The Last Scoundrel

They whispered about my stepbrother in the city, calling him a real scoundrel. But his reputation as a brawler and a womanizer only fueled interest in him from the female half of the population. Ladies loved him as much as their husbands hated him.

One day the turn came for me— and now I don’t know how to live any longer.

“Then everything they said about you is true?!” I dart my eyes between the two of them.

Ilya is silent. He shifts his jaw, stares at me grimly, and keeps silent.