CHAPTER 195

**ZION**

The second the screen lit up, my chest tightened.

No lock. No fingerprint. No passcode. Just wide open.

I glanced at the door, heart thudding against my ribs.

Should I…?

My fingers hovered over the screen. The glow lit up the room like a damn spotlight, and for a second, I just stood there, frozen.

Part of me screamed to put the phone down. 

Respect her privacy. 

Don’t be that guy. 

Don’t be the one who crosses a line you can’t uncross.

But the other part—the louder, angrier, protective part—was already rising like a tide I couldn’t fight back.

She turned it off earlier like it burned her. 

Left it facedown like it was hiding something toxic. 

And now it’s just sitting here, wide open, no passcode, no fingerprint. 

Practically begging me to look.

I ran a hand down my face, jaw tight, teeth grinding.

Fuck.

I should walk away.

I should.

But then I pictured her face again—how pale she looked in class, how her hands trembled when she reached for her bag, how she laughed it off like she was fine even when it was so obvious she wasn’t.

I couldn’t shake it. 

The way something cracked behind her eyes. 

The way her smile felt like a mask.

No.

I needed to know. 

Whatever she was hiding—whatever was eating her alive—I needed to see it.

Even if it meant breaking the last shred of trust she had in me.

Fuck it.

My thumb moved before I could stop it.

I tapped the Messages icon—and everything changed.

And the moment I did, it hit me like a freight train.

**Unknown Number:**

*Run. Run. Hide. Hide. I’ll still catch you.*

What. The. Fuck.

My grip tightened, hand clenching around the phone so hard it creaked. My jaw locked. My stomach dropped.

Scroll.

*Home sweet home, pretty girl. Run. Hide. Lock the doors. I’m still coming.*

Scroll.

*Looks like Zion’s your bodyguard. Let’s see how long he can actually keep you safe.*

Each message was sharper than the last, carved from menace, steeped in obsession. Whoever this was—they weren’t just trying to scare her. 

They were trying to unravel her.

And she hadn’t said a word.

My throat went dry. 

My mind reeled.

She hadn’t blocked the number. 

She hadn’t reported it. 

She hadn’t even told me. 

I felt my pulse pounding in my ears.

How long had this been happening? 

How long had she been carrying this alone?

How could she not tell me?

“Why the fuck wouldn’t you tell me…” I growled under my breath, fury curling like smoke in my chest.

Just then, 

“Zion, what’s taking you so—”

Her voice—startled, confused, sharp—cut through the air like a whip.

I turned. 

She was standing in the doorway, eyes locked on the phone in my hand.

Everything about her changed in an instant—her posture, her expression. 

Alarm spread across her face like wildfire.

“What the hell are you doing?” Her voice cut through the silence like a whip, sharp and furious. 

She stormed into the room, her eyes immediately locking on the phone in my hand. 

Her blanket slipped from her shoulders as she crossed the space in quick, purposeful steps, rage simmering beneath the surface.

“Why are you going through my phone?” she hissed, every word laced with disbelief, her eyes blazing.

“Fucking good thing I did,” I snapped, my voice low but tight, shaking with rage—the kind born from fear, betrayal, and the sickening feeling of being kept in the dark.

“You’ve been lying to me, Snowflake,” I growled, holding the phone up like it burned my hand. 

“What the hell is this? What else were you planning to keep from me—until it was too late?”

“Zion—give it back—”

She lunged forward, but I stepped back fast, yanking the phone higher out of her reach like she was a child and not the person I was supposed to trust.

“No,” I snapped, voice breaking from the sheer disbelief flooding my system. 

“Not until you tell me what the fuck is going on.”

Her eyes flared. “You’re invading my privacy!”

“And you’re being threatened by some goddamn lunatic!” I shouted. 

Her hands curled into fists at her sides, and I could see the hurt flashing in her eyes. 

But I didn’t care—not right now. 

Not when all I could see were those messages burned into my brain like poison. 

“It’s bad manners to go through someone’s phone, Zion!” she shouted, her voice sharp and shaking with fury.

“Bad manners?” I repeated, low and dangerous, the words dragging across my throat like gravel. 

“That’s what you’re going with right now? Well, good thing I’m not here to win etiquette points!” I barked. 

“Good thing I did look—because clearly you weren’t going to say a damn word!”

