Page 62 of Three Stepbrothers Save Christmas

I let out a short breath as I take a seat in the chair I had been sat in, Jasmine takes another and I tell her the most of the details regarding my break down. I don’t tell her everything, and I hope Travis didn’t tell Christian about the self-harming. That’s something I know I need to stop, and I know that won’t happen overnight. But the fact that someone knows about it makes the whole thing feel different.

By the time I finish telling her how he held me and got me to open up, Jaz has tears in her eyes. When I tell her about the doll and why he gave it to me, she wraps her arms around me, and we both shed a few tears.

It feels so good to open up, especially someone I have been hiding so much from. There have been hundreds of times she has asked if I’m okay, and I wanted to tell her, “No, I’m not”. But instead, I would force a smile and act like everything was fine. But now it’s out there, and once I start telling her stuff, I can’t stop. The whole while, she sits there holding my hand and giving me the occasional hug. She lets me cry on her shoulder and promises to be there for anything I need in the future.

By the time I finish, and we have talked, cried and laughed together, I feel like the weight of the world has been lifted from my shoulders. I know it’s only the start of the healing process, but it’s better than I have been feeling and a step in the right direction.

“From now on, you don’t hide anything from me because if I find out you have, I will phone your daddy and tell him,” Jasmine teases a giggle out of me as I wipe my eyes. I know she isn’t joking; she would have no problem calling Travis if she thought it was in my best interests. “Promise me, Verity. I don’t care what it’s about or what time of the day or night it is; you call me if you need me. I will never not listen.”

“I know, I’m sorry,” I reply, smiling sheepishly at her.

“You will be if you do it again. You can’t hide anything from me; that’s not the kind of friends we are.”

I smile at my friend and nod before looking in the mirror and letting out a deep sigh.

“How am I meant to hide these swollen eyes?” I ask, noticing how much the crying has made my eyes puff out.

“I have just the thing.” Jasmine jumps to her feet and holds the door open. “Come on, I left my bag in the communal area; let’s go and grab it before the other dancers all turn up and see us looking like this.”

I follow my friend out of the room, knowing I should have confided in her long ago. She has my back in a way no one has before, and I couldn’t love her more for it.

33

Ryan

I walk away from my seat, buzzing after watching the performance.

Verity was breathtaking, and there was no mistaking the pure joy she felt when dancing. Everything is different about her when she is on the stage.

The first time I ever saw her dance was about three years ago. I never had much to do with my mum; none of us did. We attended her wedding and met our new sister, but I thought she was just some spoilt little daddy’s girl. I was busy setting up my new business, having just left university, and rarely came to see Mum here. If I ever saw her, it was at my place whenever they would turn up on the way to the airport. But about three years ago, they asked us to come back for a family event, and Verity was there. I remember seeing her properly for the first time; she was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen.

That night, I had a bit too much to drink and admitted to Travis that I thought she was beautiful. He had told me to forget it; she was our stepsister, and nothing could ever happen. The following month, I watched her dance in Midsummer Night's Dream and fell head over heels in love with her. But Travis’s voice in the back of my head stopped me from doing anything about it. At the end of the day, he was right. She was our stepsister and out of bounds. That didn’t stop me from calling her Little Kitten because she looked so innocent with her big blue eyes. I knew then I would never find anyone like her, and although I tried to get over my feelings for her, nothing and no one even came close in comparison.

I had been on away the night Travis let slip that Verity’s drink had been spiked while out with the O’Reilly girl. He told me how he’d rushed to be by her side and had been worried sick about her. He was so furious with whoever had spiked her drink, and when I heard about him calling Christian, I knew it wasn’t just a man looking out for his kid stepsister.

A few days after he told me I had to pop back to check up on her myself. I heard he had been there for nearly a week and started making regular contact with her. I tried to call him out on it, but he denied everything. He kept saying he didn’t like the idea of any harm coming to her, but I knew deep down it was more than that. Especially when I heard him on the phone one day calling her ‘Sweetheart’, I knew then my suspicions were right, but there was no way he would admit them to me.

I guess now everything has come to light, and it’s hard to believe that he has gone from denying all feelings for her to telling her he loves her and becoming her daddy. But I know it is the perfect relationship for them as he will look after her in a way Ethan and I would struggle with. Does that mean I won’t become her daddy in the future? I don’t know, but for now, I’m happy to be one of the guys who get to call her theirs.

“Hey! Donavan!”

I turn around to see the O’Reilly twins walking towards me.

“Hey!” I reply, smiling at them as they approach.

Even though there has been a lot of bad blood between Christian and Travis, the rest of us have tried to keep out of it. Sure, we aren’t close like we used to be, but we don’t argue like the two of them whenever we see each other.

“You here watching your sister?” Maximus asks as I shake his hand.

“Stepsister, and well, guess you could call her my girlfriend, actually,” I laugh.

“So it’s true then? The three of you are with Verity?” Sean asks as we shake.

“Yeah. How did you find out?”

“Jaz,” they answer in unison. I should have known Verity would tell her everything, and she would tell her guys. Let’s face it: if there were anyone for Verity to talk to about all of this, it would be Jasmine.

“So, you joined the world of daddies?” Maximus asks, nudging me with his shoulders.

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