My Stepbrother's Dirty Little Secret novel Chapter 756

Chapter 756

One by one, I snapped photos of the financial statements, balance sheets, cash flow reports, debt schedules, and internal ledgers.

Highly confidential Syndicate records.

If he caught me doing this, I’d probably won’t leave this room alive. I saved the encrypted files anyway. There was something buried in these numbers that I couldn’t quite put together.

Maybe…

Raphael would see what I couldn’t.

“If something goes wrong before these loans are paid…”

Dad finished the sentence for me, “It becomes much harder, I know.”

I looked once more at the shrinking margins on my screen and then back to my Dad. He turned back toward the map as if the conversation had already ended.

I looked down at my phone one last time before locking the screen, “Dad,” I leaned one hip against the conference table, “There’s something you haven’t told me.”

He looked over his shoulder, one eyebrow lifting, “What?”

“You remember why I came back, right?”

A faint smile crossed his face, “You came home because this is your home.’

I squeezed my eyes shut for a second and then sighed, “I came back because you promised me something. You told me…” my voice softened, “You told me you could finish what we started. You promised me you’d fix me.”

A knot formed in my stomach.

“But since I got here, you’ve kept me busy every hour of every day. Meetings. Financials. Territory reports. Leadership lessons,” I spread my hands, “Every time I bring it up, you change the subject.”

“I’ve had more urgent matters to deal with.”

“More urgent than the reason I came here?”

His eyes settled on mine, “Yes.”

I stared at him, “I came back because I needed to know whether everything I went through… whether any of it was leading somewhere.”

Something flickered across his face.

“So stop putting me in conference rooms.” I took a step toward him, “Stop giving me another balance sheet to read. I want to see Dr. Vance.”

Dad’s mouth parted as if he were finally about to answer but Leone stepped inside the room.

“Don.”

Dad turned toward him.

Leone leaned in, lowering his voice until I couldn’t make out the words. He murmured something into Dad’s ear,

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quiet enough that only the two of them could hear.

Dad’s gaze returned to me, “We’ll talk about this later.”

The rest of the day passed in meetings or at least.

Dad called them meetings.

To me, they felt more like lessons.

We walked through warehouses filled with imported marble and Italian furniture. He introduced me to accountants who handled offshore companies, lawyers who specialized in tax law, and managers who oversaw hotels, construction firms, and shipping contracts.

Leone barely left Dad’s side. Every few minutes he’d lean in and whisper something only the two of them could hear. Watching them together made one thing painfully obvious, he’d always had the kind of closeness witlyDad that Gio and I never did.

And between every quiet moment, Gio’s voice found its way back into my head.

By lunch, I’d already tried three times to get Dad alone. The first was while we were reviewing contracts, after Leone had been called away.

“Dad…”

“Hm?”

“I asked you something-”

He slid another folder toward me, “Read the last page. Tell me what clause protects us if the supplier defaults.”

The conversation ended before it had even started. By the time I’d lowered my eyes to the document, Leone had returned. I nodded and did what Dad had asked.

The second time was during a tour of one of the Syndicate’s private warehouses.

“Dad… what exactly did Dr. Vance-”

He looked over, “Notice the cameras,” he pointed toward the ceiling, “Every blind spot becomes an opportunity for theft. Never assume loyalty is enough.”

I stopped talking.

The third time happened in the car.

Rain tapped softly against the windows as the city rolled past outside. Dad was talking while Leone answered emails on his tablet.

I stared out the window for another minute before finally speaking, “You still haven’t answered my question.”

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