My Stepbrother's Dirty Little Secret novel Chapter 728

Chapter 728

Gianna

His lips curved into a slow, unsettling smile, “Welcome back,” he murmured, “I’ve missed my wife.”

The lock echoed in my head far louder than it should have. Leone stood between me and the only exit, his broad shoulders blocking the door completely. He looked exactly the same as I remembered.

Six years ago, hearing him call me “his wife” would’ve made my heart race.

Now, I felt nothing, only exhaustion and distance. I folded my arms across my chest, “What do you want, Leone?”

He tilted his head slightly, almost confused by my tone, “What happened to you?” His eyes moved over my face as though searching for the girl he’d once known, “Why are you looking at me like I’m the enemy? I’m still the same man you left behind. Have you forgotten everything we were?”

A bitter smile pulled at my lips, “No. I remember every single thing. I have just… I have outgrown it.”

His smile faltered, “You’re still angry… because of that day,” he rubbed the back of his neck, “The session with Dr. Vance. And the thing with that bear. I didn’t have a choice, Gianna. Your father’s orders come

first. I followed orders.”

I blinked and suddenly Leone disappeared, and I was looking at Raphael, standing in front of Vincenzo in the Void.

His brother had ordered him aside. Raphael hadn’t moved. Then… I’d watched him slam the man he respected most in this world against a wall because he had frightened me.

Back then…

Raphael and I hadn’t even admitted we loved each other.

He still chose me over Vincenzo’s order without hesitation. Without thinking what it would cost him.

I smiled, “Someone happened.”

Leone stayed silent.

“When he looked at the scars on my body for the first time,” my throat tightened, “he didn’t look away, he wasn’t disgusted. He just saw me as the most desirable woman in the world. And that changed me a little.”

My fingers brushed the phone in my pocket without thinking.

“Then he always spoke the truth, even when it hurt, even when it was the last thing I wanted to hear, and that changed me a little more. He challenged me instead of making decisions for me. He argued with me, listened to me, and treated my opinions like they mattered, and that changed me a little more.”

I let out a laugh.

“Every single piece of him, every little thing he did, changed something inside me until one day I realized everything had changed. He drives me insane. Half the time I want to throw something at his head, and somehow, he’s still the easiest person I’ve ever been with. Because he knows every ugly part of me. The angry parts. The terrified parts. The parts I try to hide. The broken parts. And he stayed.”