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CHAPTER 31
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2024-04-09 18:11:17Related chapters
IN LOVE WITH DAVE: MY HOT STEPBROTHER CHAPTER 32
CARMEN“Nova!” Mrs. Pierce scolded her daughter, nudging her with her elbow. “Why would you say something like that?”“I’m not the one who said it!” Nova argued in her defence. “I said it was a rumour. All they have to do is tell us if it’s true or not.”As if all the adults lost their sense of self at the words of a seventeen-year-old, they all shared their gazes between me, Kate, and Dave, waiting for us to confirm what was true and what was not.“Can you all please tell her what the issue is and let her give us a moment to catch our breaths?” Mr. Pierce said. “She is never going to let us live if you don’t tell her what is true and what isn’t.”I was the first to speak up, tired of everyone at the table and everything.“Nothing happened between me and Dave, okay? We were good friends in school and nothing else. In fact, we’ve grown distant, just the way your sister and I grew distant,” I explained, giving Nova a tight smile that threatened to split my face in half.“She’s right,” m
Last Updated : 2024-04-09IN LOVE WITH DAVE: MY HOT STEPBROTHER CHAPTER 33
CARMENI couldn’t breathe. I had to claw at my throat to draw up air in short gasps and pants.“No, no, no, this… this isn’t right,” I muttered to myself, scrolling down on the news piece, hoping to see grainy pictures from a prom that wasn’t ours so that we would deflect those rumours immediately, but my fingers stopped scrolling at one of the many pictures attached to the article. It was obviously me and Dave, and even we couldn’t deny that.How did they get a hold of those pictures?I had avoided Dave for long enough; we had to talk about it.Before I could stand up and head to Dave’s room, there were three rapid knocks on my door.I rushed to open it, knowing it could be one person.“Have you seen this—”“Get in!” I pulled him into the room, slamming the door and he shoved his phone in my face, making me stare at the same article I had just read.“Someone sent a link of this to me. It’s not a big broadcasting company, so it hasn’t spread like wildfire, but I know it will. How did
Last Updated : 2024-04-10IN LOVE WITH DAVE: MY HOT STEPBROTHER CHAPTER 34
CARMENKate was the perfect suspect. She was there on the night of senior year prom, so there was a chance that she could have taken the pictures. Even though Dave had told everyone that we were not each other’s dates but had just one dance together, Kate knew for a fact that Dave was my date.Nobody would believe that she would do such a thing. She had no reason to, they would think, but what if she already knew about me and Dave? She was the first person on my mind.But Dave was now looking at me as if I had said the most unfunny joke known to man.“Kate? Kate is your suspect, of all people we know?” he chuckled, but he soon realized that I was not making a joke about it. “You’re serious about that?”“Come on, Dave!” I tried to get him to see my point. “Kate knew about it. She was there at prom, and she knew we were there with each other. She even had to confirm it from me. Don’t even get me started on everything Nova was trying to pull when we were all having dinner—”“We can’t use
Last Updated : 2024-04-12IN LOVE WITH DAVE: MY HOT STEPBROTHER CHAPTER 35
CARMENI had never wanted to run away from a place as much as I felt the need to run away from the restaurant I had just stepped into.I could see Jasper and Dave sitting in the corner of the restaurant, having a heated conversation. The first person to look up in the direction of the door and see me was Jasper.He beckoned me over with a serious look on his face, and I walked towards them as slowly as possible, breathing deeply.“What’s going on here?” I asked with as much casual air as I could give off, hoping that they wouldn’t sense my nervousness like a shark would sense blood in the ocean, especially Jasper.“That is what we’re both trying to figure out, Carmen. What is going on?” Jasper repeated the question, staring at me as if expecting an answer.I glanced at Dave, trying to gauge if Jasper was talking about what I thought he was talking about, but Dave gave off nothing. He only stared at me the same way that Jasper was, almost having me believe that they were both toying wi
