My Stepbrother's Dirty Little Secret novel Chapter 778

Chapter 778

I defended the man who had tied me to a chair, the man who watched while I screamed, the man who kept bringing me back.

“Why!” the word ripped out of me, “Why!”

I hit the floor again, hard enough that pain exploded through my hand.

“I did everything! I listened! I tried! I was good!”

Everything…

Everything I had carried for years, every nightmare, every panic attack, every time electricity flashed in a dream and I woke up shaking, every time I looked at a book and heard Dr. Vance’s voice telling me to try harder. Every time I looked in the mirror and wondered why my own brain wasn’t good enough.

Every time I thought, maybe if I was smarter, maybe if I tried harder, maybe if I wasn’t broken… none of it had ever been because of me.

I had spent years hating myself for someone else’s lie. I believed I wasn’t good enough for Raphael’s love for someone else’s lie.

A slow, shaking breath filled my lungs.

I remembered the way he always watched me. The way he never made me feel stupid for being dyslexic. The way he waited. The way he always made space for me without saying a single word.

Something inside me cracked completely.

Because for the first time, I understood why being with the Capones always felt so different.

Most of them had never asked me to become someone else.

They had argued with me, protected me, annoyed me, made me laugh, made me angry but above all, they loved

I buried my face in my hands. The tears stopped, not because I felt better but because something hotter had taken their place.

I slowly lifted my head. The grief was still there but it was changing, hardening, every file surrounding me suddenly looked different.

Evidence.

My hands slowly curled into fists again. This time, I wasn’t shaking. I looked toward the shelves, toward my father’s life’s work, toward twenty-five years of obsession.

“You stole my childhood. You stole my mother. You stole my brother. You made me spend years believing I was the one who needed to earn your love.”

I stood. My father had built this place like a monument. A monument to his obsession, to his lies, to every child whose pain he had called progress.

My jaw tightened until it hurt, “No.”

And for the first time since walking back into Philadelphia, I wasn’t looking for answers anymore.

1/3

+15 Benus

I had them all.

Then my eyes caught another divider in the drawer, bright red. The tab simply read…

REACTIVATION

My heartbeat slowed. I flipped it open immediately. There were fresh signatures, fresh dates.

Six months ago.

I frowned harder.

“Previous conclusions require reassessment.”

“Project resumed under revised operational security.”

“Current laboratory location classified.”

My stomach dropped.

“Dr. Arthur Vance assumes direct supervision.”

I froze.

Dr. Vance was still working. Dad had started everything again.

Six months ago.

After shutting it down for two years. He had opened it again.

Why?

My eyes dropped lower. One sentence had been written by hand.

“Financial collapse leaves no remaining alternatives.”

I blinked.

Financial…

Collapse?

I whispered, “He actually…”

My words died. He had nearly lost Gio. He had learned the research was built on lies. He had discovered Dr. Vance had fooled him for twenty-five years.

And somehow, he had still gone back. My hands began moving before I even thought about it.

I opened up the camera and started taking pictures. Every report, every meeting, every medical review, every photograph. The sound echoed through the room over and over again.

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