My Stepbrother's Dirty Little Secret novel Chapter 599

Chapter 599

Denise collapsed into herself, a broken, animalistic wail tearing from her throat as her head hung so low her forehead nearly touched the blood pooling beneath her.

“That is the truth, Gianna!” she cried. “I was just so tired. You don’t know what it’s like to have people threatening to kill you every single night because your pockets are empty. I never wanted to hurt you, I swear to God, I never wanted to cause you pain… but I had no choice. I had no choice left.”

“Yes, you did,” Gianna’s voice broke, “All you had to do was ask!” she sobbed, each word forcing itself out so violently she nearly choked on it. She folded over herself, she clutched at her stomach as if the ache inside her had become physical, “All you had to do was ask me, Mama D! I would’ve given you anything! I would’ve helped you!”

“Asking never gets you what you want, Gianna,” Denise rasped, “It never does. In this world, the moment you ask for help, people wrap a chain around your neck. So I made a plan. I didn’t want to hurt you. I love you so much, Gianna… I love you as if you were my own daughter… but the Capones have millions. To them, it was nothing.”

A ragged breath escaped her.

“To me… it was my life.”

I shut my eyes for a second, not because Denise’s confession affected me but because I had already calculated what it would do to Gianna.

People survive torture. They survive broken bones, bullets, starvation.

Betrayal is different.

It rewrites every memory that came before it. I knew the exact moment her heart would fracture. It wasn’t when Denise admitted what she’d done.

It was when Gianna realized the woman she trusted had weighed her life against a debt… and decided the debt was worth more.

Denise paused, her breath hitching violently as a sharp spike of agony shot through her shattered bone. She clutched her thigh harder, her fingers sinking deep into the dark red wound.

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