The Stepbrother’s Hidden Desires

It was exactly nine in the morning. Although it was winter, the weather was clear and the warm breeze was soothing.

Annabel had been sunbathing in the backyard for a while when Eve brought her a bowl of dark-colored medicinal soup. She had been drinking it continuously for a week, and just the smell of it made her want to vomit.

She took the bowl, intending to pour it out directly. “I’m not drinking this!” But when she glanced up, her grandmother was watching her closely from amidst the lush foliage. Annabel gritted her teeth, pinched her nose, and forced herself to swallow it down, sticking her tongue out at Bonnie.

Her grandmother finally smiled satisfactorily and turned back to tend to her flowers.

At that moment, Annabel’s phone vibrated in her bag. It was Christopher calling. He had already been discharged from the hospital and said he’d arrange for someone to pick her up for dinner tonight.

That night when she fell ill, the pain had made her faint. When she woke up in the hospital, the first person she saw was Christopher. He was sitting in a wheelchair, chin in hand, staring at her for a long time. His face was noticeably thinner.

Annabel thought she was about to die, but seeing Christopher suddenly made her feel relieved.

The two stared at each other for a moment. Christopher smiled faintly. “Did you come to accompany me on purpose?”

He was wearing hospital clothes, and it was only then that Annabel remembered he was also in this hospital. She felt a bit embarrassed. She hadn’t visited him since he woke up.

She shifted uncomfortably, and a sharp pain made her gasp. Christopher hurriedly said, “Don’t move. You had acute appendicitis and just had surgery last night.”

She fell silent for a moment and then asked, “Did you sign it?”

Christopher nodded and reached out to tuck the blanket around her. “Yesterday, I was walking downstairs and saw you being brought in by an ambulance.”

“Doesn’t my family know?”

He looked up, his voice calm and emotionless. “When you were in surgery, Thomas and Brenna were on a flight to Kenland and couldn’t be reached. Your grandmother should be on a plane by now and must be worried sick.”

Thomas and Brenna going to Kenland together must be to see Logan. Christopher knew what she was thinking. “According to your nanny, Logan got into some trouble in Kenland, so they rushed over to handle it.”

She felt uncomfortable. In Thomas’s eyes, Logan always came first.

Christopher glanced out the window. It was already bright outside. He raised his hand and held it against Annabel’s forehead for a moment. His palm was dry and warm, making Annabel feel especially comfortable. He said, “Your fever has gone down. I have to go back for my injection. I’ll leave now.”

He yawned, showing signs of fatigue. Annabel asked, “Did you stay with me all night? What about my classmates?”

Christopher nodded. “I sent them back. You, this child, always causing trouble. You’ve been causing trouble since you were little.”

Annabel’s eyes moistened. When no one paid her any attention, she was fine, but now that someone cared, she felt particularly aggrieved. “Why not hire a nurse? If you collapse from exhaustion, it’ll be on my head. I’m the one who’ll suffer.”

Annabel said this, but inwardly, she felt warmth. She had promised Thomas to cut off contact with Christopher, but people are easily swayed when they’re vulnerable, and she relied on him even more. It would be hard for her to harden her heart against Christopher in the future.

Christopher chuckled. “I’m nice to you now, so you can support me in my old age in the future.”

Annabel weakly smiled. “Then I’m at a loss.”

Christopher laughed and called out, “Boris,” to someone outside.Published by Nôv'elD/rama.Org.

Before Boris pushed him out the door, Christopher turned his head again. “You can call me anytime you need. I’m always here. I didn’t protect your mom before, but now I will protect you.”

Boris once said that everyone in this world could ignore Christopher, except for her, Annabel. If it weren’t for him finding her in the snow, she would have died long ago. He loved her mom, so he loved her too. He didn’t do anything to harm their family; it was her dad who abandoned her mom.

Originally, she didn’t really believe it. She always felt like he was using her against Thomas, but now she believed it a bit.

Half an hour after Christopher left, her grandmother came with Eve. Seeing her lying alone on the hospital bed, her grandmother felt heartbroken. She immediately called Thomas and scolded him fiercely.

Annabel stayed in the hospital for a week, and Thomas didn’t come to visit. He was said to have been in Kenland all this time. She was curious about what happened to Logan, but Thomas’s attitude made her hate Logan even more.

Originally, she could have been discharged after a week, but her grandmother insisted she stay for another half month. Even after half a month, she wasn’t allowed to go back to school. She was brought home and given various soups for recovery, but she still became as thin as a rail, even thinner than before the surgery.

“Mr. Green is back,” Eve suddenly said.

When Annabel looked up, Thomas was already there, looking weary as if he had just gotten off a plane.

Annabel was sitting in a rocking chair, swaying back and forth. Thomas stopped her and asked, his face as cold as usual, “Feeling better?”

