Page 72 of Fallen Princess: Shadow Stalker

And it’s helping my relationship with him. He just about tolerates me around him, and I accept that things between us will never be the same as they were before. Some siblings are tight as a button; we were once like that, but in his eyes, I’ll always be that liar and failure and the one that almost sent Mum rocketing back into depression. So I’ll take whatever he’ll give me, but I’m no pushover, I’m just about tolerating the demands and hoops he’s making me jump through.

“I think we’ve all heard the kind of convincing you encouraged her with,” Asher says casually, looking up from his breakfast to grab a napkin from the holder.

“So, are you two together? Like a thing?” I curiously ask because the last time Ash and I hooked up with her, it didn’t end on a good note.

“A thing?” Haze smirks at me knowing exactly what I’m getting at.

“Rest assured, bruv,” he says. “Her affections are equally shared for all of us. Although she doesn’t believe she stands a chance anywhere with Jagger.”

The truth is I don’t understand where she stands with him. He’s on board with her one minute, and the next, he wants her off the band.

“He’s been going mental listening to you two shag each other like flippin’ bunnies,” Ash interjects as he sips the last of his tea.

“This was his idea,” I’m confused by Jagger’s behavior. “One minute, he says this band needs her, and the next, he wants her gone.”

I run a thoughtful hand through my hair, a little frustrated and confused.

Haze rests the tray with Eden’s breakfast on the counter and reaches out to squeeze my shoulder. I think this is the first emotional move he’s made with me in eight years, so I’m a little shocked but do my best not to show it.

“Callum, don’t push it with Jagger. His best intentions are with the band. Seeing all of us lusting over Eden spirals him into a state of confusion. He’s fighting the urge. We all did and ended up ganging up on her to resist that temptation. He’ll come to, eventually.”

My phone, resting on the counter beside the kettle, vibrates loudly with a new message notification. Simultaneously, Asher's phone, charging on the kitchen counter, echoes the same sound. Curiosity is getting the better of me, and I lean over to catch a glimpse of his screen.

“It’s just an IG notification. But it’s weird,” I say, strolling over to my phone and unlocking it.

“Did any of you know Eden has a new online profile?” I ask.

We already know she unsubscribed from every social media platform years ago. So this seems a bit odd. It’s not like her to dive back into something she loathes to the core.

Asher pushes his empty plate away and stands up to retrieve his phone from the charger.

“No,” he says. “I can’t see her ever wanting any connection to it again. Not after the way the public treated her.”

“She does,” Haze says, catching our attention, and we look up from our phones. “Technically not, but she needs one, and I asked Sierra to create one on Eden’s behalf as it’s something we all need to have to create a buzz about our return to music.

“She won’t appreciate—”

“She’ll understand the necessity of needing one,” Hazeinterrupts.

“What the fuck?” Asher exclaims, and we gather around him as he scrolls through photos, which I recognize almost immediately. They’re old ones of us.

“These aren’t recent,” Haze says.

“No, they’re stills from that blasted video,” Ash says, and his upper lip curves into an angry snarl.

“You reckon the stalker?”

“Could be anyone.”

“But only Eden’s been tagged in them.”

It's so bloody strange.

“Who tagged her?”

Asher goes to check, but it’s one of those fake spam accounts. Untraceable.

“At least they blacked out the explicit parts.”

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