl.”

“And?”

“And that is concerning.”

I laughed, “How?”

“Because every girl your age should enjoy buying something occasionally.”

“I buy things.”

“When?”

I thought about it.

Perla waited.

“…Books.”

She stared, “That doesn’t count.”

She shook her head. For a moment she simply watched Giovanni chase butterflies near the flower beds.

Then her voice softened, “Gianna.”

I looked over, “Hm?”

Perla was still watching Giovanni, “You spend so much time thinking about school. You spend your mornings studying, then with your father, then more studying and then those horrible sessions with Vance, and then more studying.”

I frowned, “When you say it like that, it sounds bad.”

Perla turned toward me fully now, “The world is not going anywhere. School will still be there tomorrow. Your father’s business will still be there tomorrow.”

I picked at the edge of one of my bandages, “I know.”

Her hand found my knee, “You are allowed to be young, sweetheart.”

The words hit harder than they should have because she wasn’t wrong. I spent so much time planning the future that sometimes I forgot I was living in the present.

Perla smiled, “Come shopping with me.”

I made a face.

She rolled her eyes, “We’ll get lunch and coffee and maybe a dress.”

“I don’t need a dress.”

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