My Stepbrother's Dirty Little Secret novel Chapter 717

Chapter 717

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My bare feet hit the floor. A sharp sting shot through my arm. I looked down. A tiny red mark sat near the inside of my elbow.

My jaw tightened, “I cannot believe he did that.”

I rubbed the spot harder than necessary before looking around the room.

My handbag. Where was my handbag? Panic rose so quickly it almost stole my breath. My eyes darted across every surface. The desk, the chair, the wardrobe.

Then…

The nightstand.

My handbag sat there neatly, I immediately rummaged through it to see if anything had been taken but everything was there, my phone, my wallet, my necklace.

I grabbed my phone so quickly it almost slipped from my fingers. The screen lit up and there was nothing.

No missed calls.

No unread messages.

No texts.

No voicemail.

I stared at the screen. Maybe, they were still in the air, but Raphael can- maybe there wasn’t any signal

this time.

I refreshed my messages, but still nothing. My thumb opened Raphael’s conversation. The last message was still mine. No reply. Something inside my chest quietly folded in on itself.

For one stupid second, I’d thought he would have sent my hundreds of messages.

I’m coming.

Wait for me.

Don’t panic.

Anything. Instead, there was complete silence. He meant it, right? He meant it when he said things between us were over if I left with Dad.

I swallowed. It hurt far more than I wanted it to. No. I shook my head once. I wouldn’t let him. He can’t leave me. He was probably trying to figure out a way to get me back. He wasn’t someone who gave up. I held the phone against my chest for one brief second, I needed to know what happened.

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Chapter 717

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I pulled my bedroom door open, the hallway looked untouched. The same framed family photographs lined the walls.

Me missing my two front teeth.

Giovanni asleep against Perla’s shoulder.

Dad and us.

My feet carried me toward the staircase almost on their own. The estate stretched around me like a memory I had spent years trying to bury.

The hallway where Daddy had taught me how to ride my first bicycle indoors because it had been raining

outside.

The window where Mom used to wave every morning before school.

The memories came too easily.

Good ones and the bad ones.

They were tangled together so tightly I couldn’t separate them anymore. The front hall came into view. The marble floors gleamed beneath the morning light. Fresh flowers sat in the same crystal vase. The grandfather clock still ticked. It sounded exactly the same like time had been waiting for me to come

home.

I reached the bottom step and everything was too quiet. No Giovanni racing through the halls pretending he was a superhero. No Perla reminding the staff to slow down before someone broke something. No. Dad barking orders over the phone.

I turned slowly, scanning the enormous entrance hall, “Dad?”

My voice echoed through the house.

I frowned, “Perla?”

Nothing.

My stomach tightened, “Gio?”

Then I heard something, I immediately followed the sound of quiet voices until they led me to the formal living room.

The doors stood half open and I stopped in the doorway.

Dad sat in his usual chair with several thick files spread neatly across the coffee table. Leone occupied the sofa opposite him, reading through another stack of papers while making notes with a fountain pen.

The moment Dad looked up, a smile crossed his face, “You’re awake.”

My hand tightened around my phone, “Dad…” I said quietly, “you really knocked me out.”

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Chapter 217

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