Page 35 of Even if You Fall

“Anyway, the way Chloe found out...well, she didn’t just find out he’s married. Apparently, some teacher got drunk and started bragging that she was seeing Vance at their school’s Christmas party, and it turned into this accusation-and-denial screaming fest before escalating into an all-out brawl between a group of women—all claiming to be seeing Vance.”

When my eyebrows shot up, Gray huffed out, “Yeah. Chloe said she just watched the entire thing unfold, sure they were all lying because she and Vance were in love and spent so much time together. But once the brawl got broken up, the vice principal started reprimanding them for fighting over, and lying about, a married man. Then asked how damaging the scene would’ve been to the principal if she’d been there.”

My head tilted as a whisper of confusion and dread pulsed through me. “Who’s the principal?”

“Vance’swife,” Gray said, eyes widening. “She kept her maiden name, so no one connected her to Vance. But this guy isn’t just seeing a bunch of women—he’s so sure he can keep them quiet that he isn’t worried when big groups of them work together and workwith his wife.”

I dragged a hand over my face, trying to absorb the audacity this guy had.

“Chloe was heartbroken and horrified, obviously. But he wouldn’t let her go, so she left teaching to get space from him,” he went on. “Now our nerd is somewhere between hating him and worrying over how easy it is to get trapped in his manipulations. Oh, which...” He dug into his pocket before producing a phone that wasn’t his.

“Whose is that?” I asked, feeling like I already knew.

“Chloe’s,” he said as he thought for a second, mumbling to himself, before he entered a passcode. “She has too many messages with him to screenshot, so she let me take it for the weekend.” Gray’s eyes widened meaningfully as he tossed the phone my way. “Guy gaslights like crazy.”

A rumble of acknowledgment climbed up my throat as I righted the phone and stared at the screen for a few moments, feeling like I was getting a look into Chloe’s life that she wouldn’t want me to have.

But she’d given us the phone for this purpose.

Tapping into the messages, I prepared to look for Vance’s name, but paused when I saw the most recent message was from an unknown number.

It’d come through during the party...probably about the time I’d seen her drop Kaia’s bunny as all that joy had vanished from her.

“There’s an unknown number here,” I mumbled as I held my thumb over it.

“That’s him too,” Gray said after taking another long pull from the beer. “He started messaging her from that one not long ago.”

“It’sunknown,” I told Gray meaningfully. People didn’t just get their numbers blocked.

“Already know what you’re thinking,” Gray said on a sigh, his eyebrows lifting. “Told you the guy’s dangerous. Read. I’ll start looking into the wife and the list of women Chloe gave me from the Christmas party, then try to find what we’ve been missing on Vance.”

I scrolled to the message thread labeled with Vance’s actual name, wanting to start from the beginning and work my way to the end, and hesitated when I realized Chloe only texted a handful of people.

Odd.

But as I finally tapped into their messages and scrolled all the way to the beginning, I quickly stopped thinking about why Chloe might only text so few people because Gray was right.

Vance could make a living out of gaslighting women.

Chloe had actually questioned his marital status in the beginning—multiple times—and he’d very convincingly made her think she was crazy until she’d metaphorically gotten on her knees, begging him to forgive her for not believing him.

She’d been firm in her convictions to remain a virgin until she was married, but he’d convinced hershewas the one trying to seducehim. Thathe’dfinally given intoher.

He’d even taken revealing pictures of them in bed together, Chloe already asleep, and sent them to her, using them as deliberate blackmail to keep her quiet about their relationship. And in one conversation, he’d shifted Chloe’s fury over finding out Vance had taken unapproved photos of her, to adoring teases as she swore not to let anyone in the district find out. She’d even thanked him for the sweet thoughtofthe photos.

I nearly crushed Chloe’s phone in my hand when I got to the messages of him trying to convince her that she wanted a baby. Now. They could get married later.

Like all the other times, it was frightening how Chloe went from adamant refusals and reminders of the vows she’d already thrown away for him, to apologizing to Vance for pushinghimsincehehadn’t been sure he was ready for the possibility of kids just yet.

My heart raced this painful, lethal rhythm as I thought about Chloe’s slender waist and flat stomach. But that didn’t mean anything. These messages were from almost a year ago, and anything could’ve happened in that time.

My stare snapped to where Gray’s brow was furrowed as he studied whatever was on the screen of my laptop. “Did she get pregnant?” I asked, feeling sick just at the thought.

His head shifted my way as if surprised to realize I was still there...in my condo. “What? No.”

“Did you read these?” I asked, lifting the phone.

“Guy’s dangerous,” he repeated, his eyes wide in confirmation. “You see why she didn’t think he was married now?”

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