The Stepbrother’s Wager Chapter 02

The Stepbrother’s Wager Chapter 02

The next morning, the relentless buzzing of my phone woke me.

There were messages from dozens of unknown numbers, along with screenshots from the campus message board.

The headline was so vicious that my vision went dark.

[Whitmore Love Child in Secret Tryst with Hawthorne Heir—Explicit Photos Leaked.]

The footage had been pixelated, but I still recognized the room immediately.

It was the same room where Ethan had held me the night before and promised he would marry me.

The comments were filled with pure malice.

[No wonder the Whitmores took her in. She clearly knows how to get what she wants.]

[Her mother was a mistress. Looks like she learned fast.]

[The Hawthorne heir really has no standards. He’d even sleep with her.]

A chill spread through my chest as I read them.

It had only been one day. Had they really been so eager to spread the video?

Before I could close the page, someone kicked my bedroom door open.

Mr. Whitmore Sr. stood in the doorway with a thunderous expression, and Dylan was right behind him.

Mr. Whitmore Sr. threw his phone down in front of me, his hands shaking with rage.

“Ivy, I didn’t take you in so you could disgrace the Whitmore name!”

The whole thing suddenly felt absurd.

I was the one who had been recorded without my consent. I was the one being humiliated.

Yet their first concern was that I had embarrassed the family.

My voice came out hoarse.

“Ethan recorded us without my consent.”

Mr. Whitmore Sr. froze.

Dylan, however, scoffed.

“You had no shame when you climbed into his bed, and now you’re blaming him for filming you?”

I raised my eyes and stared at him.

“Weren’t you the one who told him to do it?”

Dylan’s expression darkened. A moment later, he leaned toward me.

“So what if I was?”

“Even if I admitted it, do you really think anyone would believe the daughter of a mistress?”

When he straightened, the contempt and mockery in his eyes were unmistakable.

His words hurt more than any insult because he was right.

No one would believe me.

Mr. Whitmore Sr. remained silent for a long time before finally speaking in a weary voice.

“I’ll have our lawyers get the photos taken down and bury the story online. Stay away from campus for the next few days.”

I jerked my head up and stared at him in disbelief.

“And then what?”

He frowned.

“What do you mean?”

I looked him directly in the eyes.

“Then we pretend none of this ever happened?”

“I was secretly recorded and attacked online, and my phone number was posted for strangers to find, yet you think getting the posts taken down and burying the story online means you’ve handled it?”

Mr. Whitmore Sr. looked away.

“The Hawthornes aren’t a family we can afford to cross. You’ll just have to put up with it.”

I stared at him as the last bit of warmth inside me slowly died.

My mother had been wrong.

The Whitmores would never repay what they owed me. They would only keep hurting me.

After Mr. Whitmore Sr. left, Dylan bent down, picked up the phone, and scrolled through the messages.

“Do you see now? This is what happens to a mistress’s daughter.”

The moment those words left his mouth, I finally snapped.

I grabbed the glass from my nightstand and hurled it at him.

Dylan’s face darkened.

“Do you have a death wish, Ivy?”

I stared at him through reddened eyes.

“You can insult me all you want, but leave my mother out of it.”

He advanced on me one step at a time, and I instinctively backed away.

Dylan seized my wrist and dragged me out of the room.

A rush of cold, damp air hit me when he opened the basement door.

“Dylan, let go of me!”

He shoved me inside.

“You can come out when you’re ready to admit you were wrong.”

The door closed, and darkness swallowed me.

I slid down the wall and sat on the floor, unable to stop trembling.

When I was little, my mother often came home late from work, leaving me alone in our rented apartment.

I had been terrified of the dark, so she bought me a small night-light.

She told me, “Don’t be scared, Ivy. Mommy will be home soon.”

But no one was coming home now.