Lydia tossed on her bed, eyes wide open. The city outside never slept, but her mind refused to rest. Every time she tried to close her eyes, something inside whispered that something wasn't right.
Her phone buzzed again — a faint vibration that startled her in the quiet. She reached for it.
Nothing.
No new message.
She frowned. That's strange… It had done that twice already tonight.
She turned it off and on again, and for a split second, the screen flickered — not like a glitch, but like something hidden beneath. Her heart skipped a beat.
"Okay, Lydia, you're probably just tired," she muttered, forcing a shaky laugh. "You've been overthinking everything since Jaden left."
Still, she couldn't shake the feeling that she was being watched.
Ever since she met Cassandra at that charity gala — the woman's piercing gaze, her oddly specific questions about Jaden — Lydia had felt like a thread being pulled. She wanted to tell Jaden, but they hadn't spoken in days. He'd grown distant again, busy with "business matters."
Or maybe he was avoiding her.
The phone buzzed once more. This time, a message flashed for less than a second before vanishing.
"You can't trust him."
Lydia froze.
Her breath caught in her throat.
"What… was that?"
She opened her messages. Nothing. Cleared.
No sender. No chat history. Just silence.
A chill ran through her. Her first instinct was to call Jaden — but then she remembered his tone the last time they spoke: distracted, cold. She didn't want to sound paranoid.
Instead, she threw on a hoodie, grabbed her bag, and left the apartment. The night air slapped her face as she walked toward the nearby park — somewhere open, somewhere she could think.
She sat on a bench under the dim streetlight, scrolling through her phone logs. There were calls she didn't remember making.
And one number saved under Unknown Contact.
Her fingers trembled as she tapped to open it.
And then, right there, a single message appeared, as if typed just now:
"You're not safe, Lydia. He's not who you think he is."
Her heart pounded.
The sender's name changed before her eyes — from Unknown Contact to Cassandra.
Lydia's phone slipped from her hand.