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CHAPTER 21
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2024-03-28 03:11:57Related chapters
IN LOVE WITH DAVE: MY HOT STEPBROTHER CHAPTER 22
CARMENMy stomach turned, and I felt all of the wine and the small bits of food I had taken that evening travelling up my throat as I stared at the picture that was taken of me by someone I had to regard as a danger and a threat.“You look shaken up,” Dave said as he approached me, causing me to almost jump out of my skin in fear as I hugged my phone close to my chest.“Dave, I’m in big trouble,” I announced, walking towards a less crowded area of the room as he followed closely.“What’s wrong? Is it the wedding? Our parents are already considering moving the date, so—”“Someone texted me. He has the video that we have been looking for,” I said, cutting him off.Dave creased his brows in a frown of confusion. “What do you mean? I thought your mom had the video. Why would someone else have it?”“I don’t know. I don’t know if she’s in on it with him, but it doesn’t seem like it. He threatened me, Dave. How could she have trusted a stranger with a video like that? Do you think I should c
Last Updated : 2024-04-01IN LOVE WITH DAVE: MY HOT STEPBROTHER CHAPTER 23
CARMEN“You’re the blackmailer?” I stood in place, not sure whether to walk forward or turn around and leave. “But… You saw the video.”I shook my head in disbelief as I was starting to piece it all together.“When you said you didn’t find the video on my mom’s phone, you lied about that?” I asked him, waiting for his confirmation even though I already knew what the answer would be.“Hold on, Carmen.” He walked towards the boarded-up windows of the house, peeking through a small opening. “You brought your mom?”“Of course, I brought my mom, Dave! I was genuinely scared for my life, and I had to tell her about it. Couldn’t you have approached me and just told me that you wanted to see me in a place like this?”“That was supposed to be a part of the plan. I had to get a voice-changing app to call you. I wanted you to tell your mom about it, but I wasn’t expecting her to come with you. Come with me.” He took my hand, leading me into the kitchen area of the abandoned house. There was a si
Last Updated : 2024-04-02IN LOVE WITH DAVE: MY HOT STEPBROTHER CHAPTER 24
CARMENI followed behind my mother and the worker who was leading her to the master bedroom, where Steve was.“The doctor said his health should have been bad for so long for it to get to the stage that he’s in now,” the worker informed us, opening the door to the master bedroom.Steve Wilmer lay in bed, an IV hooked to his arm, his eyes closed and his breaths shallow and unstable. A doctor stood over him, injecting even more liquids into his IV bag. The worker left us in the privacy of the room.“What happened to him?” Mom asked the doctor, who only picked up a piece of paper and started to take notes.“You’re Mrs. Wilmer, correct?” He raised his eyebrows.“Correct.” Mom confirmed with a nod.“And your husband, has he ever complained about any pains lately – heartaches to be specific? Any dizziness? Difficulty in breathing, perhaps?”“Steve has never complained to me about a thing. If anything, he’s the healthiest person around. He would tell me if he had a problem with his health. H
Last Updated : 2024-04-03IN LOVE WITH DAVE: MY HOT STEPBROTHER CHAPTER 25
CARMENWe all stood, frozen, staring at the doctor as he looked at us for a head nod at the idea of a toxicology test while we all tried to process what he had just told us about Steve.“What do you mean by that?” Mom was the first to speak. “We all eat the same thing; there’s no way Steve would be poisoned. The staff make sure to restock the kitchen each and every two weeks, throwing out everything that needs to be thrown out.”“Mrs Wilmer, you need to understand that we are not sure about your husband being poisoned,” the doctor explained and corrected her. “The toxicology test will help us figure out if we’re right to think he’s been poisoned. An investigation could follow if we find odd chemicals in his bloodstream.”“Just do it. We have to figure this out one way or another, right?” Mom said, crossing her arms.“He’ll need to stay at the hospital for a few more days,” the doctor informed us. “He needs to be monitored closely without fail in such a critical condition.”“We underst
Last Updated : 2024-04-04IN LOVE WITH DAVE: MY HOT STEPBROTHER CHAPTER 26
