Dirty Little Secret: New Adult Rock Star Romance (Not Exactly A Stepbrother Romance Book 1) Read Online Free Page B

Gemma are to decide this between themselves and submit their answer to the will executor within ninety days of my passing.”
    There was so much what the fuck in that statement, I didn’t even know where to start.
    “We have to decide between ourselves which one deserves the money?” Bret asked.
    Mom nodded. “The last sentence reads, I trust they’ll do the right thing .”
    Five million dollars. Holy shit. It would solve all my problems and then some. I could start an elephant sanctuary or donate heavily to ones that could use that kind of cash. So many animals would benefit from this. What the hell would Bret do with the money? He’d piss it away partying and have nothing to show for it. Maybe a bunch of groupies would get new tits. I couldn’t think of one good thing that’d come of him getting the money.
    “That’s crazy. Are you sure this is legal? It doesn’t seem like something Dad would do.” Maybe I had heatstroke. Dad would never leave something like that up in the air. He knew we’d kill each other before we played nice over that kind of money. “Can’t we just split it?”
    “That was the first thing I asked the lawyer. He said, legally, no. It has to be one of the other. You’re both free to contest it, of course.” Mom took off her glasses and tucked the document back into the folder. “Honestly, I’d like to see the two of you work this out. It shocked me too, but I know how much he wanted to see you get along. Maybe this was his way of doing it.”

Chapter Four
     
    The clock was ticking. Less than ninety days. Five million dollars. One winner. My dad had concocted the reality show from Hell. But there was no camera crew, no confessional, and no actual competition. Just me versus Bret.
    No way was I letting him get that money. He’d blow it all on his stupid band, drugs, and sleazy sex. I wanted to use it to save animals. I was never one to whine about life being unfair, but this was an excellent example of just that.
    I joined Bret on the back deck. “Did you know about this before Mom read the will?” I asked. He’d stayed home tonight, probably too shell-shocked to go anywhere after that calamity. Unless he was in on the fix the whole time.
    “No. How would I have known about it? The lawyer had the will until today.” Bret curled his lip in disgust. We were polishing off the rest of the rum punch and probably shouldn’t be talking about this tonight. Or ever. It was ridiculous, and we were letting it have power over us.
    “Maybe Dad told you.” I wasn’t backing down from my conspiracy theory. “You’ve been awfully nice to me lately. And…” The way he’d touched me when he put the sunscreen on. I caught myself before I said that out loud, but shivered just thinking about it.
    He slammed his hand on the table. “And what? I’ve been nice to you because we’ve been going through some serious shit lately, and I thought maybe we could be adults and put our past behind us. Not because I was trying to scam Dad’s money out of you.” Bret scoffed, shaking his head. “But if that’s not what you want, fine with me. No love lost here, Gem. And you can kiss that money goodbye. I’ll wipe my ass with it before I let you have it.”
    I couldn’t see Bret anymore. There was just a black hole in the middle of my red-hot rage. “How can I just magically forget everything you’ve done to me? Like poof , it doesn’t exist anymore?”
    “What did I do to you?”
    “Let’s see. You fucked every one of my girlfriends. They’d come crying to me after they figured out you used them…” He’d string them along enough that they’d think he actually cared about them. Every time. The impact hurt like hell when they fell out of the clouds with no warning. I knew, because they landed on me.
    “We were having a good time.” The black hole shrugged. “Maybe they weren’t really your friends in the first place.”
    That comment wasn’t easy to ignore. “Whenever a guy was