Tasting 187

187–The Misled Stepbrother

Nora:

“What is she saying?” Ryker asked me, his jaw clenched.

“Why? You have a problem hearing it directly from her?” I hissed, making him narrow his eyes at me

in warning.

“You better watch your tone, Nora,” he hissed back, and April smiled in succession.

“You know what, screw you two. I’ll walk back home,” I didn’t want to stick around and let them talk

to me badly. Ryker was becoming her puppet, and I wouldn’t allow any disrespect.

“Good, I’ll go home with him,” April smiled, shrugging before reaching for his helmet.

“I have to drop her home,” however, Ryker took the helmet back and pointed at me.

“And you, don’t create a scene and hop on,” he gestured to the back of his bike, but I shook my

head.

The

way he reacted when she told him what had happened today had upset me. It made me realize he

should be the one looking guilty instead of raising his voice at me.

“Nora! Don’t do that. Did you not hear what she said? Dad is already upset and exhausted. Don’t

give him more stress,” him bringing his dad into the mix and again calling me responsible for his

sadness was concerning.

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183–The Maled Stepbrother

“She lied to me to get a reaction out of me. She lied about Brody blocking me,” as I started

explaining in a harsh tone, he interrupted me when Brody was mentioned.

“You hit her because of Brody, and then Dad faced such humiliation because of him too?” he asked,

a smirk playing on his lips, but it wasn’t a taunting smirk. It was the type of grin someone gives

when they catch someone in a situation that is too unbelievable.

I just glared at his face for making it sound so wrong.

“So, because you thought Brody had blocked you, my dad went through all this mess?” he asked

again, using a different tone this time.

April watched us both, her eyes examining how Ryker stared at me, demanding an explanation.

“Now get in the back and stop making it difficult,” he said firmly, clearly thinking I had hurt his father

because of Brody.

Was

“I will go,” April spoke softly after noticing our awkward interaction. It the kind of tone someone uses

when they are trying to grasp reality but failing. She stormed past me, and Ryker shook his head.

Maybe he finally realized he was acting strangely with me, or maybe he was upset he couldn’t give

his beloved April a lift.

Not wanting any more trouble or arguments, I got into the backseat and put on the helmet. Instead

of holding onto him, I held onto the bike, keeping my hands to myself this time.

A few seconds into the ride, he started muttering something. Since the wind was too strong and we

were wearing helmets, I couldn’t hear him clearly. Nor did I want to ask him what he was on about.

If it was something he had a problem with, I’m sure he could deal with it himself. So, I let him be.

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187 The Misled Stepbrother

But obviously, he wouldn’t let it slide. How could he, right?

He slowed down near the woods and eventually stopped. I frowned because I could tell he was

stopping to have an argument with me, and I wasn’t really in the mood for it.

“Why are we stopping here?” I grunted.

“Why? You don’t feel safe around anyone but your Brody?” he taunted, getting off the bike and

grabbing my arm to pull me off as well.

“Ahh! Are you crazy?” I complained, shrugging myself free. But he was the one who had forcefully

taken off my helmet. The moment the helmet was off, he found me glaring at him with my hands on

my

waist.

“What’s the matter? Why did we stop here?” I asked him angrily, ignoring his attempt to provoke

me.

“You will not bother our dad from now on,” he hissed, pointing his finger in my face.

“Okay! Anything else?” I replied, showing no interest in arguing with him. His eyes narrowed as he

looked into my face.

“You really don’t care, do you?” he asked, and I finally gave him a blank stare. Our eye contact

deepened, and in that moment, I recalled how he and his brother had shown me that they didn’t

care.

“You’re the one to question my behavior?” I scoffed, steadily measuring him up and down. I folded

my arms even tighter across my chest, giving him a deadly glare this time.

“We should not talk about that anymore. That topic is over,” he stated.

“Of course, because you have no response to my questions. You were

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forcing me to reject Cain and dismiss Brody, all so that you could also ditch me for April?” I let out a

taunting laugh, making sure he knew that just because he said the topic was over, it wasn’t.

“Don’t act like you’re all sad. You’ve been happier ever since I stopped bothering you,” the way he

recalled asking me for attention and to reject others wasn’t how I saw it. Sure, he was forceful and

very aggressive at times, but I never felt exhausted by him, nor did I say something in anger that

suggested to him that I was exhausted.

“You happily jumped into Brody’s lap and started making out with him,” he aggressively raised his

tone.

“Seriously? As if you don’t know why I did that. Do you not see what you did to me when you

accepted April without any conditions but had a plethora of rules for me to follow only so that you

could betray me?” As I started to tear up, the harshness on his face began to fade away.

“If you had accepted me and made it public, Ryker, I would have gladly rejected the world for you.

But I wasn’t sure how much I could trust your word, and turns out, I was right,” my lips were

quivering as I spoke to him.

“I don’t even know why you and Brody hate each other. You brothers never shared anything with

me, and neither did he. But you knew what April had done, yet you–” I paused as a sudden pain in

my head shook

1. me.

His eyes widened at my lips, but it wasn’t because he was lusting after me. There was something

wet on my lips; I was bleeding from my nose.

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