Their Group Chat Hinted Murder, I Stayed

Chapter 1

While my boyfriend was in the shower, I got a random impulse to grab his phone and shoot a message into his buddy group chat: Guess who I'm with tonight.

I fully expected them to say my name, but the reply that popped up hit me like a ton of bricks.

A: Is that the sophomore girl who's been obsessing over you? She's so into you, she's definitely way easier to hook up with than your girlfriend. Want us to head over tonight?

My gut was screaming that this was way worse than just him cheating.

I was just about to dig up his chat history with the girl, when a message from her popped up out of nowhere: Baby, I agree to the threesome. I'd do anything for you.

The next message from the buddy group made my blood turn to ice in my veins.

A: But be careful this time, yeah? Don't let someone end up dead again.

I stared at that text in a daze, my mind reeling so bad I could barely think straight. I only snapped out of it when I heard footsteps coming up behind me.

Panicked, I quickly marked the messages as unread.

A split second later, Donald Richardson, my boyfriend, rested his still-damp head on my shoulder. "What are you looking at, babe?"

There was a weird, icy edge to his words for no obvious reason. A thin sheen of cold sweat broke out across my forehead. Before he could get suspicious, I decided to go on the offensive. I pulled up the underclassman's message and shoved the phone right in his face.

"Explain what 'threesome' means. Are you trying to two-time me?" I demanded.

He snatched the phone away immediately. But instead of checking what the girl had sent, he swiped across the screen to open his pinned group chat.

His eyes narrowed as he studied me closely. "Did you send a message to my buddy group too?"

That one question made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

I refused to let him see how scared I was. I lifted my chin and fired back, "Yeah, I did. I wanted to see if your buddies would slip up and mention some other girl. Turns out this little underclassman walked right into my trap. I didn't even get to read what your friends sent before her message popped up. What, does it have something to do with her too?"

He locked the screen and pulled me into a gentle hug. "Don't overthink it, okay? I chased you for three whole months to get you to be my girlfriend. I cherish you more than anything. Why would I ever cheat?"

"Then what's up with that girl?"

He sighed. "She's been bugging me nonstop, so I said that stupid stuff about a threesome on purpose. I just wanted to scare her off, that's all."

It sounded like a perfectly reasonable explanation.

If I hadn't seen that last message in the group chat, I might have actually bought it.

But right then, there was no way I could ignore the very real possibility that Donald and his so-called friends had already gotten someone killed before.

He must have noticed how tense I was, because he pulled back to look at my face again, searching for any sign something was off. "Babe, you really didn't read what my friends sent?"

My heart skipped a beat, but I put on a tough front and held out my hand. "No, I didn't. Why? Did you actually do something to hurt me that you don't want me to find out about?"

Donald laughed then, and immediately started apologizing and cooing at me to calm me down. He pushed me backwards until I fell onto the bed.

Right before he pinned me down, something caught the corner of my eye, the vase that had been standing behind him a moment earlier. It had obviously shifted forward, and I could see the difference clear as day.

In that moment, I was frozen with pure, unadulterated terror. A horrifying thought slammed into my head out of nowhere.

If he'd seen through my act just now, I probably would've ended up dead or worse by the end of the night.

I was still spiraling from that terrifying thought when Donald, lost in the moment, was yanking my clothes off. My first instinct was to push him away, but I didn't dare tip him off that I was onto him. I gritted my teeth, figuring I might just have to bite the bullet and get through this.

Luck was on my side, though. Right before things went too far, my period came out of nowhere, right as I felt that first familiar cramp. Thank God, that was the perfect out.

I shoved him away hard. "Ugh, terrible timing. I'm gonna go clean up in the bathroom."

He was his usual sweet, doting self, even offering to grab me a pad himself. But when I was washing my underwear later, he was leaning against the bathroom door, looking totally out of it, his mind clearly a million miles away.

After a long stretch of quiet, he spoke up hesitantly. "Babe, if I stay here with you tonight, I don't think I'll be able to control myself. Can I go hang out and grab a few drinks with the guys? I promise I'll be back super soon!"

My gut screamed that he wasn't just going out for drinks. Not by a long shot.

Still, I breathed a quiet sigh of relief. I pretended to be reluctant, pressing a quick kiss to his cheek. "Okay, but hurry back to me, yeah?"

With that, he practically bounded out the door.

I used the girl's profile picture I'd seen earlier as a reference, then pulled up the big freshman group chat to try to find her account.

What I found caught me completely off guard.