Claimed by My Ex's Stepbrother
"IS IT TRUE?" Grayson's voice thundered through the room.
"Yes!" Tessa said softly. "Yes it is!"
"So you've been cheating on me, haven't you?" He spat.
Her hands trembled. "No, I swear, it's not like that."
He grabbed her arm, his grip bruising her wrist as she squealed in pain.
"Then whose baby are you carrying, huh?" His voice was ice cold.
Tessa shivered, tears blurring her vision.
"I don't know."
**********
Pregnant with the powerful Roman Blackwood's child, while engaged to his unstable stepbrother - Tessa Quinn becomes the key to a ruthless inheritance war where love has no place.
As secrets unravel and danger closes in, Tessa must protect her unborn child while trapped between love, vengeance, and men who want to own her fate.
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Chapter 7
Tessa moved to the door slowly, buying herself seconds she didn't have. Roman stood in a dark coat, his presence filling the narrow porch. His eyes swept over her, unreadable, sharp enough to strip her bare.
"What are you doing here?" she asked, keeping her tone flat.
"We need to talk... now."
"Yeah? About what?" She folded her arms. "I thought we agreed that until the baby-"
"I noticed your calls," he blurted out.
She blinked, stunned by his sudden change in tone. "It was a mistake."
"Twice is too much for a mistake."
His gaze dropped to her arm-the one she kept folded against her body.
"What's the problem?" he asked.
"Nothing."
"Don't lie to me." His voice cut through the air like steel. He pulled her closer, tugging up her sleeves, his eyes darkening at the bruises.
"Who did this to you?" he demanded.
"It's nothing," she shrugged.
"Would you stop with the damn lies?" he snapped. "Just stop it."
"What do you want, Roman?" she asked, pulling away from him.
He drew in a deep breath. "I paid the hospital a little visit. I know about your sick father... and the altercation with your boyfriend you didn't think was worth mentioning. Now, I'm giving you a chance to tell me what's going on."
Tessa shifted her weight, keeping her eyes on the ground.
"You will look at me when I am talking to you," Roman said sharply.
The command made her spine stiffen. She forced herself to meet his eyes.
"Nothing is going on," she sniffed. "And I appreciate your concern, but it's not your business."
His jaw tightened. "Not my business? You're carrying my child. Or should I start wondering if it's even mine?"
Her breath caught. "How dare you?"
Roman scoffed. "You call me when I ask you not to. You hide things. You let me hear about you from strangers-what the hell am I supposed to think?" he barked.
"I know you don't know me, but the least you can do is trust me," she shot back. "But clearly, that's asking too much."
He took a step forward, closing the distance. "Trust goes both ways, Tessa. You don't want to talk? Fine. But don't expect me to stand by while you-"
"While I what? Keep certain things to myself?" Her voice rose, heat flooding her cheeks. "You don't own me, Roman. And you sure as hell don't get to control me."
"Don't raise your voice when you're talking to me," Roman scolded.
"But you're raising your voice at me!" she shouted back.
For a second, neither of them moved.
"Yes, I did have a boyfriend," she admitted finally. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you about that, but it's hard to explain that to you without you thinking I'm a lying whore."
"You're damn right," he said, his voice low and cutting. "Because this isn't something you just drop in my lap and expect me to accept. Not without answers. Not when you're-"
"Screw you, Roman," she cut in.
"Tessa-"
"I'm done with this discussion. Have a good night." She stomped her feet and stepped back into the house, slamming the door.
Her breath was loud and shaky as she stood with her back against the wall.
Gina's brows lifted. "Who was that?"
"My baby's father." Tessa let out a frustrated sigh.
Her eyes widened. "And what did he want?"
"To remind me who he is," Tessa muttered, walking past her without another word.
Roman's POV
Roman's jaw tightened as he watched Tessa step into the house. The bruise on her arm burned into his memory. Whoever had touched her would regret it.
She was carrying what was his. So who the hell would dare lay a finger on her?
And how dare she walk away from him?
He didn't know her well enough yet, but he knew she wasn't weak. She was the kind of woman who'd bite down on her pain before she let anyone see her bleed. That only made him want to rip the truth out of her more.
His boots crunched against the gravel, every step away from her door feeling wrong. His hands itched to go back, pound on it, and make her talk.
But she'd slammed a wall between them tonight.
Fine.
But walls could be broken.
He turned away and yanked open his car door. Sliding into the seat, the slam echoed through the night.
"She's hiding something," he said flatly.
Davin's eyes flicked toward him. "What do you think it is?"
"I don't know," Roman bit out, "but it seems like everything she says is a damn lie."
"So what do you want to do now?"
