The Stepbrother’s Hidden Desires

Hearing the doorbell, Christopher went to open the door himself, and sure enough, Annabel was standing at the door.

“Happy birthday. Do you like the gift?”

She looked indifferent. “I do.”

At that moment, Christopher suddenly felt she resembled Thomas a lot. Even though she was burdened with worries, she appeared as if she had none.

As she stepped inside, she hesitated, her gaze wandering over the flowers and plants in the courtyard. “I have something to ask you.”

“Let’s talk inside.”

“Let’s just stay here. I have to go back home soon. It’s getting late, and Grandma must be worried.”

She took out a cigarette from her bag and lit it. Christopher frowned. “Smoking isn’t good for you.”

Annabel smiled, sounding casual but gripping her left hand tightly. “You smoke too. That’s not fair.”

Christopher, who had been in the entertainment industry for over twenty years, couldn’t miss her nervousness.

“You said that when I turned eighteen, you would tell me how my mom died. Well, I’m eighteen now.”

Christopher looked at her deeply. “Thomas and Brenna killed her.”

“Do you have any evidence?”

He shook his head. “No, I was abroad at the time, but I know they did it. Over the years, I’ve been looking for evidence. The nanny at your house disappeared without a trace. Either they moved away or went abroad. If it has nothing to do with them, I can’t believe it.”

Annabel fell silent for a moment, then shook her head. “I don’t believe it. My dad couldn’t have killed anyone.”

Christopher sneered. “You don’t understand him. Do you know why I went abroad back then? I was escaping. And you, he once had someone leave you in the freezing snow. You almost died. I was the one who saved you.”

Annabel’s hand holding the cigarette trembled, and a strange expression appeared on her face. “Then let me ask you another question. What’s your relationship with my mom?”

Christopher hesitated, knowing he couldn’t hide it any longer. “What have you heard?”

“Are you and my mom in a romantic relationship?”

Christopher remained silent. Annabel looked at him meaningfully. “So you’re hoping I’ll break ties with the Green Family? You want me to ally with you, right?”

Christopher said nothing. Suddenly, Annabel chuckled coldly. “You’ve all done so well, none of you are clean, none of you are good people!”

“How could you say that about your mom!”

“Am I wrong?” She stared straight at him. “Over the past two years, you’ve cared for me so much. Whenever I was in trouble, sick, or heartbroken, you were always the first to know. You said you owed my mom, so you’re repaying her through me. You’re more like a dad than Thomas. I really thought of you as family. Now you tell me, am I your family?”

The implication was clear, but he remained silent.

Regardless of whether she was being used to retaliate against Thomas or if she was his illegitimate daughter, Annabel couldn’t accept either outcome.

At this moment, she felt restless and anxious, with no patience to wait for Christopher’s answer. Snuffing out the cigarette, she said coldly, “If you don’t want to answer, then don’t. Think it through before you speak. You’ll be responsible for every word you say!”

She turned decisively and walked away briskly, only herself knowing that she was fleeing in despair.

On this midsummer night, a slight coolness lingered in the evening breeze, but it couldn’t calm the restlessness in her heart.

Annabel didn’t hail a taxi; she walked along the main road, her mind replaying many childhood scenes like a movie.

Her mother’s wrists always bore scars, self-inflicted with a small knife. Essem would hold her and say, “Mom has nothing in this world except for you, Bella.”

“I feels so miserable, but I can’t bear to leave Bella. So I has to live in misery.”

At that time, she didn’t understand what it meant. She thought her mom was always crying, always drinking. She had hoped that when she grew up, she wouldn’t become a woman who cried every day like her mother.

Her phone kept ringing incessantly-calls from Logan, her grandmother, and Thomas-but she didn’t want to answer any of them.

The city at midnight was still brightly lit, towering skyscrapers, intersecting roads like a winding galaxy of lights. She felt small and helpless, forgetting time and her own existence. Now she didn’t know whom to trust or whom to resent; she was lost in her own chaotic world.

A faint scent of Chinese medicine in the air brought her back to her senses. Across the street was a pharmacy, familiar yet strange. The clinic should have closed by now.

She mocked herself. From one swindler to another, She felt an inexplicable sense of grievance.

Annabel took out a cigarette and lit it, squatting under a tree to smoke, smelling the faint scent of Chinese medicine. Suddenly, she felt her heart calming down.

She didn’t have faith, but instinctively, in moments of weakness, she wanted something to hold onto.

Rows of neatly arranged streetlights on the long street, glaringly bright, some pedestrians but not many. At the end of the street, there was a street stall with a few tables, where a few people were eating supper.