Annabel felt resistant to him. She glanced at him and retorted, “If I’m not feeling well, can I sit here? I’d be meeting God earlier!”

Thomas’s gaze turned cold. “Can’t you speak nicely?”

“Yeah yeah, I can. ” Annabel glanced behind him. “Your wife didn’t come back with you?”

Thomas was about to scold her, but a cough came from behind him.

Thomas forced a stiff smile. “Mom.”

Bonnie looked sharp. “Is everything settled?”

Bonnie knew that the relationship between father and daughter was already strained enough, so even if she was angry, she couldn’t say he favoritism toward his stepson in front of Annabel.

“Yeah, just got off the plane and rushed back.”

Thomas still had some awe for Bonnie. Annabel’s grandfather had passed away early, and it was Bonnie who held up Green’s Enterprises. Later, when Thomas returned from studying abroad, he gradually took over Green’s Enterprises. Although Bonnie had retired for many years, her influence on Green’s Enterprises was still there.

Bonnie nodded. Thomas then turned his gaze to Annabel and grunted, “Appendicitis is just a minor surgery. You’ve been resting for almost a month now. It’s time to go back to school.”

Annabel sneered inwardly. Thomas continued, “Your spot at the Kenland school is still reserved for you. You can go next year.”

The cat had been playing in the bushes for a while. Now it jumped onto Annabel’s lap. Annabel glanced at Thomas, then thought about Logan in Kenland, and felt a bit disgusted with the cat. She suddenly stood up, startling the cat, which jumped off and meowed plaintively, looking at its owner.

Annabel completely ignored the matter Thomas brought up. “I’m going to take a nap. I’ll go back to school tomorrow.”

She turned and left. The maid was cleaning the living room and happened to put Brenna’s most cherished vase aside. As Annabel passed by, she kicked it with her foot, and the glass shattered all over the floor. She didn’t even look back as she went upstairs.

Eve exclaimed behind her, “Oh my, dear Lord, what should we do!?”

Logan’s room and windows were wide open, letting sunlight pour in, illuminating the ivory-white wooden floor, bright and clean. Even though Logan wasn’t there, Brenna still had the workers clean it every day.

Logan’s books, his basketball, and piano everything related to him Annabel found them all annoying and detestable at the moment. She walked into the room, slammed his basketball against the door frame, knocked over the decorations on the table, feeling still unsatisfied. She pulled books off the shelves and tossed them around.

Eve was sent upstairs by Bonnie to check on Annabel, but as soon as she got upstairs, she heard the clattering sounds coming from the room.

Logan’s things scattered everywhere, and Annabel stood in the middle, pointing angrily at the little cat underfoot. “If you jump up again, I’ll throw you out!”

The cat was probably scared by her, meowing softly.

Eve went over to pick up the little cat. “Come on, Bella, can’t you calm down for a while? We just cleaned.”

The vase she had kicked earlier, who knows how much it cost, and now she had messed up Logan’s room like this.

“Wait until your stepmom reports you to your dad. You’ll be the one in trouble, won’t you?”

Although Annabel was rebellious, she never treated the household staff as strangers. So, Eve was protective of Annabel even in private.

No matter how much Annabel opposed Brenna, she never explicitly told Thomas how she felt wronged. She always portrayed herself as the one at fault. In Thomas’s eyes, Annabel was always the willful and childish one, while Brenna endured humiliation.

“I don’t care. I smashed it, what can she do to me?”

Annabel angrily turned and walked into her room, slamming the door shut.

Eve watched her go with a shake of her head and a gentle smile. If Logan were home, she wouldn’t dare to smash things. After all, only Logan could restrain Annabel.

Eve tidied up Logan’s room again. There was a leather-bound notebook on the floor, open in the middle, with Logan’s elegant handwriting leaping from the pages. It was a poem titled “Annabel Lee.”

It was many and many a year ago,

In a kingdom by the sea,

That a maiden there lived whom you may know

By the name of Annabel Lee;

And this maiden she lived with no other thought

Than to love and be loved by me.

I was a child and she was a child,

In this kingdom by the sea,

But we loved with a love that was more than love-

I and my Annabel Lee-

With a love that the winged seraphs of Heaven

Coveted her and me.

And this was the reason that, long ago,

In this kingdom by the sea,

A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling

My beautiful Annabel Lee;

So that her highborn kinsmen came

And bore her away from me,

To shut her up in a sepulchre

In this kingdom by the sea.

The notebook was thick, filled with only this one poem copied from beginning to end. The paper was aged, at least three or five years old.

This was a teenager’s secret, buried deep in the thick bookshelf, hidden in the dark years.

Eve had always felt sorry for Annabel, but this was the first time she felt sorry for the deep and silent teenager.