Page 103 of I'll Keep Her Safe

Poppy: Why?

Bailey: Waiting on a flight.

Waiting on a flight? What does that mean? Is she there for her original flight, or trying to get on an earlier one? If that wasn’t enough to make me wonder, the briefness of her replies is. She never responds like that. It’s usually long wordy messages, filled with emojis, ending with “Love you, hon.”

I swallow, typing out another message with trembling hands, not sure if I really want to know the answer.

Poppy: Why didn’t you say goodbye?

The dots appear and vanish, appear and vanish, while my stomach ties itself in knots.Please, I beg the universe silently,please tell me she hasn’t discovered me and Wyatt.

But when her reply comes through, my stomach plunges right through the floor.

Bailey: Figured you’d be too busy with my dad to notice.

Fuck. She knows. But how?

I begin to type out a reply when another message comes through.

Bailey: Is it true?

I swallow, trying to stop myself from spiraling as adrenaline floods me. Maybe she’s talking about something else. Maybe I’m imagining this whole thing.

Poppy: What do you mean?

Bailey: I mean, I got a message telling me you’re sleeping with my dad, Poppy.

My mind whirls. Amessage? Who would message her about that? I quickly run through everyone at dinner tonight, but I know they wouldn’t have messaged Bailey. They don’t even have her number.

Poppy: From who?

It’s unfair to ask this instead of addressing the real issue, but I need to know. I’m grateful that instead of pressing for me to admit it, she answers my question.

Bailey: An unknown number.

Unknown… What?

Bailey: They sent a picture, too.

I bolt from the bed, pacing the room as my heart jams in my throat. A picture?How?

Poppy: Can you send me a screenshot, please?

She has every right to tell me tofuck off, if what she’s saying is true. I’m sure I would. But a moment later, a screenshot comes through. And when I see it, my stomach lurches. It’s the picture of me and Wyatt at Jones Beach, the one where I’m licking my ice cream and he’s kissing my cheek. Underneath, a simple message:

Unknown: Thought you should know that Poppy is fucking your dad.

God. I’m going to be sick.

I scrutinize the image, the words, my head a cyclone of confusion, my pulse whipping through me. That picture has never left my phone. I didn’t even send it to Wyatt. So how did someone get hold of it?

I reread the sender of both the image and the message—Unknown—and something clicks in my brain. That call I got a while back, the one from an unknown number that said nothing. The apps moving on my phone. The message from Bailey that I never read.

Is it possible that someone hacked my phone?

The moment the thought materializes, I know who’s responsible. It’s almost laughable I didn’t figure it out sooner.

Rage boils through me, hot and urgent, making my body shake. HowdareKurt do this? Howdarehe hack into my phone and try to destroy my relationship with Bailey? We were about to tell her. We had a plan.

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