Fraud: A Stepbrother Romance Read Free

a
mechanic on tanks. He was deployed all over the world, and saw action in Iraq
and Afghanistan.
    A piece of shrapnel ended his military
career, but he fell into a business opportunity soon after. He became
part-owner of a company that manufactured one of the components of a special
kind of tank armor. The company got an exclusive contract, and Dad found
himself fairly wealthy in a rather sudden way.
    While in the service, he’d never been
married. When he got out, he’d started the business, and for a while that was
all he had.
    But, then he met my mother.
    She’d been a country western backup
vocalist with Merle Haggard and even did some work with Tim McGraw.
    Then, I came along, and Dad and Mom were
all wrapped up in helping me grow into a little girl who liked ponies, and doll
tea-parties, and all the girly things I really loved. I went to a private
school, and took piano lessons and all that.
    My favorite kitty was named “Mr. Boots”,
and I would try to dress him up with bonnets or sweaters that my Mom would knit
for me.
    It was a picture perfect childhood.
    Mom was a very sweet woman, and she would
sing songs to me, while Dad was out playing golf or doing whatever to drum up
more contracts.
    I remember how happy we were, as Dad’s
business grew, and my mother and I spent hour upon hour doing all the things
most people only dream about doing with their mom.
    It was a wonderful time, and seemed
magical.
    I’d never been happier.
    Then, when I was just fourteen, Mom got
sick.
    She had cancer, and Dad spent a lot of money
trying to help her fight it.
    She lost.
     
    *****
     
    Dad was at loose ends for a while, then
one day he showed up with Margaret.
    “Just call me Peg,” she said to me.
    Peg had two sons, one who was my age and
the other one a lot older. Derek and Blaise were their names.
    Derek and I soon became fast friends, but
Blaise was a mean, spiteful little shit.
    If Blaise had been a girl, then he’d have
been Cinderella’s meanest step-sister.
    I was relieved when he finally went off to
college.
    But, a few years later, when Derek joined
the Navy, I was crushed.
    I thought that he’d at least ask me to
move out with him, or run away to some foreign country. I’d daydream that we
were in Paris, living the Bohemian life, and making sweet love in the evenings.
    My imagination fueled many of my teen-aged
orgasmic dreams, but then one day Derek was simply not there anymore. He’d gone
off to join the Navy.
    And that meant I had to deal with Peg
directly.
    Until then, she had been content to let
Blaise handle all her dirty work for her.
    Before he left, Derek had acted as a minor
but effective barrier between us.
    Shortly after they’d been married, Peg
would hide her manipulative scheming behind Blaise, and blame him whenever I’d
go crying to Dad.
    At first, Dad would believe me and was even-handed
in his discipline, but I guess old Peg would swallow, or take it up the ass, or
something, because Dad became more and more on her side in these arguments.
    Blaise became a more adept liar, and Dad
finally just let Peg handle the disciplinary duties of the family.
    He must have still had a lot of the
mindset of men from his generation, not wanting to be bothered with the raising
of the children, as that was ‘women’s work’. Which didn’t necessarily make him
an asshole, but it certainly didn’t help me at the time.
    Peg would interfere constantly whenever I
showed any sign of interest in boys, and in Derek in particular.
    Once, she even smacked me in the face with
a coat-hanger.
    When I told Dad, he just rolled his eyes
and told me I’d have to do better, as Peg was very clear in her instructions.
    He took away my privileges for two weeks!
When I cried and protested, he just shook his head and walked away.
    I looked at him leaving with disbelief,
and ran to my room, crying. I’d never been so humiliated, and felt totally
alone.
    Peg’s smirk of triumph made it all the
worse.
    “You stay in