Total pages in book: 160
Estimated words: 155405 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 777(@200wpm)___ 622(@250wpm)___ 518(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 155405 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 777(@200wpm)___ 622(@250wpm)___ 518(@300wpm)
It takes me several seconds to realize she was talking about me. Unlocking my jaw, I say, “My name is Parker.”
“Whatever. Your name has never mattered less to me than it does now.”
“I don’t know why you’re mad at me,” I state, not bothering to add that I also don’t care.
“Don’t you?” she asks, narrowing her eyes.
I shake my head, eyebrows rising with impatience. “Nope, and you have about ten seconds to tell me before I say fuck this and leave.”
Her narrowed gaze drifts to Hannah, the scrutiny intensifying. “Then maybe it was you. Cinderella,” she says with a feigned pout. “The poor, mistreated little orphan girl. Did you decide to fight back for once in your pathetic life? I bet you felt so brave setting out to spite me.”
Hannah swallows, probably more accustomed to Anae’s drama and ridicule than I am. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Anae.”
“Someone told Dare I was watching his social media accounts, and you two bitches are the only ones who knew.”
Whatever I expected this to be about, that wasn’t even on the list of possibilities.
“What makes you think anyone told him?” I ask, scowling.
“He blocked me,” she bites out, her sharp gaze moving between me and Hannah. “So, which of you was it?”
Unease crawls down my spine, and heat suffuses my cheeks. “We don’t talk to him, Anae. He probably just remembered to block you since you’re out now—”
She shuts me down as quickly as Hannah did when I made the suggestion to her. “Dare isn’t sloppy. He didn’t forget. Blocking me now was his way of letting me know there’s a rat in my midst.” She scrutinizes me briefly, but her gaze lingers on Hannah the longest. “So, which one of you betrayed me?”
Hannah swallows, her face pale, her gaze aimed at the ground.
I don’t want to believe she would do something as insane as actually contacting Dare, even if it was just to let him know he had left a window open for Anae, but I know I’m not the leak, and the way Hannah is looking…
She looks guilty.
Anae will eviscerate her.
“It was me,” I lie.
Anae’s gaze snaps to mine, her eyes narrowing with suspicion. “You? Why?”
I can feel Hannah’s wide-eyed gaze on me, too. I know I’m poking a beast, but I’m not at her mercy the way Hannah is. “I reached out to Aubrey to let her know Dare had forgotten to block you. It seemed like an oversight. I believed it would be best for everyone if you just moved on, and I thought that might force you to.”
“No, you didn’t,” Hannah says quickly. “She’s lying to protect me, Anae. It was me. I messaged Dare.”
My eyes are nearly as wide as Anae’s, but Anae is significantly angrier.
“You and Dare text?”
Fear leaps in my stomach.
Hannah, what the hell are you thinking?
“No,” Hannah says quickly. “I don’t even have his phone number. I sent him a DM one night when I couldn’t sleep. I just wanted to ask him if it was a Cinderella tattoo. That’s all. Honestly, he hates me, so I didn’t even expect him to respond. And I didn’t do it to spite you, but I did mention that you noticed the tattoo in one of his pictures, so he knew you were looking at his profile. I thought maybe if the tattoo meant something else, he would tell me, and then we would know once and for all.”
Anae still appears angry and skeptical, but she’s too hungry for information about her former lover to pass up a chance at more. “What did he say?”
Hannah shrugs apologetically. “He’s Dare. He didn’t give me a straight answer.”
“But what did he say? What else did you say to each other?” Losing her patience, her gaze drops to the phone in Hannah’s hand and she holds out hers expectantly. “I want to see the message.”
A frown flits across Hannah’s brow and her grip on her phone tightens. “I—I deleted it.”
“You deleted it?”
Hannah nods vigorously. “It was hardly a conversation, it didn’t matter. I just asked him if it was a Cinderella tattoo, and he… he didn’t give me a straight answer, so I still don’t know.”
“What did he say exactly? Word for word.”
“I don’t remember. Nothing important.”
“I don’t believe you. You slide into his DMs in the middle of the night like a thirsty little slut and then delete the message? I want to see your phone.”
Hannah’s grip on it tightens into something I would guess is much closer to a death grip. As hard as she tries to regulate her breathing, I can see her fear in the swift rise and fall of her chest. I’m guessing that means she didn’t delete the message, and she knows whatever it says would likely set Anae off.
“I’m not going to show you my phone, Anae,” Hannah says softly. “I told you what he said.”