A Hell Of Love

ChapterThree

When I finally turned my phone back on the next morning, the first thing that hit me wasn’t the light from the screen — it was the reality I’d been trying to escape from.

Thirty-two missed calls. Seventeen texts. All from Sophie.

I stared at the screen, my chest heavy, my eyes still puffy from the night before. I should have felt guilty, but guilt had become a permanent part of my skin, like a tattoo I didn’t ask for but couldn’t erase.

Before I could even decide whether to call her back, the phone started buzzing again, and her name flashed across the screen.

I sighed and answered.

“Lyra Jane Carter!” Sophie’s voice exploded into my ear, sharp and full of panic. “Where the hell have you been?! I almost called the cops last night! Do you have any idea what I went through?”

I rubbed my temples, my head pounding from too much alcohol and too many thoughts. “Good morning to you too, Sophie.”

“Don’t ‘good morning’ me!” she snapped. “You switched your phone off the entire night. I thought something had happened to you. Do you hate me that much that you’d leave me worrying?”

Her voice cracked on the last word, and my heart twisted. Sophie wasn’t just mad. She was scared. And I hated that I was the reason for it.

“I’m sorry,” I said softly. “I just… I needed to breathe.”

There was silence, then a shaky sigh. “Lyra… come over. Please. I don’t care if you’re hungover or half dead, just get here.”

I wanted to argue, but Sophie wasn’t someone you could argue with when she was in that mood. Plus, the truth was, I needed her more than she needed me.

So, I dragged myself out of bed, pulled on yesterday’s jeans, and walked over to her apartment.

By the time I got there, Sophie was already waiting at the door, arms crossed, eyes blazing. “Get in,” she ordered.

I obeyed, because honestly, I didn’t have the strength to do anything else.

The moment the door shut behind me, Sophie rounded on me. “What were you thinking? Switching off your phone? Do you know how terrified I was?”

I collapsed onto her couch, pressing my face into my hands. “I couldn’t deal with it, Sophie. Not last night.”

She frowned, her tone softening. “Deal with what?”

And that was the moment it all came crashing out.

I lifted my head, blinking back the tears burning behind my eyes. “I lost my job yesterday.”

Her eyes widened. “What?”

“The manager said business was slowing down and they had to cut staff. I was the easiest cut.” My laugh was bitter, empty. “Just like that. No warning. No severance. Just… gone.”

Sophie finally sighed, her anger softening as she sat beside me. “Lyra… you’ve been carrying too much. You’re burning yourself out.”

Her words almost broke me, because they were true. I pressed my hands to my face, fighting the tears. I’d tried so hard to be strong, but the truth was… I was breaking.

“That was the only thing holding everything together,” I whispered, my voice breaking. “Mom’s still in the hospital, waiting for surgery we can’t afford. Every day the doctors look at me like I’m some kind of failure because I can’t sign the papers. And my brother—”

My throat closed up, but I forced myself to go on. “He called yesterday, Sophie. He said maybe he should just drop out, because he doesn’t want to keep watching me break myself trying to cover his tuition.” He is barely 19 Sophie!

And my landlord called me to remind me of my rent due! I felt like the whole world is just against me!

The tears I’d been holding back finally spilled over. I hugged my knees to my chest, shaking. “And then the job was gone. Just like that. I don’t know what to do anymore. I don’t know how to fix any of it. Everything’s collapsing.”

Sophie didn’t speak right away. She just sat down beside me and wrapped her arms around me, letting me cry into her shoulder the way I used to when I was a kid and scraped my knee.

“I feel like I’m drowning,” I whispered.

For a long while, the only sound was my sobbing and Sophie’s steady breathing. Finally, she pulled back, cupping my face in her hands.

“Lyra, listen to me,” she said firmly. “You are not alone. You have me. And we’re going to figure this out, okay? We always do.”

I wanted to believe her. I really did. But all I could think about was the mountain of bills stacked on my dresser, my mother’s weak smile from the hospital bed, and my brother’s voice cracking when he said maybe school wasn’t worth it anymore.

I didn’t tell Sophie that the reason I went to the bar last night wasn’t just to drink. It was to escape. To forget, even for a few hours, that my life was falling apart.

And maybe that’s why I didn’t tell her about the stranger with the cold eyes and sharper words — Rex Maddox. The man who warned me I’d regret sitting near him. The man whose presence I couldn’t shake, even now.

But Sophie must have noticed something in my silence, because she suddenly narrowed her eyes. “What happened last night, Lyra? Where were you?”

My lips parted, but no sound came out.

How was I supposed to explain Rex? How was I supposed to explain the way his words stung more than they should have, the way his anger mirrored the one boiling inside me?

“I…” I started, but the words stuck in my throat.

Before i could finish, my phone buzzed violently on the table. I frowned, pulling away to check the screen. The hospital’s name flashed across it.

My stomach dropped.

I swiped to answer, my hands shaking. “Hello?”

The nurse’s voice was firm but rushed. “Is this Miss Lyra Carter? Please, you need to come to the hospital immediately. It’s about your mother—she just… she just went into critical condition.”

The phone almost slipped from my fingers. My vision blurred. Sophie’s voice became a distant echo as the words repeated in my head like a cruel drumbeat.

Critical condition.

And just like that, my entire world threatened to shatter.