Page 27 of Tormented Heir

I learned two things the day we moved in with Hana, my new “mommy.”

One, I had a stepbrother, and I loved him from the first moment I saw his innocent little face.

Two, my stepmother is horrible, and I firmly believe her beauty, and possibly her money, hoodwinked Dad. There’s no other explanation for their whirlwind marriage. Unless … oh God, is she pregnant? But no, she has to be in her late forties. Surely not. She has Cade, my stepbrother, and he’s only four, so maybe?

I enter the kitchen and see she’s drinking prosecco. I sigh because it isn’t even early afternoon.

“There you are.” She strides over to me. “There’s no crab meat.”

“You didn’t ask for it,” I say.

“I definitely did. Run back out to the store, will you?” She hands me her card.

I sigh. Great. By run, she means pound the pavement because she knows I can’t drive. I never had lessons.

The dishes are piled up dirty and smelling by the sink. I sigh and start to clear them into the dishwasher. I wipe the surface then check in the fridge.

“What is Cade having for dinner this evening?”

Hana turns from where she’s sitting and fixes me with a harsh glare. “There’s all sorts of food in there.”

“Not things he likes.”

She laughs. “You know him so well, do you?”

“I know he doesn’t like seafood or salad.”

“Well, perhaps he should. I had a much more advanced palate at his age.”

“I’ll grab some ground beef and make meatballs and pasta. He likes that.”

She waves and sips at her drink again. “Whatever. Just make sure you get the damn crab this time.”

I suppress my eye roll and give her a polite smile. No point riling her. She’ll only take it out on Cade. He gets scared when she shouts.

I tried to talk to Dad about the way she treats her own son, but he brushed me off. He said Cade can be challenging, and Hana just wants the best for him. He used to be such a gentle, kind man. A good soul. I barely recognize the person the grief has twisted him into, and even more so since he married Hana.

My dream is to get myself settled and earning a steady income, and then somehow save Cade from this situation. I don’t think Hana loves him the way a mother should. She barely bothers with him. He might not be my biological brother, but he deserves more than this life, and I want to give it to him.

“Do I need to pick Cade up today?”

Hana frowns. “Um, yes, if you can.” She has the grace to flush a little. “But you still have time to go to the store.”

God, she’s a mess. She forgets so often when it’s time to fetch him from preschool. No way she can drive today if she’s already on the Prosecco. At least I know I will enjoy the walk.

I look at her dispassionately.

My stepmother is a striking woman. She’s tall, curvy, with thick blonde hair and startling green eyes. She’s way out of Dad’s league, and rich too, or at least I assume so, with the way she lives. I’m not sure how he managed to convince her to fall for him.

He and Hana don’t seem matched the way he and Mum did. When Dad met my mum, she was living in England, so he moved there. They were both into books, academia, and walks in nature.

I was born in England but have dual citizenship. Mum and Dad were happy, but they had very little money. There wasn’t any left over for things like driving lessons for me. Dad is an academic, but not one of the new, glamorous kind; more of the dusty, old kind. He’s as worn and leathered as some of his books, but he’s a kind man. Sadly, he fell into a bottle of whiskey when Mum died and never climbed out.

I get it; I was lonely too. A weird book nerd. Beautiful, I was repeatedly told, but not sexy. Never sexy. I wore boring clothes, and my ever-present glasses gave me even more of an intelligent appearance.

England was lonely for Dad, and the world was lonely for me, so why stay? Eventually, he moved back to America to be near his family.

I stayed and went to university in England because I didn’t want to lose the course place I had, but I came home each holiday. Staying in the university accommodation would be expensive, and the flights were cheaper. At the time, Dad lived near his ageing parents and his aunts and uncles. Then last summer when I finished my course, everything changed.

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