My Stepbrother's Dirty Little Secret novel Chapter 768

Chapter 768

Giovanni looked away.

“The next thing I remember,” he swallowed, “…was waking up in a hospital.”

My hand covered my mouth.

“I couldn’t move.”

My eyes filled instantly, “What do you mean…’

“I couldn’t move, my legs, my arms, my back. My own body wouldn’t listen to me.”

The room blurred, “Oh my God…”

The words slipped out as little more than a breath. I reached for him without thinking. My hand wrapped around his.

“The doctors told Dad the electrical damage had injured my spinal cord. They called it…” he searched for the words, “…an incomplete spinal cord injury. They weren’t sure how much function would come back.”

I felt sick.

I looked at my brother.

If I had never left, he would’ve been himself, he wouldn’t have been put through that.

A tear rolled down my cheek, “I’m sorry.”

“It wasn’t your fault, Gianna. After that…” he let out a slow breath, “Dad shut everything down. He said he wasn’t willing to lose both of his children. He’d already lost you. He almost lost me.”

I closed my eyes.

“He changed.”

I looked at him again.

“He stopped talking about the treatments. He stopped talking about Dr. Vance, but he also stopped looking at me the same way. One day he came into my room. I was still learning how to stand back on my own again. He stood at the end of my bed… and told me I wasn’t as strong as you.”

My heart broke.

“He said, ‘If you were Gianna, you wouldn’t still be lying in that bed. She would’ve fought harder. She would’ve gotten up instead of lying there like a coward.'”

I blinked, I couldn’t find a single word to say. So I did the only thing I could. I moved closer, wrapped both arms around my brother.

And held him.

When I finally pulled back, I wiped at my face with the heel of my hand. My eyes drifted toward his legs before returning to him, “Can I ask you something?”

Giovanni gave a small nod, “You can ask me anything.”

I hesitated.

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I felt wrong somehow.

After everything he’d just told me, this wasn’t the question I should’ve been thinking about but I couldn’t stop thinking about it

“Do you…” I swallowed. “Do you think any of it ever worked? The treatments,” I clarified quietly. “Everything Dad and Dr. Vance put us through…” I searched his face, “Do you think they ever actually accomplished anything?”

Giovanni let out a slow breath. His shoulders lifted in a small shrug before falling again, “I don’t know. I’ve asked myself that more times than I can count. Maybe they changed something. I’ll never know who I would’ve been if they’d just… left us alone. I don’t know whether I’m living with the damage they caused or with the person they were trying to create.”

A lump formed in my throat.

“I don’t have that answer. Neither of us knows what our brains would’ve looked like without all of it.”

I lowered my eyes for a moment, then I looked up, “I’m going to find out.”

Giovanni studied my face for a long moment, “How are you going to do that?”

I gave him a nod, “Leave that to me.”

I knew where every guard usually stood. I knew which corridors stayed empty the longest. Growing up here has taught me more than etiquette. It had taught me how to disappear.

Every step toward Dad’s study felt heavier than the last. I stopped outside the door, listening but heard nothing. I wrapped my fingers around the handle and eased it open.

The room greeted me exactly as it had a few hours earlier. The fireplace had burned down to glowing embers. His whiskey glass still rested on the bar. Tomorrow’s schedule was gone, Leone must have taken it.

I quietly shut the door behind me.

My eyes immediately found the bookshelf. For a few seconds, I simply stared at it then I walked over. My fingers moved across the shelves until they found the familiar spine.

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