Chapter Thirty Nine
596 Words
Mila’s POV
The morning felt wrong.
Sunlight poured through my curtains, but it didn’t feel warm. It felt like it was hiding something. I couldn’t shake the feeling that the world had shifted overnight — like something had happened and no one had told me yet.
Dad was already at the dining table when I came down. A cup of black coffee sat untouched in front of him.
He smiled when he saw me, but it didn’t reach his eyes.
“Morning, sweetheart,” he said.
“Morning,” I muttered, sliding into my seat. Mom was nowhere in sight — apparently, she’d gone out for errands. Which meant I was stuck alone with the tension between us.
He studied me quietly for a moment.
“Did you sleep well?”
“Yeah,” I lied. “You?”
He hesitated. “Did you… hear anything last night? Around the neighborhood, maybe?”
The question was odd — too specific.
I shook my head. “No. Why?”
“Just wondering,” he said quickly, pretending to check his phone. “There’s been some, uh, break-ins lately. I’m just being careful.”
He was lying.
I could tell by the way his fingers tightened around the mug, the way his eyes flicked toward the study down the hall.
I forced a smile. “You sound paranoid.”
“Maybe.” He sighed, his voice softening. “I just need you to be careful, Mila. Don’t go anywhere after school without telling me, all right? And stay away from… certain people.”
“Certain people?”
He didn’t say it, but I knew who he meant.
“Xavier Reed?” I asked flatly.
He froze, then set the mug down. “You’ve been spending time with him.”
“He’s in my class,” I said. “That’s not exactly a crime.”
“Mila.” His tone was sharp now. “You don’t understand. His family—”
He stopped himself, shaking his head. “Just… promise me, okay?”
The look in his eyes wasn’t anger. It was fear.
I nodded slowly, though every instinct screamed to ask why. But I didn’t. Because sometimes, silence told you more than answers ever could.
*****
Later that day
At school, Xavier was quieter than usual. His usual smirk was gone, replaced with something unreadable. He caught my gaze once during English, then quickly looked away.
Something was wrong.
After class, I cornered him near the lockers. “Okay, what’s going on?”
He blinked. “What do you mean?”
“Don’t play dumb, Reed. You’ve been acting weird all morning.”
He ran a hand through his hair, eyes darting around. “Mila, just—drop it for now, okay?”
I frowned. “No. You don’t get to say that. Did something happen?”
For a second, I saw it — a flicker of fear in his eyes, the kind that didn’t belong to someone who scared everyone else.
“Not here,” he said quietly. “Not yet.”
And then he walked off before I could stop him.
*****
That night, I sat on my bed, replaying the day in my head. My father’s sudden protectiveness. Xavier’s silence.
Something was happening between our families — something big.
I reached for my phone to text him, but before I could type, the screen lit up with a new message.
> Unknown Number:
You shouldn’t trust anyone in that house, Mila. Especially your father.
My breath caught.
And just like that, the world tilted again.
- Writer
