My Stepbrother's Dirty Little Secret novel Chapter 654

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Chapter 654

Raphael

I didn’t move for what felt like a very long time. Only our breathing filled the darkness. My heartbeat had finally begun to slow, but my mind hadn’t.

It kept returning to the same few minutes over and over again, examining them from different angles, searching for something I had missed.

Nothing fit.

I sat up slowly. The mattress shifted beneath me. Gianna didn’t react. She had already turned onto her side, facing the wall.

Her eyes were closed now. Whether she was asleep or simply exhausted enough to stop moving, I couldn’t tell.

Quietly, I adjusted my boxers before reaching for the blanket that had slipped down around her waist. I pulled it higher carefully until it rested beneath her chin.

A few strands of hair had fallen across her face. I tucked them behind her ear. She didn’t stir or react to my touch. I rested my hand lightly against her forehead, checking her body temperature.

I remained beside the bed for another twenty minutes, watching, counting every breath without realizing I was doing it.

When the rhythm never changed, I finally accepted that she had fallen asleep.

Only then did I stand.

I picked up my shirt from the chair and pulled it over my head before stepping into my trousers. My eyes drifted back to the bed one last time. She looked impossibly small beneath the blanket as though grief itself had hollowed her out.

I switched off the bedside lamp.

The room disappeared into darkness except for the faint moonlight spilling through the curtains.

Without making a sound, I slipped out of her bedroom and quietly closed the door behind me.

The hallway felt colder. The estate, which normally never truly rested, had grown unusually quiet after the funeral. Even the guards spoke in lower voices tonight.

I walked to my room almost automatically.

The moment I stepped inside, a familiar shape shifted inside the large enclosure near the window.

Medusa.

She slowly lifted her head, her tongue flicking once before disappearing again. I walked over and rested my hand lightly against the glass. She watched me for a few seconds before coiling back into herself beneath the heat lamp.