Titled: The dating app

Chapter 5: Hidden Threads

The next day, Olivia couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling that had settled into her bones. She replayed her dinner with Alex in her mind—the way his expression had shifted when she asked about his past, the sudden “work emergency” that pulled him away. She wanted to believe him, to trust that he was just busy, but the messages from MysteriousEyes97 kept creeping back into her thoughts. She decided to do what she always did when she felt anxious: research. Sitting at her kitchen table, she opened her laptop and typed Alex’s name into a search engine. She wasn’t proud of it, but after Liam’s betrayal, she had learned the hard way that sometimes it paid to dig a little deeper. She scrolled through the results, feeling a strange sense of relief when all she found were links to his business and social media profiles. But then, on the third page of results, she spotted something that made her pause: an old news article from two years ago. She clicked on it, her eyes narrowing as she read the headline: Local Tech Entrepreneur’s Company Accused of Data Breach Scandal. Her heart sank. The article went on to detail how Alex’s previous startup had been implicated in a scandal involving user data privacy violations. No charges had been filed, but the company dissolved shortly after. Olivia sat back, her mind spinning. Was this why he was so vague about his past? She knew from her own experience that everyone made mistakes, but this felt different—bigger, more serious. And if Alex was hiding this, what else was he keeping from her? Her phone buzzed on the table, jolting her out of her thoughts. It was another message from MysteriousEyes97: You found the article, didn’t you? There’s more to the story. Don’t trust him. Olivia’s fingers froze above her phone. She hadn’t mentioned anything about her search to anyone. How did this person know what she was looking at? A chill ran down her spine as she glanced around her apartment, suddenly feeling watched. She typed a reply: Who are you? How do you know about Alex? A response came almost instantly: Someone who’s trying to protect you. You need to get away from him before it’s too late