CARMENThere was not a single thing that I wanted to discuss with Frank Hayes, but I didn’t know how to tell his son that without having to feel guilty or having to lie about how I felt about his father.“What do you mean? Why does he want to see me?” I asked, pulling away from Jasper’s grip one more time. His grip was still solid as he looked at me with a smile.“He said it’s about the wedding. There are certain rules we follow in the Hayes family if you haven’t already been told. I’m sure he wants to tell you all about them and how to get along with the other members of the family if you come across them.”“Then why can’t you teach me the rules?” I frowned. “If it’s your family, you should know what they are, right?”“Believe me, Carmen; I would if I could. The problem we have is that even I struggle with these rules sometimes as they may seem too strict. It’s not going to be as horrible as it seems. I’ll be around, I promise.”Deciding to take his word for it, I gave a defeated sig
Last Updated : 2024-04-05IN LOVE WITH DAVE: MY HOT STEPBROTHER CHAPTER 27
CARMENThere was no way that Jasper knew about his father and I. There was no way that Jasper would trap me in a room with his father.I kept chanting those things in my head as I walked back, stepping away from Frank.“Don’t do this. You really shouldn’t try this right now. You’re going to ruin the friendship you have with Steve,” I reminded him, letting him know that if he tried anything stupid, I would not hesitate to tell Steve about it.“What are you talking about, Carmen?” He laughed, returning to his seat and looking at me as if I was crazy.The door soon opened, and Jasper walked in, looking from me to his father with raised brows.“I heard banging on the door, so I had to come and see what was going on,” he explained.Without a word, I pushed Jasper out of my way and walked out of the house, taking deep breaths as my breath clogged up in my throat. I reached into my purse to grab my inhaler, using it for the first time in a while as Jasper joined me outside.“Carmen, what’s w
Last Updated : 2024-04-06IN LOVE WITH DAVE: MY HOT STEPBROTHER CHAPTER 28
CARMENDave and I glanced at each other, both looking as if we wanted to truly confirm that we had heard the same thing from his father.“I don’t understand, Dad,” Dave said. “Why would you want to plan for a wedding in a short time with your health like this? You’re only going to add more stress to the one you already have.”“I don’t have an inch of stress in my body, son,” Steve said. “I realized how unpredictable life is. I could have died, Dave. What if I had not woken up?”“You can’t say that.” I shook my head at his words. He had woken up, and he was right there – alive.“Yes, I can, Carmen,” he argued. “We have nobody to tell us when our time will be up, and I don’t want to end up getting to the finish line without seeing my son and my daughter getting married. It just doesn’t right with me to think about it.”His idea didn’t sit right with me and Dave as well, but I couldn’t say a thing. Steve was not in the best health condition, and I couldn’t fault him for wanting something
Last Updated : 2024-04-07IN LOVE WITH DAVE: MY HOT STEPBROTHER CHAPTER 29
CARMENThe people in the restaurant were clapping and cheering, a few of them pulling out their phones to record the moment that they believed to be beautiful.I thought it was a nightmare, all of their attention on us and the possibility of this getting out.I stared at Jasper and the ring he held in his hands. My jaw was dropped, and there was not a thing I could tell him that would convey just how horrified I was by the situation he had put me in.“What are you doing, Jasper?” I whispered, glancing around once more before putting all my attention on the man in front of me.“Taking control of my life and not letting someone take over my life for me. I figured that if I proposed, it would feel less like the duty I’m supposed to perform; think about it.”Through my panic, I tried to see the sense in what he was saying, and it seemed like a stretch. He was only proposing because the marriage was inevitable. His form of taking control was only trying to take the wheels but still lead us
Last Updated : 2024-04-07
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IN LOVE WITH DAVE: MY HOT STEPBROTHER THE END- CHAPTER 130
