Chapter 43

After a rough day, I ended up sleeping in pretty late. Right as my eyes cracked open, my phone buzzed. I reached for it and squinted at the screen. It was a message from Kyle Bell—someone I hadn’t heard from in forever. Since he moved out of the U.S., we barely talked. What brought this out of the blue? [Kyle: So.] [Kyle: Heard you found your mate?] Staring at the message, I lazily typed back: [Yeah. Why?] [Kyle: Nothing much. Just think you should change your number ASAP.] Kyle never really talks this much, so this message had Jackson written all over it. No doubt in my mind he sent it because of something Jackson did. I paused for a few seconds, then sent: [I was already planning on it.] Kyle didn’t reply. I hesitated a bit, then added: [Thanks.] I waited, hoping for another message, but nothing else came through. Just as I was about to power off my phone, another text popped up—from an unfamiliar number. My stomach dropped. I had a pretty good hunch who it was. Without hesitating, I