Page 104 of The Sweetest Revenge

I set the bracelets to the side and opened the envelope. As I pulled out the first photo, the floor seemed to tilt beneath me. My fingers went numb, nearly dropping what I held.

"Holy shit," I mumbled, my voice barely audible even to myself.

It was Anne with Coach Palmer. The intimacy in their posture was unmistakable. A chill crawled up my spine as I stared at the image, a sense of dread building like a thundercloud. Something about the house felt different—like the air had grown heavier, watching me.

I scrambled to find my phone on the bed, quickly hitting Mila's name.

"Hello," she whispered. "I'm still at?—"

"I found something."

"Hold on," she said, still whispering.

"I'm going to add Journey to the call." My finger trembled slightly as I hit the plus sign, then Journey's name. My heart pounded against my ribs as the phone rang once, twice?—

"Hey, what's up?" Journey's voice broke through, sunny and oblivious to what I'd discovered.

"Okay, what's going on?" Mila's voice had changed, dropping to a cautious whisper. I could picture her, probably huddled in some corner of her parents’ house, shoulders hunched protectively around the phone.

I swallowed hard, suddenly aware of how empty the house felt around me. How vulnerable. "I was looking for my clothes in Zaiden's closet at his mom's and found Kacie's keepsake box."

"Okay," Mila drew out the word with a hint of impatience. "We all know what's in that box." A dismissive edge colored her tone. We'd all seen the mementos, the friendship bracelets, the notes passed in class.

I glanced down at the evidence in my lap, the photo that changed everything. "Yeah, except there's also pictures of Kacie's mom with Coach Palmer."

The line went so silent I could hear the static of the connection: no breathing, no background noise, nothing. The silence stretched, becoming its own kind of warning. When I couldn't stand it anymore, I added, "They were intimate pictures."

Something creaked in the house behind me. I whipped around, heart in my throat, but saw nothing. Just shadows. Maybe.

"What the fuck?" Journey said.

"Do you think Zaiden is involved?"

I shook my head like they could see me. "No. It's pretty clear he doesn't stay here. I don't even think he realized the stuff from Kacie's room is in his closet."

"Something else weird that she'd never kept in there before is her birth certificate," I paused, twisting to grab the paper and looking it over. There had to be a reason it was in the box.

"Hang up the phone."

The voice sliced through the room like ice. For one heartbeat, I froze, hoping I'd imagined it. Two heartbeats. Three.

Slowly, I raised my eyes to the doorway.

Anne stood perfectly still, her posture almost casual, except for the small black handgun aimed directly at my face. The barrel looked impossibly dark, a perfect circle of nothing, that promised everything would end. My heart slammed against my ribs as though trying to escape what my brain was processing.

With fingers that felt disconnected from my body, I removed the phone from my ear. The screen glowed bright as I pressed "end call" with a trembling thumb. The soft thud of the phone hitting the bedspread seemed deafening in the silence between us.

"Put everything back in the box."

Swallowing hard, I slowly put everything I'd found back. "I was just?—"

"Save it."

"I knew when Zaiden called me to tell me you two were staying here that you wouldn't be able to help yourself. I knew you'd put your nose where it didn't belong, and it looks like I made it back just in time."

"I'm not going to?—"

"Shut up," she mumbled. "You've already told your stupid little friends, and now I'll have to kill them too."

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