Betrayal: Brianna's Secret (The Betrayal Series) by Sofia Velardi Page A

secret no longer crushing her spirit, even her step seemed lighter. Abby realized she had made a good decision by coming over the night before.
    Brianna skipped back to the stove to check on something baking in the oven. “I’m glad you slept well. I slept well too. I’m making breakfast pizza. I hope you’re hungry.”
    “Thanks, but I can’t stay for breakfast. I have to get going.”
    Brianna pulled a baking tray out of the oven and dumped it on top of the stove before turning around. “Why can’t you stay? Do you have to work today?”
    “No. Today is my day off, but I need to get home to shower and take care of a few things.”
    Brianna walked back to where Abby was standing. She didn’t want her friend Abby to go yet. Just being around her, seeing her face, made her feel safe, comfortable, content. Brianna wanted to be around Abby for as long as she could. “You can shower here if you want,” she suggested. Images of Abby naked in her shower with water dripping down her face and perfect little body immediately popped in her head, making her breath catch in her throat.
    But she remembered she was not supposed to think about Abby that way anymore, so she dismissed the thoughts-or at least tried to.  “Please stay and have breakfast with me. The pizza is already baked. Just take an hour and eat something. I’m sure whatever you need to do at home can wait an hour. Let me feed you. It’s the least I can do for what you did for me last night. Please?”
    “Okay,” Abby sighed. She really did not have an excuse not to stay. Besides, the breakfast pizza Brianna had just pulled out of the oven smelled too delicious to pass up.
    “Good. Go shower. There are fresh towels in the closet inside the bathroom. You can use my electric toothbrush. There are brand new toothbrush heads in the cabinet above the sink. I will keep the pizza warm until you get back.”
    Abby smiled and walked away from the dining room while Brianna went back to the stove. On her way back to the bedroom, Abby stopped in the living room to pick up her bag. She fished her phone out of it and looked at the screen.
    Seeing the cracked phone screen reminded Abby that she needed to activate her new phone, the one Brianna had given her, as soon as she got home. Scrolling through her messages, Abby found a few from Kyle. They were all short and sweet and had been sent by Kyle a couple of hours earlier.
    Morning Abs.
    How’d you sleep?
    I miss you.
    I love you.
    After reading the sweet messages her boyfriend had left her, Abby felt guilty but also confused. She wondered how someone as sweet and loving as Kyle could be so callous and vicious to his own sister.
    Abby typed a simple I love you too and hit send as she made her way back to Brianna’s bedroom. She sighed, as the message traveled through the airwaves and made it to Kyle’s phone. She did not want to keep the charade up any longer, but she had to keep pretending until he returned to New York.
    In the bedroom, Abby sent a few short texts to her parents, brothers and best friend Katie. After seeing how alone Brianna was because her family didn’t want anything to do with her, Abby appreciated her own family even more. She missed her parents dearly and wished she had money to go see them.
    Her parents too were dying to visit New York City again and see their daughter, but it was not possible for them to do so. Abby’s father had recently been laid off from his job at a car assembly factory, and money was really tight in the Sloans’ household.
    Abby missed her older brothers too. She used to hate how protective her brothers and father were of her. But after learning how Brianna’s father and brother treated Brianna, Abby felt lucky to have men in her life who cared about her so much.
    Abby was about to step into the bathroom to take a quick shower when her phone, which was still in her hands, began to buzz. It was a call from Kyle.
    “Hey, babe,” Kyle greeted when Abby answered. “Did