CARMEN“Are you sure about this? Maybe you heard him wrong the first time. Besides, I just got out of prison. I highly doubt that he’ll want to get to see me just yet,” I said to Dave as we slowly walked towards the front door of his father’s house.“You just have to relax for me, Carmen,” Dave said, placing a hand on my lower back. “I didn’t hear him wrong. He clearly said it after his divorce with your mom that he would feel better about giving us his blessing now that he’s not married to her.”We got into the living room, where Steve sat with his legs crossed as he took note of something from a piece of paper.“Dad, look who’s here,” Dave called for his attention, making him look up at us and stand up to give me a good look. I almost laughed at his reaction, but I was too consumed by nervousness to make a sound.“Carmen, what… Come here, my sweet child,” he said, walking towards me and meeting me halfway with a hug.“What happened to you?!” he asked as he pulled away from the hug a
IN LOVE WITH DAVE: MY HOT STEPBROTHER CHAPTER 129
CARMEN“How may I help you?” the woman who stood at the doorway asked me, and I had half a mind to apologize and tell her I had the wrong house before walking away, but I decided to stay instead.“Is Dave home?” I asked.“Mr. Wilmer is home, but he didn’t tell me he was expecting anyone,” she answered, looking down at my hands which held the small box where the wristwatch was. “You can tell me your name, so I can go tell him—”“You really don’t have to,” I said, stopping her from walking back in. “Just let me in, please. I have something important to talk to him about.”“I understand that you probably know him, but I don’t want to get into any trouble. It’s my first day at work, and I don’t want to mess this up.”“You won’t,” I assured her. “You just have to trust me.”It took a moment of hesitation before she finally sighed and stepped aside for me to walk in.I glanced at the little girl she had in her hand with a smile on my face as I got to see just how much she looked like Kate.
IN LOVE WITH DAVE: MY HOT STEPBROTHER CHAPTER 128
CARMEN“Did you tell anyone? I told you not to tell anyone. Did you tell anyone?” I blurted to Evan as I found him standing and waiting for me on the day of my release.“Relax, Carmen,” he laughed. “I only told them that I was coming to check up on you. Why don’t you want them to know that you’re being released, anyway? Are you planning to live as far away as possible without them knowing?”“No,” I answered. “I just… I didn’t want them standing out here and waiting for me to come out. I still need to prepare myself for everything. It’s been a long three years, and I don’t know how they’re going to react.”“I’m sure all this is not what they’re thinking about right now. Trust me when I say that those people will wait for ten years if they have to,” he informed me.As much as it was assurance enough to hear those words from Evan, it didn’t make my heart beat any slower than the speed at which it was going.“Thank you for going through the stress of picking me up, by the way,” I told him
IN LOVE WITH DAVE: MY HOT STEPBROTHER CHAPTER 127
CARMEN“Cartier!”I flinched when I heard my last name being called by the prison guard as she stopped in front of the cell I shared with two other women – Reese and Naomi.She chewed her gum aggressively, using her baton to hit the cell bars, as she watched me so intently that I almost started to dig a hole to hide myself in.“You have been here for a while now, Carmen. It’s time you took the bull by the horns. Don’t let people like her intimidate you,” Naomi said, giving me an encouraging pat on the back to approach the prison guard and ask her what her deal was and why she was calling me.“What…what’s the matter?” I questioned, looking down at my feet to avoid making eye contact with the woman.“Are you ready for your board hearing today?” she asked me, leaning against the bars with folded arms.“I think so,” I said with a nod.“Well, then.” She sighed and took out the key to the bars, opening it for me to step out.“Good luck, Carmen! I’ve had two board hearings so far that have n
IN LOVE WITH DAVE: MY HOT STEPBROTHER CHAPTER 126
CARMENEvan was now standing in front of me with a silent reminder for me to keep my chin up and that I would be fine after the trial, but it was getting harder to do so.After the prosecutor finished asking me questions, I started to feel as if every answer that I had given had dug me into a hole that I would not be able to come out of.“When the victim was making those moves towards you, you called out for your mother, didn’t you?” he asked.“I did.”“Well, to demonstrate just how far her voice must have reached when she called out to her mother, we tested it. I called out to different sound experts to the house, and I was asked to stay in the farthest room from the kitchen. At 70 decibels, I could hear someone calling out to me from that room.”“From the footages gotten from the security cameras around the house, Mrs. Wilmer was not even in the farthest room to the kitchen. In fact, at the same time that Ms. Cartier is seen shouting for her mother’s help in the kitchen, we can see
