Big Brother Billionaire (Part Three) Read Online Free Page A

paragraph, however, shattered that illusion.
    This is my last letter to you, he’d written, the handwriting growing halting, smudged, as if he’d stopped writing and started up again multiple times. I’ve pushed you too hard, and I can see that. I’m sorry that you could never get past what society expects out of a wonderful and loving relationship. I’m sorry that you couldn’t look past what our parents thought was right, to embrace what we knew was right. I wish I could be like you, Parker. I wish that I could try to deny the thing I want the most, but I’m just not strong enough. I’ll try to be strong for you now, though. I’ll try to leave you alone. I’ll try to move forward in life even if I don’t have a destination in mind anymore. The destination I had in mind was always with you, you know. It was always with you.
    I’ll try to stop loving you, Parker. I just don’t know if it’s going to be possible.
    Tears obscured my vision and fell on the page already mussed by the garbage can, from tearing and tape, smearing the words until they were incomprehensible. Just when I’d been ready to accept the fact that Marcus was the man I was meant to be with, just when I was willing to try to forget that there were so many rules that stood in our way…Marcus was ready to try and forget me.
    It was all my fault. I deserved this. I’d been pushing him away for so long that he’d finally gone away for good. I didn’t deserve to be happy. I’d ignored the love that was right in front of me—even if it was across the country—for all this time. Of course I didn’t deserve to have it the second I wanted it. I deserved all of the horrible things that had happened up until this point.
    “I thought so.”
    I gasped and pushed myself away from the letter, its pages still spread across the floor, panicking like some sort of prey animal as I heard Ron’s voice.
    He was standing in the open door. I’d been crying too hard, bemoaning my fate, to hear him enter the apartment. It was strange; I hadn’t heard his motorcycle approach either. Was I that deeply mired in despair?
    “I parked the motorcycle three blocks away,” he said, seeming to read my mind. “I had a weird feeling about that letter from last night, and your explanation seemed too tidy.”
    “This…this isn’t what it looks like,” I said desperately, drying my eyes and somehow gaining my feet. “I just wanted to know what the letter said.”
    “I told you what it said.” Ron’s voice was cool, his posture deceptively relaxed. I knew that he was neither of those things.
    “It’s just that…he’s basically my brother, Ron,” I said, wringing my hands, looking for an escape. I could try to shut myself in the bathroom, but then it would only be a matter of time—and probably a worse punishment—that he broke the thin wood down. “I’m always concerned about him. He’s family. I try to see how he’s doing, and now I feel pretty good, you know?”
    “Oh, yeah?” Ron asked, polite. “Pretty good? How so?”
    “Well, you read the letter,” I said, wiping my nose with the back of my hand. “He said that he was going to stop writing. I’m glad I know that, because I can finally get on with my life, too, without being afraid that someone was going to find out about his attraction to me.”
    “If you’re feeling pretty good, baby, then why are you crying?”
    I rubbed my face as well as I could. “I don’t know,” I said, forcing myself to laugh. “I think it’s kind of a relief, you know? A relief that it’s all over. All these years, and I haven’t really cried about it. I never wanted to be upset. I just wanted to deal with the problem.”
    “Why didn’t you tell me you wanted to read the letter?” he asked, taking one step forward. I struggled not to take a step back, struggled to stand my ground. I could still convince him there was nothing here. I could put up a good front and show him his suspicions were untrue. It