"You put a tracker on my phone? Without telling me?”
"I was going to tell you.”
"When?" My voice is rising, but I can't control it. "After you'd been monitoring my every move for a week? A month? Were you ever going to mention it, or were you just going to watch me for the rest of our lives?”
"Jade, calm down.”
"Don't tell me to calm down!" I'm shouting now, and I don't care. "This is insane, Phoenix. This is controlling and paranoid and absolutely insane.”
He stands up from his desk. "Someone sent you a threatening text message. The police are investigating us formurder. Forgive me for wanting to know where you are in case something happens.”
"In case something happens, or in case I do something you don't approve of?”
"That's not fair.”
"Isn't it?”
We stare at each other across his office, the air between us thick with tension. I can see him struggling to control his temper, see the way his hands clench and unclench at his sides.
"Delete it," I say finally. "Delete the app right now, or I'm walking out that door.”
He holds my gaze for a long moment. Then he takes my phone, taps a few buttons, and hands it back. The blue icon is gone.
"Thank you," I say coldly, and walk out of his office without another word.
But the damage is done. The trust I'd been clinging to, already frayed from the police interview and the sleepless nights and the constant hovering, has developed a crack I'm not sure can be repaired.
Then, my phone buzzes with a text from an unknown number.
I'm in the kitchen making coffee when it arrives, and my blood runs cold as I read the words on the screen.
You can't hide forever. I'm watching.
Before I can even process what I'm seeing, Phoenix appears at my shoulder. I don't know how he moved so fast, how he knew to look, but suddenly he's there, reading the message over my shoulder, his face darkening with each word.
"Why didn't you tell me about this?”
I stare at him, confused. "I just got it. Just now. You watched me read it.”
"Not this one." He takes my phone from my hands, scrolling back through my messages. "This one. From three days ago. 'I know what he did. And soon, everyone else will too.' When were you going to mention that someone is threatening us?”
The blood drains from my face. I'd almost forgotten about that first text, buried under the avalanche of anxiety from the police interview. "I was going to tell you. I just... with everything else happening, I didn't know how to bring it up."
"You didn't know how to bring it up?" His voice is dangerously quiet. "Someone knows what we did, Jade. Someone is watching us, threatening us, and you didn't think that was important enough to mention?"
"I was scared! I didn't want to make things worse!"
"Keeping secrets makes things worse. Hiding things from me makes things worse." He's pacing now, running his hands through his hair, and I can see the fear underneath his anger. "We're supposed to be in this together. How can I protect you if you don't tell me what's happening?"
"Maybe I don't need you to protect me!" The words burst out before I can stop them. "Maybe I need you to trust me to handle things on my own!"
He stops pacing and looks at me, and something in his expression makes my stomach drop.
"Clearly," he says slowly, "you can't handle things on your own. Because if you could, you would have told me about this immediately instead of hiding it like a child."
The words land like a slap. I feel the tears burning behind my eyes, but I refuse to let them fall. I refuse to give him the satisfaction.
"I need some air," I say, my voice barely above a whisper. "I'm going for a walk on the beach."
