My Stepbrother 248
KESTER.
I knocked again. Harder this time. The kind of knock that wasn’t asking permission it was a warning.
I swear to fuck, I was seconds away from tearing this damn door off its hinges. I didn’t care if it splintered. I didn’t care if Claire came home to a crime scene of wood and rage.
But Claire was so lucky that Kasmine opened it before I could make that mistake.
She barely got the words out. “What the hell are you-
I pushed through the doorway, slammed it shut behind me, and crashed my mouth against hers.
God, her taste.
Fuck. I missed her.
I was losing my mind. Couldn’t concentrate on anything else until I saw her. Fuck, I wouldn’t have survived another night away from her.
But she shoved hard at my chest, and I let her go. I had to. I wasn’t about to add stress to her… not with our baby growing inside her.
“You manipulative bastard!” she hissed, trembling with fury. She scrubbed her lips like I’d stained them. “How dare you step foot in
this house?”
Her voice… Her eyes.
Wait. Was she crying the entire time?
Fuck! I had given Claire some days off, just so she could spend some time with Mine and make sure she didn’t cry her eyes out. Where the fuck was she?
“Come on, baby… Stop this…” I took a step toward her, but she took five steps backward.
I didn’t push. No. Not when she was carrying my child. She needed all the care and understanding she could get at this point.
“Stay back!” she shouted. “God, you are so sick, Kester! don’t even know who you are anymore!”
She was shaking, but it wasn’t fear. It was disillusionment. Rage. Hurt.
“How many layers of carefully constructed masks do you have on, hmm? How many lies do you coat your love in?”
“Mine…” I exhaled, dragging a hand down my face, aching. “Look… just sit down. Let’s talk. Please. We could-”
I stopped.
Her eyes weren’t of anymore.
They were locked onto the television.
Wide and haunted.
1/3
Tue, vidy
Chapter 248
She fumbled for the remote, Irer hands trembling as she turned the volume up, eyes never leaving the screen.
My stomach dropped.
Shit.
Not now.
Not fucking now.
The reporter’s voice bled into my ears like poison. His voice was calm, almost smug, like he’d been waiting his whole career for this kind of scoop.
-Alpha Jaden Crown, CEO of the Crown Foundation and known political patron to several humanitarian causes, was taken into custody earlier this morning following the exposure of damning financial and criminal records…”
The screen cut to shaky footage–Jaden’s face, pale but trying to keep that arrogant smirk in place as reporters swarmed him. Microphones jammed into his face. Flashbulbs popping like gunfire.
…the arrest comes after the leak of a flash drive containing detailed records of offshore accounts, tax evasion, and links to illegal trafficking operations operating out of Eastern Europe…”
They showed him being stuffed into the back of a van.
Kasmine didn’t move. She was staring at the screen like it was bleeding… Her eyes were wide, her lips parted slightly, and it was as if her brain was trying to catch up to what her eyes were seeing. And then–slowly–like molasses dripping from a wound, she
turned her head.
Her eyes landed on me.
I didn’t say anything. My throat was dry. My heart was hammering like I’d been caught red–handed, even though I’d done nothing but peel back the truth. The only difference was the fact that this was happening at the wrong time because I knew she’d freak out hearing this news.
She stared at me.
“Did you… did you do this?” Her voice was quiet. It was the kind of quiet that could flay a man raw. The kind that came with stillness right before a goddamn storm.
I ran a hand through my hair, swallowing down the tension coiled up in my chest like a live wire. “I only did what was right.”
She flinched like I’d slapped her.
“Right?” she whispered. Her head tilted a little, and she cracked a laugh that didn’t reach her eyes. “What’s right, Kester? Huh? What the fuck is right anymore?”
“Kas-
No. No. She stepped back as I stepped forward. “You took him down. I get it. I know he’s not innocent. I’m not fucking blind. But how far are you willing to go to destroy people who stand in your way?”
I stood still, jaw locked.
You could ve exposed him to the council. To the elders. But no. You chose this. You wanted the world to watch him fall.” She said thoughtfully, eyes fixed on me like she was losing her mind, and I fuking hated that.
Chapter 248
I stayed silent because she was right.
Her arms folded across her chest, fingers curling into the fabric of her shirt like she needed something to hold onto. “Wait… What was your real motive behind this? What is the exact reason you did this?” She narrowed her brows, “Don’t tell me it’s because of me, Kester!” She shrieked.
I snapped back, the heat already rising. I did this because that man has been ruining lives, Mine. Running a charity as a fucking front to smuggle people! You know how twisted that is?”
“I know!” She sobbed. “I know what he did! But you… you just érase people, Kester. You destroy them like it’s second nature to you. Doesn’t matter how many masks you wear or how careful you are when you touch me–you are terrifying.”
That word hit harder than anything else.
