Chapter 15
1022 Words
Keira POV
The police took Mia.
I watched from the top of the stairs while two officers led her out in handcuffs, her face buried in her hands. She kept whispering sorry.
I didn’t know what to feel.
Relief that it wasn’t a stranger in my room.
Sick that it was Mia.
Kaden stood beside me, arms crossed, jaw clenched. He hadn’t said a word since the officers read Mia her rights.
“Do you believe her?” I asked quietly.
His eyes didn’t leave the front door.
“About the drone? Yeah.
About it stopping here? No.”
He was right.
Mia didn’t know about the apartment photo.
Mia didn’t know about the emails between Mom and Mr. West from three years ago.
Someone else was using her.
The house felt empty after they left.
Too quiet.
Like the walls were still listening.
Mom and Mr. West got home ten minutes later.
Mom pulled me into a hug so tight it hurt.
“I’m so sorry, baby,” she whispered.
“We’ll fix this.”
I nodded against her shoulder.
I didn’t believe her.
---
School the next day was worse.
Mia’s arrest was everywhere.
St. Claire Confessions was flooded with posts:
“Turns out the stalker was her own friend. Trash.”
“So the Wests are clean now, right? Right??”
It didn’t matter.
The damage was done.
Every time I walked into a room, people stopped talking.
I spent lunch in the library.
Alone.
Safer that way.
Until the doors opened and Kaden walked in.
He didn’t ask if I wanted company.
He just sat across from me, dropped his bag, and stared.
“What,” I said.
“You’re not eating.”
“I’m not hungry.”
He slid an apple across the table at me.
“Eat.”
I ignored it.
For a minute, neither of us spoke.
The quiet between us wasn’t awkward.
It was heavy.
“You’re mad at me,” he said finally.
“No.”
“Liar.”
I looked up.
“Why didn’t you tell me Mia was acting weird? You said she was scared. You knew.”
“I didn’t know she’d do this,” he said.
“I thought she’d just… talk to you.
I didn’t think she’d break into the house.”
His voice was rough.
Guilty.
I pushed the apple back.
“I don’t need you to protect me, Kaden.”
“Yeah, you do,” he said.
I opened my mouth to argue, and he cut me off.
“Keira, if I hadn’t been there last night, you’d be alone with someone who was watching you sleep.
So yeah.
You need me.”
His eyes were dark.
Intense.
That look he got when he was one second from losing control.
It made my chest tight.
“You’re impossible,” I whispered.
“Maybe,” he said.
“But I’m not letting anything happen to you.
Not here.
Not at home.
Not anywhere.”
He leaned forward, forearms on the table, voice dropping.
“If anyone finds out you live with me, they’ll tear you apart.
You know that.”
“I know,” I said.
“Then stop pushing me away,” he said.
I stared at him.
“You’re my stepbrother.”
“So?”
“So it’s wrong.”
He stood up fast, chair scraping.
His hands came down on the table, caging me in.
His face was inches from mine.
“Wrong,” he said low, voice like gravel.
“Keira, look at me and tell me it feels wrong when I’m like this.”
My breath caught.
His eyes were burning.
Fiery.
Possessive.
Like he’d been holding back for weeks and he was done pretending.
“Mate,” he growled.
The word hit me like a slap.
My skin went hot.
My heart was racing for all the wrong reasons.
The library was silent.
Anyone could walk in.
Anyone could see us like this.
I shoved at his chest.
“Stop it.”
He didn’t move.
He just watched me, breathing hard, like he was waiting for me to say it back.
I couldn’t.
I grabbed my bag and walked out.
---
I didn’t see him for the rest of the day.
Good.
That was good.
Except it wasn’t.
Because all I could think about was the way he said mate.
Like I belonged to him.
Like he’d already decided.
And the worst part?
A small, traitorous part of me didn’t hate it.
At home, Mom was on the phone with the lawyer.
Mr. West was in his office.
Kaden’s door was closed.
I stopped outside it.
Listened.
Nothing.
I should’ve walked away.
Instead, I knocked.
“Go away,” he said from inside.
“Kaden.”
The door opened.
He looked wrecked.
Tired.
Angry at himself.
“I’m sorry,” he said before I could speak.
“I shouldn’t have done that in the library.
I know it was too much.”
“You think?” I said, trying to sound annoyed.
It came out shaky.
He ran a hand through his hair.
“I can’t keep pretending I don’t feel it, Keira.
Every time you’re close, I lose my head.
And I know it’s messed up.
I know what people will say.”
I looked down.
“What if I feel it too?”
He froze.
I didn’t meet his eyes.
“I hate that I do.
But last night, when I thought someone was in my room…
I wasn’t thinking about how wrong it was.
I was thinking about you being there.”
The silence stretched.
Then he stepped forward, slow, like he thought I’d run.
When I didn’t, he brushed his thumb across my cheek.
Careful.
Like I’d break.
“Then we keep it quiet,” he said.
“For now.
Until we figure out who’s doing this.
Until you’re safe.”
I nodded.
Once.
His phone buzzed on the bed.
He didn’t check it.
I did.
It was a message from an unknown number.
Unknown:
_You two are cute.
But you can’t hide forever.
I see everything._
- Writer
