Bullied By My Alpha Stepbrother novel Chapter 38

Chapter 39

Jasmine's POV

"Thank you for coming out." Lorenzo said with a smile as we sat in one of the booths of the town's diner and I nodded, knowing that I had only one hour before Hardin started looking everywhere for me.

Because since the shooting in the woods, Russo had unofficially made him my bodyguard even though I had tried to argue against it.

But last night when he had finally broken the news at dinner that Hardin would be the one to go with me since he felt it was better than a stranger, I had been too afraid to tell him no, especially because I could not tell him that I wanted to be nowhere around his son, especially after what had happened at my birthday party three days ago.

It still gave me nightmares anytime I closed my eyes because I wondered if the door to my bedroom would burst open and he would come to molest me again.

I had even tried to go to school the next day after it happened but all that anybody could talk about was what had happened at the party.

I had even overheard some girls whispering about how it was possible that the reason why Hardin had been rough with me was because I was pushing myself on Lorenzo, his unnamed school rival and how I deserved everything.

I had spent the rest of that class period hunched over the toilet, vomiting my guts out because no one knew the whole story. No one knew that beyond having alcohol dumped on my head, Hardin had dragged me up to a room and did whatever he wanted with me.

And I had not even had the time to cry because when he left, I had rushed into the bathroom to get something to wipe the floors, terrified that Nadia would come in and find out what had happened to me.

Since that dreadful school day after the birthday, I had not gone back to school and today was the third day of being absent. My mother had called the school on my behalf and because I was a stellar student, it was not a big deal to let me have a few days off.

But I had a presentation tomorrow with Lorenzo that I could not miss, which brought me to the reason why in the last three days, this was the first time I was stepping out of the compound.

As for Hardin, he and I had a silent agreement that the protection situation was a farce because the last thing I wanted was for him to be around me and since that night, he had not approached me and I had only seen bits of him in the house, all of which had been spent pretending like he was not there.

"Hey, are you okay? Did you get my text?" Lorenzo asked, pulling me out of my thoughts and I nodded, quickly opening my book because I had not replied those texts for a reason.

He had asked me to be his girlfriend in one of them, the next day and said he wished he could fight Hardin on my behalf and then the day after that, he had asked me for nudes and how much he missed me and wanted to feel my skin.

He had later sent a series of texts apologizing for it and blaming it on being drunk but it made me uncomfortable now, with all the stuff going on with Hardin and I wanted to be alone.

He was about to say something when my phone rang and I picked it up immediately, rushing to the restroom because I didn't want him to hear.

"So, now you pick my call after three good days, Jazz?" Nadia screeched and I sighed, unable to come up with a reason to explain that I didn't want her to see me after that night because I didn't want her to find out that something was wrong with me.

She had sent me a series of voice notes, asking if I was alright and if Hardin was bullying me and she had even wanted to come over to the house to try to speak to Hardin. That was what had forced me to send a reply to all of her messages.

"I'm sorry "

"Where are you right now? I'm at your house."

My eyes widened in shock.

"What are you doing at my house, Nadia?"

"I'm your best friend. Why wouldn't I be at your house? But that's not why. We were supposed to go to Astrid's party tonight. We agreed to or have you forgotten?"