Part 24 – Three Days Before
Three days. Just three days before her eighteenth birthday.
Anna sat by her window, the early evening sunlight falling across her face, but her heart felt darker than ever. Birthdays had always meant celebration, balloons, cake, friends… but this year, it felt like a prison sentence. Each hour was a reminder of the lie she had told, the cage she had built around herself.
Ethan believed her words. He believed her when she had whispered, "I love you." His eyes had shone like stars that night, his smile genuine, his touch trembling with happiness. To him, those words were everything. To her, they were chains.
Her phone buzzed again. Ethan's name flashed across the screen.
Ethan: Can't wait to see you tomorrow. Thinking about you every second. You're the best thing that ever happened to me.
Anna stared at the message, her chest tightening. She typed back a quick "I miss you too" and pressed send, her fingers shaking. Every lie she sent felt like a dagger in her own heart, but if it kept Nick safe… she would bear it.
Because that was the truth no one knew: she had chosen Ethan only out of fear.
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Meanwhile, Nick walked alone across the campus field that evening, his hands shoved deep into his pockets. He replayed Anna's words in his mind again and again—her confession that she didn't love him, that she loved Ethan instead. It didn't fit. It didn't sound like her.
Her eyes had betrayed her, he remembered. They had held something—pain, guilt, desperation. Not love.
Nick wasn't a fool. He knew Ethan's charm, but he also knew Ethan's temper. He had seen the way Ethan's jaw clenched whenever Anna laughed with someone else, the way his fists tightened when anyone came too close. Ethan's love wasn't gentle—it was fire. Dangerous, consuming fire.
And Nick couldn't stop worrying that Anna was burning inside it.
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The next day, in the school library, Ethan walked up behind Anna and slid his arms around her waist. She flinched but forced a smile. "Hey," she whispered.
"Hey, beautiful," Ethan murmured, kissing her hair. "Only three days till your big day. Don't think you're getting away with a simple party. I've got plans. Big plans."
Her heart skipped. She smiled back faintly. "You don't have to…"
"But I want to," he interrupted, looking at her with so much sincerity it almost broke her. "You're everything to me, Anna. You said yes, and that's all I'll ever need."
She nodded, swallowing hard. "Yeah."
Nick, who had been quietly returning books to a shelf nearby, overheard every word. His stomach clenched. He turned away quickly before they noticed him, but the ache in his chest grew heavier. Anna wasn't herself anymore. She was too quiet, too careful, too unlike the girl he knew.
He wanted to step in, to demand the truth from her, but he also remembered her words—"I don't love you. I love Ethan." If she had chosen Ethan, then maybe he had no right.
But deep inside, he didn't believe it.
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That night, Anna lay awake, clutching her pillow, tears soaking the fabric. She thought about Ethan's smile, Nick's hurt eyes, her birthday, and the truth she couldn't tell.
Her heart screamed for freedom, but her fear kept her silent.
Three more days.
Three more days until the lie she told would either shatter her completely… or trap her forever.
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