IN LOVE WITH DAVE: MY HOT STEPBROTHER CHAPTER 125
CARMENMy mother stared at Evan with a shocked expression on her face as he submitted a flash drive to the judge as evidence.“The house where you left after you got married to Mr. Wilmer had a lot of security cameras, which Mrs. Wilmer here may have forgotten about when she slipped into the kitchen and put about ten pills of aphrodisiac into the victim’s drink,” Evan explained as the video on the drive was played for the whole courtroom to see.I had not thought that Evan would work that hard and go that far to get evidence, but he did. Was that why he had been working with my father the whole time? Even I didn’t know about that.“If we watch further, we can see that there was no complete and direct contact between my client and the victim that they were involved in any sexual discussions with each other. To further prove that an aphrodisiac was used in this footage, we have receipts from the pharmacy that she bought them from that week.”“Do the prosecutors have anything to add to t
IN LOVE WITH DAVE: MY HOT STEPBROTHER CHAPTER 124
CARMENDave and I shared a look of disappointment, and I could see that he had made up his mind to be with me no matter what his father said, but that didn’t stop me from feeling bad.“This whole thing between Bianca and I is not close to being over, and I believe she’s going to raise hell before everything is finalized. I have all of that in mind, and I don’t want anything to distract me just yet. Perhaps, after the divorce, we can revisit this talk,” Steve explained.I completely understood why he didn’t agree to the whole thing, but that didn’t mean I was not hurt by it.“You can take all the time you need to think about it,” I encouraged. “We wouldn’t want to put you under any kind of pressure.”“Carmen and I have something important to discuss. Thank you for giving us your honesty, father,” Dave told him as he took my hand and led me out of the room as he asked me, “Which of the bedrooms is yours?”“Here.” I took the lead from him and opened the door to my room, slamming it shut
IN LOVE WITH DAVE: MY HOT STEPBROTHER CHAPTER 123
CARMENBefore Dave could take me into the room where his father was staying, I pulled him back. I tried my hardest to hide my annoyance from him, but I could feel it coming off in waves, and I was certain that he could tell as well.“Is something wrong?” he questioned, and I raised my brow at that.“I should be asking you that question, Dave. I know you’re mad at me, and you should be mad at me for what I hid from you, but you haven’t spoken to me in a week. We can’t just leave things hanging and go in there to tell your father about us.”“I know, Carmen. We have a lot of talking to do, and I do have a lot of apologies as well, but I don’t want to prolong this. The more we keep him the dark, the less likely he is to be happy about the news. We can talk about everything else that we haven’t talked about during the week after.”“Are you sure you want to do this?” I asked. “With everything that my mother must have planted in your mind against me—”“She planted nothing in my mind against
IN LOVE WITH DAVE: MY HOT STEPBROTHER CHAPTER 122
CÀRMEN“What…what are you doing here?” I asked, looking around to see if I could find out if someone else came with him – perhaps Kate or his father.“I wanted to talk to you about everything,” he said.“There’s nothing to talk about. We’re divorced,” I replied, wanting to turn around when he grabbed me by the wrist.“What are you doing?” Dad asked, finally bringing Jasper’s attention towards himself.“Who are…” Jasper trailed off as recognition grew in his eyes, and he took steps back as be looked between me and my father.“You’re… You’re her father,” he noted. “They said you were dead.”“If she doesn’t want to talk to you, don’t you think you should take a hint and leave her alone?” Dad asked him, ignoring his shock and refusing to give him any explanation.“I just wanted to have a short and important talk with her about something, that’s all,” Jasper defended.“Excuse us,” I told Dad, a little curious to know what Jasper wanted to say even after we had legally gone our separate way
