Chapter 21: BAD Ex
I couldn’t breathe.
Justin still hadn’t answered my question. He stood in front of me in the middle of the parking lot, his hand wrapped tightly around my wrist like if he held on long enough, he could stop whatever was waiting for me.
"What did Ethan post?" I asked again.
He looked away. "Justin." He didn’t respond. "It’s better if you don’t see it."
My stomach dropped. "What?"
"You don’t need to read it."
"Justin." He rubbed both hands over his face before letting out a slow breath. "I’ve reported it."
"Reported what?"
"Our teammates have reported it too."
My pulse stumbled. Reported? Why would something need to be reported?
"What did he do?"
"He crossed a line."
My heartbeat was so loud I could barely hear anything else. "What line?"
Justin didn’t answer. I pulled my phone from my pocket and his eyes immediately widened.
"Harper..."
"No." He reached for the phone. I stepped back. "Don’t."
"Please."
"Don’t tell me not to look."
"You don’t have to do this."
"I already do."
My fingers shook as I unlocked my screen. Instagram. The app opened, and for one horrible second everything looked normal. Then I saw the notifications. Hundreds. No, thousands. My mentions wouldn’t stop climbing. Messages flooded my inbox faster than I could read them, from people I hadn’t spoken to since high school, classmates, strangers, everyone.
"What..." I whispered.
Justin was standing so close I could feel him watching me. "Harper."
I ignored him and tapped Ethan’s profile. His newest post sat at the very top, and the caption alone made my stomach twist before I even opened it.
Since everyone thinks she’s some innocent little victim...here’s the truth.
My fingers froze. Justin quietly said my name. I couldn’t stop now.
I tapped the post. The first picture filled my screen and everything in me went still.
Mom.
She was asleep in her hospital bed, machines surrounding her, an oxygen tube resting beneath her nose. The photo had obviously been taken through the small window in her hospital room, like someone had been standing outside spying on her.
The world around me disappeared.
No. No. No.
I swiped. Another picture of Mom, this time while a nurse adjusted her IV. Another swipe, a screenshot of a hospital bill with the amount circled in red. Another swipe, medical paperwork. Her diagnosis wasn’t completely visible, but enough had been left uncovered for anyone to understand she was seriously ill.
Something cold settled deep inside my chest. How did he get these? My hands were shaking so violently I nearly dropped my phone.
I kept reading. Poor Harper can’t even afford to save her own mother. Guess pretending to date the hockey star doesn’t pay as well as she hoped. The words blurred. There were more. Maybe if she spent less time chasing famous athletes and more time getting a job...
Another swipe. My breath caught.
A family photo. A man stood in the center wearing an expensive navy suit, his arm wrapped around a woman dressed in white. Between them were two smiling children, and behind them was a beautiful brownstone with manicured gardens. Everyone looked so happy, like something out of a magazine.
My heart stopped.
Dad.
The phone slipped in my hand. No. That wasn’t... no.
Another picture. Dad cutting a ribbon outside a storefront. Another, a newspaper article. New York entrepreneur expands business with third location. He was smiling. Healthy. Successful. Another family photo at Christmas, everyone in matching pajamas. The little boy sitting on his shoulders couldn’t have been older than seven. The little girl was laughing so hard she’d nearly fallen over. A beautiful woman stood by his side. They looked happy
I stared at the screen. I couldn’t hear anything anymore. Not the cars, not the students, not even Justin calling my name.
He had another family. He’d built another life, a better life, and somehow he’d never once looked back.
I swallowed against the lump in my throat. Nothing moved. Nothing made sense. My entire childhood flashed through my mind all at once. Every birthday he missed. Every school play. Every promise. Every excuse. I couldn’t afford new shoes because Mom was working double shifts. She skipped meals some nights because we didn’t have enough money. We counted every grocery bill, every electricity bill, every hospital bill. Noah went years needing braces we couldn’t afford.
Emma learned to pretend a fever wasn’t that bad because medicine cost money, yet our father was out there living a life.
HE left us
And all this time, he was living like this?
I looked back at the pictures. A vacation. A yacht. Birthday parties. Smiling faces. A father, someone else’s father. Not mine.
My vision blurred. I blinked hard but the tears came anyway, one after another, hot and uncontrollable.
The caption continued beneath the photos. Maybe Harper should ask Daddy for the money instead of pretending the world owes her sympathy.
I couldn’t breathe. My chest tightened so suddenly it felt like someone had wrapped both hands around my lungs. I needed air. I tried to inhale. Nothing came. My vision darkened around the edges.
The phone slipped from my fingers. Before it hit the ground, Justin caught it.
"Harper." His voice sounded far away. I grabbed at the front of my shirt. Why couldn’t I breathe? "Hey." His hands found my shoulders. "Look at me." I couldn’t. Everything was spinning, the parking lot, the people, the whispers, the comments still pouring in by the second. The pictures. Dad. Mom. Everyone knew. Everyone had seen everything, every secret, every humiliation, every wound I’d spent years trying to hide. My carefully preserved life had been laid open for the whole world to see.
A sob tore out of my chest before I could stop it. Then another.
Justin pulled me against him just as my knees gave out. The last thing I heard before the world dissolved into tears was his voice, shaking with barely controlled anger.
"I’m going to destroy him."
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