SEVEN NIGHTS WITH MY STEPFATHER novel Chapter 24

Chapter 24

I was tangled in sheets and the remnants of a dream when my phone buzzed itself off the nightstand and onto the floor.

The screen lit the dark room like a flare. I squinted at the time: 2:14 a.m. For the first time since arriving, there were actual bars in the corner. The storm must have knocked out the cell tower days ago; tonight, for whatever reason, the signal had come back.

I had twelve missed calls and a river of messages. Aunt Clara. Sarah. My old coworker Maya. Even my landlord. Everyone had been trying to reach me since the day I vanished with nothing but a vague text about “handling Mom’s debt.”

The phone buzzed again in my hand. Sarah.

I answered before I could think.

“Ivy? Holy shit, you’re alive!” Her voice cracked with relief and fury. “I was this close to calling the police! You said you were borrowing money, then you disappeared. People thought you’d been kidnapped!”

Guilt punched me in the chest. “I’m sorry. I’m okay. I swear.’

“Where are you?”

I swallowed. “Up north. At Cassian’s lake house. The signal’s been dead until tonight. I’m… handling Mom’s old debt. He’s helping me clear it.”

Silence. Then, slowly: “Your stepfather Cassian? The one your mom called a cheating bastard for years?”

I closed my eyes. “Yes. But it’s just temporary. Two more days and I’m home. Please don’t worry. Please don’t tell anyone where I am. I’ll explain everything when I get back.”

She made me swear four times that I was safe, that I would call the second I had steady signal again, then finally let me go.

I sat on the edge of the bed, phone limp in my hand, the sudden connection to the outside world making the lake house feel smaller, colder.

Two more days.

I needed to find Cassian, tell him I was refusing Everett’s offer, that whatever we had done had to end when the seventh night did. I needed boundaries before I lost the last scraps of myself.

I slipped on his silk robe (still smelled like cedar and him) and padded barefoot into the hallway. A thin blade of light glowed under the study door.

His voice drifted through, low and warm.

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Chapter 24

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“…I know, baby. I miss you too.”

My heart stopped.

He laughed softly, the same intimate laugh I had started to believe was only for me.

“Two more days and I’m home. This shoot’s almost wrapped.”

Another pause, tender.

“I love you so much. Sleep well, sweetheart.”

The call ended.

I stood frozen outside the door, barefoot on cold wood, blood roaring in my ears.

Baby.

I love you so much.

I’m home soon.

Every kiss, every whispered mine, every time he had looked at me like I was the only thing in his universe turned to ash in my mouth.

I was the temporary distraction.

I was the idiot who had started to believe the fairy tale.

I turned and ran, silent and shaking, back to my room. I locked the door, slid down it until I hit the floor, and let the tears come hard and ugly.

He had someone waiting.

Of course he did.

Men like Cassian Voss didn’t rewrite their lives for girls paying off dead mothers’ debts. They used them, photographed them, fucked them until the novelty wore off, then went home to the woman who actually mattered.

I curled into a ball on the rug, arms wrapped around my knees, sobbing into silk that still carried his scent.

Two nights left.

Forty-eight hours and I would walk out with the money and whatever shards of dignity I could salvage.

I would never let him touch me again.

I would never let him see how completely he had destroyed me.

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Chapter 24

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But even as I swore it through choking tears, I knew tomorrow he would smile that slow, dangerous smile, call me little girl in that voice that turned my spine liquid, and part of me would still ache to believe the lie.

Because I had fallen for a man who already belonged to someone else.

And now the only question left was whether I could survive the final two nights without begging him to break me one more time.

I was terrified I already knew the answer.

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