Chapter 14
686 Words
Keira POV
The photo on my laptop shouldn’t exist.
It was me, asleep. Hair spread across the pillow, blanket pulled up to my chin.
Taken from outside my window.
Last night.
My hands started shaking before my brain caught up.
“Delete it,” I whispered.
Like saying it would make it disappear.
Kaden’s voice was right behind me, low and sharp.
“Don’t touch it. Evidence.”
He moved past me, blocking the doorway with his body.
“Stay behind me,” he said.
I couldn’t speak.
All I could see was the timestamp: 2:14 AM.
I’d been alone in this room. Or at least I thought I was.
Footsteps.
Downstairs.
Slow.
Deliberate.
Kaden’s phone was already in his hand.
He didn’t call 911.
Not yet.
“Whoever it is knows the house,” he said.
“They cut the cameras first. That’s not random.”
My heart was pounding so hard I felt it in my ears.
“Call Mom,” I said.
“She’s 20 minutes out.
Police are 8.
We wait.”
Wait.
With someone in the house.
With someone who’d been watching me sleep.
The downstairs hallway light flicked on.
Then off.
Like a taunt.
I backed up until my legs hit the bed.
Kaden stepped in front of me, shoulders squared, jaw tight.
He looked furious.
Not at me.
At whoever was down there.
“Keira,” he said without looking back.
“If I tell you to run, you don’t argue.
You run to the bathroom, lock the door, and don’t come out until you hear my voice.
Got it?”
I nodded.
I couldn’t say it out loud.
The footsteps stopped at the base of the stairs.
Silence.
Then a voice.
Not deep. Not male.
Familiar.
“Don’t call the police, Kaden.
It’s me.”
Mia.
Kaden didn’t lower his guard.
“Get out here. Now.”
She appeared at the bottom of the stairs, hands up, face pale and blotchy like she’d been crying for hours.
She wasn’t holding a weapon.
She was holding her phone.
“I didn’t mean for it to go this far,” she said, voice cracking.
“I just wanted them to stop.”
“Stop what?” Kaden said.
“Stop using Keira,” Mia said, eyes flicking to me for half a second before dropping.
“Lila was going to leak more. Worse stuff.
I thought if I scared you both, you’d leave.
Go somewhere safe.”
My stomach dropped.
“You were the one sending the messages?”
Mia nodded, tears spilling over.
“I used a burner.
I got into Mom’s old iCloud backup when she let me borrow her laptop last month.
I didn’t think it would get this bad.”
The room went cold.
Kaden stepped forward.
“You broke into our house.
You watched her sleep.”
“I didn’t go in!” Mia said quickly.
“I used a drone.
I swear, Kaden, I just wanted to make it stop.
I thought if you thought someone was in the house, you’d get her out of here.”
Outside, sirens.
Faint at first, then closer.
Neighbors must’ve heard something.
Kaden looked at me.
His expression was unreadable.
Not angry.
Not relieved.
Just tired.
I felt numb.
Mia was my friend.
She’d sat with me at lunch.
She’d told me Lila was getting worse.
And she’d been the one in my window.
The police were at the door now.
Banging.
“Open up!”
Kaden didn’t move.
“Keira,” he said quietly.
“What do you want to do?”
I looked at Mia.
She was crying openly now, shaking her head like she couldn’t believe what she’d done.
I looked at Kaden.
He was waiting for me to decide.
I should’ve been relieved.
It was over.
We knew who it was.
But the real problem wasn’t Mia.
Mia didn’t know about the apartment.
Mia didn’t have access to the legal emails.
Mia didn’t know about the messages from three years ago.
Someone else was still out there.
And they’d let Mia take the fall.
- Writer