Her voice broke, but she kept going, louder, harsher. 

“Do you even hear yourself? You had no right—no right—to violate my privacy like that. I don’t care what excuse you’ve built to justify it. You crossed a line!”

My blood pressure spiked. I turned slowly, eyes locking with hers like a fuse meeting flame.

My hands were shaking, fists clenched so tightly around her phone I could hear the casing creak. 

She looked furious—red-faced, eyes glassy with frustration, but I wasn’t in the mood to let her play the victim. Not now.

I shook the phone in my hand, his anger barely restrained. 

“You want to talk about crossing lines? Fine. I crossed one. But you—” he pointed at her, voice rising 

“—you..... you’ve been getting these freak messages and saying nothing. Just sitting there pretending everything’s fine while you’re falling apart right in front of me!”

“It wasn’t your place—!”

I ignored that. 

My pulse was thundering. 

“Bullshit!” I roared. 

“I’d rather be the asshole who went through your phone than the idiot who watched you suffer in silence and did nothing.”

“And don’t even try to turn this around on me. You left it wide open. No lock, no passcode—just sitting there, turned off and facedown like a damn trap. What was I supposed to do? Pretend I didn’t see how shaken you were today? Pretend I didn’t notice how you flinched when it buzzed? You looked like you were going to throw up in the middle of class!”

“I had it handled!” she shouted, her voice rising over mine now. 

“Handled? You call this handled?” I waved the phone between us like a blade.

“It’s just a stupid prank!” she snapped, eyes flashing with defiance, but I didn’t miss the way her hands trembled.

“It’s not some big deal, Zion—people send dumb anonymous crap all the time. You’re blowing this way out of proportion.”

“Oh really?” I barked, stepping forward. 

“So threats telling you to fucking run and hide aren’t a big deal now?”

“It’s probably someone messing around! Trying to scare me—” she said, her voice climbing, desperate now. 

“People still have it out for me because of you, maybe they just want to stir shit. I didn’t want to give it power by reacting—by telling anyone.”

“You didn’t want to give it power?” I repeated, seething. 

“And what, so you just carry this alone and hope it goes away? Hope it doesn’t escalate? Are you even hearing yourself right now?”

She looked at me, breathing hard, jaw clenched, and I could see it—behind the wall of anger and denial—pure, raw fear. But she still wouldn’t admit it. Wouldn’t let me in.

“Someone is threatening you Snowflake. Telling you to run. Telling you they’ll catch you. That’s not a prank, Snowflake —that’s a threat! That’s a goddamn warning! And what were you going to do? Just keep ignoring it and hope it goes away?”

“I didn’t want to make it a big deal!” she yelled, frustration twisting into something sharper—defensiveness, desperation. 

“I didn’t want you to blow it out of proportion like you’re doing right now!”

“Blow it—” I laughed, bitter and hollow. 

“You really think I’m overreacting? You didn’t even block the number. You didn’t tell me. You didn’t tell anyone, did you?”

She didn’t respond. Just stared at me, chest rising and falling rapidly, lips pressed into a tight line.

“Why?” I demanded. 

“Why the fuck wouldn’t you tell me?”

“Oh my god, Zion,” she snapped. 

“I told you...It’s probably just some stupid prank! What did you expect? That I’d come running to you every time something went wrong in my life?”

My jaw clenched. Her words hit harder than she probably meant them to.

“Why the hell not?” I fired back, stepping closer. 

“That’s what best friends are for, right? I’ve got your back, you’ve got mine. I watch your ass—you watch mine!”

And fuck, I shouldn’t be thinking it right now, but it was one hell of a sexy ass.

I scrubbed a hand down my face, frustration pouring off me like heat.

“Jesus, Snowflake,” I said, voice rough with frustration and something deeper I couldn’t name. 

“I know I’ve messed up—I know I haven’t exactly been the perfect friend, not with all the revenge crap I got tangled in—but I’m trying, damn it.”

I stepped closer, jaw clenched, chest heaving.

“You really think I wouldn’t burn the whole goddamn world down if someone even looked at you wrong?” 

My eyes locked on hers. 

“You matter to me. More than you probably realise. So yeah—I’m pissed. Not just because someone’s threatening you, but because you didn’t think you could tell me.”