My Stepbrother's Regret novel · Chapter 19 of 32

Chapter 19: Myles

I didn't run.

There was nowhere to run in that room. And I was so tired of running.

"Hi, Myles," I said.

He looked at the open safe.

He looked at Lonnie's list on the rug, and at the envelope in my hand with his name on it in his wife's ink.

His face went a terrible color.

"Put that down."

I held it out to him instead.

"I opened it," I said. "I read it. I'm sorry. I'm not sorry I read it. I'm sorry it was me."

He didn't take it.

He didn't call anybody either.

He just stood there in his sport coat with his hand on the doorknob.

"Lonnie sent me," I said. "For the stock certificate numbers. His notary wants them typed up clean before the gala. My mother took you to dinner so I could do it. She just texted me to get out."

I turned my phone so he could read the screen.

GET OUT OF THERE.

"And now I'm going to tell you everything," I said. "And you're going to hate it. And you can call the police at the end if you want."

So I told him.

I sat on his father's rug in front of his father's safe and told him in order.

I started with the makeup case and ended with the ring behind the velvet.

I didn't skip the LLC with my name on it.

I didn't skip my door opening at 3:07 while I slept in his son's room.

He sat down in the big leather chair halfway through.

He didn't say anything until I was done.

Then he held out his hand, and I put the letter in it.

He didn't open it.

He knew what it said.

"Charlene told me," he said slowly, "that you'd say all this one day. That you tell stories. That you've told them since you were little, and they're always good."

"They are," I said. "Hers are better."

He turned the envelope over in his big hands.

"I don't believe you," he said.

"Okay."

"I don't know what I believe." He looked at the safe. "Send him his pictures."

"What?"

"Whatever you are, I want to see what he does with them." He stood up, and it took him two tries. "I'm not calling anyone. And I'm not telling my wife. Not until I know which one of you is lying to me."

He took the letter upstairs with him.

I closed the safe and spun the dial.

I sent Lonnie the pictures.

Then I texted my mother: "Out. He didn't see."

Then I texted a number I hadn't texted in a month.

"Four seconds slow. Shop. Tonight."

← Chapter 18 · All chapters · Chapter 20 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend