Step Darkly Read online

  Step Darkly

  Luna Kayne

  Contents

  Also By

  1. Joshua

  2. Emilia

  3. Joshua

  4. Emilia

  5. Joshua

  6. Emilia

  7. Joshua

  8. Emilia

  9. Emilia

  10. Joshua

  11. Emilia

  12. Joshua

  13. Emilia

  14. Joshua

  15. Emilia

  16. Joshua

  17. Emilia

  18. Joshua

  19. Emilia

  20. Joshua

  21. Emilia

  22. Joshua

  23. Emilia

  24. Joshua

  25. Emilia

  26. Joshua

  27. Emilia

  28. Joshua

  29. Emilia

  30. Joshua

  31. Emilia

  32. Joshua

  33. Emilia

  34. Joshua

  35. Joshua

  36. Emilia

  37. Joshua

  38. Emilia

  39. Joshua

  40. Emilia

  41. Joshua

  42. Emilia

  43. Joshua

  44. Emilia

  45. Joshua

  46. Emilia

  47. Joshua

  48. Emilia

  49. Joshua

  50. Emilia

  51. Joshua

  52. Emilia

  53. Joshua

  54. Emilia

  55. Joshua

  56. Emilia

  57. Joshua

  58. Emilia

  59. Joshua

  60. Emilia

  61. Joshua

  62. Emilia

  63. Joshua

  64. Emilia

  65. Joshua

  66. Emilia

  67. Joshua

  68. Emilia

  69. Joshua

  Acknowledgments

  Step Darkly by Luna Kayne

  Copyright © 2020 by Luna Kayne

  All rights reserved.

  This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author/publisher.

  Any similarity between the characters and situations within its pages and places or persons, living or dead, is unintentional and coincidental.

  First Printing, 2020

  ISBN (eBook) 978-1-989366-02-8

  ISBN (paperback) 978-1-989366-14-1

  Luna Kayne

  Kayne Publishing

  Website: www.LunaKayne.com

  Email: [email protected]

  Also By

  Luna Kayne

  NOVELS

  Controlling Interests

  Kill Code

  * * *

  NOVELETTES

  Needy

  Missed Me

  Devil’s Tale

  Poker Face

  All I Want (Controlling Interests epilogue)

  * * *

  POETRY & PROSE

  (UnPoetry series)

  Unspoken: book one

  Unbroken: book two

  Unbound: book three

  Uncharted: book four

  To those who found me

  on the Radish Fiction app.

  * * *

  Thank you for reading along as I wrote this story.

  1

  Joshua

  I remember the first day I saw her like it was yesterday.

  Little Emilia Connor.

  She had medium-length dirty blonde hair tied into two high pigtails, a band-aid covering a skinned knee, glasses and a light pink sundress.

  She stood in the first row with her grade three class as they sang a song for our school’s spring assembly.

  I just transferred to her school because my mother was secretly dating her boss, who happened to be Emilia’s father, and it was getting serious. We moved to the area so they could be closer together. I was at the end of my grade eight year and I left my friends and a decent life behind so my mother could follow her dreams of living the high life.

  At thirteen, I was old enough to be told about their plans to move in together but my mother and her father considered her too young to know what was happening until it was permanent. There were many times I envied her ignorance.

  Sitting with the new grade I just transferred into and watching her class sing their little hearts out, I heard her voice above all of them.

  She beamed her bright smile at everyone who would look at her as she animatedly hit all of the notes and stupidly grinned into the audience without a care in the world.

  I hated her instantly.

  Things have changed a lot in those fifteen years, but what hasn’t changed was our disdain for each other and our rivalry.

  I always felt as though I was never enough around her. I was the kid from the slums who never fit in. I knew the value of working hard. My old man died at fourty-five because of an aneurysm from working too hard for other people and never hard enough on himself.

  I never asked to be pulled out of that life, but being near Emilia always made me feel like I didn’t belong in this one.

  There was something about her I never saw in any of the other girls. Her hair was always in place and she wore the most simple yet prettiest dresses. If you didn’t come from these parts, you would never be able to tell from looking at her that her father was one of the most successful businessmen in the city.

  As much as she got under my skin, once we matured, her laugh always triggered something inside of me. It became difficult to be close to her with so many conflicting feelings waging war with each other.

  Everything about her life was perfect.

  Everything but me.

  I know she tried to put on an act and be nice, but I felt it in my bones.

  I was never enough.

  Then, in my graduating year, her gloves came off. Playing the caring daughter and a kind human being must have been too difficult for her because she just stopped trying.

  By then, my mother had already married and divorced her father and Emilia’s dad never stopped showing an interest in my life.

  But she did.

  She stopped speaking to me all together during my senior year. Even though I moved out with my mom during the divorce, Adam still had me over for the occasional dinner and she would breeze into the room, acknowledge Adam with her smiles and kisses and leave just as quickly.

  I became a ghost in her presence.

  Emilia’s dad offered a few of the guys from my graduating class entry-level positions at Connor Realty and most of us jumped at the chance since no one was interested in hiring kids right out of high school.

  Then Adam, Emilia’s dad, began to mentor me causing Emilia to distance herself further from her own father.

  When she graduated, she took a nice little trust fund and moved as far away as she could to go to university and she’s been home for one holiday in the last five.

  And now she’s on her way here. Adam didn’t deserve a spoiled little rich girl like Emilia.

  Thumbing my fingers across Adam’s last will, a charge begins to build inside of me and a smile creeps across my face. My little Emilia tried so hard to run away from her own life but that’s the thing about destiny; eventually all roads will lead you back to the path meant for you. And I’ve been waiting for her to stumble back onto hers for a long time now.

  As I sit quietly in wait for her to arrive today, I realize my first instincts all of those years ago were right.

  I hate her.

  2

  Emilia

  I remember riding this same train into work with my dad for take your kid to work day. It must have been over 15 years ago. It’s almost like a whole lifetime has passed since then.

  Nothing looks the same now. Everything has changed. It’s darker and, although it’s raining, it has nothing to do with the weather.

  The happy little girl who made her bagged lunch beside her dad in the morning and sat on his lap on the train, looking out at the lively city as we rushed through it, is gone. I see everything differently—or maybe it’s more clearly. I guess that’s what happens when we grow up.

  Everything looks grey now. It’s almost as if the rain is washing away the vibrancy and exposing this city for what it really is. Or it could be because I hate this place now.

  When I left for school five years ago, I vowed never to return.

  And look at me, returning.

  And on top of that, I need to face my demons. One in particular. In about ten minutes, I’ll have to sit in a room with the one person I never wanted to see again.

  Joshua Darkly, my dad’s protégé and, once a long time ago, my step brother. I thank everything that ended quickly.

  Dad’s new wife wasn’t a kind person when my dad was absent; barking orders at staff and putting me down. Every time I tried to talk to my father, I was met with the same speech about giving our new family a chance and learning to get used to the idea of being a part of a larger team. It was never about me not accepting them, but he wouldn’t listen because she played the part of a respectable adult and loving wife so well. That woman should have been an actress.

  Then within one year, the cheating started with one of dad’s business buddies, a real slimy guy.

  I walked in on them one night and she tried to explain it away, then she back-pedalled and told me it was a one-time thing and blamed my father for working so hard. She was always the victim, even when she was caught holding the metaphorical knife.

  When I refused to listen to her sad excuses, she dropped all pretense and threatened me. She said she could destroy Dad’s real estate empire and take all of his money if she wanted to. I didn’t know any better at the time so I stayed quiet.

  When Dad finally caught wind of her affair, she took him to the cleaners anyway. Dad’s business suffered a huge setback and he had to layoff a lot of his employees just to stay afloat and start rebuilding.

  The silver lining is she was finally gone but I couldn’t get rid of Joshua. My dad had a soft spot for him and hired him out of high school to intern at the company and he slowly weaseled his way in and up the ladder to work directly under my dad.

  But that changes today.

  Looking out the window once more, I remember the smell of my dad’s cologne. It wasn’t overpowering, I only caught it in fleeting moments and now I’ll never catch it again.

  The news of his heart attack crushed me. Dead at 53. I always thought I had more time to spend with him. I was always going to make amends and make up for everything.

  There was supposed to be more time.

  Now, all of my accounts with my father have been frozen. I should have opened my own account when I picked up my first job, then my second but I just never had time. Between work and school and trying to go out with some friends, I never stopped moving.

  Now I’m paying for it. Actually, I’m not. My funds have all been frozen. I’m not paying for anything, I chuckle to myself at the ridiculous thought.

  I’ve been self-sufficient for years. Dad set up a little trust fund for me to help me out, but I barely touched it after the second year. For once, I wanted to do something for myself. I didn’t want to be owned by anyone. So instead, I picked up a job at the university library, then another one at a club just off campus. My grades are a little lower than I’d like, but I’m not going to fail.

  However, once the banks are notified of a death, everything gets frozen. Even my own money I put back into the account. I learned that the hard way.

  It doesn’t matter now. Once the will is sorted, I’ll take control of Dad’s real estate company. I’m confident I can convince the board to hire a new lead manager to carry on the company as my father would have wanted.

  And I’ll get everything started, as soon as I fire Mr. Darkly.

  He will be the only casualty in this.

  I’ve wanted to do this for years.

  He’s been as horrible as his junkie mother. He’s no different and Dad was too good of a human being to notice Joshua is as much of a leech as she was.

  I fell for all of it once. Never again. I tried to be a good stepsister. I tried to include him when I found out he was joining our family but he did everything he could to ignore me.

  Every good deed was met with disappointment until he turned his back on me in his senior year of high school, when I needed him the most, and I was done.

  He would never look out for me like I always imagined a big brother would. He had his heart set on hating me.

  Every chance he could, he pushed his way into my dad’s business. I had plans of going to school here and working my way up to learn all about the business my father built. But every time I was around, Joshua made everything difficult.

  His snide remarks, then speaking down to me. And it didn’t help that dad looked at it as sibling rivalry. He was not my sibling.

  Whenever Joshua was around, I could do nothing right and he could do nothing wrong.

  In my senior year, I applied to the farthest university I could find and as soon as I graduated, I was gone. I came home during my first year to visit for the holidays, excited to see my father and spend some time alone together. To my own surprise Joshua was invited into our house to celebrate like he was still family.

  He was never my family.

  After that disaster, I made an excuse never to visit during Christmas again. Year after year I spent the holidays alone trying to build up the strength to return. I was never strong enough.

  And now I regret everything I missed out on.

  All because of Joshua Darkly.

  I can’t wait to fire him today.

  3

  Joshua

  “How many minutes is she late now?” My impatience is boiling close to my surface.

  I’ve always been able to maintain my composure, but there’s something about Emilia that makes me want to snap. She hasn’t stepped one foot into the room yet and I feel the cracks already threatening to break.

  “Ten minutes, Sir.” My newest assistant stutters out and I roll my eyes. I need more backbone in here. These fresh out of school kids haven’t experienced enough in life to be working in such a high-stress job.

  I know the reputation I’ve built for myself around here. I demand everyone’s best. For some, it is too much to handle. Much like the newest member of my administration team here. I’ll have to talk to my secretary about finding her something lower down. I can’t have this one getting all emotional on me when we go into some of our more difficult meetings.

  Just as I’m about to apologize to the lawyers sitting in front of my desk for the late start, my secretary pops her head in. “Just heard from security. She’s checked in and on her way up.”

  At the information, the men in the room shift in their seats and I feel my stomach tense. The anxious feeling settling into my gut is new for me. I embrace control and I’ve always been able to restrain my emotions. Except for those times she is present. What is it that decimates my self-discipline around her?

  Her.

  Emilia Connor, my old step sister. How she is Adam’s daughter, I will never know.

  Adam has always been hard working and fair to everyone around them, but not her.

  Emilia has done nothing but live off of her Daddy’s money. The latest I heard is her grades are dropping and she’s spending most of her nights at a local club with friends, partying it up on Adam’s hard earned money.

  She’s always hated my mother and I. When the divorce was finalized, my mother told me she barely got a dime because of Emilia. She went running to her dad with as many lies as she could about infidelities and I’ve been sending my mother money from my own salary to help her out now that she’s on her own. It doesn’t matter, I can more than afford to support her, too, now.

  And Emilia didn’t stop there. She went out of her way to punish Adam. Skipping holidays and always providing the weakest excuses.

  I’ve never understood how easily she took her privilege for granted. I never fit in with the rich kids even when I became one myself. I found my friends among the boys whose parents worked for my step dad.

  After the divorce, Emilia’s true colors came out. Her disdain for me cut into me every time I saw her. It wasn’t deserved.

  I never asked to be added to her family and I never asked to be removed from it.

  I worked hard to get good grades through school and I even managed to pick up a scholarship to a local college. As I studied, I worked at Connor Realty and learned everything from the mailroom to where I’m sitting now… in my own office and one step under Adam.