Chapter Thirteen
1473 Words
Zoey’s POV:
The message on Ryan’s phone was not meant for me, but whoever sent it knew exactly which words would make me question everything about him. Ryan locked his screen so quickly that I barely had time to read the rest of the notification before his face closed off again. For once, I did not care that the hallway was filling with students because I needed an answer before he found another way to avoid giving me one.
“Who sent that?” I asked, keeping my hand around his wrist as his phone disappeared into his pocket.
Ryan looked at my hand before meeting my eyes, and the tension in his jaw told me he was already deciding how much of the truth he could give me. “I don't know.”
“That was fast,” Ava said from beside us, and she shifted her bag higher on her shoulder as she studied him. “You didn't even check the number.”
Ryan's gaze moved to her, and his expression hardened. “Because I already know what this is.”
I released his wrist and stepped closer. “Then explain it.”
He glanced toward the hallway where Madison had disappeared, and something about that look made my stomach tighten. “Not here.”
“Convenient.”
“Zoey, people are listening.”
I looked around and saw several students pretending to search through their lockers while keeping their attention fixed on us. A teacher opened a classroom door farther down the hall, and the sudden movement sent some of them scattering.
Ava pointed toward the stairwell. “We can go somewhere nobody is pretending not to listen.”
Ryan gave her a look, but she was already walking away, and I followed because I was not letting him leave without answering me.
We stopped on the second floor near the old music room, where the hallway was quieter and the afternoon light came through the narrow windows above the lockers. Ava stood near the stairwell entrance while Ryan leaned against the wall, his phone still in his hand.
“Show me the message,” I said.
“No.”
My eyebrows lifted. “Excuse me?”
“I said no.”
The answer hit harder than it should have, mostly because he had been so quick to defend me earlier. I stared at him while Ava's expression changed.
“Ryan,” she said carefully, “if somebody is threatening you or Zoey, hiding the message probably isn't the smartest move.”
“It's not a threat.”
“Then what is it?”
Ryan looked at the screen again.
I watched his thumb move across it, and for a second I thought he was going to show us. Instead, he opened another message thread.
His shoulders stiffened.
“What?” I asked.
He turned the phone toward me.
There were three messages from an unsaved number.
The first said, You should have told her.
The second had arrived two minutes later.
She deserves to know what happened that night.
The third had come less than a minute ago.
Ask Madison why she came back.
Ava moved closer, and the color in her face changed as she read the screen.
“That is not random,” she said.
Ryan slipped the phone into his pocket. “I know.”
I looked at him. “You knew someone was doing this before today?”
“No.”
“But Mason told you someone had been asking questions about me.”
Ryan nodded.
“And now your ex shows up, talks about some night you refuse to explain, and someone starts messaging you about it.”
“I know how it looks.”
“Do you?”
He pushed away from the wall, and his eyes stayed on mine. “Yes, Zoey. I know exactly how it looks.”
“Then stop telling me it's nothing.”
His expression tightened. “I never said it was nothing.”
The silence between us changed.
Ava looked between us, then checked the time on her phone. “I have to get to class before Mrs. Dawson decides I have joined the missing students list.”
She took two steps toward the stairs before stopping.
“Zoey, you should probably talk to him without an audience.”
I frowned. “You're leaving?”
Ava gave Ryan a pointed look. “I'm leaving because I trust you to make your own decisions, but if he does anything stupid, text me.”
Ryan gave a dry laugh. “Thanks for the vote of confidence.”
“You haven't earned it,” Ava replied before disappearing down the stairs.
I waited until her footsteps faded before turning back to Ryan.
“What happened that night?”
He looked at the floor for a moment.
“I can't tell you everything.”
“That is not an answer.”
“It is the only one I can give you right now.”
My frustration rose, but beneath it sat something worse. I had spent days pretending this arrangement was simple. We needed people to believe we were together, and I had convinced myself that whatever strange moments happened between us could be explained by the plan.
Now I was starting to wonder whether I had ever understood the person standing in front of me.
“Did you hurt Madison?”
His head lifted immediately. “No.”
“Did she hurt you?”
Ryan's face changed.
That was answer enough.
I softened despite myself. “Ryan.”
He looked away, and when he spoke again, his voice was quieter. “She did something that night that I never forgave.”
“What?”
“I found out she had been lying to me.”
“That is not the whole story.”
“No.”
He rubbed his thumb along the edge of his phone before continuing. “There was someone else involved.”
My stomach tightened.
“Who?”
“I don't know.”
“You just said someone else was involved.”
“I know what I said.”
“Then how can you not know who?”
“Because I never saw them.”
I stared at him, trying to make sense of it.
Ryan continued before I could interrupt. “I found Madison with someone. I heard part of a conversation, and then she saw me. After that, everything happened fast.”
“What kind of conversation?”
He looked toward the windows.
“She was talking about you.”
My breath caught.
“About me?”
Ryan nodded slowly.
“I had never heard your name before that night,” he said, and the words landed harder than I expected.
“Then why would she be talking about me?”
“I don't know.”
For several seconds, neither of us spoke.
A bell rang downstairs, and students began pouring into the hallway below us. The sound rose through the stairwell, but Ryan did not move.
I studied his face.
“You knew my name before we started this fake relationship.”
His eyes met mine.
“No.”
“Then why does your ex know who I am?”
“I don't know.”
The answer frustrated me, but something in his expression made it difficult to accuse him of lying.
His phone vibrated again.
This time, neither of us moved immediately.
Ryan pulled it out and read the message.
His face went completely still.
“What does it say?” I asked.
He did not answer.
I stepped closer and looked at the screen myself.
It was a photograph.
The image showed the parking lot behind Ridgeview's hockey arena at night.
A car was parked near the far gate, and beside it stood two people.
One was Madison.
The other was someone I could not see clearly because their face was turned away from the camera.
My eyes moved to the timestamp in the corner.
11:47 p.m.
Ryan's fingers tightened around the phone.
“That was the night,” he said.
I looked at him. “You said you never saw who she was talking to.”
“I didn't.”
I looked back at the photograph.
The person beside Madison wore a Ridgeview hockey jacket.
Then I noticed something hanging from their hand.
A silver keychain.
I had seen that keychain before.
Ryan noticed where I was looking, and his face lost what little color remained.
“That can't be possible,” he whispered.
I looked at him again. “Why?”
He took the phone from my hand and stared at the photograph as though it had just changed the past.
“Because that keychain belonged to someone who wasn't supposed to be anywhere near the arena that night.”
- Writer
- chap_listContents
- likeADD