Marked By My Best Friend's Dad

064

~ Iris

I knew something was wrong the moment Alice walked into my room.

Not because she was crying, I’d seen her cry before.

But because the air around her felt shattered, sharp like broken glass.

I had been lying on the bed, staring at the ceiling, my body heavy with exhaustion that sleep never seemed to fix anymore. The door flew open and her voice cut through the room like a blade.

“Iris!”

I sat up instantly.

She looked wrecked. Eyes red. Breathing uneven. Pain written so clearly across her face it made my chest seize.

“Alice..” I started, standing up, already moving toward her.

“Stop,” she snapped, and I froze.

My stomach dropped.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, even though part of me already knew. That instinctive, sinking certainty curled deep in my gut.

She laughed,once. A sharp, broken sound.

“Don’t do that. Don’t pretend.”

My pulse thundered in my ears.

“Pretend what?” I asked carefully.

Her hands were shaking. “My aunt talked to me today.”

There it was.

Eunice.

The name alone made my skin prickle.

“She said she saw you,” Alice continued, tears spilling freely now. “With my father.”

My breath left me all at once.

I felt it physically,like something had punched straight through my ribs.

“With him,” she whispered. “In his office.”

For a split second, the room tilted.

Every instinct screamed at me to run. To confess. To fall apart.

Instead, I did the only thing I could do to survive.

I lied.

“That’s not true,” I said, forcing steadiness into my voice. Too carefully. I hated that I could hear it. “Alice, she’s lying.”

Her face crumpled. “She said you were… that you were together. That you…”

“Stop,” I said softly, stepping closer. “Please. Look at me.”

She didn’t at first.

“She’s obsessed,” I continued, heart hammering. “You know how she is. She hates me. She wants you. She wants control. She’s trying to tear us apart.”

Alice shook her head, sobbing. “Why would she say something like that if it wasn’t true?”

Because it was true.

Because Eunice had seen enough.

But I couldn’t say any of that.

“Because she’s cruel,” I said instead. “Because she knows exactly where to cut.”

Alice looked at me then, really looked at me, and the desperation in her eyes nearly broke me.

“This is my father, Iris,” she whispered. “Why would you,why him?”

I swallowed hard

.

“He’s older,” I said, voice shaking. “He’s your dad. My best friend’s dad.”

Every word felt like a weight pressing down on my chest.

“I would never hurt you like that,” I said, and that part was true. “Never. You have to trust me.”

She hesitated.

That pause nearly destroyed me.

“I don’t know what to believe,” she cried.

I reached for her before she could pull away, wrapping my arms around her, holding her the way I always had,like I could keep the world from touching her if I just held on tight enough.

“I’m still yours,” I whispered against her hair. “And you’ll always be mine.”

She sagged into me, clinging like she was afraid I’d disappear.

And I hated myself.

Because she believed me.

Because she chose me.

Because I didn’t deserve that choice.

“I’ve been feeling you slip away,” she admitted quietly. “Late nights. You flinch when I touch you. It makes me feel stupid for noticing.”

My arms tightened before I could stop myself.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I didn’t mean to shut you out.”

She pulled back, searching my face. “Promise me you’re not hiding anything.”

My heart slammed violently against my ribs.

There it was.

The moment that would define everything.

I hesitated.

Just for a breath.

“I promise,” I said.

The lie settled between us, heavy and poisonous.

She nodded, forcing herself to believe it, because believing me hurt less than the alternative.

“I hate her,” Alice muttered. “She’s always trying to control everything.”

“She won’t win,” I said quickly. “Not if we stick together.”

She nodded again.

The moment Alice left my room, the walls closed in.

I stood there long after the door shut, my arms still folded where she’d been, my fingers curled as if I could hold on to the version of her that still trusted me. My chest felt too tight, like I’d swallowed something sharp and it was lodged there, refusing to go down.

I lied to her.

The words echoed in my head, over and over, until they lost shape and became something heavier.

I pressed my palms to my face and dragged them down slowly, breathing in through my nose, out through my mouth, trying to steady myself. My hands were trembling. I hated that they were.

Alice had looked at me like I was her anchor.

And I was drowning.

I walked back to the bed and sat, shoulders slumping as the strength drained out of me. The room smelled faintly of her perfume, mixed with mine, mixed with something else I didn’t want to think about.

Duncan.

My stomach twisted.

I told myself I had done the right thing. That telling the truth would have shattered her completely. That Eunice didn’t deserve the satisfaction of tearing us apart with her poison.

But the truth didn’t disappear just because I buried it.

It sat there, between my ribs, alive and breathing.

I replayed Alice’s face in my mind,the way her voice cracked when she asked me why I’d been distant, the way she searched my eyes for something solid to hold onto. I had given her comfort, yes… but it had been built on a lie.

And that made my chest ache worse than the fear ever had.

I lay back on the bed and stared at the ceiling, blinking hard.

How had everything gotten so tangled?

I had spent years certain of who I was. Certain of what I wanted. Loving Alice had felt easy at first,natural, warm, safe. She was my best friend before she was anything else.

My constant. My choice.

And then Duncan happened.

The bond didn’t ask permission. It didn’t care about my labels, my promises, my morals. It crashed into me like a storm, rewrote the rules inside my body before my mind could catch up.

I hated that part of myself.

I hated that my pulse still jumped when I thought of him. That my skin remembered his touch even when I didn’t want it to. That my wolf stirred restlessly every time his name crossed my thoughts.

And I hated that Eunice knew.

She had caught us in the office.

A shiver ran through me.

Alice believed me, for now.

But belief was fragile.

I turned onto my side, curling in on myself, clutching a pillow to my chest like it could keep the guilt from spilling out. I wasn’t proud of what I’d done. I wasn’t proud of who I was becoming.

I just knew one thing with terrifying clarity:

If the truth came out the wrong way, it would destroy her.

And if it came out the right way…

It might destroy all of us anyway.

My phone buzzed on the bedside table.

My heart leapt into my throat before I even looked.

Duncan.

I didn’t open the message.

I couldn’t.

Not yet.

I squeezed my eyes shut, a tear finally slipping free despite my effort to hold it back.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered into the empty room, not sure who I was saying it to anymore..Alice, myself, or the part of me that already knew this was only the beginning.

Outside, the night stretched on, quiet and deceptive.

And somewhere beyond these walls, Eunice was smiling.

Because lies never stay buried forever.

And when they rise…

They take everything with them.