He didn't hesitate. "Find out everything about her. I don't care how deep you have to dig. Her name, background, who she talks to, and when she breathes. I want to know everything."
Davin gave a short nod. "Consider it done, sir."
"Good." Roman breathed. "Now get me the hell out of this place."
Roman's POV
Morning came and Roman had been pacing for ten damn minutes.
The coffee on the table was untouched, the laptop open but useless. He couldn't focus on a single damn thing because every time his mind cleared, Tessa's face slipped back in. That bruise. That look in her eyes when she lied to him like it cost her nothing.
He hated that it got to him.
She was hiding something, and he wasn't the type to wait around and hope the truth landed on his doorstep.
The door opened and Davin stepped in, a blue file in one hand, a small device in the other.
"I hope you've got something for me," Roman said, his voice irritated by the long wait.
"I've got everything."
"So, what is it? Tell me everything," Roman demanded impatiently.
"Here's what I got," Davin started. "Tessa Quinn. Age twenty-four. College dropout."
Roman raised his brows. Dropout?
"Engaged once," Davin continued. "And, boss... you're gonna want to see this."
Roman took the file, flipping through pages-birth records, addresses, a hospital report.
"Any info on the sperm mix-up?" he asked as he skimmed through the file, but Davin's voice cut in, sharper now.
"Forget the paperwork for a second. Watch this."
He slid the small device into the laptop on the desk, the screen flickering to life. The security footage was grainy and muted. It was a hospital corridor.
Roman saw Tessa. Being dragged by the arm, her face pale. And then, a conflict in a room. A man closing in on her, causing havoc, his jaw tight, yelling words Roman couldn't hear but didn't need to before he understood.
The man turned just in time for the camera to catch his face, and Davin paused the video.
Roman's eyes widened in shock. He sat up straight, his eyes drying out from not blinking.
It looked like-
And just like that, his blood turned to ice. His heart dropped, and his words failed him.
Grayson.
Grayson fucking Thorne.
Roman's breath stopped. He picked up the file, flipping through it with lightning speed until he stopped at the end.
It was him-a picture of him and Tessa wrapped up in each other's arms.
"What the fuck is this?" Roman muttered.
The name in the file was one thing, but seeing him there, on that camera-towering over her, grabbing her-was something else entirely.
He leaned forward, every muscle in his body coiled tight.
"That's Grayson," Roman said to Davin, barely believing his own words. "That's my fucking brother."
His voice dropped, deadly quiet.
"And if this is true, then this is a fucking mess."
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8.6
"What do you think people would say if they found out you don't have a dick?" Christian asked, his voice low and dripping with seduction. His hand pressed firmly against my crotch, fingers exploring the flat, unfamiliar emptiness there. A devilish smirk curved his lips. "Or if they discovered these voluptuous breasts you've been hiding so well?"
A strangled moan slipped from my throat as his hand slid under my shirt, his fingers brushing over my hardened nipples, teasing them with slow, deliberate strokes.
"Which do you think they'd call you?" he murmured, eyes gleaming. "A boy with tits... or a dickless little fraud?"
I stared into his hungry blue eyes, words failing me.
"The term you're looking for is 'girl,'" came Xavier's smooth voice from the bathroom doorway. He stepped inside, closing the door behind him with a soft click, his gaze raking over me with open interest. "So tell me, little girl... what the hell is someone like you doing in an all-boys dorm?"
Christian's smirk widened. "She wants to be devoured by boys like us." His fingers gave my nipple one last firm pinch before he leaned in closer, breath hot against my ear. "And I'll be more than happy to give her a taste."
7.4
Four years ago, to protect the man I loved from losing his billionaire empire, I drugged his drink, told him I only used him for his money, and vanished.
Now, at a high-society gala, Callum Wyatt is back. He isn't just a CEO anymore; he's a ruthless predator, and the second his eyes lock onto me, I know I am his prey.
When my wealthy half-sister publicly humiliated me, calling me the cheap bastard child of a homewrecker, Callum stepped out of the shadows. He nearly snapped her wrist in half and declared to New York's elite that anyone who touched me would be dismantled.
In the back of his Maybach, he pinned my arms above my head, his eyes burning with psychotic obsession.
"If you run again, Aubrey, I will burn your entire world to the ground just to keep you."
My heart bled. I had spent four grueling years tearing myself apart to keep him out of my messy, blood-soaked revenge against the family that watched my mother die.
But his terrifying protection only made my biological father's family target me harder, using their massive capital to buy out my movie set and crush my acting career.
They thought I would cower.
But as I walked onto the soundstage, facing the heiress trying to steal my role, I took off my sunglasses. I wasn't running anymore; it was time to make them pay.
