Despised And Devoured By My Step Father

The Price Of Hypocrisy

Danny's POV

The sun came up the next morning like it hadn't just witnessed the total collapse of my sanity. It was disgusting. The birds were chirping, the kettle was whistling, and the house smelled like expensive coffee and my mum's favourite cinnamon rolls.

I stood in the kitchen doorway, leaning my weight against the frame with my arms locked tight across my chest. I felt a live, raw and dangerous touch. I watched them through a haze of sleep deprivation and pure, unadulterated disgust.

My mother was humming. It was her usual favourite hymn as she flipped the pancakes, her skin glowing with a radiance that made me want to scream. I knew where that glow came from. Indeed, the saying that a woman cheats better than a man does was definitely true. There was no way in hell Chadwick would believe his clingy wife was cheating on him with her friend.

Chadwick was perched at the table in a crisp white shirt, scrolling through his tablet with a clinical calm, looking like he didn't have a hidden drawer full of lead and a heart of ice. A man who lived double lives, I should be reporting him to the police right now for fraud, I thought silently.

They were both such fakes. Actors on a stage made of cardboard and lies. No wonder they never wanted me to leave in my truth.

"Danny, honey, sir down! You need to eat," my mum said, beaming at me.

I looked at the pancakes. They looked like rubber. "I am not hungry."

"You have been so pale lately," she tutted, walking over to press a hand to my cheek. It was the same hand I had seen clutching on Elena's hair. I flinched away so violently it was like she had tried to brand me with a hot iron. Her smile faltered, a flicker of confusion crossing her face before the mask slid back into place. "Is it about Leo? I know it's hard, baby, but you have to be strong."

I looked past her, pinning my gaze directly on Chadwick's dark, unblinking eyes. The man was watching me with a predatory curiosity, waiting to see which way I would snap.

"Yeah," I rasped, my voice sounding like I had been swallowing broken glass. "It's about Leo."

Chadwick took a slow, deliberate sip of his coffee. "Eat, Danny. Your mother worked hard for this food. Besides, it's good you are in the house today, we can study comfortably here. Your grades won't wait for your grief."

The audacity was a physical weight. I followed him to the study an hour later, the door clicking shut and locking us into a room that smelled of old paper, sandalwood, and a fear that was rapidly curdling into something much more volatile.

"Sit down, Danny," Chadwick commanded, not looking up from his file.

"No."

Chadwick looked up then, his glasses sliding slightly down his nose. "Excuse me?"

"How do you even do it?" I asked, my voice trembling with a rage that felt heavy enough to pull him through the floorboards. "How do you sit there? How do you eat and kiss my mother and talk about grades when you put someone in a hospital? You almost killed him. He had never even done anything wrong to you before.

Chadwick sighed, a sound of genuine boredom. He took off his glasses and set them on the desk. "I warned you, Danny. I don't want you looking at other boys. Also I don't like people playing with my toys. If you play with fire, you get burned. If you play with me....you die."

"I am not your toy!" I shouted, slamming my hands into the mahogany desk. "I am a person! Do you even feel guilty? Do you know you are actually a monster?"

Chadwick stood up slowly, walking around the desk until his presence swallowed the room. He stood inches away, his shadow looming over me.

"Guilt is not mine to feel, Danny. I did nothing wrong, I was just trying to protect my stepson." He reached out, his hand wrapping around my waist, pulling me flush against his chest. He leaned down, his nose grazing my neck, taking a deep sniff. "You still smell like the hospital. Antiseptic and embarrassment. I just hope your ass is still pink down there. Don't you dare let Leo f**k you anymore, boy. You are mine to fuck."

Something in my brain just...snapped. The guilt for Leo, the hypocrisy of my mother and the sheer, terrifying magnetism I felt for this man that held me.

"You think you own me," I breathed.

"I know I do," Chadwick whispered.

Chadwick grip tightened, his fingers digging into my hips, and then he moved. With a sudden, violent tug, he tore my shirt. The cheap plastic buttons flew off in a frantic fleet, hitting the floor like hailstones. My chest was barely, my skin prickling in the cold air, but when Chadwick leaned his face to my neck, his wet tongue licking and trailing my skin.

I didn't back away. I should have. But I just couldn't.

I grabbed Chadwick's face, pulling his face away from my neck, my fingers digging into the man's jaw, and I smashed his lips against mine. It was a messy, desperate, deranged explosion of the feelings I had inside me.

Chadwick froze. For the first time, I had made him actually shocked. But I didn't care. I had lost my mind completely, I took the lead, smooching his body, pressing myself against him like a deranged animal.

I didn't feel any guilt. My mum was cheating on her husband, and her punishment would be me snatching her man away fr

om her, that's the price of hypocrisy she needed to pay.