Red handed

Zara froze. That voice was familiar, it sounded too familiar... No, it couldn’t be. She had to be mistaken. Her breath hitched in her throat. It couldn’t be Elena’s, her best friend’s voice. As she stepped closer to the door, she could hear her heart pounding. Then she heard it again. The laughter from Jayden’s room was unmistakably playful and intimate.

The laughter stopped Zara on her track, her hands trembled by her side. She didn't want to hear more, yet she couldn’t stop moving closer to the door.

“I can’t wait for you to break up with her so we can be together at last.” a voice purred laced with a familiar sickening sweetness.

“ Haha, she’ll get the biggest shock on her birthday. It's gonna be epic ” came Jayden’s voice.

“I can’t wait to have you to myself for real, Jayden.”

“ Honestly, she was never my type, she’s all skin and bones. Like a walking skeleton” Jayden said, his voice dripping with disdain.

“ Soon you will be all mine Jayden, all mine.”

The handle was cold beneath her trembling fingers. Zara’s chest tightened. Heart racing, she shoved the door open in a desperate motion and the door hit the wall with a deafening bang.

Inside they were wrapped around each other Elena coiled around Jayden’s arms like she belonged there.

Jayden’s first words? “ Huh, I thought I locked the door.” he said, his voice dripping with indifference and casual annoyance.

Jayden’s nonchalant attitude was like a colder, harder slap to Zara’s face than any physical blow. The words hit her with a chill spreading through her veins, colder than the rain soaked air outside.

Elena’s head snapped towards her with a smirk playing on her face before it vanished widening her eyes in a perfect mask of shock “ Ohh Zara, it's not what you think.” She said with a perfect imitation of a damsel in distress. A tear even escaped her eyes then a sharp ugly chuckle escaped her lips, a loud clear sound devoid of guilt that it chilled zara to the bone.

That was it no expression of guilt, no explanations, nothing but cold brutal mockery.

Zara’s world shattered into a million pieces, she couldn’t even scream. Her mouth opened but no word came out of it. Tears blurred her vision as she ran down the stairs; her glasses slipped off mid-run, but she didn’t stop. She ran out of the mansion, past the shocked staff, out the gates, and into the pouring rain. Thunder rumbled rain soaked through her clothes plastering them on her skin, her make up streamed down her cheeks. Her once wavy curls were now tangled, but Zara didn’t care. She kept running blindly, breathlessly, until headlights flashed behind her.

She didn’t know how long she had been running. Her legs ached, and her lungs burned with every gasping breath but she didn't stop running. Her mind raced faster than her feet, replaying the scene all over again.

She thought about those times Jayden had held her hands, looked into her eyes, and still lied to her effortlessly. Everything was a lie Jayden cheated on her, and not just with anyone, but with her childhood friend and best friend, Elena.

Every smile, every laugh, it was all fake. Every TikTok challenge, every public declaration of love they even had a fan page dedicated to them on tiktok, on I*******m, the Zayden couple were everywhere.

Every flower, every gift he even wrote a book about her, telling her how much he loved her. Every moment they shared was a deception all along.

Zara and Jayden were the internet’s cute couple, cute TikTok videos, romantic vacations, matching outfits. Every moment they shared was watched by millions of fans, they trended daily. Everyone adored the Zayden couple. Millions of Likes, thousands of comments, edits of them dancing in slow mo under the sunset.The Zayden couple had had everyone screaming couples goals. Zara had loved him blindly in front of the whole world and the humiliation she just faced was just as loud

Zara Lane, a twenty-three year-old hot supermodel, and the tall, charismatic, and heartbreakingly handsome twenty- five year-old Jayden Beanet, the son of the chairman of Forbes Groups, a billion-dollar empire in the country. They were a perfect picture, a perfect love story. Rumor had it they met in high school and dated all through their college days a total of six years.

Zara and Jayden had been together for only two years; their second-year anniversary was supposed to be next week, on Zara’s birthday. And all of this was coming to an end because of a door she never should have opened.

She never saw the betrayal coming not from Jayden, her boyfriend, and definitely not from her best friend Elena. Jayden had claimed he was on a family trip, or so he said, and Elena too had said she was drowning in office work.

Everything had seemed normal until earlier that morning. Zara had received an anonymous call urging her to check on her boyfriend and best friend: “What if Jayden isn’t who you think he is?” At first, she brushed it off, but her gut wouldn’t let her rest. The caller hadn’t said much, but the tone was laced with urgency.

She had gone to Elena’s place first and found it empty. Confused, her concern shifted into a knot of dread as she had made her way to the Beanet mansion, Jayden’s family home.

The rain had started as she approached the mansion, the mansion was lit but not with the usual welcoming glow. Inside, the staff looked surprised to see her. Miss Zara barely responded, her heels clicking on the marble floor as she made her way to Jayden’s room, only to be welcomed by an unwelcoming sight.

Zara felt humiliated, broken, but most of all, she felt stupid. For not seeing the signs there must have been signs but she had chosen not to pay attention. Jayden’s occasional family trip clashing with Elena’s business trip, Elena knowing things about Jayden that she didn’t even know, Elena’s occasional remark, “You know Jayden won’t like that.” It was so obvious, and it now felt less than a coincidence she had ignored all the signs. She had been blinded by her trust and love.

Zara stood in the pouring rain, drenched and shaking, her chest heaving from a mix of cold and heartbreak. The icy downpour soaked through her clothes and mascara stinging in her eyes. The streetlights flickering as the black car pulled up beside her, its engine a low rumble in the pouring rain. The door opened, and a tall, quiet, and calm figure stepped out of the car, holding a dark coat and an umbrella. Without uttering a word, he gently wrapped it around her shoulders. His touch was gentle, careful like he might break apart if he moved too quickly.She didn’t look up, she didn’t resist she just let the coat wrap around her its soft warmth was a stark contrast to the cold she felt inside her gaze was fixed at some distant point, her mind was numb, but something about his presence felt safe. She let him guide her to the sleek black car. The rain tapped soft rhymes on the window as he drove. She didn’t ask where they were going, she didn’t even ask who he was.

When the car stopped in front of her house, she blinked and he knew where she lived. Still, she didn’t speak, she stepped out, the coat still clinging to her shoulders and her heels clicking softly on the pavements. As he turned to leave, she finally found her voice and whispered for the first time in a while, “Who are you? Why did you come?”

He paused but didn’t look back, then said softly, “Because I couldn’t let you face that kind of pain alone… Not when I was right there ”

That night, Zara lay in bed with the coat still wrapped around her. She could inhale the scent of rain and unfamiliar cologne that clung to the coat. She didn’t sleep; she couldn’t sleep. The betrayal repeatedly played in her mind Elena’s voice, Jayden’s laughter, which she could still hear echoing in her head.