7.3
Seven years ago, my fiancé, Don Dante Moretti, sent me to prison to take the fall for my adopted sister, Chiara. He called it a gift-a way to protect me from a worse fate.
Today, he picked me up from prison only to abandon me at my family's estate. His reason? Chiara was having another one of her "episodes."
My parents then informed me I'd be staying in the third-floor storage room, so as not to disturb the fragile girl who stole my life.
They celebrated her "recovery" with a lavish dinner party, while I was treated like a ghost. When I refused to join, my mother hissed that I was ungrateful, and my father called me jealous.
They assumed I couldn't understand their venomous whispers. But prison was my university. I learned Spanish. I understood every word.
It was then I realized I wasn't just a sacrifice; I was disposable. The love I once felt for all of them had turned to ash.
That night, in the dusty storage room, I logged onto an encrypted channel I'd set up years ago. A single message was waiting: "The offer stands. Do you accept?" My hands, scarred and steady, typed back, "I accept."
9.5
As the fetal monitor screamed in the delivery room, Danae begged the nurses to call her billionaire husband to save their dying baby.
Instead of Adrian, his chief lawyer arrived with a chilling directive: all emergency interventions were explicitly denied.
While security guards pinned her arms to the mattress, Danae was forced to listen to her baby's heartbeat flatline. The lawyer simply dropped divorce papers on her bed and walked out. A sympathetic doctor helped Danae fake her own death to escape the family. Stripped of her assets and kicked out into the freezing rain, she tried to drown herself with her child's ashes, only to be saved by a mysterious benefactor.
Three years later, Danae returned as a top medical researcher. But at a high-profile symposium, she crossed paths with Adrian and his new fiancée—a cheap lookalike of Danae. The woman maliciously staged a bloody miscarriage using a restricted chemical, perfectly framing Danae's lab for the crime.
Adrian pinned Danae against the wall, his eyes black with rage, vowing to make her beg for death. Three years ago, he let their real child die without even answering the phone. Now, he was ready to destroy her over a fake pregnancy.
Just as Adrian's private guards dragged her away to be locked up, the hospital doors were violently kicked open. A rival billionaire stepped in with a team of ruthless lawyers, shielding Danae behind his back and declaring war.
9.6
I was only three and a half years old, living in a damp basement and beaten daily by Enoch Pruitt with a heavy leather whip.
"Get up, you useless waste of space!"
He always told me I was a stray he had picked out of the garbage.
But during one brutal beating that nearly stopped my heart, time froze, and a glowing figure called The Chronicler appeared.
"You are not an abandoned orphan, Clare. You carry the blood of the highest gods."
He revealed that I was the stolen daughter of the ultra-wealthy Barrett family.
Then, he showed me the horrific ending of my previous life.
I had died right here on this bloody dirt floor.
My real parents and three brothers went completely insane with grief, turning into ruthless monsters who destroyed themselves and the entire world to avenge me.
Meanwhile, the Pruitt family kept torturing me, locking me in a woodshed and feeding me moldy bread.
The memory of my bones breaking and my real mother's agonizing screams crushed my chest.
Why did I have to suffer like an animal while my true family tore the world apart looking for me?
This time, I refused to die in the mud.
I accepted my divine blood, my eyes glowing gold as I summoned a bolt of purple lightning to strike my abuser.
I just needed to survive the night.
Because my real father's heavily armed convoy was already tearing up the mountain, ready to burn this hell to the ground.
8.7
Jolie transmigrated into a high-tech universe ruled by beast-shifting Primals, only to wake up in the body of a "defective" female. With a Genetic Compatibility Index of zero, she was publicly discarded by her mandated military partner.
Before she could even adapt, her stepmother drugged her with an illegal aphrodisiac and locked her in a pitch-black suite with that same ex-fiancé—now a feral, maddened beast. The family wanted her torn apart to permanently erase their embarrassment.
But instead of dying, Jolie awakened a rare plant-manipulation power. She bound the raging General, drained his energy, robbed him blind, and fled to a remote farming planet. Just as she thought she was free, the Commonwealth system flashed a new mandate. They assigned her a new husband: Keanu Robertson, a psychotic assassin who had murdered his last three wives.
The system wasn't giving her a partner; it was handing her a death warrant. Keanu despised females, especially a "useless" zero-GCI burden. He tracked her forged alias across the galaxy, descending upon her barren farm in the dead of night with pure murderous intent. How could a discarded, defective girl survive the most feared apex predator in the Shadow Sector?
But as the legendary assassin stepped onto her property to finish the job, a mutated, neurotoxic vine whipped out and completely paralyzed him. Watching the massive killer crash face-first into the dirt, Jolie lowered her rifle and smiled.
"Welcome home, husband."