My Stepbrother's Dirty Little Secret novel Chapter 614

Chapter 614

His expression hardened and I drew in a slow breath and looked away, because every point he made was rooted in observable fact.

“…you lose your patience. You don’t scream or throw things but you become cold. You cut people off. You expect people to meet the standard you’ve set in your own head. And when they don’t, you don’t always handle it well. That works when you’re running an empire. It doesn’t always work when you’re loving another human being.

His voice softened.

“Gianna isn’t you and you know that. She struggles with things that come naturally to you. She reads differently, writes differently. She’ll forget things. She’ll misunderstand things. She’ll make mistakes that aren’t her fault.

He kept measuring Gianna against me. That wasn’t how I’d ever measured her. She wasn’t valuable because she thought the way I did. She was valuable because she didn’t.

He took a deep breath, shaking his head, “You need someone who challenges you. Someone who thinks the way you think. Someone who can stand beside you without you having to carry them.”

Vincenzo’s eyes drifted toward the ceiling. He stayed quiet for several seconds. It wasn’t hesitation. He was deciding how much honesty I could take. When he looked back at me, his expression had hardened again.

“Gianna needs someone patient enough to build their life around her weaknesses,” his eyes returned to me, ” You’re not patient, you’re efficient. Those aren’t the same thing.”

I watched his face instead of reacting. His pupils hadn’t changed. His breathing remained steady. He believed every word he was saying.

“What happens the day she disappoints the part of you that demands everything be done perfectly? What happens if one day you look at each other and realize love isn’t enough? What happens if the two of you discover you’re hurting each other instead of helping each other? You’ll slow yourself down every single day just to keep her beside you. And one day… you’ll resent it.”

I immediately began looking for the flaw in his conclusion. There were several, actually. He was evaluating Gianna as though she were applying for a position in the organization. As though relationships were built on efficiency.

They weren’t.

At least… ours wasn’t.

“We’ve already lived through something like that. When Madeleine made a mistake… we chose Adriano.”

A flicker of regret crossed his face.

“I still carry that..I won’t pretend I don’t. So answer me this. What happens if one day you and Gianna are standing on opposite sides of my office and both of you expect me to choose?”

He spread one hand helplessly.

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