Stepbrother Desires by Lauren Branford

Morning News
    Audrey
    (This chapter is previewed at the end of Book I)
 
                  I awoke the next day to discover that Sebastian wasn’t with me inside of my bed. After wrapping my robe around me, I walked down the stairs, and into the kitchen. The smell of warm, sizzling food permeated the air. I noticed that the chef was preparing some potatoes and ham.
                  “Hello!” Lydia called out to me. She seemed to be in an even cheerier than usual mood this morning.
                  “Hi,” I said softly. “That smells good.”
                  “It’s almost ready,” she said smiling. “You’ll love it. Won’t she, Michael?”
                  I walked around the corner to see Michael at the far end of the kitchen counter. Between them was my father who was reading a newspaper. Michael smiled at me with a mouthful of potatoes.
                  “It’s delicious, Aubrey!” he said gleefully. I gave Michael a small smile as I sat down next to Lydia at the counter. One of Michael’s best and worst qualities was his ability to act like the terrible events of previous days never existed. While everything went under rug swept, I was also supposed to play along. In this case, it felt less exhausting to go along with it all.
                  “How was your day yesterday, kids?” my father asked behind his newspaper.
                  “It was great,” Michael smiled. “I beat Aubrey three times in a row at chess.”
                  “Then I destroyed you at trivia,” I reminded him as the chef put a plate in front of me.
                  “She did!” Michael laughed.
                  “Look at this kids, Lyd,” my father said as he reached his hands across the table. “It’s so nice to have everyone here all at the same time.”
                  “It is, isn’t it?” Lydia looked genuinely emotional over the entire scene. “If only Sebastian could get here quickly, we could have a proper family breakfast.”
                  “Did I hear family breakfast?” Sebastian said as he rounded the corner into the room.
                  “You’re back!” Lydia shrieked as she stood up from the counter. Meanwhile, I was wondering where he had gone.
                  “Having a family gathering without me?” Sebastian was beaming, even more than any time I had seen him before. It was far too early for him to be up, especially with his hair done, and dressed in a polo shirt, shorts, and shoes.
                  “I was waiting for you,” Lydia said as she gave him a hug. “Tell him that I was waiting, won’t you, darling!”
                  “She was,” said my father as he lowered the newspaper.
                  “Well, we can’t have a proper family dinner without this week’s special guest,” he said. “Darla, come out here! She was just taking her shoes off at the door.”
                  A girl just a few years older than me came out from in back of Sebastian. She had black hair that came down in waves around his soft, pale skin. Large, innocent looking eyes, and pale pink lips completed her perfectly innocent look. There wasn’t a thing about this girl that wasn’t beautiful, and, there wasn’t anything about her that I could trust.
                  “Oh my goodness, Darla!” Lydia cried out as she gave the girl a hug.
                  “Everyone,” Sebastian announced. “I’d like you to meet Darla, my fiancé.”
                  It seemed as though Sebastian had some more cards up his sleeves. This asshole decided not to tell me that he was engaged to be married. Inside, I was fuming. Of course, I couldn’t tell a soul in the room about our encounter, so this had to be my little secret. This girl might be pretty, but she