Threat

_UNKNOWN: Stay away from the Hayes brothers, Aria. Or we will show everyone what kind of girl you really are. We have photos of you from last night._

My hands went cold.

"Who is that?" Chloe grabbed my phone, reading over my shoulder. "Aria, who sent this?"

Jace and Ethan were behind me in seconds. Both looking at my screen. No signal, but the text had come through somehow, delayed from an hour ago.

Ethan took my phone from my hand. His jaw tightened. The calm, dangerous Ethan from the penthouse elevator lobby was back.

"What photos from last night?" he asked, his voice low.

"I don't know," I whispered. "Last night I was at your penthouse. I fell asleep on your couch. I - I was in a dress -"

"Show me your phone," Jace said to Chloe. "Now."

Chloe unlocked her phone with shaking fingers. She opened her I*******m. Her DMs were full. Hundreds of messages.

_Aria is with both? For real?_

_Tell us more!!_

_Pics or it didn't happen_

And then, at the top, a message from a blank profile. No photo. No posts. Username: *@truth_about_aria*

Chloe clicked it.

There were two photos.

First photo: Me, last night, getting out of Ethan's black sports car in front of his penthouse building. My black dress rode up. Ethan's hand on my waist, guiding me inside. My face is blurred but my dress is clear.

Second photo: Me, this morning, in the same dress, getting into Jace's Range Rover. Jace's hand on my back. Ethan's car behind us.

Caption on the second photo: _"One night with one brother, morning with the other. What kind of scholarship girl does that? Guess how she pays tuition. Shared by the brothers indeed."_

"No," I whispered. My knees gave out again. This time Jace and Ethan both caught me.

"Who took these?" Chloe's voice was shaking with anger now. "This is stalking! Who would do this?"

Ethan was already on his phone, calling someone. Even with no signal, his phone showed one bar near the window.

"Marcus. I need you to trace a number and an I*******m account. Now. Yes, now. I don't care you are on vacation. Someone took photos of my girl last night outside my building and this morning."

Jace sat me down on the couch, the couch with three blankets, and wrapped a blanket around my shoulders. His hands were gentle but his eyes were furious.

"Ours, look at me," Jace said. "Breathe. This is not your fault. Someone followed you. Someone is obsessed with us. Or jealous of you."

"Jealous?" I laughed, tears coming. "Who would be jealous of this? The whole campus thinks I'm - I'm -"

"What?" Ethan ended his call and turned. "What do they think you are, Aria? Say it."

"A girl who sleeps with two brothers for money!" I shouted, crying now. "That's what that caption says! That I pay tuition by being shared!"

Silence.

Chloe knelt in front of me. "Aria, no one who knows you believes that. I don't believe that."

"400 people watched your LIVE, Chloe," I said. "And now this account has photos. It's not a joke anymore."

Ethan crouched in front of me, taking both my hands. His hands were warm. "Little one. Listen to me. Do you sleep with us for money?"

"No!"

"Do we pay your tuition?"

"No!"

"Then what does it matter what that account says?"

"It matters because I have a scholarship!" I pulled my hands away. "If the scholarship board sees this, if they think I'm - I'm doing this for money or being -"

"Being what?" Ethan pressed.

"Being a slut!" I screamed the word. The word I had been too scared to say all day. The word that caption meant.

The fire crackled. No one spoke.

Jace was the first to move. He sat beside me and pulled me into his chest. His shirt smelled safe. Like home.

"You are not that word," he whispered into my hair. "You are ours. We have wanted you since we were kids. Since before any tuition, before any scholarship. You know that."

Ethan stood up. He walked to the window looking at the lake. His back was tense.

"Who would take photos outside my building?" he said, more to himself. "My building has security. No one can stand outside and take photos without my guards seeing - unless -"

"Unless they live in your building," Jace finished.

They looked at each other. That brother look again.

"Vanessa," they both said at the same time.

Chloe frowned. "Who is Vanessa?"

Ethan turned around. "Vanessa Park. She lives two floors below me. Her father works for our father. She - she has been trying to -"

"She has been trying to be with us since high school," Jace said quietly. "Both of us. She said if she can't have one Hayes, she will have both. We told her no."

I felt sick. "She took photos of me?"

"She has access to the garage cameras," Ethan said. "And the lobby. Marcus will confirm."

My phone buzzed again. Same UNKNOWN number.

_UNKNOWN: You have 24 hours to leave them, Aria Cole. Or we send the photos to your scholarship advisor. And the video from the elevator. You know which video._

Elevator video.

I went ice cold.

Last night, in Ethan's penthouse elevator, before we went up to his apartment... Ethan had kissed me. Against the elevator wall. His hand under my dress. The elevator has a camera.

"Oh my God," I whispered. "The elevator camera -"

Ethan's face went dark. Really dark. The kind of dark I had never seen before.

"She went into my security footage," he said. "She accessed my private elevator feed."

Jace stood up. "That's illegal. That's breaking and entering into private security system."

Chloe was typing fast on her phone. "I found her! Vanessa Park! She just posted on her private story an hour ago - 'Some girls need to learn some girls are not meant for Hayes brothers' with a black heart!"

Ethan grabbed his keys. "We are going back to the city. Now."

"No," I said, standing up, blanket falling. "No. You said one day as three. No signal. No one finds us. You said today is ours. If we go back now because of her threat, she wins."

Jace looked at me, surprised. "Ours, she has photos that could -"

"Let her post them," I said, my voice shaking but I meant it. "Let her post them. If we run back now, we are hiding again. You said no more hiding. One day as three, remember?"

Ethan stared at me. Then slowly, he put his keys down.

"One day as three," he repeated.

He walked to me and pulled me to his chest too. Now I was between both of them again, Jace's blanket around me, Ethan's hoodie still on me.

"Chloe," Ethan said over my head, looking at Chloe. "You can stay or you can go. But if you stay, you don't film. You don't post. Today is private. Today is ours."

Chloe looked at the bed with three pillows pushed together. Then at us three huddled together.

"I'll stay," she whispered. "And I won't post. But Aria - that text said 24 hours. What are you going to do in 24 hours?"

I didn't know.

My phone buzzed a third time.

Not UNKNOWN this time.

_Jace's Mom: Aria dear, Jace and Ethan's father and I need to see all three of you for dinner tomorrow. 7pm. We saw Chloe's LIVE before it was deleted. We need to talk about this arrangement._

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