My Stepbrother Wants Me-Chapter 131: Buddies

Julian’s POV.

I swirled the ice in my glass, watching the way the amber liquid caught the glow of the overhead pendant lights.

Ethan sat across from me, looking like a man who had been dragged through a hedge backward. He hadn’t shaved in three days, and the dark circles under his eyes made him look like a ghost of the cocky guy I knew.

"Man," Ethan said, leaning in and lowering his voice as he tapped his phone screen. "I saw the video of Sasha and Collins. Absolute carnage. I didn’t think you would have it in you to fire back at your enemies like that, bro. That was a very cold move. I’m wowed but still very much impressed."

I didn’t need to ask what he was talking about. The "Vaughn Scandal" was the only thing the local blogs had been eating for lunch for the past few days. The leaked video of Sasha and Collins fucking each other.

"I didn’t have a hand in that," I replied, my voice flat. I took a sip of my drink.

Ethan paused, his eyebrows shooting up toward his hairline. He searched my face for a tell. When he found nothing but the usual cold mask, he let out a low whistle and leaned back.

"Seriously? I thought for sure you’d finally snapped and decided to play dirty." He took a long pull of his beer, wiping foam from his lip. "Actually, I’m glad. It means I still know my best friend. I was starting to think those monsters had finally turned you into a mini-assassin."

He grinned then, a flash of his old self returning. "So, if it wasn’t you, it had to be Catherine, right? I’ve gotta give it to her, that girl is such a ruthless lady. I didn’t think she had that kind of ’killer instinct’ in her. She looks so... well, calm."

I shook my head. "Catherine doesn’t look calm. She’s a wild cat," I commented, blushing, though I stopped before Ethan would realize. "She didn’t have a hand in it either."

Ethan’s grin faltered. He looked genuinely baffled now, his glass suspended halfway to his mouth. "Wait. If it wasn’t you, and it wasn’t her... then who? Someone had to have the access. There’s probably someone else who wants them humiliated so badly."

"I have no idea," I replied, staring at a scratch on the table. "And honestly? I don’t really care to know. In our school, I’m sure people have a hundred reasons to want those two ruined. Maybe it was a jealous ex, maybe it was someone they stepped on to get ahead. Or maybe," I added, my voice dropping an octave, "it was my father, cleaning up the loose ends of a failed alliance."

"You’re so boring," Ethan groaned, rolling his eyes. "A massive sex scandal drops involving the two people who tried to ruin your life, and you’re just ’meh’ about it? Where’s the spice, Julian? Where’s the triumph?"

"The ’triumph’ is currently getting those two out of my life. Sasha now hides from public parties, I don’t have to deal with her annoying self anymore. That’s triumph, Ethan," I snapped, my patience wearing thin. "I have bigger problems than knowing who leaked the nudes. Speaking of problems..."

I set my glass down with a heavy thud, fixing him with a hard look, the kind that usually made a guilty person sweat. "You’re looking for ’fun’ and ’spice’ when you have a girlfriend who is currently carrying your child. Have you forgotten about that, or are you hoping it’ll just evaporate if you drink enough Guinness?"

The light died in Ethan’s eyes instantly. It was like someone had flipped a switch, draining the life out of his face. His shoulders slumped, and he suddenly looked every bit the terrified boy I knew he was underneath the bravado.

"You shouldn’t have reminded me, man," he muttered, staring into his beer as if it held the answers to his life’s wreckage. "I’m aware. Believe me, I’m aware."

"That’s the main reason we met up," I reminded him, refusing to let him retreat into his shell. "I didn’t come here to talk about my own problems. I came here to figure out your life. School resumes in exactly a week, Ethan. One week. Tessa is either going to show up at the gates with a secret, or she’s going to drop out and start the countdown to a very public disaster."

Ethan sighed, a long, ragged sound. "The pregnancy isn’t revealing yet. She’s tiny, Jules. She can still go to school for now. We have time to... to figure out a story."

I nodded slowly, acknowledging the logic, but the persistent part of me couldn’t let it go. "Maybe for a month. Maybe two. But then what? You’re both young. You’re an heir to a legacy that doesn’t allow for mistakes of this magnitude. We have to find a way to convince her to take the baby out. For her sake, Ethan. If she has this kid, her life as she knows it is over. Your uncle will make sure of that."

I expected him to agree. I expected the usual panic, the desperate search for an out but he didn’t say a word. He just sat there, his jaw working, his eyes fixed on a point somewhere behind my head.

"Ethan?" I pushed. "What is it? Is there another problem? Did she tell her parents?"

He looked at me then, and the expression on his face made my stomach do a cold roll. It wasn’t fear. It was something much more complicated. Something that looked like... longing.

"Truth is... I don’t want her to abort the baby, Julian," he whispered.

My hand, which had been reaching for my glass, froze mid-air. My fingers hovered just an inch from the condensation-slicked surface. I just stared at him, my mind trying to process a sentence that made zero sense in our world.

"What? Are you nuts?" I finally managed to breathe out.