My Stepbrother's Dirty Little Secret novel Chapter 753

Chapter 753

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“Word is…” Vito lowered his voice even further, “…he believed a lot of conditions people called permanent weren’t as permanent as everyone thought.”

Giovanni didn’t blink, “Did he prove it?”

“No.”

“Did he try?”

“They say he wasn’t afraid to and that’s what got him in jail. There were lines he wasn’t allowed to cross.”

Giovanni’s eyes narrowed, “What lines?”

“The kind that get doctors stripped of their license. The kind that get them locked up.”

Giovanni didn’t blink, “What did he do?”

Vito gave a small shrug, “As I said, enough to land himself on death row.”

Giovanni frowned, “And you think that’s supposed to make me trust him?”

“No,” Vito smiled faintly, “I think it tells you he stopped caring about rules a long time ago.”

Giovanni looked away for a moment. His mind drifted back to all the doctors he had been to in the last four years.

There isn’t a cure.

Vito watched him carefully, “He knows about dyslexia. He knows enough to think the brain can be

changed.”

Giovanni’s breathing slowed, “He said that?”

“He said the brain is just another machine,” Vito added, “And every machine can be taken apart.”

The noise of the dinner faded into the background for Giovanni, “What does he want?”

Vito answered immediately, “His life. He’s waiting for execution.”

“How long?”

“A few months.”

Giovanni looked down for a moment, “If he walks out of that prison, you think he can help me.”

Vito nodded, “He already has ideas.”

“Ideas?”

“He’d need money.”

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Giovanni nodded, “I’ve got money.”

“He’d need protection.”

“I can buy protection.”

“He’d need a new identity.”

Giovanni didn’t hesitate before saying, “I’ll give him one.”

Vito watched the young man for several long seconds, “What if he’s lying?”

Giovanni’s jaw clenched, “What if he isn’t? They all told me to live with it. They all told me I couldn’t be fixed. I’m done listening to people who tell me what can’t be done.”

Vito gave a slow nod, “I’ll set up the meeting, then we’ll get him off death row.”

Giovanni watched Vito disappear into the crowd. The laughter around him faded into meaningless noise. Men raised glasses. Cigars burned. Deals were made over expensive whiskey.

He heard none of it.

He had finally found someone who wasn’t looking at him with pity. Someone who hadn’t smiled and told him to “accept it.”

His whole fucking life people had given him the same answer.

Live with it.

Work around it.

It can’t be fixed.

He was sick of hearing what couldn’t be done.

Every time someone shoved a piece of paper in front of him, he became that scared little kid again. The one standing in front of a classroom while everyone laughed because the letters refused to stay still.

It didn’t matter how much money he earned now.

It didn’t matter that men carried guns for him.

It didn’t matter that people lowered their heads when he walked into a room.

The second somebody handed him something to read…

He was eight years old again.

Weak.

Ashamed.

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Stupid.

His fingers curled into fists.

No.

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He refused to spend the rest of his life hiding that part of himself.

There had to be a way.

People weren’t God. They didn’t know everything. They just hadn’t found the right man yet and maybe that man was Elias Crowe.

And if he wasn’t…

Giovanni would keep looking.

One doctor.

Then another.

Then another.

He didn’t care if it took ten years.

Twenty.

His whole fucking life.

He’d keep searching until somebody gave him a different answer. Because accepting it… that was never

an option.

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