My Stepbrother's Dirty Little Secret novel Chapter 528

Chapter 528

Streetlights glowed against the dark evening sky.

And standing in the middle of it all, clutching my backpack against my chest, I had absolutely no idea what I was supposed to do next.

For a moment, I just stood there, the bus hissed behind me. A few passengers walked around me with annoyed expressions, someone bumped my shoulder, someone else muttered something under their breath.

The bus doors closed, then it pulled away and suddenly I was alone, completely alone. The realization hit harder than I expected.

I had no guards, no driver, no Leone, no father or Perla. Nobody, just me. My stomach twisted. I looked down at the wrinkled paper in my hands. The letters immediately started moving around the page.

I blinked hard and tried again, same thing. The words tangled together. My dyslexia always got worse when I was stressed, right now I felt like I was drowning.

A horn blared somewhere nearby, I flinched. I needed to focus. I folded the paper carefully and shoved it into my pocket before I could accidentally lose it.

Then I started walking.

I didn’t know where, just walking because standing still felt worse. Every few minutes I looked over my shoulder, every tall man became one of Daddy’s guards. Every black SUV made my heart stop, every voice behind me made me speed up, my shoes slapped against the sidewalk.

The memory refused to leave me.

The dressing room. Perla shoving the envelope into my hands. The hidden exit. Then shouting that came afterward when the guards realized I was gone.

The sound of running footsteps. I could still hear them. I could still hear myself breathing as I sprinted through those narrow alleyways.

Garbage bags, brick walls, puddles darkness and fear. At one point I had heard voices so close behind me that I was certain it was over.

Then Perla had appeared somewhere behind them, shouting, creating noise, drawing their attention, sending them the wrong direction.

If she hadn’t done that… I would’ve been caught. The thought made my stomach hurt.

I stopped walking. A few tears burned behind my eyes.

No.

Don’t think about it, just find Mom. That was the plan.

Find Hazel Sterling.

Everything else would work itself out afterward. At least that’s what I kept telling myself. The problem was nobody seemed to know who Hazel Sterling was.

For hours I walked around the city, approaching strangers, excusing myself awkwardly, holding up the folded piece of paper, “Do you know Hazel Sterling?”

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“No.”

“Sorry.”

“Never heard of her.”

One man ignored me completely. A woman hurried away before I even finished speaking. An older lady gave me directions to somewhere completely different.

Nothing worked by sunset my feet hurt, by midnight my legs were shaking. I slept in a cheap motel that first night, the room smelled strange. The lock looked broken, I barely slept. Every noise woke me up, every sound made me think Daddy had found me.

The next morning I started again.

Looking at street signs I could barely read, getting lost, finding my way back, then getting lost again.

The second day was worse.

The money Perla had given me was disappearing fast. The food vouchers were almost gone. The city felt bigger, colder, less welcoming.

By afternoon I couldn’t stop thinking about home. About Perla and Giovanni.

I wondered if Daddy had already figured everything out. I wondered if Perla was safe. I wondered if she was alive.. That thought stayed with me the entire day.

The third day arrived, then disappeared just as fast, and still nothing. No Hazel Sterling, no address, no answers.

The envelope stayed tucked safely inside my backpack. The memory chip remained untouched. The money was

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