Last Updated : 2024-04-13IN LOVE WITH DAVE: MY HOT STEPBROTHER CHAPTER 36
CARMEN“That’s good for you.” I nodded at Kate, swallowing all of the unbelievably nasty words that I felt the urge to spew at her for fear that I was probably reading into it too much and she really didn’t know what was happening between me and Dave.“And you,” Nova said as she turned to me. “How’s Jasper? Do we need to sabotage your wedding to stop it because he’s not good in bed or what?”“You’re seventeen, I’m not relaying my sex life to you,” I told her, shoving my face behind my phone and texting Dave as fast and as sneakily as I could.Me: We need to talk.“I’m not telling you to give me all the details,” Nova said, scrunching her nose in disgust at the thought of it. “Just tell us if he’s good or not. It’s bad enough that I have to be here at this boring bachelorette party anyway.”“Nova!” Kate scolded, turning towards me and shaking her head to apologize quietly.“It’s fine; I think it’s boring, too,” I admitted before sighing and deciding to play along and confess. “I have n
Last Updated : 2024-04-14IN LOVE WITH DAVE: MY HOT STEPBROTHER CHAPTER 37
CARMENI gasped when I was given the chance as he wrapped his arms around my waist, and I managed to pull away to get a chance to speak.“Dave,” I breathed, looking around in fear and suspicion. “Dave, what are you doing?”He sighed, stepping back and away from me. He shook his head, and I could see the regret on his face.“I’m sorry, Carmen. I didn’t know what else to do. Maybe I shouldn’t have done that.”“Maybe?” I scoffed. “How’s this for a maybe, Dave; maybe you shouldn’t have ignored me for weeks just to drag me into a room and kiss me after we just got married?!”“I know,” he agreed with an apologetic tone. “I was lost, Carmen. I thought that maybe if I pretended that this was the life I wanted, I would come to terms with it. I thought that I could find something to give Kate while you find something to give Jasper, and that would be it, but I can’t do it. This is hard for me, Carmen. I want you, and I can’t help it.”My heart pumped and popped like a balloon, and I placed my h
Last Updated : 2024-04-15IN LOVE WITH DAVE: MY HOT STEPBROTHER CHAPTER 38
CARMENMy eyes only widened for one second, but I reined my shock back in.“What are you talking about?” I inquired, and I immediately wished I had not said that. It felt like an admission of guilt, especially because she knew about me being in Dave’s room.“Please, Carmen!” She waved my feigned confusion away. “I was going there first, but I saw him pulling you into his suite. What was so important for you two to talk about?”She walked up to me, her eyes narrowed. Anyone who looked at us could easily find out that we were not having the friendliest conversation, so I backed away and took a deep breath.“Kate, I know what you must be thinking, but it’s really not it. There’s this… He’s planning something, and I can’t reveal it to you. It’s a surprise. He wanted my opinion on it since we’re friends,” I lied. My heart was thundering hard and fast beneath my chest as I hoped that she would believe me.“Planning something?” She raised her brow at me, her doubt still evident on her face.
Last Updated : 2024-04-15IN LOVE WITH DAVE: MY HOT STEPBROTHER CHAPTER 39
CARMENI took slow steps towards Jasper’s mother, a faint smile on my face as I bent in front of her and placed my hands on hers.“Can you see me?” I questioned, but her eyes were no longer focused on me as they had been when I was standing a few feet away. They were focused on the spot where I was standing earlier.“I don’t know if you can hear me, but if you can, I’m sure you already know who I am by now. I’m Carmen, your daughter-in-law. I don’t really know what Jasper’s like – we didn’t exactly fall in love the way people normally do,” I laughed.I looked around, not sure why I was about to say what I wanted to say next.“If you can hear me, respond by squeezing my hands if you can,” I whispered.It wasn’t fair to suspect that she was pretending to be disabled, but it could be if she had something to be afraid of or someone to spy on. Frank, perhaps.I waited in silence, my eyes filled with expectation and curiosity as I waited for her to squeeze my hand
Last Updated : 2024-04-16
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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