The men grumbled about business and the various shortcomings of their wives, but as soon as the phone rang, their tone changed. “Darling, I’ll be back soon. Are you hungry? I’ll pack something for you to take home.”

Annabel felt a bit envious. This was life. Her grandmother said she should hold onto the Green Family, and was her mother also unwilling to divorce because she wanted to hold onto the Green Family? But what did that matter compared to her own happiness?

Over the years, she had been forced to accept Brenna and Logan. Did she now have to accept her mother’s lover as well?

She told herself that David had let her down, and it wouldn’t hurt to lean on him for a while. So she took out her phone and skillfully dialed a string of numbers. It had been two years since she deleted his number, but she still remembered it by heart.

The voice on the other end of the line sounded drowsy, “Hello?”

“It’s me, at the entrance of your mom’s clinic.”

There was a brief pause on the other end, then the voice became clear instantly, “Wait for me.”

She said, “Wait for you for five minutes. After five minutes, I’ll leave.”

The call ended, and she put down her phone, staring at the screen, counting the time. Exactly five minutes later, he appeared in front of her, slightly out of breath.

She looked up at him and smiled, feeling her mood lighten.

Just now, she made a bet. If he showed up within five minutes, she would stay in the country to uncover the truth. If he didn’t, she would go to Kenland and leave behind everyone and everything here.

“The herbal scent is really soothing. It calmed me down.”

Leaning against the glass door of the clinic, with a pile of cigarette butts on the ground, David furrowed his brows, but didn’t scold her. He lowered his head and asked, “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

David was still wearing his pajamas, with a cardigan hastily thrown over. He took off the cardigan and draped it over her, “Do you want me to take you home?”

She shook her head, “Stay with me for a while.”

They stood side by side, neither speaking, silently smoking.

He took the cigarette from her hand and stubbed it out, then asked her with concern, “Stop smoking. What’s wrong? Are you feeling unwell? Should I call my mom?”

Pointing to her chest, she asked him, “David, do I look like a fool?”

David furrowed his brows, “Who said that?”

Her voice was low, with a hint of loneliness, “You lied to me, my dad lied to me, and now even Christopher is lying to me. I guess I’m just a fool.”

David was taken aback, unsure how to respond to her words.

“Can I lean on your shoulder for a moment? You’re not a teacher anymore, and I’m not a high school student. There’s no need to worry about what others might say.”

She suddenly turned sideways, her sweet and gentle fragrance enveloping him. David felt his heart skip a beat. Logan had told him that she was about to study abroad in Kenland.

He smiled, “I’ll give you five minutes too.”

Standing a step away from each other, her head tilted just enough to touch his shoulder lightly, as if symbolically leaning on him. “I’m so useless. I know you lied to me, but I still like you. I know he’s not good enough for my mom, but I still want him to be my dad. Logan says I’m always foolish, and he’s probably right.”

David felt a bitter in his heart. He had deceived her, but he had also turned her into a top student. Even if it was obtained through emotional deception, he had also entangled himself in it because he could no longer distinguish between Lola and Annabel.

“You always advise me to be kind to Logan, but you don’t know that I’ve disliked him since the first time I met him. I hadn’t seen my dad in six months, and I cried so hard that nanny take me to the park. Then I saw Thomas, who hadn’t been around for half a year. He had his arm around Brenna and was holding a little boy in the other hand. Logan was so skinny and dark, he was downright ugly. But Thomas spoke to him so gently, with so much love. He was always cold to me, ignoring me. I felt like he had taken my dad away from me. I rushed over and grabbed Brenna, kicking and biting her, telling her to give my dad back to me. Later, Thomas put Logan down, and I pushed him over. He hit the iron railing and bled a lot. Brenna cried, and I was scared too. Thomas slapped me, and later, nanny took me away. Less than half a month later, my mom died.”

“I often wonder, if I hadn’t caused a scene, would my mom still be alive?”

When people talked about the Green Family, the most discussed topics were Thomas’s former wife and his mistress. He almost openly brought his mistress to various occasions. After his wife died, he married Brenna within half a year, almost driving Bonnie crazy.

David took her hand, feeling sorry for her when she was in extreme distress. She didn’t cry or make a scene, but he felt her pain. “Forget about the past.”

“I can’t forget. They won’t let me forget. They want to keep fighting.”

David didn’t understand the intricacies of the disputes in these aristocratic families, but he just felt sorry for Annabel.Content from NôvelDr(a)ma.Org.

Annabel talked about many things from her childhood, and this time it’s all about what she wanted to say.

As dawn approached, she left, gathering her strength as if she had made a certain decision, her eyes showing determination, like a little wolf cub.

She said, “Thank you, Mr. Curry. But this is the last time I’ll call you Mr. Curry.”