It had been exactly a month.
No anonymous ssages. No new threats. No explanations. Not even from Lizzie. Just silence.
They’d hoped the number would text again. That was the plan. Let it co to them. Track it. Trap it.
She rembered Miles’s words when he looked them both in the eye, her and Craig, and said, "The only way to conclusively trace a digital footprint is to catch the ssage live. Once it hits your phone, don’t delete, don’t screenshot, don’t forward. Just call imdiately."
He had spoken with the kind of intensity that made you sit straighter, like even your pulse had to behave. "Once we intercept it in real-ti, we can extract the packet tadata, isolate the origin point, run a traceroute. If the IP’s not bouncing through too many proxies or VPN layers, we might just get lucky."
She rembered nodding. Craig had too.
But since that day, there had been nothing. And after everything that happened, after everything that was said, the quiet wasn’t comforting. It was agonizing.
It had been a month of pretending.
rlina tried. She laughed. She studied. She showed up for Louis even when she didn’t feel present. She told herself it was better this way. Safer. Simpler.
But the ache didn’t leave.
It lingered in the quiet monts. When her phone lit up and it wasn’t his na. When she passed him on campus and he didn’t look her way. When Louis kissed her forehead and she swallowed the guilt instead of the truth.
But every ti her phone buzzed, her heart reacted before her brain could remind her not to. Hope was stubborn like that.
The strangest part was how normal things felt. Normal in the kind of way that made her stomach twist. The absence of chaos left room for other feelings, unwelco ones. Like missing the very person she’d told to stay away.
She hadn’t imagined that a few words, ’We can’t do this’ could dig such a wide, cold trench between them. But here she was, standing on one end, and Craig wasn’t even visible on the other.
He hadn’t texted.
Hadn’t called.
Hadn’t even asked if she’d gotten any new ssages, the one thing they were supposed to be allies on.
He’d vanished into his life, and it was like she had never mattered.
Adriana was back at his side.
Keith, too. His ever-loyal sidekick.
Like he hadn’t cradled her face in his hands, voice trembling, eyes heavy, whispering that he wanted nothing more than to be there for her. Or flown in a tech expert from New York just to help her breathe easier.
Maybe he would’ve done that for anyone. For a friend. A neighbor. A pet. Or even Birds...the ones she had caught him feeding. Maybe he had a whole drawer of favors and she was just one more na on the list.
But then she rembered the way he looked at her. Not the usual cold, calculating Lesnar stare. No. This was different.
His gaze lingered in quiet monts, like her face said sothing he was trying to morize. Like he saw her, the anger, the confusion, the guilt, and wanted all of it.
Maybe it was nothing. Maybe he was just bored. Maybe she was just a distraction until the real world called him back.
Still, she missed him.
Every day. Quietly. Painfully.
She never said it out loud. Not to her sister, not to Phoebe, not to gan. Hell, she couldn’t. She swallowed it in between jokes and fake smiles, letting it build in her chest like a second heartbeat.
Sotis she’d lie in bed at night and wonder what he was doing. If he was kissing Adriana. If he’d already told her everything, about the ssages, about her.
And if he hadn’t... why?
Louis had been sweet. Supportive. Present. She pulled her hand away too quickly again when he touched her. She was scared he’d feel the guilt sitting heavy in her palm.
She had thought about ending things with him more than once, not out of cruelty, but because it felt like the kindest thing to do.
Louis deserved a heart that didn’t flinch when he touched her, soone whose lips hadn’t pressed against the boy he hated most. But with his dad currently in the hospital, there wouldn’t be a worse timing.
She couldn’t hurt him, when all he needed right now was a shoulder to lean on and warm arms to embrace.
They weren’t married.
There were no vows.
And yet walking away felt harder than it should, even when her heart, her body, her mind, were all sowhere else.
And that sowhere else didn’t even look in her direction anymore.
She was in a relationship with soone she couldn’t love the way he deserved, all because of soone who wouldn’t even text her.
Sotis, she wondered what would happen if they crossed paths again. If he walked into a room and she was already in it.
Would they pretend? Would they smile? Would they fake indifference in front of people who had no clue they’d ever kissed, ever touched, ever co close to sothing real?
Or would one wrong move crack the entire façade?
"I said no balloons, Phoebe." gan’s voice was quiet but firm as she sat cross-legged on the edge of her bed, a textbook open but untouched in her lap. Her eyes were tired. Not the kind of tired that sleep could fix, but the kind that cos from waiting for news from a hospital room you’re not allowed to sleep in.
