Elizabeth’s POV
The night had teeth. Every sound felt sharper, every shadow more watchful as I waited at the corner where Daniel told me to meet him.
He arrived ten minutes late, his hood pulled low, his breath visible in the chill. Without a word, he pulled out a phone and held it up like a trophy. Not his phone, but Ethan’s.
My stomach dropped. “How…”
“He left it at practice,” Daniel interrupted, his voice low and urgent. “Locker room. Like always. He never thinks anyone would touch it.”
I stared at the black screen in his hand, my pulse hammering. “You… you took it?”
He nodded once. “And I wiped everything. Every picture, every video. Anything he had of you…it’s gone.”
The air punched out of me. My knees went weak. For weeks, those pictures had been like chains around my throat,
