My Stepbrother Is My Secret novel · Chapter 10 of 32
Chapter 10: Christmas Eve
"Sit down," he said.
"I'm not sitting down."
"Then I'll tell you standing."
He didn't come closer.
I think he knew better.
"Christmas Eve. The engagement dinner at the steakhouse downtown. Before you got there." He took a breath. "She pulled me into the hallway by the bathrooms. She said Ruben's daughter is difficult about the will. She said, be nice to her, she'll like you, keep her calm."
"Keep her calm."
"That's what she said."
"And what did you say?"
"Nothing. I said nothing." He shook his head. "I went back to the table. You walked in late with drywall dust on your jeans and a cut on your thumb, and you told a waiter he'd poured your father's wine like a coward."
I remembered.
The waiter had laughed.
Mateo had laughed too, at the other end of the table. It was the first time I'd looked at him.
"I never told her one thing about you," he said. "Not that night. Not ever. Not a word."
"And February?"
"February happened because the power went out and you knocked on my door with a flashlight asking if I knew where the breaker was." His voice cracked a little. "I didn't plan a thunderstorm, Cass."
I believed him.
That was the thing.
I stood in my grandfather's office and believed every word, and it still went into me.
"You knew," I said. "Eight months. You knew your mother had told you to handle me, and you never said a word."
"I know."
"You let me lie in your bed and talk about her. You let me make fun of her pearls."
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