Phoebe stood in the middle of the dorm room, holding a notepad like she was planning a wedding. But it was a cheer-up party for gan. After weeks of hospital visits, stress, and crappy vending-machine dinners, gan hadn’t smiled in days.
So Phoebe took it upon herself to lift the mood with what she called a "support soirée" snacks, music, familiar faces, and absolutely no sadness allowed.
"We’re not throwing a party," gan added softly.
Phoebe ignored her completely. "rlina, make sure you pick up the cupcakes from Cam’s. The velvet ones. Not the weird lemon ones. And tell your boyfriend to drop off the speaker before six."
rlina peeked out from behind her laptop, eyes narrowing. "I never said I was going out today."
"You are now," Phoebe snapped, walking around the room with full event-planner energy. "And wear sothing cute. No black. This is a cheering-up hangout, not a depression summit."
gan groaned. "You guys don’t have to do this."
"Exactly why we’re doing it," Phoebe said, already dialing soone on her phone. "Keith? Hi. Yes, you’re bringing drinks. No, not the cheap ones. And a bag of those chili crisps gan likes. Got it? You’re the best!"
She hung up and spun around with a grin. "Adriana’s coming too. I told her it’s for gan, but she scread when I said snacks. Priorities."
rlina closed her laptop slowly. She wasn’t in the mood for company or effort, especially them. But she couldn’t say no. Not if this was for gan. Not when things had been so heavy for her this month.
Because nothing about tonight felt chill, not with Adriana on the guest list.
Adriana, whose only cri was being the girlfriend of the guy rlina couldn’t stop thinking about. The guy she almost slept with. The guy who kept showing up and ghosting her whenever he liked.
And if Adriana was coming, there was always the chance he might co too.
But Craig Lesnar wasn’t exactly known for comforting or cheering people on. So she crossed her fingers and told herself he’d probably ghost tonight, just like he’d ghosted her for the past month.
The driveway outside the Villa buzzed softly with the murmur of the evening. Music drifted from open windows, laughter weaving through the warm night air.
Craig stayed still, seated in his car with both hands clenched around the steering wheel. His gaze locked on the sprawling villa ahead, as if it were a fortress guarding a war he wasn’t ready to fight.
Adriana leaned forward to check herself in the mirror. "You coming?"
He blinked. "Yeah."
But he didn’t move.
She gave him a look, then reached for her bag. "You said you wanted to support gan."
"No. You said that."
She shrugged, brushing gloss onto her lips. "Sa difference."
He exhaled and finally opened the door.
Inside, his chest was a knot. Not because of the hangout. Not even because of gan. But because he knew who else would be there.
rlina.
It had been a month since they last spoke. A month since she told him they couldn’t do this. Since she looked at him with eyes full of sorrow and still walked away. Since she shattered sothing they hadn’t even fully built yet.
And so he stayed away.
At first, he told himself it was for her, to give her space, let her breathe, especially with the stress of the anonymous stalker and her family’s trauma.
Miles had been clear: any new anonymous ssage had to be reported imdiately so they could capture the raw packet data and run a traceroute before the IP cloaked again. But weeks passed. Nothing. No new ssages. No updates from her. Just silence.
And in that silence, he told himself distance was the right thing. That maybe staying away would make her life quieter. Easier.
But it didn’t make his any easier.
Because now he was the one pretending. Pretending he wasn’t checking his phone. Pretending he didn’t replay the way she whispered his na that night at the cabin. Pretending he wasn’t still waiting for her to call or at least care.
Now here he was, about to walk into a room with her, with everyone, and lie with a straight face.
The room was warm with soft lights and music playing in the background. Phoebe had even managed to get a cake. gan sat on the armrest of the couch, sipping tea with a small smile. rlina was by the window, talking quietly with Keith.
The door opened and in walked Craig and Adriana.
Phoebe’s eyes went wide, all theatrical. "No way. He actually showed up!"
gan blinked, half-smiling. "If the coldest guy in Belford shows up just to check on , then yeah, my life is officially in shambles."
Everyone cracked up. Even gan.
Craig gave a dry smirk. "Bla Adriana. She dragged here."
"I did," Adriana said proudly, settling into the couch beside gan, while giving her a gentle rub on her back.
gan smiled at the both of them. "Thanks for coming."
Craig nodded, but his eyes didn’t settle on gan. They drifted and settled on rlina.
Their eyes slamd together, urgent, angry, aching. rlina’s grip on her glass wavered, fingers trembling, nearly letting it fall like everything else in her life.
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