Mated To My Step Brother

6

The silence in Ravi’s car was louder than the party had been. My soaked dress clung to the leather seat, my fingers numb from both the cold and the weight of everything I didn’t say. Ravi kept glancing over at me, his brows pinched in concern, but he didn’t push. He knew me better than that.

Still, the quiet was unbearable.

“He didn’t even hesitate,” I whispered. “Like I never meant anything.”

Ravi gripped the wheel tighter. “He’s trash, Liora. You know that, right? He doesn’t get to rewrite the past just because he’s moved on to his next Barbie doll.”

I let out a bitter laugh. “She’s perfect, though. And I—I was standing in a lake like a soaked i***t while he made out with her in front of everyone.”

“You weren’t the i***t. He was.” Ravi glanced at me again, his voice gentler now. “What he did wasn’t just cruel, it was calculated. He wanted to hurt you. And he did. But you’re not staying in that hurt. You’re leaving it behind with every mile we drive away.”

I stared out the window, watching the trees blur into shadows under the moonlight. “I thought I was over him. I wanted to be over him.”

“You can want something and still not be ready for it.” He paused. “That doesn’t make you weak. It just makes you human.”

I swallowed hard. “Do you ever… want to go back, even when you know it’s poison?”

Ravi was quiet for a long time before he finally said, “Yeah. With my ex? All the time. But then I remind myself how it felt when I stopped needing his approval. When I chose myself.”

I turned toward him. “How did you do it?”

“I didn’t. Not at first. It took time. And nights like this, where I cried in someone’s passenger seat and tried to forget the sound of his voice.” He smiled faintly. “You’ll get there. You’ve already taken the first step—you didn’t let Kalen win.”

“I fell in a lake,” I said flatly.

“You got back up,” Ravi corrected. “That’s what matters.”

We pulled into the driveway of his apartment complex. He turned off the engine and looked at me seriously. “Come upstairs. You can borrow clothes. Dry off. Watch garbage TV with me and roast his haircut until you laugh again.”

I blinked at him, and the smallest smile crept onto my lips. “His haircut was awful.”

“Like a hedge trimmer met a t****k tutorial and lost.” Ravi winked. “Come on, babe. Let’s be dramatic and eat leftover cake while you plot your emotionally healthy revenge arc.”

I nodded, finally exhaling some of the weight I’d been carrying since I hit the water.

He wasn’t just offering a couch or clean clothes—he was giving me a safe place to fall apart.

And for the first time in a long time, I let myself accept it.