Page 50 of The Stepbrother 2: Noah

Noah turned to me before I could stand up, piercing me with those blue eyes of his. I was ready to go. The smell of multiple people's body odor and perfume was making me nauseous.

"We’re going to talk to your parents. You stay calm. The minute things get out of hand," he paused to make sure I was looking at him, "and you know they will—we’re leaving."

We walked out of the courtroom, and the halls were empty except for Maine and Tiffany. Both their heads made a slow turn in our direction as soon as we exited.

"Here we go," I sighed.

"Fuck," Noah cursed under his breath.

Maine rushed toward Noah. Tiffany stood behind with a smirk curving her thin lips. Her blue eyes damn near twinkled. She was causing trouble and enjoying it. At her big age, it was kind of pathetic. "Why haven’t you been calling me back?" Maine got up in Noah's face, not acknowledging my presence at all. I stepped back out of the way. Noah had already let me listen to a few of the voicemails she sent decrying our marriage.

She looked different. I kept staring, trying to figure out why. Oh, she was high as fuck.

His eyes narrowed into slits. "Because you don’t want to talk; you want to fight about things that don’t concern you. Like DJ."

"There’s nothing I can do about DJ when Troy took everything from me." After the incident at the jail, Troy had cut Maine off for bringing Tiffany there. But being "cut off" didn’t mean what it sounded like. She still owned her home and car and received a three-thousand-dollar monthly payment from her trust fund. She just couldn’t use our parents' credit cards and have them pay the bill.

A laugh bubbled out of my mouth before I could stop it.

"What are you laughing at?" Maine turned and all but screamed in my direction.

Noah stepped between us. I stepped out from behind him, not worried one bit about Maine.

"I talk to DJ daily. It’s been weeks since you’ve called him."

Maine’s face went red. "It’s none of your business," she screamed.

I shook my head. "What is wrong with you, Maine? Like really. We had a good relationship up until five years ago. I know it can't be Devon. You were shady way before then." I shifted my weight to my right foot.

"This isn't the time or place," Noah chimed in.

I shook my head. "No, let her get whatever she has to say off her chest. This might be the last time she has the chance." I'd rather just cut her off than deal with her attitude. Yeah, I loved my sister, but not at the cost of my peace.

Maine started with her voice raised but lowered it after looking at Noah. I didn't have to see his face to know he was scowling at her. "You did everything I did. The drugs, being promiscuous. You even fucked the married professor, and you got everything. Compton's record company. The man I wanted. The life I wanted. I’m living in a duplex with my son, and his father barely tolerates talking to me, then he took him to spite you."

Tears had started running down her face. I felt something for Maine's sob story, but no sympathy, just pity.

"We all had equal opportunities in the world we were brought up in. You just chose to never grow up after graduating. What happened to going to business school?"

"Why, so I could still hear about how much better you were? Then you committed the ultimate betrayal—you turned my brother against me."

She turned to look at Noah. "She doesn’t love you; she only wants to get back at me because of Devon."

Before Noah could even open his mouth to entertain her foolishness, I said, "How much? How much to make all this bullshit go away? To make your mother disappear?" I knew this all stemmed from money, at least where Tiffany was concerned. I just thought Maine was having some kind of mental breakdown from being in a family like ours, but that she would eventually rebound and beg us all to forgive her. Maine had never had to thrive on her own, and it was probably hard for her.

"Five million," Tiffany said, moving so quickly I didn’t register her taking her place at Maine's side.

"Momma, I don’t want her money," Maine whined.

"What are you doing?" Noah tried to get me to look at him. I shrugged him off.

I could give them five million and not even miss it.

"Check, or would you prefer cash? It would take a few days, but you have to drop the charges on my momma and tell the prosecutor you provoked her on purpose that day," I directed to Tiffany.

"Deal," she readily agreed.

Maine snapped. She elbowed her mother out of the way. "We don’t want your money!" She yelled and lunged for me, so quickly I was surprised. Noah held her back as mayhem ensued. Maine's outburst brought out our parents and the media. The paparazzi crowded around Troy and Scarlett, keeping them from getting to us, but you could hear them yelling.

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